Japan: The Northern Alps #1

Very late blog post, I know XD

The Europeans have their Alps, the South Americans have their Andes, and of course the Nepalese have their Himalayas. But what about the Japanese? Everyone knows about Mt. Fuji, but few outside the country know that just north of Tokyo, straddling 3 prefectures of Toyama, Nagano and Gifu, lies the Hida Mountains, also known as the "Northern Alps" of Japan.

And so with this in mind, my dad planned a trip to visit the region, with the main aim of traversing the famous "Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route". We planned to visit Nagano - famed for its hot springs and snow monkeys, scoot over to Matsumoto, conquer the Hida Mountains to reach Toyama and make a round trip back to Karuizawa and Tokyo.

15/6 Day 0: Arriving in Tokyo

Our flight arrived at Haneda at 11pm, so we hastily took a train out to nearby Shinagawa to stay for the night. I had the best meal of the trip that night - a hearty supper of gyu-don prepared by an elderly chef in a tiny little hole-in-the-wall.

16/6 Day 1: Nagano City


Took a Shinkansen from Tokyo station to Nagano - the ASAMA 515. Had a bit of a screw up really, because I tried to speak to the ticketing guy at the counter and bought reserved seats instead - which were only available for a train 2 hours later D:

For the uninitiated - express trains and Shinkansen trains have reserved (more expensive) and unreserved seats (cheaper). Unreserved tickets allow you to just hop onto any train that comes, provided there are seats available - hence the name. Reserved tickets assure you of a seat at a certain timing, which is useful if you need to reach your destination at a specific time.


After realising the error, we went to get a refund and converted to unreserved tickets so we could catch the next train.

First attempt at communication in Japanese: FAILED.

Soba stand at Nagano station *slurrrp*

Nagano, host of the 1998 Winter Olympics

We reached Nagano after about 90mins, and the first thing we did in the land of the soba was to - you guessed it - eat soba! And not just within the station, soba shops were everywhere in Nagano - from small little counters to high end restaurants all serving hand-made soba made from buckwheat grown in the highlands with crystal clear water from the mountains.

My meal of hot soba with tempura :D

With our stomachs filled we checked into the Metropolitan hotel just next to the station (super convenient! great service, spacious rooms and very very affordable) and headed to the main attraction in Nagano city via a feeder bus - the 1400 year old Zenkoji Temple, which sits atop a small hill in the middle of town. 

The customary shopping street leading to the temple

Rokujizo, statues of six Bodhisattvas

The Sanmon gate

Zenkoji Hondo, or Main Hall

 It was pretty dark inside the main hall, and photography wasn't allowed, so no pictures of the interior :/ There was a very interesting statue at the entrance of the main hall:

The temple contains a statue of Binzuru, a physician who was said to be Buddha's follower. Visitors to the temple touch the statue in order to cure their ailments - Wikipedia

People were mainly rubbing his bald head, probably to cure their headaches. I rubbed his knee, thinking of my injured-and-recovered left knee, but realised afterwards that I rubbed his right knee instead -.-

More interesting nuggets from Wikipedia (this ain't a formal report so imma cite Wiki for all its worth):

The main Buddhist image is a hibutsu (secret Buddha), a hidden Buddha statue, not shown to the public. This hibutsu is rumored to be the first Buddha statue to ever be brought to Japan. The commandments of the temple require the absolute secrecy of the statue, prohibiting it to be shown to anyone, including the chief priest of the temple.

No wonder I didn't see any Buddha statue inside the main hall. After visiting the main hall, we took a little stroll around the temple grounds, taking in the weekend, family-friendly atmosphere. Unlike Sensoji, another famous temple in Asakusa, Tokyo, tourists were rare (I spotted maybe 2 local tour groups?), and families were everywhere, kids in tow. The temple grounds might even double up as a park.

Beautiful bonsai

Young and old spotted 

Mom and son sketching the temple buildings

One for the girls XD

 On the way out we stopped by several of the shops along the street for souvenirs and snacks. I saw this bun-like snack being sold at a few places so I decided to try one - Oyaki. I later discovered that Nagano Prefecture was famous for its oyaki, in addition to its soba. Not surprisingly, oyaki is also made using buckwheat flour, stuffed with vegetables or red bean paste.

Oji-san pan-frying up some oyaki

 It tasted pretty much like a tough and sticky red bean bun. Not my kind of thing, but apparently very popular with the Japanese!

We had some time to kill so we strolled around and chanced upon this river running along the edge of town. Hungry after the long walk, we ate at a nearby "fast-food" restaurant where I had a hearty bowl of curry rice with beef. Cheap and tasty! It soon filled up with families - guess we found out where they bring their kids on those lazy-to-cook days :p

Curry + beef bowl rice!

So that sums up Day 1 in Nagano city. The next day, we headed off to Matsumoto, which was to be our starting point for the main attractions of the trip!