Japan: Kanazawa to Alps to Matsumoto & Mt Fuji

From Kyoto, we wanted to visit the Japanese Alps in Gifu prefecture. We had booked accommodation for one night in Takayama and the next in Matsumoto using them as connectors.

Now, the fastest way to get to Takayama using JR pass was to take a Shinkansen half way and a JR rail for the rest, reaching in 2.5 hours (timed correctly). Instead we opted for the longer, more scenic bus route. After all, the fun is in the journey and not the destination. And another similar way of travelling to Matsumoto.

Itinerary details:
Kyoto -- (train) --> Kanazawa -- (bus) --> Shirakawago -- (bus) --> Takayama (night stay) -- (bus) --> Shinhotaka Ropeway -- (bus) -- Hirayu Onsen (change) -- (bus) --> Kamikochi -- (bus) --> Matsumoto (night stay) -- (train) --> Kofu (change) -- (bus) --> Kawaguchiko for Mt Fuji -- (bus) -- Ostuki (change) -- (train) --> Tokyo

Having visited so many places in the 3 days, we only saw the highlights in each of these places. In Kanazawa, we immediately headed out to what is usually referred to as the prettiest garden in Japan, Kenroku-en. It was indeed pretty. There were a couple of ponds, some sakura trees, a large pine grove and a plum grove which K really loved. There was an interesting self operating fountain. Being on high ground, the garden also had great view points of the city.

When we reached the bus stop, we felt that the bus to Shirakawago was a bit full so we opted to take the next one. Turns out we were the only two people on the bus! Shirakawago is a meant to be a preserved village with the iconic Gassho-style huts with quaint village life. They say the best way to experience it is to stay in one of those huts for the night. We didn't plan it that way unfortunately. Or fortunately? There were at least 40 tour buses and the village was teaming with tourists taking pics of literally everything. We walked around and finally found an open air museum which contained some of these mud houses that you can actually go into. The museum has a few houses, a mill, a granary, a waterfall and a pond as well as a few Sakura trees. We had the whole place to ourselves apart from a couple of wood-chopping locals.

Takayama had a nice hispter vibe like Haridwar or any smallish place near the Himalayas.  It is often used as a base by hikers/skiers into the Alps. It has some trendy places to eat although we chose to go to a very traditional grill restaurant where you leave your footwear outside, sit on tatami mats and grill your own meat. Even though I only tasted the red meat, I felt that the Hida beef was softer and sweeter than the chicken I was grilling.

From Takayama, we sat on a bus to Hirayu Onsen to go to Kamikochi but as we realised that our bus was going to the Shinhotaka Ropeway, we decided to stay on it. There we took two cable car rides to reach the highest point where the temperature was 2 degrees Celsius. During winter, it is a great place to ski. You could see snow-capped mountains everywhere. We weren't prepared for the weather though, so after a quick photo-stop, we took the next gondola back. Kamikochi is a pretty little village/town in the valley between some of these mountains. There are a lot of hiking trails along the river. We walked for about an hour or so, stopping to soak in nature's paintings.

Matsumoto has a tiny little castle. It is also called the crow castle because it is black in colour. but the most fascinating thing about this castle is it is the oldest original castle. As I mentioned on my post on Kyoto, older buildings in Japan are spoken of in reference to the original constructions even though they are rebuilt many times after being destroyed by fire (sometimes as many as eight times). However, Matsumoto castle did not have to be rebuilt. When we visited, there were some Samurais performing for the crowd in the gardens.

From Matsumoto to Kawaguchiko Five Lakes area was exhausting. And when reached, the station/bus stop area was so confusing with so many people around. We found some cycles for hire but had to return it because of the traffic everywhere and instead just took a taxi to north bank of the lake Kawaguchiko and began walking back to the station hoping to find good views. Finally we found a small cove just under the bridge which had unhindered views of Mt Fuji, right by the lake. It was so serene to just sit there and watch the never-changing view.