Wednesday October 8th

Today was to be our last day in Kamikochi, before taking a bus to Kyoto for the last leg of our trip. We had spent the last two days hiking, and probably did more than we (or at least I) was really up for. 30 kms on the first day followed by 20 kms (and that climb up to Dakesawa) was a lot! But it was spectacular and I was so glad that we had done it. Our last day was going to be a lot more relaxing.

And it started with even sleeping in! Well, sleeping in more than we had been. We slept in until 7ish, lounging around while getting ready to start the day. I was hurting a little less, but still the last two days had taken its toll. Justine mentioned that it had rained hard during the night, but it was bright and sunny by the time we got up. And in fact, our last day ended up being the nicest weather we had on this part of the trip. It was a glorious end to our time in Kamikochi.

We started the day slowly, starting to get ourselves organized and packed for our 10 am check out. Around 8:15 we headed to the restaurant for one last amazing breakfast. Did I mention the French toast?

Make your own miso soup.

Justine gave it a try. It was pretty good!

The famous French toast.

After that we finished packing and got ourselves ready to go. The bus to Kyoto was scheduled to leave at 4:10 pm, and with the 10 am checkout we had pretty much a full day to explore. We were able to leave our bags at the hotel for the day, so we kept out our day bags to have the things we needed, and set off to explore. The plan was to stay relatively close to the center of Kamikochi and not walk too far.

Heading out we were greeted by the most spectacular day. It was sunny, the clouds were white and fluffy and generally sitting quite high. From the Kappa bashi Bridge we could see both upstream towards the Hokta Range and downstream all the way to Mount Yakedake - the first time the whole trip. And in the bright sunshine, the fall colours high up on the mountain looked spectacular. What a day.

Looking over the river and up into the mountains.

The scree slope you can see basically leads up to where the hut is.

We started off the morning by looking through a few of the shops in the center, as well as stopping into the Visitor Center. There were a few items that Justine and I wanted to pick up. They also have some great displays and an amazing collection of photos of the area up on display. We checked that out for a while, bought the few things we wanted and then headed back out.

We decided to walk north/east a bit, retracing our steps from yesterday, at least as far as the Dakeswara Marsh. We stopped at the marsh for a while, admiring the views and hoping for birds that never came. There were some small fish that looked like speckled trout in the crystal clear waters of the river.

Today you could really see the colours up at the top of the mountains.

There were lots of what looked like trout in the river.

Even the Dakesawa Marsh looked amazing in the bright fall sunlight.

We had originally planned for this to be our turn around point, but instead we continued on for a little distance further. We passed the little stream where it races through the rocks and the. Had our best bird encounter of the trip! We noticed a small woodpecker up in one of the trees - a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker! They are considered rare, and we were lucky to have seen it!

We decide to turn around and walk back towards the village center. It was after noon, so we stopped at the little cafe and had some lunch - udon for Justine and soba noodles for me, along with a beer to make for a great last lunch.

Since it was such a clear day I could use my big lens to zoom in on the detailed colour up in the mountain tops.

This section has all the colours.

After lunch and relaxing a bit, we continued on the other direction. We thought we’d walk down a ways, then get down to the river bank and walk back upstream along the rivers edge.

A last look at our great little hotel.

We sat out front and had a beer, enjoying the views.

Walking along the river bank.

The water looks amazing, and didn’t seem that cold. But no one swims. The river is fed by meltwater from the surrounding peaks of the Japanese Alps, meaning the water is ice-cold year-round - often below 10C. Kamikochi is also located within a protected national park, and the environment is strictly conserved. So, the the combination of extreme cold and strict conservation rules means swimming in the Azusa River is essentially out of the question.

The walk down was quite uneventful - it was pretty busy - and so we were happy to head out onto the riverbank, which afforded us some unique views that we had not seen to date. It was beautiful.

Eventually we had to get off the riverbank and back onto the proper path. And that was fortunate and delightful in that we ran across another small troop of monkeys, only a few hundred meters outside the village proper!

Justine first noticed a solitary macaque up on a tree, gorging himself on berries. But he was calling, and soon the rest of the troop showed up, a few at a time. It was really cool to see them close up - a couple walked right past within a couple feet of us!

Eventually they all departed, heading up towards the main village center. That seemed like it had trouble written all over it, but they stayed on the path, pretty much ignored the people around them and then crossed right over the Kappa bashi Bridge and disappeared on the other side!

That encounter left us pretty excited and was a perfect ending to our time in Kamikochi. We had one last stop - Trois Cinq - and their famous apple pie. This restaurant was in the ground level of our hotel, and everyday during their opening hours there was a line up out the door. In some of the social media posts we had watched, we were told you had to try the pie.

So we waited in line, got two slices of pie with soft serve ice cream, and sat on their little deck watching the river and looking up at the mountains. The scenery was spectacular, the pie was average at best. Although, Justine’s apple flavoured soft serve was quite unique and very tasty. But overall, not worth the line ups.

This was the line-up for apple pie. The line was this long (or longer) every time we walked by. Eventually curiosity got the better of us.

The pie was… OK. The ice cream might have been better. Justine’s was apple flavoured!

Still, it was a lovely spot to spend our last hour in Kamikochi.

And with that, it was time to grab our bags and head down to the bus depot for our 4:10 bus to Kyoto. We were there by 3:15 so had lots of time to spare. But it was amazing to watch the constant flow of buses picking people up. Most were going to the parking lots, but at 4:00 three massive coaches filled up for the trip back to Tokyo.

Like all things Japanese, everything was perfectly organized and right on time. Our bus pulled in right behind the ones departing at 4:00, and we were loaded and on our way perfectly on time.

The bus ride to Kyoto was pretty much uneventful. It started out nicely, with amazing views of the mountains around the Alps. Our trip started with us climbing higher into the mountains, which surprised me. We were heading in a new direction entirely.

We then drove through a series of small towns and/or cities, with some cool architecture, lovely shrines and beautiful scenery. But the light faded quickly and most of the trip was in the dark. We made a couple of stops at rest stations along the way and we grabbed some food to go at the second one.

Five odd hours on the bus gave me some time to think back on our time in Kamikochi. It truly is a beautiful place, nestled in the mountains, with the river flowing through it. It would have been nice to have had a few more days. We got really fortunate with the weather, as the rain on the first day could well have carried through, but instead we got three days of mostly beautiful sunshine. The hikes we did were all really nice. The ones along the valley floor gave amazing views and were really quite easy. We went a long way, but the hiking was not difficult.

Our one hike up into the mountains was much harder than I expected, but the views - just stunning. Well worth the effort, but it would have been good to know more about what to expect. From the maps and the postings we saw around Kamikochi, doing some longer distance, hit-to-hut trips would be spectacular. Maybe something for another time.

The bus dropped us off in Kyoto around 9:30 pm. Literally on the side of the highway. The bus exited onto a pull out, dropped us and our luggage off and continued on its way. Kind of crazy.

We had to navigate down a few flights of stairs and ended up on some random side street. Fortunately we were able to order a taxi and it was there in less than 5 minutes. About 15 minutes later, we were in our hotel and settling in.

This hotel also has an onsen, and so while Justine had a shower in the room, I went down and had another soak in a (much hotter) public bath. It was lovely.

We then spent some time prepping for a big day exploring Kyoto tomorrow!

Daily Step Count: 10,578