Sunday, May 29, 2016

As it gets light out so early, I woke up at 4:30 am with the rising sun. Plus, it was freezing cold! The sleeping bag I had borrowed from GAJET was barely thick enough with my wool leggings. Papa had bare legs in his though! He popped out of bed quickly, got dressed before heading to the restrooms. He came back at a run though asking for my camera to take shots of the lake all misty! This was enough to convince me to get dressed as well. Pulling on all the layers helped get me moving too. After a restroom stop, where I could put my contacts back in and stop being blind, I also went to the lake shore. The mist, rising sun, water and marsh was amazing. Absolutely breathtaking. Completely reaffirmed Oze as my favorite spot in Japan. There was thick frost everywhere! That means it was a little below freezing overnight aka -1 C or so. Way off from our 9 C prediction for the night. I tried to find Papa to get my camera back, but no luck so I only have cell phone photos.

By the time I got back to the tent, Papa had already dismantled it and rolled up our sleeping bags. He was so quick! We grabbed our packs and went to eat breakfast - granola and yogurt - on some benches by the water. It was still so cold out my fingers got numb! We hit the trail shortly before seven with our packs a bit lighter with less water and food. The trail was isolated and calm. It got warm pretty quickly with the physical exercise and sun. We made it around the lake and switched from flat trails to hilly ones that headed to the great marsh. The famous white skunk cabbages were blooming in full force around the lake. We encountered more and more people, even huge tour groups. Around ten, we hit the second campground area that was surrounded by many restaurants and shops. I definitely preferred our campsite. We ate a snack here before starting the marsh boardwalks.

The scenery was quite different than from that in the fall. Much less water! The marsh was really dry with the skunk cabbages growing in sparse patches by the last bits of water. They were all past their prime bloom and wilting. We encountered more and more people as we headed towards the end. We took a break for some early lunch before pressing on to the last campground and hut site. Papa and I were exhausted and our legs no longer wanted to cooperate. We had time for a 20 minute rest before doing the last leg of our trip: upwards to Hatomachi Pass. This was really rough especially the second half as a yellow trail was pretty steep. Having a heavy pack makes all the difference. And there were so many people and tour groups that it was much less fun at this point. We did ascend pretty quickly, in under an hour.

I got us bus tickets back to Tokura, but this time the buses were all parked in a different lot! We got a bus that left 15 minutes later at 12:40 pm. After a curvy, hot ride, we got dropped off at the main bus station in Tokura. A guy helped us at the counter ask when the next bus to Oshimizu left. We had to wait 30 minutes this time because we had just missed the bus. It probably would have been cheaper and faster to use a taxi because first part cost us 780 yen and second part 540 yen. Papa wasn’t that happy we had to wait because we were on a deadline and would just barely make it in time back to Takasaki station for his 4 pm train to be able to pick up Mama and my brother, Lars, at Tokyo station! Despite barely being able to walk, we still stopped on the way back to get a quick photo with lupines, my namesake! What an exhausting, but fun weekend!

Saturday, May 28, 2016


Last night, I picked up my papa at Takasaki station! He’s working in Osaka for three weeks so he came up to spend the weekend with me! I spent Friday afternoon getting cheese and a membership at Costco, as well as grabbing burgers with S. S actually got to meet my dad as well when I dropped him off at the train station ha. This morning we left at 7:30 am to head up to Oze National Park for a bit of hiking and camping. The last leg of the drive was quite beautiful with all the flowers blooming: irises and lupines. Because the temperature is colder there, there were more types of flowers than I normally see.

We parked at the Oshimizu entrance for 500 yen a day. I had to pay a lady who emerged from the omiyage shop and tell her we were leaving tomorrow. It seemed this was a popular spot for overnighters to park. I used the Hatomachitoge Pass entrance last time so I knew nothing about this route. My dad and I both had our overnight packs with sleeping bags, food, and a tent on our backs as we started the upward sloping gravel road. I knew our first stretch to the campsite would take about 3 hours and be 7 km long. What I was surprised to find out was that about half of it was along this stupid gravel road! We were surrounded by tons of butterflies and chirping cicadas, but still! Finally we past the first hut/rest stop area and the trail actually became a wooded trail tucked along a river. So much nicer.

Sadly the trail turned into some steep switchbacks. I had to take lots of short breaks to catch my breath. The trail was lined with beautiful pink flowering trees and at one point we could drink fresh mountain water. Cold and delish! We finally made it to the top of the pass and realized we had just covered a 600 m difference in elevation from our start point! With our packs! My papa last went backpacking 30 years ago and I’ve only done it once in college, but we did it! From 1180 m to 1762 m. We stopped here for our lunch break before pressing on.

We finally made it down to the lake! It was gorgeous! There was a bit of a small pebbled beach and sandy beach. After snapping some photos, we walked the last 20 minute stretch to our campsite area. I stopped at the visitor center to get another Oze map in English plus some other pamphlets. They also told us where to go to check in. It was a little tricky with their lack of English and the lack of signage. We wandered a bit in a circle before I saw the sign Hute in katakana on one of the buildings. Managed to fill out the paper form there okay with the receptionist minimal English and told him we were only two people instead of four. It cost us 800 yen per person for our site and we got a number to hang on our tent.

There were 26 wooden platform sites in our campground. About 10 were filled. We took #2 as it was closer to the bathrooms and a bit more wooded. The toilets were pretty nice. Apparently they helicopter remove all the waste from the park to keep the water fresh. We set up the tent easily although I had left the directions at home - a standard model. After transferring water and snacks to small packs, we headed out to do some more hiking. We decided to do a smaller loop since we were both tired. After briefly passing through the marshy area, the trail branched off into isolated woods. There was no one besides us and the trail was much less maintained. Very peaceful. At the top of the pass, we emerged into a stunning marshy area with pools. The wooden boardwalk disappeared halfway through into old wobbly planks. Clearly they were doing some renovating. Nothing like practicing our balancing acts!

Once we started our steep red marked descent, we ran into a couple other people. We definitely picked the better route upwards. We emerged at the other side of the trail that runs through the campground and grabbed our pasta salad dinner. Almost all the campsites were filled at this point. We decided to have dinner while relaxing on the beach. As it was quite a bit later, many of the park’s visitors had already left. Dropping our things on the beach, we went to soak our sore, tired feet in the cold water. It was not too chilly in the shallows. But we had to watch out for glass! Broken pieces were laying on the beach from litter. We both ended up relaxing on the beach after dinner watching the sun slowly go down and the temperature drop. Papa decided to run back to the campground to get dressed more warmly since he was only in shorts and a t-shirt. I at least had my fleece jacket.

The sunset was pretty nice, but it was really restful and calm. A thicker cloud cover along the horizon made it tricky to see the sun completely set. We headed back to our tent to get ready for bed although it was barely 7 pm. We were both so exhausted! Plus it was cold out! It seems in one of the cabins, you could stop by to watch a performance with piano and hang out with the other overnight guests. I was surprised to see there were two other groups of Westerners camping too. Papa somehow managed to fit diagonally in the tent and fell asleep quickly while I read for another hour. People kept walking by so it was noisy at first, but it calmed down later. I did wake up a lot because I was uncomfortable. No side sleeping on a platform with only a sleeping bag cushion!

Sunday, May 22, 2016

During my first weekend back from America, I had to work Saturday at school, and today I had a speech for my Japanese class. My class is hosted by the Tomioka International Association and this was their 20th anniversary. All the students from different countries gave presentations: Thailand, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and us, the ALT team. Our team was definitely the most underprepared ha. I spent an hour last night memorizing my parts. Luckily, everyone could meet up at Mister Donut at 10:30 where we spent the time practicing. After a brief and late lunch at McD’s, we headed to the ceremony hall earlier at 2 pm.

Thank goodness we had the second presentation slot so we didn’t have to sit and fret too long after the opening speeches. Everything went well though! My brain switched to automatic mode so I didn’t remember anything that had happened afterward ha. The dinner started shortly thereafter and it was free! Loads of buffet style food and as much as you can drink. When I left, they were handing out some free flowers so I got a bouquet!