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!