Time to talk about one of the most amazing days I have experience in my life. Nature has always been a passion of mine. I love to spend time outdoors and go hiking even though I’m not in great shape. I love to appreciate the beauty of the natural world around us.
We left J’s house at about 7:20 am in the freezing morning to drive over to Tokura where the shuttle buses run to Hatomachitoge, the park entrance. J told me that they will get snow soon up here. The morning was certainly brisk enough. Sometimes this road is not accessible for private drivers, thus the shuttle. On the way there I got to experience my first melody road! Gunma has a couple stretches of road that have striations that make a song when you drive over them. It was quite cool. We got there with perfect timing although we weren’t sure at first if we were in the right spot. J helped me get ticket at the counter and I boarded the small bus with a few others. We then drove to the next parking lot, pick up area, and filled up the rest. At 7:50 am, we were on our way up the tiny, curvy mountain road. It was a bit insane, but a gorgeous drive. Literally, pulling over, reversing and almost scraping past other buses and taxis.

I was off on my hike shortly after 8 am. K had given me her Oze National Park map in English which had some estimated hiking times. I had originally planned to go from Oshimizu to Hatomachitoge, passing by the pond and the marsh, the two most famous areas, but due my lucky ride, I switched up my plans. I considered hiking it in the other direction, but the estimated times wouldn’t have me arriving in Oshimizu before the last bus left. So spontaneous new plan: to hike a loop back to Hatomachitoge.

The trail was pretty slippery and damp on the boardwalks. I slipped a couple of times. An ambulance actually pulled up in the parking lot while I was there and during my hike a rescue staff person was carrying an older woman on his back. A river ran by part of the trail and you could catch glimpses of a mountain. The colors were just absolutely stunning. I made it out of the woods to the first rest area where they had a campsite, lodges, and food. The boardwalks through the Ozegahara Marsh began here, one of the most iconic parts. Breathtaking. I couldn’t stop taking pictures. There were certainly a lot of people around. I even saw a guy with packages strapped on his back really high. He was delivering them further into the park to some of the other lodges and food areas (even the ones on the mountain summits). Crazy!

I split off from the marshland back to a mountain to take the trail back. I didn’t read the map well enough so I’d underestimated what I’d gotten myself into: climbing up a mountain pass, summiting, and heading back down. It went up about 500m in under a kilometer. It was quite difficult, but looked even worse for the people heading down towards the marsh! There were much less people on this trail so it was quite peacefully especially since many Japanese carry bells on their hiking packs to avoid the bears. I think? They also carry an insane amount of stuff with them for day hikes. People whipped out their bento boxes with camping burners, made tea, coffee, cooked dumplings. It was crazy. Everyone here also really dresses the part of a hiker. All fully equipped with the right shoes and clothing. It’s very interesting to see the hordes of us on the trains afterward.

I ended up hiking at the same pace with this Japanese guy and he struck up a convo with his few words of English and my few words of Japanese. He was a sports teacher in Saitama. We kept each other company up to the top where the next break house was. He was also heading towards Hatomachitoge, but we split here since he was going to wait on his friend. I kept going towards the summit of Mt. Nakamura! It was astonishingly beautiful up here. Left me speechless. I ended up taking a break here and he caught back up to me with his friend. His friend worked in a hotel in Tokyo so he could speak a good chunk of English. We hiked the whole descent together and made a bit of conversation. This is exactly why hiking alone can be fun! They even stopped and made me coffee towards the end. Although he accidently used aloe water which led to an interestingly flavored, not-so-drinkable coffee. After we finally made it back down, they bought me coffee from a vending machine instead. So kind. We took some pictures together by the trailhead. We all bought tickets back to Tokura and they helped ask for me about the bus to Numata. The guy told us that I’d have to catch it Tokura. We just boarded a taxi shuttle that left almost immediately. The driver wanted to know where to drop people off, so they helped me out here again with translating.

After the harrowing drive back down, we dropped one pair by the ski slopes parking lot and the rest at the main parking lot. It was a short walk back to the bus stop. I asked at the ticket window aka said my destination, and they told me the first one in Japanese. I waited for about 10 minutes at the stop labeled with a 1, and boarded the bus for Numata. We hit some crazy standstill traffic on the way down, but at least it was an interesting drive past so many orchards. I wish I had had more time to get some apples! I got off at the right stop, and caught my trains back home. Whew! My legs will hurt tomorrow.

In total, I hiked a little over 6 hours with breaks for a total of 17 km aka 10.5 miles. I was a bit quicker than the estimated hike times on the map. I want to definitely go again in the spring!