So I had been planning to have a group trip up to Oze for a while and I managed to get one together for today! I was hoping to see the daylilies, but we had to make arrangements so far in advance, it was only a guess if we’d be able to see them. Due to the warm winter, all the blooming times were off. We took three sets of cars up to Oze, one from Maebashi, one from east Gunma, and one from my area. A-sensei (a new young teacher at my school) drove us from her house. We had arranged to meet at Oze at 9 am at the Oshimizu entrance. Two of the guys from the winter Asama hike were coming too, plus two other people I hadn’t met before, for a total of 10 folks. The last car came at thirty minutes late because they had some troubles. We actually had to park in overflow parking as the main lot was already full. It was just a short walk up the street.

Having Japanese people with was really handy! K found out that there is a shuttle bus up the first part of the road to the first hut! The long, boring gravel road that took Papa and I over 1.5 hours with our heavy packs. We could have skipped it and paid 700 yen for the bus fee, by buying tickets inside the shop, and it would have been a 10 minute ride! The next bus left at 10 am, so we killed some time before boarding. It was much nicer hiking from the actual trail part and without a heavy pack! We were much faster! We took some photos by the lake and decided to have lunch at the next spot, where Papa and I ate breakfast last time. There were some many people this time! According to the visitor center, we came on the peak day for the blooming lilies!

We had lunch overlooking the marsh, spotted with yellow, and the lake. Everything was so green and lush after the rainy season. Completely different than one month earlier. The trail was completely muddy and wet in several spots. The lake was filled with reeds that undulated like the waves in an ocean. Mesmerizing. After lunch, we checked out the lilies before continuing our full circle around the lake. The latter part I hadn’t done before so that was interesting. The trail was much more worn down and followed the lake’s edge closely. One spot was perfect for sitting on a stone beach! I promptly waded into the water and several others joined me. It felt so good! Papa and I could have totally gone swimming here, although it started out shallow.

I felt great during the hike and only at the end started to feel some aches and pains. Progress! It was much flatter than what I’ve been hiking recently, ha. The last bus back left at 4:30 pm which we missed, so we just walked the downhill stretch back to the cars. A total of about 17 km, a rise of 600 m, and 7 hours hiking. It was fun to go with everyone especially because it was their first times!

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!

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!

How to get to Oze from Gunma

Catching bus from Numata

I did a lot of research of how to get to Oze National Park before my trip. It was rather spontaneous (less than a week before, I decided to go). Finding up to date English information was really difficult so I figured I’d summarize it here for others. This is how to get to Oze from Gunma or rather, Numata Station via public transport. Buses run from May 22nd to Oct 25th, 2015 (this year).

Getting there:
Numata Station -----> Tokura (bus) {2050 yen, 80 minutes}
[operated by Kan-Etsu]

Hatomachitoge ticket window

I found it easiest to use a site like Navitime to figure out when the bus was leaving. The exact schedule from the Kan-Etsu website was a huge pdf file with lots of tiny kanji. The bus picks you up from #1 outside the station. Lazuli Voyage has the best info in English. The first bus leaves at 7:20 am for Oze Oshimizu and stops at Tokura at 8:43 am and arrives at Oshimizu at 8:55 am {2250 yen}. Take a numbered bus ticket when you enter. At your stop, you can see how much you’ll have to pay by looking at your number on the electronic board on the front of your bus. Show the driver your number and money when getting off and put it all in a slot that faces upwards. Coins and bills.

Tokura ------> Hatomachitoge Pass (bus) {930 yen, 20 minutes}
[departs at 4:40, 6:30, 7:50, 8:55, 9:40, 10:20, 11:10 am]
My shuttle bus left at 7:40 am however to pick up more passengers on route. There are at least three different parking areas. Personally, you’ll have no problem getting up or back to Tokura. The shared taxi buses ran very often. I just bought a ticket at the window by saying my destination. If you take the bus from Numata station, it’ll drop you right at the perfect spot.

You can go directly from Numata to Oshimizu (another entrance) which I was considering. However, the last bus from Oshimizu leaves at 3:50 pm so you don’t have a lot of time to hike during a day trip. The last bus from Hatomachitoge was at 7:55 pm.

Return:
If you go from Oshimizu, you can go directly back to Numata Station (last bus: 3:50 pm, 2250 yen, 2 hours). What I did however:

Hatomachitoge ------> Tokura
[Run frequently, 930 yen, 20 minutes]
Took a shared taxi bus that left almost immediately after I boarded at around 2:15 pm because it was full. Bought a ticket from a window and followed people. The guy at the window said I had to ride back to Tokura before catching a bus to Numata so I did (had translation help here). The driver asked where to drop people off. Many people got off at the main parking lot which was a short walk over a bridge away from the bus stop so I think if you said Kan-Etsu bus or nothing at all, you’d be fine (my translator helped here again).

Tokura -----> Numata
[Last departures: 4:30, 6:30, 7:55 pm] (2250 yen, 80 minutes - took us 2 hours with traffic)
I caught the 3:12 pm bus. I asked at the ticket window and they told me the bus leaves from the spot marked #1. Some of the buses travel further than others (to Gokan and Jomo-kogen Station). My numbered ticket said 2 when I on and I got off at Numata Eki.

Easy enough, eh?

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!

Conbini breakfast for us. I got a cream bread and an onigiri that they heated up for me. I just kept saying yes and wham it was hot haha. I’m noticing them asking me a lot lately so now I know what they’re asking. Kasumi got some oden. Afterward, we walked over to the Tomioka Silk Mill, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The streets were packed. We saw so many giant tour buses. As a resident of Tomioka, I could get in free. We confused the teller though when Kasumi asked for one adult ticket and one resident, and I was the one to show my residence card ha. I actually got a brochure in English with a bit more of the history. If you are more of a group, you can ask for an English tour ahead of time. Otherwise, all the signs and tours are in Japanese there. You can rent an audio guide for 200 yen in a couple different languages or do the audio for free on your phone with a QC code.

It was cool to be there on the weekend because they had some demonstrations of the silk weaving, taking the cocoon apart till only the worm was left. I also got to touch one of the cocoons and pull the silk off the outer shell, and see the worms wiggling around and make the cocoons. A lot of the site is still under construction and being restored. It’ll be interesting to see the finally product. I think I’d enjoy it more if I got more historical info about the place. Afterward, we went to get yakimanju, a Gunma speciality. They are soft buns are coated with a rich, sweet and salty miso sauce and grilled. So delicious and cheap! The best shop in Gunma according to many JETs is right by my school. I know what I’ll be getting for an after school snack somedays!

We went to get lunch next at CO-JIRO and stopped in some tourist shops along the way. Trying to get some Christmas ideas. I had heard good things about the restaurant so I wanted to try it out. Made Kasumi translate again for me, heh. The interior was nicely decorated and the sign has a cute cat next to it. They offered two lunch set options, A and B, so easy enough for me to order in the future. The food was amazing! Definitely lived up to its reputation.

Then we headed off on to Nukisaki shrine which was about a 40 minute walk away. You can take the train a bit closer, but it honestly doesn’t save much walking time so we decided to work off our food. The last stretch is really steep, straight up hill. What a workout! We had to start pulling off our layers. What’s special about Nukisaki is that you have to descend down stairs to the shrine. This is extremely rare to find in Japan. As we were leaving, some kind of ceremony had started with chanting inside the shrine. It looked like a blessing or so.

Lunch at CO-JIRO

Tea house garden

From Nukisaki, we went to a green tea house that had opened this past summer, ちゃきち, Chakichi. I had found it through instagram pictures. It was amazing. The decorations were fantastic and the sliding doors and windows were open to the little Japanese garden in the back. They had many green tea and other ice cream flavors. We both got matcha parfaits that were very yummy. It was difficult to choose what to order! Before we left, one of the staff struck up a convo with me. He had studied abroad in Australia and had lived there extensively. His English was so good and had an Aussie accent. I will definitely go back! So much more to try.

The small train station was about a ten minute walk away so we took it back to my station. It was a bit tricky this time because since it was the weekend, there was no one at my station or the one we departed from. That means taking the number ticket on the train and then paying the driver directly when getting off. You need direct change though so we had to figure out how to use the machine in the front of the train to convert a coin to smaller coins. It all worked out though and now I know how to do it for the future! We popped by my place to grab our bags (and for me to change into my hiking clothes), and headed off to Takasaki. Kasumi was heading back to Saitama and I was heading up north, a little past Numata to Gokan to spend the night in preparation of hiking Oze tomorrow. The public transport takes so long so I wanted to get as close as possible: 40 min train to Takasaki, 50 min train to Numata, 80 min bus to Tokura, 20 min shuttle bus to Hatomachitoge and one of the park entrance.

Matcha parfait

I had extra time in Takasaki so I grabbed a cheese bun from a bakery and a coffee at Starbucks, and hung out there. They have all the drinks written in English as well as Japanese so it was easy to order. They have an extra size here called short that’s even smaller than tall. The short prices are about the same as the US tall prices. It was a comfortable ride. I was planning at crashing at another ALT’s house, K, and she had offered to pick me up at the train station. So kind! Instead, another ALT, J, was driving and she was riding along with. That zero tolerance drinking policy. I had planned to join in on a game night at her apartment. I got to meet some cool new people, eat lots of junk food and pizza, and play spoons for the first time in forever. Apparently J lives far from Numata in a small village, Katashina, only 10 minutes from Oze. He offered to let me crash at his place and drive me to the shuttle bus pick up. This would save me 2050 yen and allow me to get an earlier start tomorrow. Super nice of him. We left around 10:30 pm for the long drive back to his place. We made it in good time. The stars were pretty amazing and it was so cold! About 45 degrees as a low. Thus, his place was already a lot colder and it was comfy to bury myself in a blanket.