ms_go

We are currently in Japan – Matsumoto to be exact. I haven’t been good in the trip report department lately, but mrwunrfl asked that I report back on some logistics (Kamikochi?), so I thought I’d post a few things as we go along. If I don’t do it now, it might never happen!

As background, this is my third trip to Japan, and mr_go’s second. Our itinerary includes Tokyo, Matsumoto, Kamikochi, Takayama, and Kanazawa. I covered most of this ground in my first trip (2006), but it is mostly new for him.

I bought the airline tickets last July, well before details of Japan’s reopening were announced. My side hobby is finding ways to use United Plus Points to upgrade to Polaris, and when I saw available flights, I jumped on them – hoping all would eventually work out.

We completed the immigration and customs forms online before traveling and came armed with QR codes. When I started the forms during the week prior to travel, the quarantine requirement was scheduled to end on May 8. I entered all the information and uploaded our vax cards. Sometime over the weekend of April 29, that requirement was eliminated altogether, a week early.

There was no wait at immigration or customs (we did require a little assistance from someone at the customs kiosk, where I was admonished that the printed QR was “too big”). Despite a very long walk from the plane to the immigration hall, we went from plane door at 4:15 pm to seated on an Airport Limousine Bus departing for Shinjuku at 4:50 pm.

Travel to the Hyatt Regency Shinjuku took about one hour, including stops at the other HND terminals. We picked this hotel primarily because I was able to apply a Hyatt Club Award, with lounge access that included breakfast and happy hour with a generous buffet and plated appetizers (of which we made great use). I also like all of its conveniences, including a direct airport bus, a mostly underground walkway into Shinjuku Station, and direct underground access to two subway lines (Oedo and Marunouchi), as well as a 7-11 with ATM in the hotel basement. It's a large hotel, but it never felt crowded at all.

The best part was our rather spacious corner room with a view of Mt. Fuji – at least until the clouds moved in a day later.


View from our room, Hyatt Regency Shinjuku. If you look closely, Mt. Fuji is visible to the left of the building on the right side of the photo.

tripplanner001

Sugoii!!! Glad you finally made it back to Japan, ms_go. It’s been 10 years since I visited Japan and am hoping to make it back this November after postponing it for the past couple of years, so I read what you share with keen interest. Had planned to go around this time but decided that I did not want to be there while the G7 is taking place.

Seems like some of the long queues on arrival have been resolved, or at least you arrived at an optimal time of day. Which airport did you fly into: Haneda or Narita?

How are the tourist crowds in Matsumoto? Tokyo I know is always busy tourists or not given the size of the city.

Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

ms_go

Hi tripplanner001! Our flight was from Chicago to Haneda. So far, Matsumoto doesn't seem to have big tourist crowds. We went to the castle mid-afternoon yesterday. There were others around, but it wasn't crowded. And we were practically the only people in the art museum this morning. I have a friend who is in Japan now on a tour, and Hiroshima was cut from the itinerary because of the G7.

Tokyo
I remember making note on our arrival evening that it was dark by around 7pm. Well, now we know the other side of that equation. I saw sunlight through the cracks in the curtains the next morning and was amazed that we slept in – only to find out it was 4:45 am!

We had two full days in Tokyo. We knew on arrival that one day would be nice albeit extremely windy, and the second day would be rainy.

We used the nice day to hop around the city, partly on foot and partly on the trains using a SUICA card – with destinations that included Ueno Park and surrounding area, Asakusa/Senso-ji (Nakamise-dori was packed, but it was a Saturday), Ginza, and the gardens around the Imperial Palace.

The rainy day was more challenging. We started with the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and then sought out Hibiya Okuroji (a newer shopping restaurant development under the viaduct between Shimbashi and Yurakucho stations for lunch.

We spent a couple of our evenings wandering east of Shinjuku station. The other we spent at Meiji Jingu Stadium taking in a Yakult Swallows game. We arrived a little late and could hear the chanting and singing several blocks from the stadium. At first glance, we thought the 8-1 on the scoreboard was just some display element we weren’t used to – but, no, we missed a lot of action in the first 1.5 innings (and mostly not by the home team). Nevertheless, that didn’t seem to get the Swallows fans down. They chanted. They sang. And when their team scored, out came the umbrellas. One nice fan nearby bought us beer. It was fun, even if the home team wasn’t looking so good. We left after the 7th inning, as jetlag was still an issue. By the way, I bought the tickets online a couple of weeks before we traveled. Probably a good idea. The stadium was packed, and not just the locals. Yokohama brought a very large contingent of fans, a few with musical instruments.

curiousgeo

Japanese pro baseball games are so much fun to attend and love the “kawaii” beer girls!

ms_go

A study in contrasts...all places within about 10 minutes of Shinjuku Station.


Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Kabukichō

Shinjuku Promenade Park

Golden Gai

Office building art to the west

tripplanner001

Thank you for your responses, ms_go. Japan is indeed a land of contrasts. Love how well the Japanese integrate the modern with the traditional. Hope the G7 logistics don't impact you as some of the meetings are also taking place in Niigata and Kanazawa. They were meeting in Karuizawa and Hokkaido earlier this year.

progol

Oh, ms_go, this is great! As I’m following in your footsteps (though at a much slower pace!), this is incredibly helpful to read. And all it looks fantastic! Even the rainy bits.

Has the recent earthquake impacted any of the trip?

ms_go

I'm not aware of any impact from the one last week, but apparently there was an M5.0 about a half hour ago, again just off the Noto Peninsula. It was on the news at breakfast. That makes two at or above 5.0 in the same area in 6 days.

And I doubt the G7 will affect us much, as (unfortunately) we will be back home before that gets going.

mrwunrfl

ms_go, this is a wonderful report, am looking forward to more. Happy that you took the time. Say hi to mr_go for me, pls. Love the Shinjuku Gyoen shot and the view of Fujisan.

(funny that Yakult has a probiotic drink and their team name is swallows. I see they were down 14-5 when you left and the Baystars won 17-7)

ms_go

The 14-5 score sounds about right. It was still fun. It was a toss up on whether to go Saturday or Sunday. I'm really glad I picked Saturday, as Sunday was pretty wet (I never checked to see if it was rained out).

A note about travel. Our itinerary is not optimized for a JR Pass. It is spread over 12 days and involves a mix of buses and trains. And try as I might, I couldn’t find a regional pass that would provide any significant savings.

On that note, we took the Azusa Limited Express from Shinjuku to Matsumoto, with about 10 stops (2.5 hours). We bought the tickets two days ahead of time and opted for reserved seats. The train car was never completely full, but most seats had a green light (reserved) at least at some point. Having two seats together for the whole trip may not have been that easy.

Matsumoto

My 2006 trip had just enough time to see the castle. This time, we decided to stay a while – or two nights, anyway. Of course, we went to the castle. I’ve only been to two Japanese castles (this and Himeji, now twice each), but I believe this is considered one of the most significant and beautiful. We also went to the Matsumoto City Museum of Art to see the Yayoi Kusama collection and a few other exhibits on permanent display.

After being in Tokyo, I was struck by the lack of crowds. There were maybe two dozen people on the castle grounds when we went, and in the art museum, staff outnumbered visitors by a good bit. The only tour we’ve encountered was a group of Australians who arrived at our hotel yesterday and left this morning.

Our other activity was an afternoon trip south to hike the portion of the Nakasendo trail between Yabuhara and Narai. I’ll cover that in a separate post.

We really enjoyed our time in Matsumoto. It’s a nice, walkable city with views toward snowy mountains. We ate well – including a great yakitori restaurant with only a Japanese menu (thank goodness for Google Translate with a camera feature!) and one of the local specialties, soba.

We chose the Tabino Hotel Matsumoto for its proximity to the train and bus stations, but we could still walk to the castle and museum in about 15 minutes. It is pretty new. The rooms are small in traditional fashion, but everything is very efficient – e.g., one faucet contraption that operates both the sink and shower. There are power and USB plugs everywhere. The wi-fi is great. Full Japanese breakfast buffet and a complementary happy hour drink. This worked very well for us.


Matsumoto Castle

I have some more photos but am having trouble posting right now. Maybe this evening...
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progol

I am LOVING this! And so excited to be going in a few months and glad we will be in Matsumoto for a few days. It caught my eye when I was planning a while ago and your description and photo reassures me that we made a good decision.

Thanks for the info re: the earthquake.

tripplanner001

Love the castle photo. Speaking of plugs, it’s convenient for us Americans that Japan uses the same type of plug and wattage - one place where don’t have to mess with adapters and converters.

ms_go

Let's try photos again...


Matsumoto Castle by day

Kusama collection at the Matsumoto City Museum of Art

Matsumoto City Museum of Art - even the vending machine reflects her style

Matsumoto Castle at night

ms_go

A taste of the Nakasendo trail

The Nakasendo trail connected Tokyo and Kyoto in the Edo Period. There were about 70 “post” towns where travelers could rest. Several are well preserved and offer a chance for visitors to walk part of the trail. The most popular walk is between Magome and Tsumago, but it is a little tricky and time consuming to get there. Another option is the route from Yabuhara to Narai, otherwise known as the Torii Pass walk. It is easier to access because the Chuo regional line stops in both towns. But it is more of a hike than a walk, with a ~1,100-foot elevation gain and then descent. Alltrails calls it a moderate hike.

That’s what we did. It takes some coordination of train schedules (hello, Navitime!), but there are options that allow a few hours for the hike. We chose to start in Yabuhara and end in Narai, which is beautifully preserved town. Coming in from the hike, you walk from one end of the town to the other.

We left Matsumoto at 12:23 pm (about 1:10 ride), and returned from Narai on a train departing at 3:57 pm. We finished the whole walk in about 2:10, but we move pretty fast.

It was fantastic. Very well marked, almost to a fault – almost impossible to get lost. There are bear bells in a few places along the way, so I suppose that is a possibility. It was a little wet in places from the rain over the weekend, but all in all not too bad. We passed fewer than 10 people on the trail, and the town of Narai was delightfully quiet when we arrived – empty in parts.


Beginning of the Torii Pass trail outside of Yabuhara

Somewhere near the pass

Narai

progol

Fabulous. Thank you for continuing to post. I’m so enjoying following your travels!

mrwunrfl

nice photos!
the Sunday game was a rainout

tripplanner001

Thank you so, so much for information about this Nakasendo walk. It's exactly the type of walk / hike we enjoy and have been looking to incorporate into our own trip to Japan later this year.

ms_go

We enjoyed it! There are various write-ups on this walk. Here's one I found useful:
https://www.go-nagano.net/en/theme/id=16293

Kamikochi

This is an alpine valley between Matsumoto and Takayama. It is only open seven months of the year, from mid-April to mid-November. We like to hike, so of course this caught our eye.

The hotels don’t begin booking for the new season until after the first of the year – although I saw that if I joined Gosenjaku’s email list, I would get advance notice for reservations (which came in mid-December). It was the first to take reservations, so we decided just to make this our vacation splurge since it was just for one night. The hotel room is spacious and comfortable, and the rate includes breakfast and multi-course French dinner – not to mention a bear bell and insulated vests to wear while hiking.

Access is by bus or taxi from Hirayu Onsen. The typical way to get here from Matsumoto is by train and then bus, but I read about a 2X daily direct bus (“National Park Liner”) from the Matsumoto bus terminal. The first leaves very early in the morning and the second at 10:15. I kept an eye on the JapanBusOnline website, and when I saw this specific route loaded around the time Kamikochi opened in mid-April, I bought tickets right away. Apparently, it is popular, as there were enough reservations to run two buses at 10:15 yesterday. People began lining up at the Matsumoto bus terminal 30 minutes in advance. The ride takes about 1:40.

Weather is always an unknown, but I’ll happily trade the rainy day in Tokyo for the spectacularly sunny 24 hours we got here. The various trails from the Kamikochi bus terminal are relatively flat, with lovely views of the mountains (including active volcano Mt. Yake-dake) and river. We walked two nice loops of 7-8 kilometers each.

The bus trip from Kamikochi to Takayama involves a change at Hirayu Onsen. The schedules are well coordinated, with about 5 minutes in between buses. You can buy one ticket for both segments. Neither bus was crowded.

Side note: there was apparently a pretty significant earthquake south of Tokyo this morning. A friend currently staying in Tokyo got the phone warning at 4 am!


The walks at Kamikochi are relatively flat, with a lot of boardwalks over wet areas.

Rest stop.

No bears during our hikes, but we did see some monkeys.

There are worse views from a hotel room!

progol

Gorgeous pix, once again! And what a view from the hotel.

Your comments about the bus from Matsumoto are also very helpful as we will be going to the Okuhida onsen region from Matsumoto. and will need to change at Hiraya onsen (the central Okuhida town) for a bus to our ryokan in Shin-Hotaka Onsen.

A question about the Nakesendo trail walk that you did- how strenuous and how long is the ascent? I have some mild physical limitations and am not sure how difficult that walk would be, but am very interested in doing it. Otherwise, we might just travel to Narai from Matsumoto and back. But the walk looks wonderful.

ms_go

Thanks, progol! Tough call. It took us about an hour to get from the train station to the top of the pass. The grade varies, but according to Alltrails, it get in the upper 20-degree range at times and probably averages in the double digits. I had to stop to catch my breath a few times. I'd also say it would be weather dependent. It was still wet in places from the rain two days earlier. We did it in running shoes, so decent support but not very grippy - and we had to watch our footing at times. It is possible to just go to Narai and back. Some people on our trains did that.