Japan Alps, onsens and snow!

.6/7 May 2014

As we climbed in elevation we started to see advertisements for onsens. 

We have been to two of them in the last 24 hours. 

They have had rotenburos (outdoor onsens) as well as the indoor tubs. For obvious reasons I can't show you the pools themselves, but they are very picturesque, built like rook pools, nicely landscaped, and with various temperatures, including very hot and quite cool. After having a shower (in public, gender separated) you choose a pool and join the other women there. There is very little talking, most people seeming to meditate or just relax quietly. There is something quite surreal seeing all sorts of female bodies, all ages, all with spotless skin, jet black hair (including pubes), calmly stepping in and out of the pools, in the steam.... I think it is very healthy! 

This was the first time I have had to confront other women, naked, with all of my surgical scars in all their glory... Previous onsens either had no others in them, or we had a private pool as a couple. These last two days the onsens have been very busy. But there was no alternative to just doing it -and it was quite painless. There were others with scars, pregnant women, very old stooped ladies, and a achondroplastic dwarf,  all quite comfortable it seemed. 

In fact the Japanese seem to have a completely different attitude to nudity from us. A number of times we have seen men peeing in their rice paddies (remember urine is sterile and high in nutrients) with trousers down around their thighs, giving a full buttock view to passing motorists. Apparently the current gender separation in Onsens is a recent thing -since the Americans started influencing the area. Before that it was everyone in together.

7/5/14 we are camped in a campground (Hirayu Camping Ground, phone 0578-89-2610 ) the first time in Japan. It cost ~$60 (2 nights) including firewood (yes a fireplace -also a first) and onsen entry. 

Hirayu is on highway 158 which takes you to Matsumoto from the south west. 

We are at ~ 1000 m elevation and it was COLD last night. Even the fire did very little to warm us. The outside temp was about 0 degrees C when we went to bed. However we were still warm from the long soak in the Onsen! 

This camp ground has no powered sites! Not that we need power, but we have also noticed the few motorhomes we have seen had compressors. Maybe power is not a usual feature of Japanese campgrounds. There is also no camp kitchen, only sinks for washing dishes. There are no showers -onsen nearby-but there is a  laundromat -¥200 for a load and ¥200 for 30 mins drying.

Nearby is the Shin-Hotaka rope way, a gondola which takes you from 1000m to 2200m. At the top we were in snow, and had a magnificent view of the nearby mountains which form a caldera. There are also walking tracks across the mountains to and from here and we saw a number of young men with packs and ice picks arriving. 

Also in this area is a  " bear ranch"!  Here they have a large number of captive bears in cement enclosures. We couldn't workout what the purpose was but given it is a ranch, and they seem to breeding them, perhaps they are being sold to China for medicines, or bile harvesting..... Anyway I didn't like the whole thing. There was a very large bear of a different species (brown bear? Grizzly bear?) showing signs of stress, pacing up and down one wall, and quite a few of the others also showing stress behaviour. 

And then to make it worse they started a bear show, with a young bear dressed up in girls clothes, muzzled, doing tricks, including riding a tricycle, skipping rope. It was something  I would have expected to see 50 years ago. I remember something like that at Taronga Park zoo when I was a kid -monkeys riding tricycles. 

We have a problem with money. We came with two preloaded cash cards, loaded with yen. Mine (Qantas club card) didn't work, the hotel couldn't use it, and Joe's has run out and we are unable to reload it. We have had to ask Emma to go to the bank in Australia and try to transfer money into it. Anyway we have about $40 left! Only the big hotels take credit cards, and nearly everything requires cash -including fuel stations!

We visited a small onsen, which first had a "foot onsen". This is a pool where weary walkers can soak their feet in hot water. 

These 2 found the water too hot! Perhaps we should have taken the warning, but we proceeded into the onsen proper. The water was far too hot! We couldn't tolerate more than a few seconds! There was one other couple there, and they left before we did, so Joe managed to get a shot of the onsen for gentlemen. 

The brownness of the water is said to be medicinal. They are not all brown. Most of them are crystal clear.

We have solved the money problem temporarily -by activating another cash card which we hadn't been able to get working before -so it pays to have a back-up! So Emma can relax for awhile. 

Travelling to Japan Alps.

4-5th May 2014

After we awoke and started exploring our surroundings we found we were just 100m from a dream campsite! There was a large flat area on the banks of a river, with water fall, swimming holes, and in the forest! 

Oh well, it also made a good place to spend a couple of hours. I decided to make a mini bonsai in a jar. It didn't turn out too badly either I reckon! 

The rest of the day was rainy and spent on a highway making some distance and trying to avoid the big city of Nagoya. So I'll give you a few random images from the last few days. 

 This one's for Doug. There seem to be a LOT of pidgeon toed girls here. At first we thought it might be affect, to look cute, but there are so many and often quite severe that I now think it must be a national genetic trait. This statue in the park shows it in a mild form. 

I've mentioned narrow roads before, but this one took the cake. It was on a very steep mountainside, with an awful drop to the left. It would have been impossible to back up. We came to a place with a motorbike and car parked on the side blocking our way. So Joe got out and moved the bike. Then he decided to lift the back of the car and quite easily lifted it out of the way! 

And this needs no explanation except to say that there is usually one western style loo in a row of toilets in a public amenities block -but not always! But they are always clean.

This one's for Jonno. What on earth us this structure? We see them quite often. They are very tall and associated with some sort of industrial plant which we haven't been able to identify either. We thought you might know. (Not the light array, the three legged structure in the background).

As we reached the foothills of the Alps we were following a river with a deep gorge. The clouds made the scene more dramatic. 

For Doug and Stuart -does that stream look suitable for fly fishing? We have seen a few fly fishermen in the streams, so maybe you should bring suitable gear?

At one of the toll gates the attendant couldn't decide what to charge us, and waved us over to the side of the road while he conferred with colleagues. While we were waiting for him the police turned up. They asked for Joe's Japanese liscence. Then they started asking questions about the car. They spoke no English. We produced the Japanese document that the Japanese Autimobile Federation (JAF) had given us for this very purpose and it fixed everything. The police immediately started smiling and nodding, checked Joe's International Driving Permit, and let us go. We don't actually know what that document says but we sure won't lose it! 

We finally found a camp-site on a vacant residential block in a quiet area. The nearby houses were derelict, perhaps reflecting Japan's shrinking population, and urban drift. We were undisturbed for the night and morning and had a good rest. 

And finally, there are these bright/deep red flowering trees everywhere now. We don't know whether they are cherries or some other fruit, but they are very beautiful! 

More of Kii penisular -and Mikimoto pearls, and AMA divers

3-4/5/14

Continuing up the east coast of Kii peninsular, we saw more spectacular coastline. We notice that ALL coastal villiages have Tsunami walls, signs directing to evacuation centres, and loud speakers (for warning sirens). 

These certainly alter the view and the experience of seaside living! Sometimes the beach is outside the sea wall. Here the cafe is right up against the sea wall and we could see over it. 

We have also seen an few aquariums as we've gone along the coast. They have all been very good, from the Osaka aquarium with its whale shark, to the Toba aquarium with the best tropical live coral display we've seen. 

Here is a picture of anemonies that I have not see before.

But the highlight of the marine -type displays has been ( for me) the AMA divers (women pearl divers) demonstration today at Mikimoto Island. These women have been diving for pearls and abalone, kelp, sea urchins, for centuries off the coast here. They used to dive bare breasted! In this cold water! 

 These statues show the old and new costumes they wore. 

Now they dive in thin white garments -no protection at all against the cold. 

They are said to be able to hold their breaths for more than a minute! And they dive to more than 30 feet. They have bamboo buckets for their catch. The surprising thing for me was their constant whistling. This presumably alters the diffusion of gasses in the lungs, somehow improving their performance. They seemed to whistle each breath whilst on the surface. 

The rest of Mikimoto Island was devoted to pearl culture. There were very interesting displays of how the pearls are cultured, how they are strung, and how they are valued. The shop had fabulous jewellery, with one special pearl valued at $250,000. I can tell you that I really lusted after some of the strings, but Joe would have none of it....:(

After all of the sightseeing is over we have to find somewhere to sleep. We have found that if we pick the white roads (minor of minor roads) and in the green areas, on our map we often find places where we can sneak off the road and be undisturbed by traffic or people. 

But sometimes the roads turn out to be REALLY minor. The roads can be less then one lane wide, and if we see another vehicle coming someone has to back up. We have learned that white roads in built-up areas are too narrow, but in the bush they are narrow but just passable. 

This is the view from where we slept last night....

A couple of vehicles did come past while we were drinking our sake in the evening. We had to pull in the awning and put up the steps, but they passed with a wave and no comment! 

In return we make sure we leave no trace of our camping, actually picking up some of the rubbish we find around. (Japan could do well to join the "Clean up the World " campaign. We find the cities spotless, but the country-side has lots of rubbish dumped - mainly drink cans and plastics -not toilet paper as we sometimes find in the Aussie bush! 

Coastline -Mie prefecture, Kii peninsular.

1-2/5/14

I'll let the photos tell the story today. We are travelling north along the coast of Kii Peninsular (we think that's the name).

  

And that was the pattern of the day, until we found this great place to camp, in a forest, on a DIRT road...

 With babbling stream, perfectly clear water....

 Nobody about but obviously some loggers working here -but wait -what are those white spots on the logs?!

Emma! Take note! 

 This is mushroom farming! These are logs with plugs of mushroom innoculant. Joe removed one to see how deep it was (well they have thousands of them and we put it back). It was only 1cm deep. They are stacked in a cool, dark, and moist forest. There is a hose nearby so the farmers probably spray the logs. They may take them indoors later for finishing..... We found this very exciting! 

And we had a meal of mushrooms, tofu skins, asparagus and cherry tomatoes. The mushrooms are so cheap around here - it's wonderful. We fell asleep with the sound of water flowing, and no human sound to be heard! 

Back to the coast.

29 -30/4/14

Raining still. The onsens we wanted to visit were flooded! This one was on the river bank. It had screens so it was not quite fully exposed to the view of passers-by. The screens were removed as the river came up, for fear of the whole thing washing away. I was quite disappointed -I would have enjoyed that hot tub in the open air next to the river! :(

However the flooding streams made the touring all the more dramatic. 

We have been amazed by the Japanese efforts to tame nature. All of these streams have cement or stone walls, at least on the fast flowing side of the flow. Side streams have weirs. River beds are bulldozed out and remodelled. Mountainsides are covered in cement to hold back the slips. I wonder what happens in the 100 year downpour! 

Some rivers have three bridges all within sight of each other. There is tunnel after tunnel for the roads. The seashores have wave mitigation, and cement walls. Tidal inlets have cement sides, with no mangroves or vegetation at all. I wonder what has happened to the fish nurseries. 

This was taken as we came out of one tunnel, saw a bridge and beyond that another tunnel. Heaven for civil engineers! Japan must have thousands of them.

That is scaffolding so they can build the bridge behind it. 

The tunnel looks very nice in the pictures -a bit misleading...

Soon we were down at the coast again.

We saw some picturesque fishing towns, and dramatic rocky coastlines. 

Fish farms -I understand that they catch a whole school of fish in a huge net, draw it into a circle, and slowly tow the whole thing, fish and all back to a calm water place where they can grow the fish on for market. However they have trouble with parasites because of the large number of fish in close confines, so they need to use antibiotics to control the resultant ulcers...... Factory farming in the sea. In some of the enclosures we could see a circular current caused by the fish swimming endlessly round and round the enclosure. 

We found a great place to stop for the night...

It was very quiet early on, but of course we didn't consider what was going to happen before dawn....fishing boats going out before sunup. There was a whole lot of activity including crews having breakfast right next to us, at an hour when we would normally be fast asleep. Not such a great idea camping near fishing boats! 

But at least we have good weather again. 

1/5/14

Our goal today was the shrine (xxxxxx) near the tallest waterfall in the prefecture. 

The classic photo is of the temple with the waterfall behind it. That photo appears in all of the advertisements. 

But, like everything in Japan, there is a population around the attraction, and it us not so pristine or isolated as might be hoped. 

It is fabulous driving in the mountains right now. The new spring foliage on the trees is various shades of bright green, pink, yellow, against the deep green of the cypruses. And the slopes are almost vertical with wild (tamed actually) rivers at their bases. 

After leaving the waterfall we continued higher into the mountains. The scenery is breathtaking. We glimpsed a strange animal -with a bushy tail, about the size of a fox but much chubbier, ginger brown coloured. It scampered along the road and disappeared into a drain. We have no idea what it was. 

Suddenly we came out of the forest to a clearing with a great view! What a fabulous camping spot! Take a look at this view! 

And the shrine behind us!