Kamikōchi

Extra seating down the aisle of the bus

While in Takayama, we went for a day trip to Kamikōchi, a National Park in the Japanese Alps. The trip started with a rude shock, we went to buy bus tickets, and discovered that return tickets were $50 each. Ouch! Hunter and I looked at each other, and decided that we might as well pay up. The bus trip was nearly two hours, but for most of the way, the scenery was spectacular, and we had books with us for when the bus was going through tunnels or other not so exciting regions.

Getting off the bus, it seemed like the place was completely overcrowded. It is, apparently, one of Japan's most popular National Parks. However, once we got a little way onto the trails, the people thinned out significantly. There were still more people than you'd see at a park in Aus, but we were able to enjoy the scenery largely in peace.

I won't talk too much about the scenery, I'd rather let the photos speak for themselves, except to point out that the photos really don't do the place justice. Kamikōchi really would be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, Hunter said the most beautiful. Also, I've never seen so much spectacular scenery with so little exertion. I think we ambled along for about 4 hours, but it was pretty much all level ground, walking around the rim of a (very high up) river valley between the surrounding mountains.

There are a lot of photos below, but I had a lot of difficulty narrowing it down even to these, because it was just so beautiful, so I hope you'll forgive me.

More monkeys!