"Golden Week" is a group of near-consecutive holidays when everyone in Japan goes on holiday together. We went up into the mountains around Kinpu-san in the Okuchichibu area on a 3 day trip to sleep shoulder-to-shoulder with 150 others in a small hut that would have comfortably held...oh, about 50 or so :-) I'm not exaggerating when I say that there was literally insufficient floor space for me to lie on my back on the first night. It's about the 4th time we've been walking in this area, but we've never hit peak season before.
This is Kobushigoya where we spent a rather sleepless night:
This is Kobushigoya where we spent a rather sleepless night:
At this time of year there is still plenty of snow around above 2000m or so (at least, under the trees - open rocky areas were clearer), but we were lucky and had bright sunny weather for 3 solid days. And by staying in a more remote hut on the 2nd night, we even had room to lie down and sleep. Here is one of the views along the way:
And here is Jules enjoying a packed lunch of rice and a whole dried fish on the summit of Kinpu-san.
1 comment:
Don't know why he is being so negative. Is it because I make him carry all the luggage?!? :-o I thought we had a fabulous sunny snowy funtime. Down in Tokyo it was something like 28C and at the bottom of the mountain it is very hard to believe you will need your winter gear, but it was down to -10C or something in the huts at night. They provide extremely thick warm duvets!
It was very hard work trekking through the snow and trying to avoid the ice. We only went at "maptime" - the times indicated on the map, whereas usually we are much faster.
This morning, back at work, and I've already had some compliments on my bruises! ..from falling down on the ice :-)
jules
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