nagano and gifu prefectures
november 2023
Nagano and Gifu Prefectures, November 2023
I’ll be honest with you – Japanese names just don’t stick! Whenever you are doing your planning and get down to detail at a local level, almost as soon as you turn the page you have forgotten the name of a small town or misremembered it by getting the syllables the wrong way round. I don’t know why this is, it could be age, but I suspect it is rooted in the lack of geographical familiarity with places beyond the big cities. Compound names are a particular challenge, for example, I lived in Kemigawahama but it was interchangeable as Kemihamagawa in my head for absolutely ages, despite it being my home address.
So, putting together an itinerary including stops for bus and train changes, has to be repeatedly read and reread and even then, it is quickly forgotten. Leave it for a month and it is a question of starting all over again. This trip included scouring public transport timetables for the likes of Nagiso, Nakatsugawa, Shinshimashima, Ainokura and so on. Get there at 09.17, wait for the next bus at 09.46 – miss that and you’ve got an hour wait for the next one. Having said all that, these previously unknown locations do add to the sense of almost intrepid adventure.
Once you are in the field, as it were, standing at a bus-stop or on a rail platform with your folded A4 planning to hand, the fretting kind of evaporates, because the bus-train turns up, exactly as it said it would, and you are free to stare out of the window continuing your journey without a care. This generally holds true apart from when you miss a connection and are standing in a bus shelter in the middle of nowhere, with the sky darkening. The fact that there is nobody else there casts a doubt-shaped shadow over your whole A4 enterprise. Could this be one of those rural places where the last bus is at 4pm? It does happen – sometimes!
Gifu and Nagano Prefectures in November – what could go wrong in your pursuit of autumn colours? The main thing to watch out for really is elevation, because it will impact on the likelihood of you getting the peak. If you are a week or two early or late, or something in between, everything will have either not turned yet or else you will be walking through a russet (and rustling) carpet. And that is exactly how it went on this trip. Nagano, Gifu and the Japanese Alps know all about elevation.
The Nakasendo Trail was more green than golden, but sometimes when you have a backdrop that mixes foliage of greens, yellows and reds, it is equally as invigorating. Just being out there on the trail should be enough in itself, and it was. At times things that you anticipate as being a bit underwhelming, just aren’t, they’re the opposite. In bright sunshine and a perfect temperature this one was everything you could have hoped for and more, turning into a ‘glad to be alive’ morning. I did see a vlog on YouTube before the trip where somebody was walking the trail in steady and occasionally heavy rain – their patter to camera was cheery enough, but similar weather to that would have made it a totally different experience for us. Totally different!
The base chosen for the trip to the trail was Matsumoto, an unassuming town two hours up the line, with a very photogenic castle. This location also made it easy to get to Kamikochi, ‘Gateway to the Alps’ – easy in the sense of a straightforward train and bus combination because private cars are not allowed in the valley. Walking up there did in fact give the impression that you were treading on pristine trails in untouched countryside (despite knots of folks all over), but the paths are well-walked, by a constant stream of visitors in key seasons. This is quite common in Japan whereby a favoured location becomes inundated, especially at weekends or during holidays. What to do about it? Just apply Japanese efficiency and organization, I guess. Buses and trains just about cope with the crowds and marshals busy themselves managing the queues. Everyone goes home contented, having ticked off another much-vaunted spot. Is Kamikochi worth the effort? Yes, it is. But you are not exactly out in the wilds – a manicured mini-adventure would be the best way to describe it. Another way of looking at it is that it is part of a very well-run (as you’d expect) Japanese national park.
When it comes to Gassho-Zukuri villages you have got some choices. These are ‘praying hands’ houses in village-type clusters, their shape being triangular with a steep, pointy roof. This traditional build evolved in response to expected annual heavy snowfall. Standing at the station in Takayama, the queue at the bus-stop for Shirakawa-go (you might just get on the next bus, standing room only) confirms that you’d be better off selecting one of the other notable sights. So, a train and bus ride, setting out from Kanazawa to the north instead, will get you to Gokayama rather than Shirakawa-go. It is a smaller settlement, but one with a great aerial view from up a nearby trail. The village only has twenty houses but what must it be like to live in a human zoo as bus loads of tourists turn up every day to gawk?
These hamlets (less than villages) are in remote locations and this one in particular featured the rather bleak and lonely bus shelter a kilometre down the road referred to above. And it’s not as if you can ask someone whether you are standing in the right place (nobody walked by in 40 minutes) so it is a case of hoping for the best in the gloom. ‘Is that our bus rounding the bend in the valley down there?’ ‘No, it’s a school bus.’ Rinse and repeat.
Takayama really is in the heart of alpine territory and has a tourist-town mantel, admittedly worn very well. Apparently, Takayama is a common town name in Japan so this one identifies as Hida Takayama to remove any doubt about where one might be referring to. There are mountains nearby but the trip out to the Shinhotaka Ropeway was off due to annual maintenance of the system. Sheet of A4 in the bin! But the heritage Sanmachi-Suji District of Edo age was welcoming in its immaculate way. (When working in Japan I noted that if anyone saw a piece of paper fluttering by or lodged in a hedge outside work, someone would immediately rush out to grab it and put it in the bin – even the Director). And so, you could eat your dinner off these streets; no need, as it happens, with a succession of restaurants and sake houses in Sanmachi’s thoroughfares to entice you in.
Hida Takayama also boasts the Miyagawa morning market alongside the river and the Hido No Sato Open Air Museum. Both of these are worth catching up with, the latter being comprised of re-built (original) traditional houses, including gassho zukuri houses, all set amongst well-tended rice paddies and wooded landscapes. Wandering around Takayama you are able to take in all that you were probably looking for in Japan. Apart from possible crowds in some seasons, I’d recommend it for your Japan top-up.
Kanazawa, further north on the coast in Ishikawa Prefecture, is a sizeable city worth a visit. When towns reach certain size, they seem to offer those circular bus routes where you can buy a day-ticket and hop on and off wherever you like. The circles go both ways too (green bus clockwise, red bus anti-clockwise), thus begins the fun, mapping out your visits before the ticket deadline. The former (restored) Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen Gardens offer serene settings for folks to lol about and have a do-nothing-in-particular day. There is also the older preserved district of Higashi-Chaya which was a fashionable Geisha area in its day for those who could afford the services. It is also fashionable again, lined with shops selling high-end crafts and lifestyle stuff, along with knick-knacks and gewgaws to catch the eye. There’s something quite stylish about Kanazawa, a big-ish place in top condition that is clearly very well managed by the authorities.
All in all, this trip easily fell into the contenders for ‘best ever’ category. To what extent it was due to the perfect weather, both the ambient temperature and the sunshine, is difficult to determine. Certainly, all the places visited were worthy destinations in their own right, but you only have to look at photos of previous trips with a blue sky compared to ones where it was overcast and the light was flat, to see what a difference the weather makes. I do log temperatures and number of days’ rain in trip planning, but to be honest, many places experience rain in every month of the year, so you still need a bit of luck. The raincoats were packed but unused on this occasion which is exactly how you want it to be. And anyway, you can get one of those see-through umbrellas at any konbini and not lose any sleep over mislaying it the very next day.
Nagano and Gifu in one word then - wonderful!
NAKASENDO TRAIL
https://www.photoriente.com/nakasendo-trail-443790.html
MATSUMOTO
https://www.photoriente.com/matsumoto-443790-757247-874594.html
KAMIKOCHI
https://www.photoriente.com/kamikochi-autumn-leaves-823507.html
GOKAYAMA
https://www.photoriente.com/gokayama-443790-757247.html
TAKAYAMA
https://www.photoriente.com/takayama-443790-806568.html
KANAZAWA
https://www.photoriente.com/kanazawa-443790-757247-817547.html
I’ll be honest with you – Japanese names just don’t stick! Whenever you are doing your planning and get down to detail at a local level, almost as soon as you turn the page you have forgotten the name of a small town or misremembered it by getting the syllables the wrong way round. I don’t know why this is, it could be age, but I suspect it is rooted in the lack of geographical familiarity with places beyond the big cities. Compound names are a particular challenge, for example, I lived in Kemigawahama but it was interchangeable as Kemihamagawa in my head for absolutely ages, despite it being my home address.
So, putting together an itinerary including stops for bus and train changes, has to be repeatedly read and reread and even then, it is quickly forgotten. Leave it for a month and it is a question of starting all over again. This trip included scouring public transport timetables for the likes of Nagiso, Nakatsugawa, Shinshimashima, Ainokura and so on. Get there at 09.17, wait for the next bus at 09.46 – miss that and you’ve got an hour wait for the next one. Having said all that, these previously unknown locations do add to the sense of almost intrepid adventure.
Once you are in the field, as it were, standing at a bus-stop or on a rail platform with your folded A4 planning to hand, the fretting kind of evaporates, because the bus-train turns up, exactly as it said it would, and you are free to stare out of the window continuing your journey without a care. This generally holds true apart from when you miss a connection and are standing in a bus shelter in the middle of nowhere, with the sky darkening. The fact that there is nobody else there casts a doubt-shaped shadow over your whole A4 enterprise. Could this be one of those rural places where the last bus is at 4pm? It does happen – sometimes!
Gifu and Nagano Prefectures in November – what could go wrong in your pursuit of autumn colours? The main thing to watch out for really is elevation, because it will impact on the likelihood of you getting the peak. If you are a week or two early or late, or something in between, everything will have either not turned yet or else you will be walking through a russet (and rustling) carpet. And that is exactly how it went on this trip. Nagano, Gifu and the Japanese Alps know all about elevation.
The Nakasendo Trail was more green than golden, but sometimes when you have a backdrop that mixes foliage of greens, yellows and reds, it is equally as invigorating. Just being out there on the trail should be enough in itself, and it was. At times things that you anticipate as being a bit underwhelming, just aren’t, they’re the opposite. In bright sunshine and a perfect temperature this one was everything you could have hoped for and more, turning into a ‘glad to be alive’ morning. I did see a vlog on YouTube before the trip where somebody was walking the trail in steady and occasionally heavy rain – their patter to camera was cheery enough, but similar weather to that would have made it a totally different experience for us. Totally different!
The base chosen for the trip to the trail was Matsumoto, an unassuming town two hours up the line, with a very photogenic castle. This location also made it easy to get to Kamikochi, ‘Gateway to the Alps’ – easy in the sense of a straightforward train and bus combination because private cars are not allowed in the valley. Walking up there did in fact give the impression that you were treading on pristine trails in untouched countryside (despite knots of folks all over), but the paths are well-walked, by a constant stream of visitors in key seasons. This is quite common in Japan whereby a favoured location becomes inundated, especially at weekends or during holidays. What to do about it? Just apply Japanese efficiency and organization, I guess. Buses and trains just about cope with the crowds and marshals busy themselves managing the queues. Everyone goes home contented, having ticked off another much-vaunted spot. Is Kamikochi worth the effort? Yes, it is. But you are not exactly out in the wilds – a manicured mini-adventure would be the best way to describe it. Another way of looking at it is that it is part of a very well-run (as you’d expect) Japanese national park.
When it comes to Gassho-Zukuri villages you have got some choices. These are ‘praying hands’ houses in village-type clusters, their shape being triangular with a steep, pointy roof. This traditional build evolved in response to expected annual heavy snowfall. Standing at the station in Takayama, the queue at the bus-stop for Shirakawa-go (you might just get on the next bus, standing room only) confirms that you’d be better off selecting one of the other notable sights. So, a train and bus ride, setting out from Kanazawa to the north instead, will get you to Gokayama rather than Shirakawa-go. It is a smaller settlement, but one with a great aerial view from up a nearby trail. The village only has twenty houses but what must it be like to live in a human zoo as bus loads of tourists turn up every day to gawk?
These hamlets (less than villages) are in remote locations and this one in particular featured the rather bleak and lonely bus shelter a kilometre down the road referred to above. And it’s not as if you can ask someone whether you are standing in the right place (nobody walked by in 40 minutes) so it is a case of hoping for the best in the gloom. ‘Is that our bus rounding the bend in the valley down there?’ ‘No, it’s a school bus.’ Rinse and repeat.
Takayama really is in the heart of alpine territory and has a tourist-town mantel, admittedly worn very well. Apparently, Takayama is a common town name in Japan so this one identifies as Hida Takayama to remove any doubt about where one might be referring to. There are mountains nearby but the trip out to the Shinhotaka Ropeway was off due to annual maintenance of the system. Sheet of A4 in the bin! But the heritage Sanmachi-Suji District of Edo age was welcoming in its immaculate way. (When working in Japan I noted that if anyone saw a piece of paper fluttering by or lodged in a hedge outside work, someone would immediately rush out to grab it and put it in the bin – even the Director). And so, you could eat your dinner off these streets; no need, as it happens, with a succession of restaurants and sake houses in Sanmachi’s thoroughfares to entice you in.
Hida Takayama also boasts the Miyagawa morning market alongside the river and the Hido No Sato Open Air Museum. Both of these are worth catching up with, the latter being comprised of re-built (original) traditional houses, including gassho zukuri houses, all set amongst well-tended rice paddies and wooded landscapes. Wandering around Takayama you are able to take in all that you were probably looking for in Japan. Apart from possible crowds in some seasons, I’d recommend it for your Japan top-up.
Kanazawa, further north on the coast in Ishikawa Prefecture, is a sizeable city worth a visit. When towns reach certain size, they seem to offer those circular bus routes where you can buy a day-ticket and hop on and off wherever you like. The circles go both ways too (green bus clockwise, red bus anti-clockwise), thus begins the fun, mapping out your visits before the ticket deadline. The former (restored) Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen Gardens offer serene settings for folks to lol about and have a do-nothing-in-particular day. There is also the older preserved district of Higashi-Chaya which was a fashionable Geisha area in its day for those who could afford the services. It is also fashionable again, lined with shops selling high-end crafts and lifestyle stuff, along with knick-knacks and gewgaws to catch the eye. There’s something quite stylish about Kanazawa, a big-ish place in top condition that is clearly very well managed by the authorities.
All in all, this trip easily fell into the contenders for ‘best ever’ category. To what extent it was due to the perfect weather, both the ambient temperature and the sunshine, is difficult to determine. Certainly, all the places visited were worthy destinations in their own right, but you only have to look at photos of previous trips with a blue sky compared to ones where it was overcast and the light was flat, to see what a difference the weather makes. I do log temperatures and number of days’ rain in trip planning, but to be honest, many places experience rain in every month of the year, so you still need a bit of luck. The raincoats were packed but unused on this occasion which is exactly how you want it to be. And anyway, you can get one of those see-through umbrellas at any konbini and not lose any sleep over mislaying it the very next day.
Nagano and Gifu in one word then - wonderful!
NAKASENDO TRAIL
https://www.photoriente.com/nakasendo-trail-443790.html
MATSUMOTO
https://www.photoriente.com/matsumoto-443790-757247-874594.html
KAMIKOCHI
https://www.photoriente.com/kamikochi-autumn-leaves-823507.html
GOKAYAMA
https://www.photoriente.com/gokayama-443790-757247.html
TAKAYAMA
https://www.photoriente.com/takayama-443790-806568.html
KANAZAWA
https://www.photoriente.com/kanazawa-443790-757247-817547.html
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