Hiking in the Japan alps

We spent a couple of days in the Japan Alps. We took a train to Matsumoto, continued to Kamikōchi and spent a first night at the entrance of the national park. On the second day the hiking started against an impressive backdrop of steep mountains rising up to 3000 meters. We hiked about 3 hours up along a river to reach our second night Ryokan Tokusawa-en. It was a bit pricy, had limited service and – kind of a big exception in Japan – the owner, we believe, was not overly friendly. On day 2 we hiked towards Karasawa, the starting point of serious alpine tours. For us that was the end as we had low hiking shoes, no ropes, no tent, well, nothing half-way professional looking. The Japanese mountain boys and girls came with incredible gear, the kind of equipment the NASA is using for the expedition to the moon (hmmm… I may just be jealous). It was a very nice hike. Again, the pictures…