First day of my summer holiday

Last week was the beginning of my summer holiday and I took my family to Mt Tateyama in the Japanese Northern Alps (a National Park) for a 2 nights & 3 days trip. It is a very famous place for mountain climbers. There is a motorway from Tokyo to half way there and because the open roads after getting off the motorway are also well-maintained, if not crowded, you can get to the village at the foot of the mountain within 5 hours by car. However, it is a National Park where private access is totally cut off for the protection of the environment. We could get to the entrance of the trail, which was about 5Km after getting to the village, then we had to park the car and to get to the mountain top, it takes almost half a day after changing from the trolley bus to a cable car, then to the ropeway. So, we decided to visit some tourist attractions near the mountain then to get to the hotel at the foot of the mountain.

On the day, we got up at 5 o’clock in the morning. As soon as waking our children, all 4 of us left home in the car. As we expected, at this time of the day even when most people have summer holidays in Japan, the road was not crowded. Not wanting to ruin our holiday by being stuck in a traffic jam, we ate rice balls for breakfast in the car. But I do have to worry about the rising cost of petrol, so I tried “Eco-driving”, not to accelerate all of sudden, keep the speed steady without sudden braking. Although we got stuck in a usual traffic jam on the motorway on the way there, we got through there fine and to the 450 year old ruin of a castle before lunch time.

This is a replica of a small castle built on top of the 900m high hill and has been reconstructed the same as the original mountain castle made in the medieval age of provincial wars. It was used for a location shooting for an NHK(Japan Broadcasting Corporation)’s historical drama series about a year ago. From the top, it has a panoramic view but one side of it is a steep cliff. They cleverly used nature. Thinking that climbing up to the top without carrying anything is hard enough, it must have been incredibly hard for the Samurai warriors in the era to reach to the top wearing heavy armour. I felt lucky we can use the car now. I guess not just the warriors, servants who had to carry water and food must have had hard time. But the River Chikuma flowing lightly next to it looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Then we had lunch at a soba noodle place, popular with the locals; visited an old famous battle field of the medieval era, prayed for our happiness and health at Zenkoji temple, a national treasure which was opened more than 1350 years ago. They were planning to use it as the starting point of the Beijing Olympic torch relay but after China’s suppression of Tibet, the head priest rejected that. The main statue being held up high on a pedestal was a gift from the Korean Peninsula to the then emperor in the year 522 and the oldest Buddhist statues still existing in Japan. Having been moved from place to place by the rulers of the time, it has finally settled in the current place in 1598. It is supposed to be absolutely hidden and even the resident priests are not allowed to see the sacred sculpture. It has been a popular spot for religious people for a long time. We saw some local TV crew filming there. It is also a symbol of the peace Japanese people love.

Leaving Zenkoji, we headed to the hotel we had booked previously. It was 6pm when we got there and we went straight to the Onsen, hot public baths. The water there was clear without smell and we felt totally relaxed in the open-air ones surrounded by the forest. We had local delicacy for dinner which we enjoyed thoroughly; then went to bed fairly early to be ready for the next day.

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