Third Day of my Summer Holiday

On the third day, we started the day hiking around “Midagahara” near the lodge we stayed. It is famous for its alpine flora. At a height of 2000m above sea level, it is a large swamp area with rare alpine plants. Unfortunately, with the clouds lower than usual, we could not see the far away mountains which we could have been enjoying if the weather conditions were better.

So we just wandered around there, then went back to the Murodo to try mountain climbing again. The higher we went by bus, the denser the mist got and it started raining. When we got there, the visibility was almost Zero with thick fog. On the notice board nearby, it said the temperature was 10 degrees Celsius, rain and visibility 20m. Nothing was really promising. As a note of caution, there were some copies of newspaper articles of slipping accidents and deaths on the mountains to call people’s attention to safety. Getting there easily by various transports, we tend to consider mountain climbing just as easy; but all there was were mountains of 3000m in altitude. We realized that we should consider it as a quite tough and dangerous sport. Looking around, most people there were dressing properly with waterproof jackets and pants, special shoes for trekking, gloves on their hands and holding sticks. They looked like they were going to climb the mountain. Compared to them, we looked silly without any proper gear. It was a tough decision to go down without getting to the top but we realized it is not something that amateurs like ourselves should do, so after a brief discussion, we chose our safety and started thinking about going back.

To go back, we simply reversed what we had done to go up there. When we got back to Kurobe Dam, because it was lower at 1500m above sea level, it was as harsh as the mountain weather. We saw some traces of the sun through obviously lighter looking clouds. So we quickly changed our plan and enjoyed an excursion on a boat on the dam. It was a 30 minutes ride introducing us to nature around the dam but after enjoying the scenery of 3000m high mountains, we felt a bit short of excitement. Although we had a plan of going down to the bottom and visiting more tourist attractions in the Shinshu area on the way home, we got stuck in a heavy traffic jam and it took twice as long to come back home than getting there.

It was a small 2 night 3 day family get-away but the weather was ok and we had reasonably successful days. 3 days after we got back, we heard on TV that there was a huge rock slide from the place near where we had visited and some mountain-climbers were killed by the impact. We usually think it is safer to climb mountains in summer but no, we should not take nature too lightly.

Now, I have good news. The mountain we visited is called Tateyama and is in Toyama Prefecture. They have a dance called “Owara Odori” which started about 300 years ago in the area. I have “Mimikaki” (ear pickers) especially designed for the dance. If you are subscribers of the newsletters or visitors of my blog page and purchase a car from us after 1 September, we will give you one! We have 10 to giveaway. First in first served. Please do not forget to tell our staff that you saw the newsletter/blog page. Limit to 1 per customer. We will send it to you with the documentation. Don’t miss the chance!

＊Mimikaki: We use them often in Japan to clean our ears. To use, gently put it in an ear hole, scratch the side of it using the small spatula part to scoop wax out. Be careful not to overdo it because it might lead to some infection.


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