This was is, my last week living in Japan. At least for now. I bought souvenirs and other stuff I want to take home from Japan, finished all bureaucracy concerning me moving out of Japan and canceled my data plan and my bank account. I also met with some friends here for the, at least in the near future, last time and said my goodbyes to all the friends I made here. I also did a spontaneous trip to Nagano prefecture with some dorm mates over the weekend, which will be the main talking point of this weeks blog post. Here we go…
長野 - Nagano
The weekend trip to Nagano prefecture started Friday night with a night bus bound towards the city of Nagano. The seats in the bus were surprisingly spacious and so the ride was pretty comfortable. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep until about 2:30 am. I had a lot of things on my mind and so I couldn’t really sleep. Just kidding, I drank so much coffee over the day that I could hear the caffeine whisper ‘Ain’t gonna happen bro’ into my ear, when I tried to sleep.
Anyway, with 3 hours of sleep I arrived in Nagano around 6 am. I was super tired, but the freezing cold temperature outside kind of woke me up. It was something like 2°C outside, but it felt way colder. After putting on some more layers of clothing, I searched for a nearby park to eat my breakfast at. I found a big park near the river and started walking there. On the way there I grabbed onigiris, chocolate breadsticks and a coffee from the convenience store to eat at the park. Upon arriving there, I was slightly confused. I imagined a neat little park with trees, benches and a big open grass field, where you could picnic. Instead, there were baseball grounds, small fields with vegetables growing on them and, most surprisingly, a cricket field. There were even some old people there playing. It was 7 in the morning and they were already here and happily playing cricket. I gotta say that just threw me off a little. Anyway, I sat down on a bench next to one of the baseball fields and started to eat my breakfast. The view of sun rising from behind the mountain was incredible. The mountain was also surrounded by morning mist and some clouds, which made the whole scenery a little more mysterious.
Afterwards I walked along the river and the park to see if there is anything else there to see. There were more little vegetable fields and even an angler trying to get some fish. Another thing I noticed here in the park was the fact that the entire city of Nagano is surrounded by mountains. In every direction there were gigantic mountains in the not so far distance, which looked incredible. This prefecture must be the wet dream of any mountain climber. Later, when I actually informed myself about Nagano prefecture, I learned that like 85% of the area of Nagano is considered to be mountain area and all the bigger cities are build in the same valley going from north to south.
At the end of the park I turned around and walked back to Nagano station. From there I made my way towards Zenkoji, a very famous and old temple in the center of Nagano. The temple dates back to the 7th and the Buddha statue inside is only shown to the public every six years. The next time it will be shown is going to be in 2021. Someone with more interest in temples might now go into detail how wonderful this temple is and what makes it very unique. Unfortunately, I’m not one of these temple enthusiasts. After six months in Japan and seeing dozens of temples everywhere, I feel kinda burned out by them and am not nearly as impressed seeing new temples, as I was in the beginning. Nonetheless, this temple still looked pretty dope.
After eating lunch, I went back to the station and took the train to my next destination for this weekend trip: Matsumoto.
松本市 - Matsumoto
After arriving in Matsumoto, I first went to my hotel to check in. Afterwards I went to the hillside of Matsumoto, where there are a lot of hot springs, also called onsen. I never used a public bathhouse or hot spring before, so it was a little weird for me with all the other naked man around there washing themselves. But I got past the initial awkwardness and then could enjoy my Japanese public bathhouse experience. After showering I went into the hot spring. They are definitely not kidding when they say ‘hot’ spring. It felt like the water was boiling and it was initially even a little painful. But after a few seconds my body just accepted its fate and let itself be boiled. It felt really relaxing in there. The onsen also had an outdoor hot springs. I personally liked that one more than the indoor one, mainly because the cool air outside made it way easier to breath. The hot spring was great and I definitely missed something during my entire stay here in Japan. What a shame that I only found out how nice onsens are at the end of my stay here. Well, next time I’m definitely going to visit hot springs more often.
The next day I visited Matsumoto castle. It is one of just a few original castles in Japan. Most other castles often burnt down and were rebuilt, Matsumoto castle on the other hand is mostly still the original castle that was built 500 years ago. The castle looks incredible from outside and the view from inside the castle is phenomenal too. From the highest floor you have a good view in every direction with all the surrounding mountains visible. At least when the weather is somewhat decent.
From the castle I then went back to the station and took the next train to Kofu, a rather big town near Mt. Fuji.
甲府市 - Kofu
The first place I visited in Kofu was the Takeda shrine. The shrine is at the very north of the city right before the start of the mountain. The shrine is named after Takeda Shingen, a daimyo and warlord during the Sengoku period in Japan. Kofu was the administrative capital of his clan and he is considered a hero and was also enshrined here.
My next destination was an observation deck at the hillside of Kofu. If you’re lucky and the weather is somewhat decent, you will have a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji from here. Of course I’m shit out of luck here and it was raining and the weather was absolute dog shit. Nevertheless, I walked up the hill and made it to the observation deck. The view was okayish I guess, but I still enjoyed the little hike up to the deck.
Leaving Japan
This was it, my last trip for this stay in Japan. My last week here is now over and I will leave Japan after six months of living here. Damn… To be honest, I don’t really feel sad about it. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my stay here and my semester abroad and traveling through Japan was a much needed break for me in my life, but now I feel like the break was enough and I want to continue with my life.
My semester abroad here in Japan was a great experience for me. I learned a lot about a totally different culture, but also a lot about myself. I made a ton of new friends from all around the world and I hope I will see them again sometime.
I will move out next week Monday from my dorm, sleep in a hostel and then fly back home on Tuesday. I already made a lot of plans with friends to meet them and do some stuff together an catch up in person. I am also going to do a little get together at the end of the week with all of my friends. And there is also going to be one last Japan blog post next week Sunday. There I will talk a little more in-depth about my experience in Japan, the trips and places I liked most and the things I’m going to miss and the things I’m glad about leaving behind in Japan.
Thank you for reading and see you next week :)
Ash