Japanese Alps

I woke up this morning and headed to the nearest konbini to pick up my new go-to breakfast combo: an onigiri, a banana, and a latte – all for about £4.

I was aiming for the Tamura limestone caves in Fukushima Prefecture – not to visit today, but in the hope of finding a decent spot nearby to camp for the night. The drive took me through the stunning Japanese Alps, and I can really see how they got the name – the first part of the morning felt very similar to driving towards the Alps from Milan in Italy. A huge open expanse of farmland eventually gave way to winding mountain roads that led through ski resorts and up to high-altitude lakes.

About two hours into the drive, I’d climbed high enough to see snow still on the ground. I hadn’t showered that morning, so I pulled over to try and find a good mountain onsen where I could freshen up and hopefully grab some lunch. I spotted a nice-looking hotel overlooking Lake Hibara, which was only about an hour further up the road from where I was. After parking up, I went for a walk around the lake – being careful not to get too close to the edge, as it was still frozen in places, making it tricky to tell where solid ground ended and thin ice began.

Back at the hotel, I actually managed to sneak past reception and into the onsen without paying – very un-Japanese of me, I know, but it was a bit of a rip-off.

Feeling refreshed, I hit the road again and made it to the limestone caves before dark, which gave me a bit of time to sit out in my camp chair before boiling some water and having instant ramen for dinner – what a treat. I called a friend before settling in to edit the video you might’ve seen from my trip up Yoshinoyama earlier this month. It took a full laptop battery and probably a couple of hours to finish.

I think I’m going to start spending a bit more time on videos and maybe a little less time on this blog. We’ll see how it goes – I’ve got plenty of time, but I don’t want either to start feeling like a chore.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to the coast and visiting the newly built museum there. There’s still an exclusion zone from the nuclear accident caused by the tsunami, but I’ll see how close I can get – should be interesting…