We did our first, overnight excursion in Japan as a family last week. We took an 8 a.m. bus from Shinjuku to Hakuba in Nagano Ken. The difference four and a half hours on a bus can make in your environment is incredible. Hakuba is absolutely deserted this time of year.

The above photo is of the Hakuba Ski Jump which was built for the winter Olympics held in Nagano in 1998. We had a great view of the jump site (and the Japanese Alps) from our hotel. The plants getting in the way are called susuki (薄 or 芒 or Japanese Pampas Grass). We were supposed to walk through a field of susuki in Hakone but ran out of time and had to just see it from the bus. We got to walk through lots of susuki in Hakuba, though, so missing out on the experience in Hakone doesn’t feel so bad anymore.

On our first full day in Hakuba we did a tour which included canoeing on Lake Aoki (Aokiko or 青木湖) and mountain biking. Our guide, who has been canoeing and kayaking on this lake for years, said he had never seen the water so calm. There was no breeze, the sky was mostly blue, the temperature was a pleasant sixty something degrees Fahrenheit (about 18 degrees Celsius), and the leaves were turning colors on the trees (紅葉). We were the only people on the lake. Needless to say, you will be seeing more pictures of this incredible lake in future entries.

Related posts:

1. Hakuba – Part 2 I can’t imagine Lake Aoki (青木湖) being any more beautiful than it is in October. That said, October is when the fewest people are there. The lake was empty...
2. Hakuba – Part 4 Another photo that came out rather well from our canoeing tour on Lake Aoki… While on the mountain biking portion of the tour, we took a brief rest at...
3. Hakuba – Part 3 The view from Matsukawa Bridge (松川橋) of the Japanese Northern Alps (白馬三山) and the Matsu River Another shot from Lake Aoki (aokiko or 青木湖) Note that if you have...
4. Kurashita No Yu (onsen in Hakuba) Yesterday’s post, or at least the part about making friends in an onsen, reminded me of an experience we had in Hakuba back in October. We went to a...
5. Hakuba – Part 5 In looking through my Hakuba pictures just now, for the first time in a few weeks, I realized that this is going to be about a 20- or 30-part...

Posted on October 27th, 2009 under Japan • Tags: hakuba, Nagano, nature, susuki, 紅葉. • RSS 2.0 feed • You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed