Two hours by bus from Takayama is Kamikochi a preserved park land in the Japanese Alps. This is one of the only places I have seen in Japan where you can look into the mountains and not see buildings everywhere. We decided to follow a 6 hour trek to Mt Yakedake
A few minutes into our walk and we came across a group of Japanese Snow Monkeys, a great start to the hike. 2 hours later and we were pretty much back where we started after missing one of the signs for the trail in Japanese, back on the right path we set off again for Mt Yakedake. The initial terrain of boulders and rivers we had to cross was nothing compared to what lay in store. After crossing melting snow we came across a set of ladders, strategically placed throughout the upper part of the mountain, the makeshift bridge was something else but it held out ok.
We didn't make it all the way to the summit due to our earlier detour. Dodging a snake on our way back to the bus we managed to cause quite a sir by delaying the 3:00 bus departure, got on the bus without any change had to run off and go to the ticket office, at 3:01 what I believe to be the station manager came running out to see why the bus hadn't left yet, oops.
Highlights: Fantastic trekking in the Japanese Alps
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