Japan north Alps hiking trip: days 0 & 1

July 16 - Bullet train to Nagoya, local express train to Takayama (高山), where Wakana picked us (Melissa &  Sara) up and we drove to meet Masashi and his wife Mutsumi. Stayed at a cabin near the trailhead, ate the local famous Hida beef for dinner and soaked in a hot spring. We sorted our gear for the 4-day hike ahead of us and distributed some shared food items.

July 17 - 4am wake up and in the cars at 5:30 to drive to the trailhead. Bonus 1.5km hike from the parking lot to the trailhead 😂! Started hiking around 6:45am.

Starting pack weight: 13.6 kg

We hiked from Shin Hodaka Onsen (新穂高温泉登山口) to Sugoroku Hut (双六小屋) and camped there.

The first day was almost all up, the trail started as an old logging road and quickly turned into what we would be walking on for 98% of the hike, rocks. Small pebbles, big boulders, step like rocks, loose rocks, flat rocks, steeply angled rocks, there was hardly a patch of flat earth on the whole hike. Just a few sections were dirt trails, but this route is super popular and well-marked the whole way with signposts and circles spray painted on the rocks.

13.2 km in 8h40m with 1707 meters of elevation gain.

Highlights from day 1:

- stopping at a mountain stream and dipping my hands into ice cold snow runoff water, so refreshing

- getting shaved ice (strawberry flavor) at the first manned hut that we passed, it really hit the spot

- being surprised that there was so much snow left on the mountains. Before my hike somebody asked me if there would be snow and I confidently replied that there wouldn’t be, oops…

- seeing our destination from a distance, a hundred colorful tents dotting a valley hillside

- Masashi’s chili con carne for dinner

- a little after 6pm we felt an earthquake, I heard a rumble that was similar to distant thunder and then a hard jolt from below. Then so many heads popped out of tents to figure out what had happened.

- While watching the sunset, we spotted the next manned hut that we would pass on day 2, it looked so far away in the evening light (actually, it was pretty far away, lol)

Dave-sensei was on "Let's Enjoy English!" on Radio MOMO (79.0 FM) . Dave and D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu talk in English and Japanese about hiking in the Japan Alps and the Olympics. Click the button below to listen.

Dave-sensei will be on Radio MOMO (79.0FM) with D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu on Thursday, July 29th (today!), at about 5:40 pm. They will talk in English and Japanese about hiking in the Japan Alps and the Tokyo Olympics.

7月29日（木）5時40分ごろにDave先生がRadio MOMO (79.0FM) に出演します（DJは上別府千晶さん）。英語と日本語の両方で日本アルプスのハイクとオリンピックについて話します。

• http://www.fm790.co.jp/

遂に東京オリンピックが開催されました。見るつもりではなくとも見始めたらやめられなくなる。

成果のバロメーターとしてメダルを取ることが一番分かり易いですが、まずはメディアに出られる段階でどの選手も並みの人ではないでしょう。

運動選手は結果・実績だけでなく、その人の品格も出やすいもの。

体操の内村航平選手は今回オリンピック代表選手に選ばれたものの、本選前の予選で敗退し、相当な驚きとして報道されました。

選手ご本人が一番辛いだろうに、自分が代表入りしたがために代表入りできなかった他の選手に申し訳ない、といった苦しい気持ちを正直にメディアに言うこの勇気に感服です。

運動・スポーツ観戦にはあまり興味のない私ですが、それでもこのオリンピックのような機会は普段自分が触れ合うことのない次元の人たちを知り、感化されるきっかけです。その意味の於いてはコロナ禍の開催とはいえ、やはりスポーツの存在は大きいと言わざるを得ないです。

と、エラそうなことを書いていますが、そのオリンピックを、冷房の効いた部屋でソファーにドデンとcouch potatoのごとく座って観戦する我が姿はアスリートの足元にも及びそうにありません。

ちなみに、体操の競技を英語表記すると日本語とちょっと異なります。

parallel barsとhorizontal bar。さてさて、どちらがどれ？

A few weeks ago I went to Okutsu in Northern Okayama for a night to enjoy the hot springs. Even though I have lived in Okayama for seven years I have not spent much time up in the northern part of the prefecture. But it was beautiful, quiet, peaceful and a nice change of pace.

It was my first time to Okutsu, but we had no car, so we had to go by public transportation. We first had to take a train to Tsuyama which took about an hour, but from there we had to catch two different buses to get to the hotel which took about another hour and a half. The buses were empty, so we were the only ones on them.

After about two and a half hours of travelling we finally made it to Okutsu. Even though it was cloudy, it luckily was not rainy. We immediately went to our hotel “Okutsu-so” and checked out the facilities. There were four different baths at the hotel, two of them were private. But we soon discovered there were only three other guests at the hotel. We were able to relax and enjoy many different baths and a lot of delicious traditional food. We ordered the meat course for dinner, and it certainly lived up to its name. Breakfast ended up having too much food for us to eat, but none the less it was good.

If you are interested in hot springs, I recommend you check out Okutsu. It is a nice getaway from the city life.