Kami-Kouchi
Located at southern end of Japan's north Alps mountains, Kami-Kouchi is the most famous and visited place for its beauty. On October 14, 2001, I was on the way to Kami-Kouchi.

This is a simple trip report, mostly showing photos.

This angle maybe the most popoular photo shot of Kami-Kouchi. Lookin up Kara-Sawa from Kappa-Bashi.

I hopped onto an express train, Azusa, departing Shinjuku at 11:30. Then, I was on a bus climbing up an incredibly narrow and steep canyons. This really reminded me that Japan is a country of mountains. I was finally at Kami-Kouchi at around 5 o'clock. And my first sight was the loooong line of tourist to get onto a bus. Say, it was about 100m of lines. Avoid weekends. Passing through those miserable people, it was another 10 minutes of walk to a hotel, Kami-Kouchi Nishi-Itoya-Yama-Lodge.

Eraly Morning at Taisho-Pond
To see sunrise at Taisho-Ike, I woke up before dawn. It takes about an hours of walking, The sky was dark when I left the lodge, but the sun started to lighten up the top of the mountains when I got to Taisho-Ike.

After having a breakfast-bentoh at Taisho-Ike,, I headed to Yake-Dake. It was the only active volcano in Northern Japan Alps, and this volcano created the Kami-Kouchi after an erruption.

There were a lot of photographers. Well, I can say, I've never seen this many photographers at one place. Everyone had a big tripod and huge lenses, and shooting the Taisho-Pond like a competition. The mountain behind these cameramen is Yake-Dake, my next destination

On the way up Yake-Dake. I could see vivid reds and yellow colors all over the slopes. The sky was deep blue. The PL filter worked way too much.

Myoujin-Pond
It was still 12 o'clock when I got back to the lodge from Yake-Dake. So, I had my lunch-bentoh quickly, and headed to Myoujin-Pond. This is a popular trail walking along the Kami-Kouchi valley.

(Left) A lot of small rock islands were in the Myoujin-Pond. Together with Myoujin-Mountain behind the pond, it was just like a Japanese Tea Garden. (above) Myoujin-Mountain reflected on the Myoujin-Pond surface.