On every trip to Japan, I’ve always hoped to see Mt Fujij for longer than a few seconds on a train.  The best view I’ve had was when we flew from China to Japan out an airplane window ,but alas I had no camera near me at the time, you are going to have to take my word – it is much better from above! While I knew we were not staying somewhere near the mountain with a good view this time around , my only expectation was a fleeting glance on the train.  Kym requested a seat on Mt Fuji side of the train from Kyoto to Tokyo and while it was hot and blue skies in Kyoto, I was aware the weather was changing.  Here is the view we had from the train:

Here’s hoping the view on the next trip will be better….

We are approaching the end of our holiday, and we’re feeling a little bit tired.  The weather is still hot, and we are avoiding looking at the forecasts, given our desire to ride everywhere we go.  Yesterday was suppose to rain all day – but thankfully it only seemed to rain while we were eating breakfast.  Demonstrates forecasts are just that! But I will acknowledge the humidity is wearing us down and when it’s overcast it’s a lot easier to cope with.

Today it’s off to the UNU Farmer’s Market for breakfast.  The coffee was really good a couple of weeks when we visited there, and hopefully we might try out of the wood-oven pizza from the tiny van!

Don’t think holidays are all about hot weather…

Us enjoying the summer weather in Japan!

On Thursday we travelled from Matsumoto to Toyama.  The easy route on the new Shinkansen from Nagano to Toyama taking 46 minutes was an option, but we decided to take the scenic route which took eight hours+.  Crazy?…. No.  Japan is all about endless discovery.

Prior to our holiday we thought, ah this will have fantastic views of the Japanese Alps… It’s summer the weather will be warmer and the skies clear – perfect! Well not quite. As you can see from the picture below, it was a little foggy…

The other feature of the journey is the eight different types of transport you take along the route. But I will leave that to Kym.

The below photo of the Kurobe Dam (after climbing 220+ stairs) was just before the rain pour down and our ponchos being used. We couldn’t see the mountains, but the view of the dam was pretty impressive, as it is in the time of high pressure discharge.  

As you can see it as a little rainy…

When we got to Murodo, it wasn’t raining (hooray!) so we knew we needed to take advantage of the weather, and did the Mikurigaike pond loop walk.  Here is Kym enjoying the walk- 

… And here is Kym towards the end of the walk. Yes as you can see it is wet, and cold! Endless discovery, regardless of weather!

Bijodaira I am told is home to some gigantic cedar trees. Well I can’t see too many.