traversing
08:46Living in the middle of the Japanese countryside is nowhere close to a city when it comes to convenience, but it certainly has its perks.
A day trip hiking up (and down and up and down - ) in the mountains brought me through lush forest and rolling hills, overlooking sprawling landscapes of pre-autumn green and orange. I could go on and on with flowery descriptions, but I'd rather let the photographs speak for themselves.
We began our day with a bright and early 6am wake-up call, followed by a bus ride to Kusatsu Onsen, known for its amazingly acidic salt baths - pictured steaming away above. We were, of course, full of energy at this point, the most strenuous exercise so far having been rushing to catch the bus amidst the early morning drowsiness. Soon after, we headed to a rest stop at the base of the mountain we were going to climb, the weather looking rather favourable at this point.
We hiked to a rest stop at a gondola station, where we enjoyed various snacks and drinks - including some solid iced coffee - before heading to lunch nearer the peak of our climb.
*mini shoutout to Air (pictured above), who has a neat lil aesthetic blog about the wonders of living in the Japanese mountains so go check it out!
After our 5 hour journey, a substantial part of which was waiting for me to take photos, we ended up in Manza Onsen - a satisfying end to a fulfilling day. Very honourable mention to the wonderful company that convinced me that hiking will not cause certain death, and who made this outing much more enjoyable than it already was.
Those who know me at all will know that hiking is not my thing. I am, however, proud to say that I did not keel over and die (by some divine miracle), and also enjoyed myself rather a lot. I do reckon it's safe to say that my adventures in Japan are far from over, and I am looking forward to future adventures around the not-so-tiny country that I am calling home for the next two years.
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