Getting to Japan and to Murodo, Tateyama

My flight was Japan Airlines JL404 ETD Heathrow at 16:35 hrs on Tuesday 8th September, ETA Narita Airport Terminal 2 at 12:20 hrs Wednesday 9th. It is a long time since I have flown with JAL, and the company is in deep financial trouble at present. The press says that they are likely to lay off 7,000 employees in the near future. However it was a good flight on a modern Boeing 777, and the flight attendants could not have been more helpful. It is the small things, such as a bow to the passengers as soon as the flight has taken off and the seat belt sign has been switched off, that gives the feeling that they care about their customers. The flight was 30 minutes late departing but arrived 15 minutes early, a flight time of just over 11 hours.

It was a strange feeling being back in Japan, and there is something about Narita Airport that resembles a sanatorium; it is the smell of the place and the generally grey “shibui” (sober) colours. There was no queue at all at immigration, and they have hired some young people who speak English to help passengers and to check that the immigration form has been filled in correctly prior to approaching the immigration counter. Fingerprints from left and right index fingers are compulsory, as is a photograph taken by a computer screen on the immigration officer’s desk, but the process was easy and I was soon through immigration with my 90-day visa.

Japan is in the grip of swine flu fear, and everywhere I looked there were people wearing face masks.  There were also bottles of alcohol around to disinfect your hands. I soon had my bag, cleared customs and made my way into the arrivals lobby, which was not too busy. Internet access is available at Yen 100 per 10 minutes, and I was able to send a quick email home. I also checked out the possibility of leaving a small bag at the airport, but with the charge being Yen 500 per day it was not worth it for a couple of weeks. I would just have to carry my travel-home clothes with me on the hike.

As I did not have to be at Shinagawa Station until 10-30 p.m. to catch my bus to ToyamaI decided to chill out in the airport lobby for a couple of hours first. It was air-conditioned, there were comfortable seats and drinks machines, so it was a good place to stay awhile.

I eventually left Narita Airport on the Narita Express #36 departing 16-48 hrs for Tokyo. My ticket was for Seat 6D in Car 2, and it is important to make sure that you get in the right car as the trains splits with part going to Yokohama!

It was only an hour or so in to Tokyo, but it gets dark in Japan by 5-30 p.m. and I arrived at a very very busy Tokyo Station with millions of people scurrying about.  Having not experienced this for a while it came as quite a shock, and I felt a bit vulnerable in the crowds with my huge rucksack on my back! Originally I had planned to have a look around the Tokyo Station area and perhaps look for a coin-locker, but it was so busy all I wanted to do was to get out of it! I took the Yamanote line and headed for Shinagawa Station. Shinagawa Station has been developed beyond all recognition; I used to use Shinagawa when dropping my Toyota off for a service in the early 70’s, but I did not recognise the place. It was almost as busy as Tokyo Station. I found the Konan Exit and located the Toei or Metropolitan Bus Stop where I was to pick up my overnight bus to Toyama at 10-30 p.m. I was way too early, but at least I had found the right place. It is interesting that at the Konan Exit of Shinagawa Station there is a small plaza area with a police box, but just tucked away behind some bushes was a row of large cardboard boxes……. the size that come with American fridge/freezers……. which people were living in! With the recession Japan has suffered badly with a lot of people out of work, and some have taken to living on the streets in cardboard boxes!

I  went back in to Shinagawa Station to pass some time, and at 10 p.m. I made my way back to the bus stop to find the Willer Express Bus employees who would check me in for the bus ride. I had booked the bus over the internet and had no prior experience of it, but it had said that there staff would be there wearing red aprons to greet customers, and indeed they were.  The lady in question had a clip board with a sheet of paper on covered in hundreds of Japanese characters, and right in the middle was written “MICHAEL PIPER” in capital letters. It came as quite a relief to know that I was registered for the bus, as I don’t know what I would have done at 10 p.m. at night in Tokyo with no bus and no hotel! Soon a pink and grey “Willer Express Royal Hi-Decker” bus arrived and I boarded. There are two types of seat available…… the normal seats at around Yen 4,500 to Toyama, and the Premium seats at around Yen 7,500. I had booked the latter, which were at the back of the bus, but the cheaper seats looked cute in their pink and grey colour scheme each having a little silver “pram hood” type thing on the top of the seat so you could pull it over your head for privacy! We did not have this luxury on the Premium seats.
I boarded at 10-25 p.m. and at exactly 10-30 p.m. the bus left Shinagawa and headed to Shinjuku, where it was to pick up additional passengers. The driver had a sonorous reassuring voice as he announced that we were leaving for Shinjuku;  I was to get to know that voice quite well as at every opportunity during the night he came on the intercom to announce where we are and where we were going. I got the feeling that he thought that, I am not going to get any rest driving this bus, so neither are you! We left Shinjuku at 11-30 p.m., made stops at service areas at Matsushiro (2-45 a.m.) and Arisoumi (5-00 a.m.) before arriving at Toyama Station at 6-00 a.m. on the dot.

We arrived on the North side of Toyama Station, and when I went to buy a ticket for the train to Tateyama I realised that I was on the wrong side of the station. “Go down” said the ticket office man, and  I found the underpass taking me to the South side. The Tateyama train goes on the Chiho Densha line  from Dentestu Toyama Station.

I soon had my Yen 1,170 ticket for the 6-28 a.m. train, and queued along with several other hikers heading for the mountains. The Tateyama Line is really quite nice; an old line that meanders down the valley past old wooden stations revealing a bit of old Japan until it terminates at Tateyama Station. From here I transferred to the Cable Car and bought a combined cable car/bus ticket for Yen 2,360 to take me to Murodo .

The cable car , or funicular, runs on a 1.3 km track and is quite steep, taking you  up 487 m to Bijoudaira. At Bijoudaira you transfer to a bus for the ride up to Murodo, 2,400 m elevation,  along a road that seems to comprise of one hair pin bend after another. There are some scales at Bijoudaira and hikers with bags weighing  more than 10 kg are charged a supplemental Yen 300.
 

I took the 8-00 a.m. bus and arrived at Murodo at 8-45 a.m.

Hiking the North Alps from Murodo

You enter the Murodo terminal at the ground floor level and have to make your way up to the third floor to exit. It was quite a shock as I exited, as Japan was experiencing very unseasonal weather, and it was very cold and windy as I left the building. Furthermore the route that I was planning to hike, Raichozawa up to Tsurugimae Gozen, was shrouded in mist and looked most unwelcoming. I felt quite jaded after my travels and had a headache from the altitude, so I did not fancy starting off along a very cold ridge shrouded in cloud! To the right I could see the col at Ichinokoshi and the lodge there, at the foot of the 3,003 m peak Oyama, and decided that that would be a better bet for the first day. I set off and reached the lodge after 11—00 a.m. I checked in, explain to the lodge keeper that I just travelled from London and Tokyo, and he gave me a room straight away so that I could have a sleep during the afternoon. I slept though till 4 p.m., and then went down into the main lodge room to be ready for dinner at 5-00 p.m. There were less than 10 other hikers in the lodge, and I was surprised how quiet it was. Prior to dinner I had one of those conversations you can only have in Japan:-

Hiker: Where you from?
MJP: London
Hiker: Ah, Beatles

That was it. Nothing more to be said!
After talking to other hikers for a while in the “shokudo” and watching  the sumo results on the news I turned in for bed at 8-30 p.m.