We left the Alps earlier than planned due to Typhoon ‘Etau’. The one-week forecast was terrible. So we continued to Nagoya. The city streets were cleared on the day the typhoon striked, not many were keen to met the weather. The next evening we met Yasuko and Yoshi for dinner, which we met in Tokachi-Onsen after the Daisetsuzan Traverse. The food was delicious but of secondary importance – meeting them was the highlight. We have been delighted and will remember the evening fondly for a long time.
The next day we mostly dwelled in the Nagoya City Science Museum. Like kids we did shadow plays and had a blast looking at ourselves in the distorting mirrors ☺.

Finally we made it to the Japanese Alps! From Hakuba we got to Sarukura from where we started a 4 day hut-hike through the Northern Alps. Passing Daisekkei (lit. means grand snow valley) we made ascent on the first day and were climbing 3 of the 100 most famous mountains (Shirouma-Dake 2932m, Goryū-Dake 2814m and Kashimayariga-Dake 2889m) during the next 3 days while staying in mountain huts over night. Except for the second day, sight was mostly covered and it was raining occasionally. The trek length was 38.4 km and the highest point around 2900m.
(Names of the huts: Hakuba-Sanso, Karamatsu-dake Choujou-Sanso, Kiretto-Goya)

Om our way to the Japanese Alps we stopped for two days in Matsumoto. Besides the 500 year old historical castle we saw the largest pendulum clock of Japan and visited the exhibitions of Yayoi Kusama and Kishin Shinoyama in the Matsumoto City Museum of Art.

As we read about a 80 km hiking trail, we knew that this is going to be our next destination.
Against our typical direction of travelling south, we went slightly north to Madarao to walk the Shinetsu Trail along the boarder between Nagano and Niigata prefecture during 4-6 days. Arriving there, the weather was lousy. The taifun named “Goni” was raging over southern Japan, carrying bad weather to Honshū. After a lovely stay with Yumi in “Tob’s House” the weather settled and we started our trip under blue sky. First we climbed Mt. Madarao-San, to continue along the Sekida mountains in northwest direction. During the following 5 days we were hiking along ski slopes, the mauntain tops, through marshlands and georgeous birch forests. We spotted different animals and Fränzi collected around 20 mosquito bites. On the last campsite we met a friendly contributor of the Shinetsu Trail Club. Therefore one can now find a queer picture of us on facebook (see below).

In Nagano we rented a tiny studio through Airbnb the first time. Besides unwinding we wandered through the former Olympic city visiting the impressive buddhistic Zenkoji temple.