autumn leaves

Autumn had arrived and its time again to witness the leaves changing color called here as kouyou (紅葉). For the past 3 years, I never really went out of Tokyo to view the Autumn leaves. The view in Yoyogi, Ueno and a number of parks here are more than enough for me to see the beauty of autumn. Until last Tuesday, my Indian colleague Hemanth told me about having a trip this weekend to Shosenkyo in Yamanashi prefecture to view some kouyou. I told him I would love to go to experience kouyou on a grand scale. Then come Saturday (good thing weekend work didn't push through), me along with Hemanth, Gap and Xu - a chinese colleague, met at Chuo line of Shinjuku station. It was very unfortunate that the Chuo rapid line was suspended on that day. Meaning we have to take the local train and then make some multiple transfers along the way. We left Shinjuku at around 8:30 and arrived at our initial destination Kofu at around 11:30 am. Quite a long journey indeed but we enjoyed chatting along the way which made our trip appeared to be shorter. From Kofu station, we need to ride a bus for 1 hour to get into Shosenkyo-our destination for the day. Upon arrival, our stomach was already grumbling so we decided to eat lunch first before starting the hike.

Houtou - vegetable stew with udon noodles

Preparing to eat the local food delicacy of Koufu

After lunch, we started our hike and went to the top via ropeway. I had hoped it would be as exciting as the ropeway in Hakone as you can see in Pia's blog - but it was not. Although the view when going up to see Shosenkyo's beauty was a real breathtaker.

Reaching the top, we moved around and was lucky enough to have a very clear sky to be able to see the majestic Mt. Fuji. Below are some more pictures I took at the peak of Shosenkyo. It was really beautiful seeing the view on top.

Mt. Fuji

After around 1 1/2 hours on top, we decided to go down and see other beauties that Shosenkyou has to offer.

Momoji - Red Maple leaves

Beware of wild bears

We decided to finish our hike around 4:30 p.m to catch the next bus going to Kofu station at 4:40 p.m. Unfortunately, we failed to catch it and have to wait for another 40 minutes for the next bus. In Kofu station, we decided to take the bus instead of the train going to Shinjuku. It was a 2 hours 10 minutes-trip but it was worth the ride since we were able to sleep soundly as compared to taking the trains which will make us transfer stations a number of times. Before we left the station, the bus driver informed everyone that we might expect some delay depending on the traffic we'll have along the way. Time of departure was supposed to be 7:10 pm and time of arrival in Shinjuku is 9:10 but we left around 7:13. Time we arrived at Shinjuku? 9:12! I was surprised that even the bus in Japan is also very efficient and right on the clock!

Overall, the trip was really nice! Houtou tastes good and made me really full for the day. Shosenkyou's nature is a real breath taker with special mention to Mt. Fuji's peak, falls, Arakawa river and rock formations. However, we haven't able to see its full potential on Autumn as the leaves are not all in kouyou mode yet. Nevertheless, it can't count out the overall beauty of Shosenkyo-considered to be one of Japan's most favorite scenery.

Pictures c/o my W995 and Gap's DSLR Camera.