All-in-one resort capital in the Japan Alps, Star-Watching Waking Tour

Destination:  Kurumayama Plateau, Nagano Prefecture (Distance from Tokyo: 195km, approximately 122 miles)

Map → http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/nagano/sirakabako_yatugatake.html 　

Date:  August, 2007　

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What do you usually see in your town, when you look up to the sky at night? Can you see stars shining like diamonds above your head?  If so, that’s great.  But in big cities, there is usually no starlight you can clearly see at night.  Showy neon signs and street lights are much brighter than the stars are under the smoggy sky.  No exception here in Tokyo.   

So you have to get out of town to let them catch your eyes and have such a romantic moment.  And the three ladies knew what they had to do to make it happen to them. 

After their dinner, they participated in the main event of the trip, which was a star-watching walking tour.  

This tour offers you a real planetarium environment.  It began with a brief session at Sky City Café located at the halfway to the top of Mt. Kuruma around 8:00pm.  A couple of tour guides were waiting for the participants coming into the café which showed a mystic atmosphere in the darkness of the mountain.  Some tasty herb tea was served and then the guides gave the people the kind explanation about the stars they could see during the tour.

Photo of Sky City Cafe from a website.
A camera of my wife didn't work well to take
a night picture.

 A session at the cafe
Photo extracted from a website 

Booklet about the stars on Mt. Kuruma

After the quick lesson, people filled out an insurance form to prepare for an unpredictable accident. The “be prepared and have no worries” approach was needed to the mountain at night. After they were all set, it was time to take off.  

All of them were fascinated by the spectacle illumination of shining stars as soon as they got out the café.  The myriad radiant stars were all over the sky and dazzled the participants with their beauty.  Everywhere they looked up, there was nothing but the stars.  

The surroundings were all dark and no light existed except the small flashlights they held in their hands.  Only the stars were shinning and the people realized how they could twinkle so brightly in the circumstances of no artificial lights.

Stars of Mt. Kuruma.
Photo extracted from a website.
Her camera was totally no use for 
taking this type of picture.

They walked down about 30 minutes and the tour came to end with a small surprise. Each of them was given a star sign card according to their own sign at the end of the tour. None of them expected that they’d get a gift like that.

Star sign card.
The sign of my wife is basically the Cancer, 
but the card says the Gemini because of a 
different zodiac system the tour uses.

But one question quickly came up to my wife’s mind, that is “how did they get to know our birthdays??”  One of the tour guides gave her another kind explanation about a trick.

" You gave it to us about half hour ago."

" What?  We didn't.  I didn't talk about any personal stuff even with other participants.  How did you get it? "

" Here is a copy of your insurance form. "

As you may guess, those people were required to write down their date of birth on the form.  So filling out it had another purpose which was to allow the tour organizers to know the birthdays of all participants.  Such a nice arrangement.  

My wife said, if you are interested in a woman and want to win her heart, take this tour for her.    Too easy (sorry, too romantic) to let her fall in love with you. The beautiful stars in the sky will help you be successful with attracting somebody’s heart to you and those diamonds given by the nature are the most valuable things you can’t buy at any shop.  

At last, I got one more piece of advice from the ladies.  Don’t forget to take a light jacket out with you.  It’s a bit cold out there at night.  No jacket might decrease the interest of your favorite girl in the stars as well as in you. Good luck.

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Traveling Tips in Kurumayama

-  Getting there by:

Train;  Nagano Shinkansen to Sakudaira  (70 minutes). JPY12,340 for a one-way ticket.  (http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/routemaps/naganoshinkansen.html) 

Bus;  There are some companies offering highway bus services from Tokyo to the Kurumayama area (2.5 hours – 3 hours).  Approximately JPY5,000 for a round-trip ticket.

FYI → (http://www.alpico.co.jp/access/express/suwa_shinjuku/info_e.html)  

Car;  Chuo Expressway (2.5 hours – 3 hours) from central Tokyo.

-  To get around the Kurumayama area:

Strongly recommend to have a car.  Otherwise you need to depend on using local bus services or taxis to go around in the broad area which is, time-wise and cost-wise, not a good idea. If 3-4 people share the cost of renting a car, it shouldn’t be so high.

FYI →　（http://www.ekiren.co.jp/index.html） (http://rent.toyota.co.jp/en/index.html) 

-  Accommodation in Kurumayama:           

Many lodges, resorts inns and hotels.　She stayed at Kurumayama Skypark Hotel in 2006. She remembers the hotel had a magnificent view from her room and thetir onsen facility was great.

-  Affordable Hotels in Kurumayama:

FYI →　(http://rurubu.travel/hotel-list/200405/ <Japanese>)

-  Travel Expenses:

JPY 35,000 - 40,000 at most including everything.  The more the cheaper by sharing a rental car.

-  Local Tourist Information Center:

Kurumayama Kogen Tourism Association  

Nagano Prefecture Tourism Association