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Today we needed to return our little dependable but underpowered Toyota Roomy back to Toyota Nagano. We made a quick pit stop at Haradori Post Office (原通郵便局) to drop off the postcard delivery to some buddies back in Malaysia before embarking on a short hour-long drive to reach the Toyota Office for the drop-off.

Checking out from hotel is an easy process, just pass the room key
Delivering postcards back to Penang from a sangkhla Haradori post office

We gatai made a detour to Lake Nojiri for our outdoor breakfast but ended up extending our drive as we went around the whole lake instead, making our journey longer than planned. Nevertheless, the calm lake was quite picturesque despite having some run-down and neglected facilities. We only made brief stops as we had to return our car before noon. Ended up taking 3 hours instead of 1 hour to reach Nagano city.

Nissin never tasted so good and emo
Too cold to venture outside the car
Lake Nojiri autumn beauty… too bad it was cloudy

Once we completed the simple procedure of returning the car, we walked to nearby Nagano Station to buy our tickets (1,690 yen each) from the counter (and not the automated machine) heading to Kami-Suwa Station, using the Shinonoi Line. Interestingly, when we mentioned Kami-Suwa Station, the counter staff offered us the cheapest but slower direct train, which was more convenient. We always prefer direct rather than the need to change trains. This particular train was not shown on Google Maps for that time frame, highlighting the advantage of buying tickets from the counter for non-Japanese speakers.

Returning the rental car at Nagano Station
Nagano Station area is really beautiful with blue skies
Bought our tickets from Nagano to KamiSuwa

Coincidentally, we met a fellow Penang couple traveling on the same train, but they were heading to Takayama – such a small world that the only Malaysians we met from the whole trip were from Penang.

Fellow penang lang on board the train – what are the chances…

We reached Kami-Suwa station a shade less than 2 hours but had to lug our bags for 800m to our hotel, Hotel Beniya, which is just next to Lake Suwa but our “cheaper” room was located in the annex building, which was a maze to get to and had only a partial view of the lake – not a great deal. However, the good were the exceptional staff, sumptuous morning breakfast and an onsen with a lake view. So, if you plan to book at Hotel Beniya, avoid the annex building.

Kamisuwa station has a really classic vibe to it… I really love all these old stations
On the way jalan to our hotel
Hotel Beniya… remember NOT to book the annex building

After leaving our bags in the room, we laced up our walking shoes for our walk up to Tateishi Park, which offers a panoramic view of Lake Suwa, inspired by the rounded lake backdrop from the movie “Your Name”. Director Makoto Shinkai is from Nagano – hence the connection of this city.

The ascending walk had some “shortcuts,” although not well-marked, with some painted “shoe prints” leading us to brushes and paths that were not well-used. We had to be quiet because the paths were almost always between some local houses and back lanes. It took us approximately 40 minutes to reach the summit. Use this link for walking directions. The elevation difference is only 175m with a distance of 2.1km (one-way) so be reasonably fit.

Stair climb again
Need to be relatively fit to walk up.. a taxi option is much easier
The trail is marked with elusive “white footsteps”
Near liao!!!
Park info
Picnic spot of the day. Thank goodness for the excellent weather

The view was stupendous, especially with the late afternoon sun casting a slight yellow tint on the landscape. The park had limited parking lots and seemed to be popular with bikers. As always, we had a small picnic while enjoying this unforgettable view. The park even had a higher observatory deck for a wider view, but it required walking up more steps. In around the observatory were brilliant autumn leaves to take photos of.

Eat liao can be monkey
beautiful autumn leaves at the summit
beautiful view from the lookout point
Lake suwa inspired this scene from the anime, Kimi no Nawa (Your Name)
The autumn leaves were not vibrant in 2023 because of the extra hot summer

Since the sun was dropping below the horizon, we had to make our way down quickly before it got too dark. The walk down was filled with even more scenes of local life as we ninja-walk our way down behind local alleys and homes. We reached the lakeside just as the sun was about to set, blanketing the whole town and the autumn trees with a brilliant golden glow – stunning scenes! We celebrated this great day by eating our Famichiki fried chicken by the lake.

Walking down after our 2 hour visit
Beautiful autumn leaves at the most unexpecting places
Nice train
Death to birds… pointy
Lawson FamiChikin… eat while hot please..
Lake Suwa during sunset – beautiful

Lake Suwa is known for its unagi (eel) produce, so an unagi dinner was a must! We Googled an establishment, but unfortunately, it was closed due to technical issues. We opted for our second choice, うなぎの館 天龍, which was just a stone’s throw from our hotel. This unagi meal turned out to be one of the costliest meals thus far, but it was well-deserved, with tender and fresh meat coupled with a tasty soup with unagi liver – a first for me. Since E doesn’t like unagi, she had to settle for a meal from 7-11 in hotel room with kesian-ness. LOL.

Best Unagi in my life so far… the 2nd was at Kumamoto station in 2017
Time to whip out Google Translate
Best ever!!!!
E does not eat unagi … so had to settle for Family Mart dinner
Angry birds

      • Useful links:
      • From our experiences :
        • Lake Nojiri looks quite forlorn when we were there but maybe with more time and a better lighting conditions, it might be different.
        • When purchasing train tickets, non-Japanese speakers please ask the counter staff for assistance – so much easier.
        • There is an easier option to use local taxis to reach the summit of Tateishi Park, which is not that far from Lake Suwa by car.
        • Tateishi Park has a toilet and an observation deck for the public

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