{"id":37080,"date":"2025-09-13T21:27:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T13:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=37080"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:05:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:05:35","slug":"nagoya-toyota-city-day-08-kamikochi-taisho-ike-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2025\/09\/13\/nagoya-toyota-city-day-08-kamikochi-taisho-ike-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"Nagoya &#8211; Toyota City: Day 08 &#8211; Kamikochi &#8211; Taisho Ike Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The second of the three day trips I booked for this Japan work trip. Our Ang Mo bud had also decided on a spur of the moment to fly to Japan and join me on this day trip before he continued venturing onwards in a south-westerly direction. We visited Kamikochi on this day trip, a mountain valley in the Nagano region known for its natural beauty, and that&#8217;s even been called the Yosemite Valley of Japan.<\/p>\n<p>The area takes a fair bit of time to get to from Nagoya: it&#8217;s slightly more than a 3 hour long drive by our bus each way, and because of newly instituted laws on how long these bus drivers could work, that essentially meant that the actual amount of time we had to visit the area was about 3.5 hours. That&#8217;s actually more than sufficient time to do the shorter and easier of the two trails commonly visited.<\/p>\n<p>More notes and pictures of our visit to <strong>Taisho Ike Pond<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37119\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37119\" style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37119\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-scaled.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-scaled.png 2560w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-1024x580.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-768x435.png 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-1536x870.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-2048x1160.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-1072x607.png 1072w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-731x414.png 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-maps-kamikochi-trail-v2-240x136.png 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click for a larger version. Basically, we opted to get off the bus at Taisho Pond, then make our way in a generally northerly direction to the Visitor Information Center, also where the bus terminal is and where we get picked up again by the bus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37129\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37129\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37129\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_081006-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_081006-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_081006-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_081006-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_081006-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_081006-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37129\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of the walking area. But honestly, it&#8217;s really hard to get lost as long as you follow the well-defined trail and footpath.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37130\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37130\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37130\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1110040-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1110040-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1110040-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1110040-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1110040-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1110040-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37130\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taisho Pond, a volcanic lake formed by the eruption of Mount Yakidake in 1915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37131\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37131\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37131\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_111105-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_111105-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_111105-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_111105-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_111105-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_111105-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37131\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many vantage points from which you can take lovely pictures.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37132\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37132\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37132\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1112372-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1112372-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1112372-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1112372-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1112372-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1112372-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37132\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drizzling!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37133\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37133\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1118250-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1118250-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1118250-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1118250-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1118250-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1118250-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pictures from along the trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37134\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37134\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37134\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1124120-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1124120-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1124120-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1124120-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1124120-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1124120-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37134\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Info boards that provide information on the flora and fauna.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37135\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37135\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37135\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_112622-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_112622-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_112622-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_112622-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_112622-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_112622-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37135\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Low-angle shot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37136\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37136\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37136\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_113302-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_113302-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_113302-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_113302-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_113302-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_113302-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Direction signage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37137\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37137\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37137\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-DSC00789-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-DSC00789-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-DSC00789-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-DSC00789-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-DSC00789-1-731x488.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-DSC00789-1-240x160.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37137\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cloud layers at the mountain peak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Continued in the next post!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second of the three day trips I booked for this Japan work trip. Our Ang Mo bud had also decided on a spur of the moment to fly to Japan and join me on this day trip before he<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-read-more\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2025\/09\/13\/nagoya-toyota-city-day-08-kamikochi-taisho-ike-pond\/\">Read More<span class=\"cleanwp-sr-only\">  Nagoya &#8211; Toyota City: Day 08 &#8211; Kamikochi &#8211; Taisho Ike Pond<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[688],"class_list":["post-37080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-nagoya-toyota-city-japan-2025","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/blog-2025-japan-isate-day-08-20250913_1112372-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37080"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38048,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37080\/revisions\/38048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}