The Yuru Camping begins

I just made it to Matsumoto, and between now and the last post I went up the Minobusan ropeway where the characters visit in season 2 and the movie, and I also attempted to reach the location that inspired the campsite in the movie (but failed). Read on to find out about all of that.

Minobusan/Mt Minobu

In season 2 ep 2 and the movie, the characters head up Mt Minobu via the ropeway to witness the first sunrise of the year. The ropeway starts from just round the back of Kuonji temple, so we started by heading up the road.

P1022557 — some scenery next to the guest house

It’s interesting to note that Kuonji temple is Buddhist, but the anime doesn’t so much as hint to it, despite having to basically pass right through it to reach the ropeway. Anyway.

Right round the corner to the right and along a wooden walkway we reach the first photo at the bottom of the ropeway.

Heading into the station there was some Yuru Camp stuff alongside where you queue.

Here’s where the cable car docks, unfortunately ours was on the opposite side.

Our car arrived and we hopped on.

Another shot of the opposite car passing the other direction.

We reached the top and there was a dedicated section in the gift shop for Yuru Camp merch. It was so hard to try and not buy something and I managed not to in the end. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m backpacking and anything extra I buy will be on my back for the rest of the trip. I can always get my merch in Tokyo before I leave (is what I keep telling myself).

Exiting the gift shop we get to another photo spot.

Just behind that board in front of the door is a cute drawing of Nadeshiko.

She’s pictured with the rice dumplings on a stick and they buy and eat it in the anime too. I really wanted to recreate this image but the board thing wasn’t out 😦

I got the charcoal flavour which was surprisingly delicious.

I took a panorama from this spot too.

I’m pretty sure this is where the characters watch the sunrise from. Too bad it’s too cloudy to see fuji.

P1022580 — i think that might be fuji poking through the clouds there

Turning around and following the path you reach the stairway to the temple.

And this is the temple at the top of the stairs where the characters say their prayers.

I tried so hard and did a few laps around the top to find this sign, but I couldn’t.

We headed back down on the ropeway and grabbed some udon in Minobusan village. Junko (the boss of our guesthouse who I’ve worked for in the past) asked us for help in the afternoon because Nippon TV were filming some promotion for foreign tourists. So we spent our entire afternoon and evening trying on Kimonos, doing Sutra writing, and listening to some traditional japanese music.

We also made sure to buy and eat some Minobu manju before we left, which my sister absolutely loves. It’s a sort of cakey dumpling filled with red bean paste.