Achi 3

Achi village is located in the Alps of Japan, 800 - 1100 meters over sea level.  It is glorious here, and popular in April for the cherry blossom viewing.  It is also known to be the best location for viewing the night sky.

Oh boy, I almost made it through the day without a setback. There was a switch to a bus after the Shinkansen, the ticket counter attendant, did not issue the ticket, instead pointing to me to the machine and pushing the buttons for me.  There was little communication, and I was concerned that I may be headed in the wrong direction but I checked and it seemed to be okay.  I kept track of the stops on the Google Map app, which was very useful.  Astonishingly, the next stop is Achi in Nagano, wow super impressed, here I thought I was going to get lost.  Oops, there goes Achi, bye Achi.  I get off at the next stop and try to explain that I needed to get off at the last stop, but was ushered back onto the bus.  We were in a very residential area, and I was looking for taxis, and saw nothing and the app showed zero taxis.  Onto to the bus I went, to a further stop.  I try to relax, so far the trip has had it's little set backs, I'll live.  Once off the bus, mercifully, I see a taxi stand. $18 later, I am at the hotel.

 I tried making reservations at another hotel but they never confirmed and ended up making it with Yamaboshi instead. they offer glamping as well as regular rooms in Japanese and Western styles.  I opted for a western style room which looked like this.  The difference is in the mattress style, and this is a western mattress. This room is larger than my bedroom at home, and much larger than the other accommodations so far.

Glamping | hotel & glamp YAMBOSHI [Official]

Is this the tiniest vanity you've ever seen?

It’s huge compared to the other hotels so far, it was a bit pricey (but includes dinner, breakfast and the Starry night tour), and it turns out it’s owned by the Haige in the Netherlands, according to the credit card statement. The cuisine is supervised by Takaai Tsuneyasu, the chef owner of the restaurant “Towa” in Nishi Azabu, Tokyo which has been awarded a Michelin star. The dinner that was served is shown in the link below, (my battery had died so wasn’t able to take pics). 

 https://achi-yamaboshi.com/en/cuisine/

After dinner, I and another guest ventured to the Starry Night Village to see the stars. There is a 40 minute gondola (aka ropeway) ride to the top of a clearing where we were to get a presentation while looking at the stars on our backs. the gondola ride was over a ravine in the dark with a few glances at an illuminated steep emergency ladder below. It was chilly, and the moon was almost full. This made seeing the stars more difficult. We saw a few and headed back to the hotel. 

I woke at 3:30, after sleeping 5 hours. It was very quiet except for a few dogs that were staying at the hotel with their owners and again used the bathroom at 4am to wake everyone up. 

At 6:00 am, a chime sounded in the room, I have no idea where it was coming from  

Breakfast at 7am

This was pretty spectacular, they serve soup at breakfast, with rice, eggs, fish and assorted picked seaweeds, vegetables.  If you like variety and texture this is for you.  My companion last night was a vegetarian, and she found it difficult to eat anything.  She is German and according to her, mainly eats steamed cabbage and carrots, but there seems to have been a mix up and she received this breakfast as well.

This area was beautiful, there is water coming down from the mountain, so it forms, little steams, waterfalls, and there’s a constant trickling sound in the background  

One thing I’ve noticed, where there is a little plot of land, there is a garden. 

I thought there were more pics, I hope I haven’t deleted them. 

Achi, to my view is still a pocket of the non tourist Japan. Very little English, although everyone at the hotel was lovely. The attraction at Starry Village was largely locals and while the tour advertises a multilingual experience it is not. The presenter uses a laser to point out the constellations in the sky but the presentation is in Japanese. The QR code brings you to a live scroll of his words translated to English. So you have a choice between reading the script or watching the stars. You can’t do both because the screen will dilate your eyes preventing you from being able to see the tiny stars. 

Also if your considering going, make sure you sit in the isle seat because the bus takes a trail with sheer cliff drop offs alternating between one side and the other.  I had to close my eyes most of the trip.

https://www.go-nagano.net/en/trip-idea/id19626

Onward to the Osaka..