When my wife and I took the bus back up to Tatamidaira after checking out of Reisen Hütte, we were already thrilled.

In fact, my excitement had started much earlier that morning.

I woke up at 3:30 AM and looked outside our room.

Stars.

I immediately took some pictures and then gently woke my wife.

“You should see this.”

Stargazing had been on her bucket list for years. We had talked about it many times.

Back in the Netherlands, we had even positioned our bed so that we could look at the sky while lying down. One night, during one of our pillow talks before falling asleep, we saw two falling stars.

It was magical.

We still remember that moment clearly.

And now we have another one.

Seeing the stars together from our room on Mount Norikura.

A priceless memory.

Above the Clouds

Later that morning, we took the bus back up to Tatamidaira and started our hike towards Kengamine Peak.

The difference from the previous day was almost difficult to believe.

We were walking above the clouds.

And I mean literally above them.

Looking into the distance from the trails, we could see a blanket of clouds far below us while the mountains around us stood under a clear blue sky.

At one point, we overheard some fellow hikers talking. They had visited Mount Norikura many times, but even they were excited about the conditions that morning.

Apparently, what we were seeing wasn’t something they experienced very often either.

That made us realize just how fortunate we were.

The day before, we had arrived at Tatamidaira in rain, wind and mist and could barely see anything.

Now we could see farther than I could have hoped for.

Some Things Are Better Shown

I could describe everything we saw and experienced during the hike in detail.

The trails.

The mountains.

The clouds below us.

The views as we climbed towards Kengamine.

It is all still clearly imprinted in my memory.

But perhaps this time I can simply show you.

I documented our hike and released the video yesterday on my Karl in Rural Japan YouTube channel.

I don’t make travel-guide videos.

I simply document what happened and what caught my attention.

And on this particular morning on Mount Norikura, there was a lot to see.