Skunk cabbage nature park

Japan North Alps view from Shirasawa tunnel Hakuba side exit on Route 406. Damn, the peaks were hidden in the clouds :(
We went to Skunk cabbage nature park in Kinasa after a long interval.


Route 406 is a very curvable one, you have to be careful to drive a car there. We arrived the tourist center 1 hour later we left our place. Someone stops your car on the way to charge 400 yen per person for the entrance fee to this natuer park.


It's roughly 40-50 minutes on foot for one way from the tourist center to the entrance of the nature area, we got on a bus to save our time ( To be honest, we are too lazy to walk! )
It took 5-6 minutes ride. The path buses run is very tiny and narrow, buses have to meet at a place where they cross each other.

After getting off the bus, the path we walked was still paved one.


Cherry blossoms there just looked like they started blooming.

Birds were singing there noisy! How many kinds of birds can you recongnize? I did only nitingales lol...



Found something in a pond. Frog coes??


Finally they provide a signboards not only in Japanese but also in English :-) But I wonder does it really need "The" for the trees described there? ("The" Horse Chestnut, "The" Japanese Oak etc) Anyone tell me please! lol...


Pathes there are unpaved which I like!


Water runs inbetween big trees, skunk cabbages are here and there along the running water. Skunk cabbages are called " White fairies"


Skunk cabbage flowers (Mizubasho in Japanese)

Do you know which part is actually a petal? The white ones look like wrapping somehing like cores are NOT petals, the tiny yellow ones around the green cores are exactly their petals.

I have ever visited this place some times, but that was the first time for me to get in Koumidaira area.

The reason why we Japanese call this flower "Mizubasho" is their leaves look like basho. But I think I have to google to know what basho is :o lol... :p
I like this water noise, even if it's my bedroom side, it would never bother me from falling asleep. Probably it's an alpha wave.


A signboard which explains some virgin forests of beeches here.


Maybe a white birch? Looks cool.


There are so many tall trees here and there. They are too tall for me to take pictures of entire their height. So I took pictures of this tree by deviding it into 3 parts then editted them to connect. Not a good skill lol... :p But I hope it helps to show how tall they are when you find some people at the left bottom of this picture for comparison.


Skunk cabbages in bloom along the wood path.


Trout?


They are perhaps "Sukanpo" we took along pathes when we did picnic there.



I hear leaves exhaust tannin when they get deep in water. It looks like they make the water dirty but actually tannin provides some nutrition for microorganisms to grow which is the start of a food chain. Nothing wasteful there.


Many big trees of 300-400 years old here and there. This signboard explains that the tree behind the signboard is what we call "Shinanoki" in Japanese. Also explains "Shina" for Shinanoki means "to connect" something in Ainu language which was spoken in Hokkaido among Ainu people. Another interesting thing this signboard says is people in Nagano prefecture in old days offered pieces of paper from this "Shinanoki" tree to the Imperial Court in Kyoto, that's why they named this region "Shinano" which is an old name for Nagano prefecture.


Yachidamo tree which has an unique skin. Not sure what they call this tree in English :(


It's a big place to walk around, feel a presence when birds sing.


Water from the mountains on this background must support all the ecosystem here.


Found a dying tree with a hole on its side. Wondered what lives there. A flying squirrel family or an owl family??


Though I live in a kind of countryside Hakuba, if I go deeper in mountains and nature, I am always impressed by them. I guess probably this post is a little bit longet than you expected, I appreciate for your time and patience to check this out all the way to this end :-)

Hayaokidori website