Mount Norikura

Most 3,000 m peaks in Japan take a day or two of hard walking. Norikura takes a bus ticket. Private cars are banned on the Norikura Skyline from the Gifu side and on the Echo Line from Nagano, so you park at the free Honokidaira lot or at Hirayu Onsen and ride the Nohi Bus shuttle, about 60 minutes up the Skyline to Tatamidaira. At 2,702 m it is the highest bus stop in Japan: a bus terminal, two lodges and the Norikura Honmiya shrine around a car park beside Tsurugaike pond. Short walks start right there. Maodake is 15 minutes away, Fujimidake 25, and a 30-minute loop goes round the Ohanabatake flower field, which blooms from mid-June to mid-August. The summit, Kengamine at 3,026 m, is about 90 minutes each way past Kata-no-koya hut and the cosmic ray observatory; file a climbing plan if you go to the top. Two warnings. The shuttle runs only from mid-May to the end of October, and on busy days you may not fit on the bus you want, so be back at the terminal well before the last one down. And it is cold up here even in midsummer. Bear sightings can close paths at short notice. On the Nagano side, Norikura Kogen has its own shuttle up the Echo Line.