Whilst on holiday in Hakuba we went on a hike up to Happo Ike (Ike is pond in Japanese). I actually didn’t get a photo of the pond as there were too many tourists standing around it for my liking. I prefer not to stand shoulder to shoulder with tourists to take the same photo, also the light and time of day wasn’t really right for it. To make the journey a lot easier we caught the Gondola and 2 chair lifts a long way up the mountain before we started the hike. From there it is easy to access the upper Alps and reach the areas above the tree-line which made it a good hike to do with my kids. As with many places in Japan there are beautiful landscapes to photograph and one of the amazing aspects of this area is the huge amount of dragon flies buzzing around.