Over The Hills And Far Away

Hello all!

Today is my birthday and so I'm having the day off (coming to grips with being closer to 50 than not...), and so with that I figured I would get up to date with the backlog of material I have for blogs - there is quite a lot of it!

Part of this reason is I now have a new camera after my trusty Eos 5D MkIII met its maker in Hawai'i back in April - this arrived just after Dad and I returned from an island hiking adventure, meaning the first photo I took with it was from the top of Mt Fuji, something like this:

Feels very good to have a familiar weight back in my hands

The theme of this blog is hiking, because I've done quite a lot of it recently, and scored some great views as a result, like the following:

Dad came to Tokyo for a couple of weeks with the intention of climbing Mt Fuji, and fit in some other adventuring along the way. When we were organising this trip a couple of months ago we decided to go somewhere a little bit out of the way, with a tiny island way to the South of Japan called Yakushima determined upon. Because the weather on Mt Fuji can be changeable, and it requires a 2 hour bus ride from Tokyo to get to, I booked seats for Dad, Claire and myself on shuttles for several days, to provide us with contingencies in case one day was written off for bad weather. As it turns out, the first opportunity we had was no good, so the first weekend Dad was here was spent exploring Koto ward to the East of the city, and Fukagawa-Temple, which is famous for the Goma-kiso fire purification ceremony, where items are brought in by visitors to be blessed by being immersed in the smoke from cedar sticks. No photography was allowed, but it was quite an epic ceremony, with huge drums being beaten, and a priest in the centre of the room kneeling before this big fire, with sparks and flames lighting up the room and casting cool shadows around all the Buddhist statues and such like around the place.

During this "down time" before we embarked on our adventures, Dad and I made sure to stop off at a fair number of bars and eateries to explore Japanese craft beers and burgers, as well as some icecream and a pop-up aquarium, all of which were very cool to see! This is by no means indicative of the number or varieties of beers consumed, but rather some photogenic brews!

We had a very early start (~4am) on Monday morning to get to the airport with hiking equipment and a flight to Kagoshima, the southernmost prefecture in Kyushu, way at the bottom of mainland Japan. Things were a bit touch and go for a while as there was a volcanic eruption (quite minor thankfully) going on, so there was a risk our flight would have to turn around - fortunately this was not the case! Also, as we were in business class for the ~2 hour flight we slept like logs, which we rather needed given the early start and very hot night (Dad said it was probably the third worst sleep of his life...)

From Kagoshima airport it was another flight on a turboprop aircraft across the water to Yakushima.

Mt Sakura volcano smoking away below us

Yakushima is essentially a tropical island, with an airport that looks like something from the 1970s in the Pacific Ocean - corroded and sun faded with epic clouds on the vast and empty horizon, plus stifling heat and humidity, but a lovely seabreeze all the time. Indeed we were remarking how much more comfortable it was there than in Tokyo where there was relatively little air movement (real feel today for example was 43 degrees Celcius at its peak)

We got in our rental car and went for a drive around the island, which is about 130km. About 40% of the island is national park, and 20% of that is UNESCO World Heritage listed. Famous for cedar trees, Yakushima has very lush forests and a large monkey and deer population. It was said to be the inspiration in part for the scenery for the Japanese animated movie Princess Mononoke, which I confess to having not seen. In any case, there are huge numbers of forest hikes, waterfalls and an overwhelming sense of lushness, which made for a great adventure and a far cry from the concrete jungle of Tokyo!


During our circumnavigation of the island, we visited Oko no taki falls, which are rated among the top 100 of Japan's waterfalls (a running gag with Dad and I on the trip was how many "Top 10/100" things we were visiting, and whether any given thing we saw would qualify for its respective list). This was an impressive waterfall that you could get up nice and close to and feel the spray, which gave us a very nice cooling sensation!

Part of the road to the West is only for driving, and goes through the UNESCO zone, and slow driving is requested; just as well because we saw a huge amount of wildlife during that section - deer and monkeys just chilling in the middle of the road. At one point we came across a whole family who were clearly not bothered by us, as they sat foraging and grooming right in front of our car while we had to slowly try coax them off the road. The monkeys and deer are relatively friendly towards one another (some would say too friendly), and we often saw them grouped together.

Further along our drive we did some research as to other hikes, and booked a shuttle bus to take us the next morning to the starting point of the Jomon sugi trail, a hike that takes you to the oldest cedar tree in Japan, which can take up to 12 hours return! Consequently after a dinner of sashimi and (for me) fried flying fish (the Yakushima speciality apparently), it was to bed early for another 4am wakeup to get to the shuttle spot.

Very tasty, if a little finnicky to eat

So up were were (again) at 4am for a quick breakfast at our accomodation, then to drive the twenty minutes to the start of the national park where a group of people had gathered to do the same hike as us. This trail starts off along an old railway back from when there was an extensive forestry program on the island, which seems to go and go forever.

The track goes on and on....

....is broken up by some nice scenery....

....and some more scenery....

....and continues going on... 

.....and on....

Eventually (finally!) the track ends, and then you go along a far less manicured track, swapping planks for roots and stones as you go into the bush proper. It took us to some huge and ancient cedar stumps, the most famous of which is called "Wilson's Stump", named after some British botanist from the early 20th Century. Despite our long hike, it was relatively cool - the max elevation we got to was 1700m, and being forested it was quite pleasant. We also had plenty of springs from which to take water, meaning we were able to regulate our condition at least somewhat.

Wilson's Stump, which contains a little shrine in between and under its giant root structure

There was also a fair bit of wildlife on the trail too, with a couple more monkeys seen, plus a number of frogs such as this little cutie

More bush walking took place, up and down, down and around, zigging and zagging - this trail is described as one that feels it is never-ending (accurate). At some points the trail looked like a fairly  engineered one, but at other points it was pretty ragged and one just had to use best judgement as to where to step - fortunately no major (or minor) slips and slides took place!

Found another frog!

Eventually through the trees we saw the start of a platform, and we realised we had made it! Climbing up a platform we were finally there, in front of Jomon-sugi, the 2000-7000 year old cedar (because of some rot in the tree it is hard to accurately age the tree)

Because it is far away from the platform and you cannot go up to it, the scale of the trunk was hard to assess, but at the Jomon-sugi museum back where the shuttle picked us up, they have an inscription in the floor to demonstrate its scale - we determined the assessment of it being 10 men's armspans round as pretty accurate!

Having seen the tree we made to leave (we were also being mobbed by mozzies), and it was a long treck back down again. Because we had left so early, and had a healthy pace (we overtook a large number of people on the way up, and then passed some even before they'd made it to the end of the train tracks), the up to 12 hour hike took us around 8 hours, including around 45 minutes for lunch and various photo operations along the way - we left on the second bus but were 6th and 7th back to the starting point, making it over half an hour early for the first bus back!

We definitely slept well that night! Not having to get up so stupidly early, we had a slightly more civil wakeup time of 7.30, and after breakfast headed up to the northern most point of the island to a lighthouse, to have a look at the views. Already very hot by the time we got there just after 8.30, we made a detour to a supermarket for an icecream before heading out on our next hike.

Go straight that way and the next thing you will hit is Shanghai

We were making our way through a number of different icecreams on the trip, and this one could not have been more Japanese if it tried, with all the packaging...

Our next adventure was up the Shiratani-Unsui trail, which actually connects up with the Jomon-sugi trail we had done the day before, though we weren't intending to go up all the way. There were more rivers, trees and moss, and a cedar known as the Three Legged Cedar, because of the way its roots have grown - easy to see why when you see it!

The trail is preceeded by a long windy road up into the mountains - the recommendation to rent a car was very accurate!

Finally we went to Senpirono falls, which are named because of their (apparent) resemblance to 1000 people holding hands...not too sure on that one. It wasn't possible to get up so close to this one, so maybe the resemblance to hands is more apparent up close. Dad took the opportunity for a half hour nap, I saw some skinks, and we used a nice bathroom there.

Further down that valley is the Dragon Waterfall, allegedly looking/sounding like a dragon, or perhaps being home to one? Anyways, lots of waterfalls in Yakushima!

We made our way along the roads to various other spots Google Maps had identified as worth visiting, including some banyan trees, rock formations and a beach - making the most of being out of the city and somewhere quite different!

Our last evening was spent on the West coast with a couple of beers and some chips, watching the sunset; before we headed to a restaurant in town for some dinner followed by more beers at our accomodation. Then it was another early start to get to the rental car place and airport, for a departure back to Tokyo via Kagoshima. Our flight was delayed leaving Yakushima, meaning we had a turnaround of about 30 seconds in Kagoshima,exiting the airbridge and then re-entering it from the adjacent gate to get on the next plane.

We came back to Tokyo as a heatwave was hitting, and found it much warmer than in Yakushima to our surprise - people were wilting in the streets!

The next phase of the adventure was the following night, conquering Mt Fuji! I had already done it last year, but unfortunately due to timing Claire was unable to join, and Dad had expressed a desire to go himself, so I accompanied them up the mountain.


Taking an evening bus from Shinjuku, we arrived close to 8pm at 5th station (of a total of 9), got changed for the cold, paid our conservation donation (and received our 2019 climbers tag), and set off up the mountain.

Fuji isn't a terribly technical climb, but it is long, and it is crowded. We had good pacing, and didn't spend as much time resting at the stops as last time (which caused us some issues at the very end), so we were doing very well until the last couple of stations where the congestion started to get quite severe. Everyone is trying to get up before the sunrise, and in overtaking people they actually contribute to the problem, so some defensive climbing stick placement had to be employed at times. Nevertheless, we made it to the summit a few minutes before the ~4.45 sunrise, and chalked that off the list for Dad and Claire. The Japanese have a saying which is that everyone should climb Fuji once, but only an idiot will climb it twice. I can completely agree with this sentiment, having accomplished the climb there is nothing to be achieved from doing it again; but that being said being there to help Dad and Claire achieve it was worth it!

Of course we spent a couple of hours at the top doing the photo thing, getting calligraphy prints from the shrines at the summit, and making our way to the highest point of the summit, making us the highest people in Japan for a few moments!

Now I have a camera again I can use my trusty lens ball again!

Holding Asahi beers - Asahi means "Morning Sun" in Japanese, quite appropriate given what we had climbed the mountain to see!

Then came the descent, which from my previous experience was a highly unpleasant one as far as my knees were concerned, and the reason I had bought a stick for this adventure. What was a rapid and largely uncontrolled descent/freefall down the mountain was now a far more measured one, and we made it back with about 50 minutes before our bus was scheduled to depart, so we collapsed in a heap in the seating area, cracked some beers and considered our life choices up to that point. It was a very sleepy trip back to Tokyo following that, with naps all round in the bus, and then after a few hours at our respective places, out to a nice restaurant for some celebratory food!




The other highlight of Dad's trip was going to see a bit of  New Zealand culture. There is currently an exhibition of Maori art in Tokyo, and for the week following its launch, a group of students from Rotorua did daily kapa haka performances to a Japanese audience, which they seemed to enjoy a lot. It was also cool to see some New Zealand flair, something I don't get a lot of opportunities to do over here (as one would expect!)

Dad's visit was a good one, great to spend some time away from the books and get out and about, plus explore some new places! We were very lucky to have Claire with us on a number of occasions, being the font of knowledge as to places to go, things to eat, and experiences to see, and so I think Dad had a wide range of things crossed off his list, with minimal shrine/temple visitations had!


I can say for sure that I won't be climbing Mt Fuji for quite a while; if any of my friends want to come to climb it I'll happily book your bus shuttle tickets and see you off at Shinjuku station, but a third climb I do not need in my life for a long, long time!

Like I said at the start, there is more material for another blog which I will get to shortly, so come again soon!

Til then, stay frosty - it's super hot outside so lots of icecream, you'll thank me later!

Troy :)