大野山 hiking

Tired off my old backyard Miura peninsula, I packed up a sandwitch bag, tied up my hiking boots and set off to a bit of real countryside. That is, countryside so far removed as to be outside the range of the automatic ticket machines, and where you actually have to buy a paper train ticket from the conductor.

大野山 is a nice-sized hill about 2 hours West of Yokohama, and is famous for the view of Mt. Fuji from the top, the green pastures, and black and white cows.

The track is a pleasant 2 hours walking from he train station to the top, along beautiful forest tracks and small countryside roads. Wildlife was everywhere, with blue-tailed skinks darting into the undergrowth, huge lazy butterflies flitting around, large spotty-legged daddy-long-legs gracefuly meandering amidst the tree roots and, the paths being quite frequented, the giant spiders and even more humongous sticky webs were mainained at a safe distance from average head hight.

Nearly to the top, a small carved rabbit kindly informs visitors we have now reached 634m, the height of the Sky Tree, the tallest building in Japan.

And out you pop from the forests, into open pastures of knee-high lush grass and armies of red and blue libellula (or what wikipedia tells me are commonly called skimmers).

The view over the southern-most South Alps, to the North and East,

and over the plains surrounding Sagami Bay was breathtaking.

And there were, indeed, some black and white cows, although, like any sensible animal, they were engaged in a midday nap when I passed by.

hiking in the rain

It's like splashing your way along a sidewalk with your umbrella, but you do it on a forest trail. Tap dancing is not encouraged. Singing is fine, but it appears to bother the cicadas somewhat, and, as I soon found out, they have a tendancy to dive bomb anything that bothers them.

It felt good to get back up into the forests in central Miura peninsula, wading my way through exhuberant greenery. I haven't been hiking around here for so many months, it was almost a pleasure to get back into the cicada-infested woods, with flies, bees and mosquitoes zooming everywhere. I had, somehow, forgotten just how big the spiders get, and just how huge and sticky they think their webs needs to be. But then again, if they're planning to catch those 10-cm wingspan butterflied that flit around the underbrush, maybe big is better!

The rain, coming in fast and erratic downpours, gave quite a springy feel to it all. This was added to by the huge flocks of Japanese quail clucking around the forest floor. And believe me, these here quails have no trouble flying at all! Back to the biology books - part 1.

Another thing undoubtedly brought out by the rain was a sort of white, soft-looking crab. Now I've seen a few of these dead in streams, but this one was quite alive, and we must have been over a kilometer from the nearest stream at that point. Everyone knows of coconut crabs, but small forest crabs live in temperate forests? Back to the biology books -part2!

Other critters out on the move were about 5 herons, all fishing in the same stream, a big crow trying to eat a large red fresh-water crayfish that wasn't dead and was not giving in. I ended up staring at the crow till it went away, and last I saw of the crayfish was a swirl of murky water as it scuttled back under its tuft of grass. I also saw a snake who was having some difficulty with the slippery mud of the hillside, but as I was having a bit of trouble coping with the steep, slick path, I didn't stick around.

After 4 hours of tromping around, and still managing to get utterly lost, despite the numeroushikes I've done around there, I finally made my way back to the station, and to some drier clothes. The biology lessons can continue, though, as there is just as much wildlife around my room as in the forest, with huge batalions of cicadas in the trees, and this cute little gecko that came to look in the window at me.

Top of Mt. Fuji

One 'must-do' in Japan ticked off the list: climbing to the top of Mt. Fuji!

One might think that, having just spent 2 months on a 37m-long boat, I would not be in my best mountain-climbing condition. However, Girish, whom I went with, is a visiting researcher from Mauritius, only in Japan for a couple of weeks, and has all his week-ends all planned out.

We set out Firday evening on a bus from Shinjuku, to arrive at 10pm at one of Mt. Fuji's 5th stations, located at 2300m above sea level.

From there, we followed the much-used Yoshida trail up the mountain.

It was my first time hiking at night, and everyone with their flash-lights gives quite a cheery, christmasy feeling to the climb.

The lights are of the huts and hikers going to the top.

It is about 5km from the 5th station to the top. After 2 hours of climbing, we reach station 7. Still bursting with energy. Can't be far to the top now!

One hour later, station 8. Do I look tired? Does that sign say 3 hours to the top?!

By 3am, I was litteraly falling asleep on my feet, which can be just a little bit dangerous, if said feet are trying to make their way up a rocky path. And the temperature had dropped, and wind come up, to such an extent that I was shaking with cold (despite my 2 sweaters and wind-breaker), and my hands had cramped onto the flashlight so I could hardly move my fingers. So we made a small stop at one of the mountain chalets, and had a most welcome bowl of hot miso soup. Never have 15 minutes sitting on a cold, windy, floor with a bowl of soup done so much good to a person.

So it was woken up and with the memory of hot soup that we tackled the last long strech to the top. I am glad I was woken up, as it allowed us to avoid a small accident, when someone trying to cut a switchback kicked a big stone loose. The first person to see it cried out, and everyone picked it up, so the rock rolled to a halt just bellow us, having gone right between me and the person in front with no damage done.

It started to get light around 4am, and although we still had 2 hours to go (it took much longer than what the signs indicated), the sight of what we were engaged in gave up the last bit of energy we needed to make it to the top.

An finally there it was! The gate to the top of Mt. Fuji!

Exhilaration and excitement filled us,

and we went to see the crater, and enjoy the view and the morning light a bit,

... before crashing out at one of the summit noodle shops.

By 7:30am, we were rested and refreshed enough to take on the descent. Or at least, that is what we though when we started down...

The descent route is different from the one you use going up, and is in fact the route the caterpillar tractors use to bring food and water to the mountain huts. So it is wide, and flat, and not very rocky.

By that, I mean the width of the path was flat.

The mountain itself seemed to have attained an angle I had not been aware of on the ascent.

3 hours later, and still descending a seemingly endless tractor path, the clouds start lifting, providing much welcome coolness on the by now baking mid-day lava slope.

Two hours later, we finally reach the level of of the 5th station, in a fog so deep you can hardly see a couple of meters ahead of you.

But this quickly passed, leaving us to finish walking through a beautiful, misty, high-mountain forest, and out onto a cool, overcast day at station 5.

There, we had about 2 hours to rest, buy some souvenirs, and climb on the bus back to Tokyo. Dinner, a hot bath and some sleep and greatly needed, and Sunday will not be filled with any kind of walking I can possbly avoid.

But it was an amazing experience, and, as crazy as it sounds, I would most willingly go again.

Barcelona cruising

My final cruise for this year! Well worth all the work and time, but it does take such a large amount of time that one cannot be but glad it is over!

Dream team aboard the Garcia del Cid

Well, after enjoying some of the sights of Barcelona, of course.