Mount Fuji (富士山)

Location:	Honshu, Japan
Range:	N/A
Elevation:	3,776 m (12,389 ft)
Route:	Yoshida trail (吉田ルート)

Japan Hyakumeizan (日本百名山)
Japan Sanreizan (日本三霊山)


Overview
Mount Fuji or Fujisan is without a doubt the most iconic mountain in Japan: the mother of all meizans and the supreme sanreizan (the most hallowed of the three holiest mountains of Japan). Famed for its symmetrical cone and a place of pilgrimage for centuries, Mount Fuji was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as a 'sacred place and source of artistic inspiration' in 2013. As a volcano, Mount Fuji is dormant, not extinct: its last major eruption was in 1707, and there are concerns that it could blow its top again in the not-too-distant future.

Route Planning

The official climbing season for Mount Fuji is restricted to the summer months of July and August, when the mountain huts are open and the summit is typically free of snow. There are four main approaches up the mountain: of these, the Yoshida trail (吉田ルート) starting from the Fuji Subaru Line 5th Station (富士スバルライン五合目) is by far the most popular. There are numerous mountain huts that line the trail, and separate paths for ascent and descent - handy given that the trail gets exceedingly busy, particularly at weekends.

Source: http://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/m3oati0000002egu-att/Yoshida2014_English.pdf

Log

It is drizzling when we set off from the fifth station. There are nearly forty of us - rather a large group. Securing accommodation independently on the mountain at the height of the season is no mean feat, so we decided to sign up with a Japanese group and let the organisers see to the logistics on our behalf.

'Make sure you bring a head torch and lots of spare change for the loos,' advised a friend who'd conquered Fuji a couple of weeks before. 'Also get a wooden staff or climbing stick when you're there - but bring a glove in case of splinters. The Fuji-themed nursing cover is optional - I think the little 'peak' is meant to go over baby's head and not mummy's ahem.'

What I'd omitted to pack was a waterproof cover for the rucksack, but thankfully the drizzle eases off just as I start to fret about that. Somewhat unexpectedly, we find a couple of stands giving out free chocolate bars as part of a promotional stunt at the sixth station. I saunter up and collect a Lotte 'Ghana' bar - because you never know when the extra rations might come in helpful. The slopes are still verdant here and, when the clouds lift, there are decent views of the Fuji Five Lakes area.

It is at the sixth station that the ascent really begins. Our guide gathers us round for a briefing - in Japanese only - on how best to tackle the climb: 'slowly' seems to be the key message, as he mimes taking one gingerly step after another - a bit like Marcel Marceau exploring a glass surface. 'Look at that,' says A, gesturing at the walkers thronging the trail ahead. 'From above, they must look like so many multi-coloured sprinkles swirling round the lollipop of the mountain.' 'Looks more like a refugee trail to me,' quipped M, whose sense of childlike wonder perhaps needed a bit more priming.

This is me sporting the imperial Japanese flag on my climbing staff, somewhere between the seventh and the eighth stations. 'It's meant to be ironic because I'm not Japanese,' I say to a couple of quizzical Yanks. 'A bit like me waving the Confederate flag.' Which doesn't seem to reassure them. We've come to a halt as someone in the group has succumbed to altitude sickness, so alternative arrangements have to be made for them. Several others in the group have brought oxygen canisters, and are gulping greedily from them as if their lives depended on it. I feel a little winded myself, although I suspect this has more to do with all that physical exertion instead of the thinning air... I hope I am not wrong.

We reach the 'Fujisan Hotel' - rather a grand name for a pretty basic mountain hut - sometime after dark. Located at the eighth station, the Fujisan Hotel is about 3,400 m above sea level. Dinner is a rather disappointing nondescript curry, washed down with a half decent lager. We are then bundled off to the dorms to try to get some shut-eye before the final push to the top in the wee hours. Perhaps it is all that fresh air, I am out like a light the moment I hit the mattress.

Sometime around two in the morning, the group is roused to prepare for the climb to the summit. It is a clear, cold night, and I find myself shivering in my fleece as we wait for the group to assemble. When we set off, you can see the twinkle of head torches up and down the mountain like a string of luminous pearls. We trudge up the scree slope in silence. It is still dark when we reach the torii gate of the Kusushi shrine, marking our arrival at the summit.

There are eight peaks around the summit crater of Mount Fuji, and our guide decides to take us up the highest one - the Kengamine peak (剣ヶ峰) (3,776 m) - for the sunrise. I find the final ascent a bit of a slog, but then we're there, jostling with the rest of them beneath the old weather station to catch the sun peek over the horizon. It's light by this time, but when the sun itself appears - a blazing ball of red in the eastern sky - it seems a strangely special moment, as if this didn't happen every day. But then I suppose it isn't every day that one watches the sun rise on Mount Fuji!

Would I do it all again? As the saying goes: 富士山に一度も登らぬ馬鹿、二度登る馬鹿 - a wise man will climb Mount Fuji once; only a fool would do so twice!


Fuji Sunrise

The following pictures are a celebration of sunrise or goraiko (ご来光) - the 'coming of light' - on the summit of Fuji (we were pretty fortunate to have had a relatively clear morning!):

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Nearby Attractions

Fuji Five Lakes

To the north of Mount Fuji, forming something of an arc around it, are the Fuji Five Lakes (富士五湖) - a picturesque area which, as its name suggests, is comprised of five lakes formed from previous eruptions and lava flows. The largest of these, Lake Kawaguchiko (河口湖), has a number of hot spring resorts on its eastern shore.
Every spring, the area also hosts the Fuji Shibazakura Festival (富士芝桜まつり), in which fields of blooming phlox are landscaped into striking designs.

Kusatsu-Shiranesan (草津白根山)

Location:	Honshu, Japan
Range:	Mikuni Mountains (三国山脈)
Elevation:	2,171 m (7,123 ft)
Route:	Moto-Shirane trail (本白根コース)

Japan Hyakumeizan (日本百名山)



Overview
Kusatsu-Shiranesan is an active volcano with three crater lakes on its summit. Of these, the Yugama (or 'hot water cauldron') is perhaps the best known, given its easy accessibility and its distinctive, milky-blue waters.

Route Planning

At the time of writing there was a one-kilometre exclusion zone from the crater, owing to a Japan Meteorological Agency level 2 alert warning for increased volcanic activity. Buses to Shiranekazan (白根火山) - the volcano - were accordingly not running, but the funicular (or 'ropeway') was still operational, and the trails around the highest point, Moto-Shiranesan (本白根山) (2,171 m), were still open. The Moto-Shirane trail (本白根コース) is an easy circuit from the ropeway station.

Source: http://www.kusatsu-onsen.ne.jp/hiking/detail/index.php?ccd=1

Log

If only I'd done my homework, I would have realised that the Yugama was off-limits at the present time. As it happened, I only found out about the exclusion zone at the Kusatsu bus station, when the man behind the counter made it clear that the bus service to the crater had been discontinued: 'Shiranekazan? No bus - boom!' he said, miming an eruption. Thankfully, the walking trails around Moto-Shiranesan remain open.

Unsurprisingly the trail is packed, given the lovely weather and the relative ease of the route. The views of the extinct central crater (中央火口), however, help to compensate for the crowds, as do the views from the summit of Moto-Shiranesan (本白根山) itself (2,171 m). I manage to catch the delicate dicentra in bloom (see the 'Flora' section below), which is a bit of a treat.

Coming off the summit of Moto-Shiranesan, the route wends past the Kagamiike (鏡池) or 'mirror lake', which occupies another extinct crater.

It doesn't take long to complete the Moto-Shirane circuit. Determined to make the most of a glorious afternoon, I decide to strike out towards the Yumiike (弓池), or 'bow lake', although I am not entirely sure it is shaped like a bow.
The Yumiike lies just within the exclusion zone, so there are no crowds here and I have the view all to myself.

One takes calculated risks in life. Figuring my presence on the volcano would make absolutely no difference to the probability of a minor eruption, I decide to cross the rope barrier for the short hike up to the Yugama crater lake (湯釜). I hadn't counted on being trailed by an official with a loudspeaker (I later found out his name was Sato).



Sato (on his loudspeaker): 'Danger! Return! Go back!'

Me: 'I'll be fine. A couple of photos and I'll come down.'
Sato catches up with me at the rim of the crater, just as I am about to snap a shot. 'No photo! No photo!', he insists, sticking his hands annoyingly in front of my lens. A brief scuffle ensues.
Me (indignant): 'If you break my camera, there'll be hell to pay! What's the matter with you? Where are the signs that say 'no photography'?'
Sato: 'Go back! I am rule!'
Me: 'No, you're 'rude'. You don't make the rules and you don't get to boss me around just because you're in a hard hat and a high-vis jacket.'
Sato: 'I call police.'
Me: 'Be my guest. I think you'll find they have better things to do than chuck tourists off mountains.'

As it turned out, they didn't.

Flora

Here are some alpine and meadow flowers I saw along the trail:

Red clover
(Trifolium pratense)

Dicentra peregrina

Chickweed wintergreen
(Trientalis europaea)

The dicentra - dubbed the 'Queen of Alpine Plants' in Japanese (高山植物の女王) - was a particular highlight for many of the Japanese walkers out on the trail.

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Nearby Attractions

Yubatake

The town of Kusatsu (草津温泉) at the foot of Kusatsu-Shiranesan has been renowned for its curative waters since the 13th century, although its transformation into a spa resort was largely down to the efforts of Erwin von Bälz, a German physician to the Japanese imperial family in the late 19th century. Scalding hot volcanic spring waters are cooled by exposure to air through a series of wooden conduits in the Yubatake (湯畑) (or 'hot water field'), before being channelled to various thermal baths. The process helps to precipitate sulphur and other minerals - somewhat poetically called 'hot water flowers' (湯の花) - which are then harvested. Owing to the distinctive smell of sulphur emanating from the waters, the Yubatake was voted one of Japan's top 100 'smellscapes' (かおり風景100選) in a Japanese Ministry of Environment poll in held in 2001.

Sai no Kawara Park

Located towards the western edge of Kusatsu, around the Yukawa (湯川) hot spring, is the Sai no Kawara Park (西の河原公園). The similarity of the name to Sai no Kawara (賽の河原) in the underworld of Japanese mythology is probably no accident: steam and fumes rising off the acidic waters must have given the place a slightly infernal air in a more superstitious age.
The large rotenburo (露天風呂) or outdoor bath in the Park is a great place for a soak - particularly in winter, when the surrounding landscape is blanketed in snow.

Amagisan (天城山)

Location:	Honshu, Japan
Range:	Amagi Range (天城連山)
Elevation:	1,406 m (4,613 ft)
Route:	Rhododendron circuit  (シャクナゲコース)

Japan Hyakumeizan (日本百名山)


Overview
Amagisan is an extinct volcanic range in the green, hilly heart of Izu - a peninsula with a relatively mild microclimate southwest of Tokyo. The highest point, Banzaburōdake, stands at 1,406 m (4,613 ft), making it one of the few 'mini-meizans' under 1,500 m. The forests that cover the region include rhododendron, beech and andromeda.

Route Planning
The 'Shakunage' (シャクナゲ) or 'Rhododendron' circuit (marked in pink on the map below) is an easy circular walk that takes in both Banjirōdake (万二郎岳) and Banzaburōdake (万三郎岳). A short extension along the Jyusoro trail (天城山縦走路) (marked in lime green) gets you to the 'little summit' of Ko-dake (小岳). The trailhead is near the bus stop for the Amagi-kogen golf course, and there are good views of Fuji to be had along the trail - on a clear day, that is.

Source: http://www.city.izu.shizuoka.jp/org/p2794_16.jpg

Log
Early that morning, from the ryokan in Itō, I saw the bank of cloud roll in. Low, thick and grey, it silently spread its pall, and the rain trailed in its wake. For a moment, I thought of calling off the walk - but I was here to climb another meizan, and I'd done enough D of E treks as a youth not to be daunted by a spot of damp atmosphere.

The first summit, Banjirōdake (万二郎岳) (1,299 m), was an easy amble from the trailhead. One of the few pleasures of walking in the rain - in Japan at least - is the absence of crowds. I would cross paths with only two others on the trail today: a strapping American chap striding across the traverse, and a lean local fell runner loping out from among the beeches.

Pictured on the left is the famed Japanese andromeda (Pieris japonica) tunnel - with pretty boughs bedecked with flowers in the spring, but looking something like a scene from 'Pan's Labyrinth' out of season. According to a helpful sign, 'there is a poison in the tree strong enough to make a horse which eats it suffer, and walk like it is drunk'. Hence the Japanese name asebi (馬酔木) or 'drunken horse tree'.

There was no chance of any Fuji views from the trail today given the weather. I did, however, stumble upon this rusted Fuji marker in the undergrowth a little off the trail. Not quite sure what it was doing there, as it certainly didn't mark any sort of vantage point!

The main summit on the range is Banzaburōdake (万三郎岳) (1,406 m), the highest point on the Izu peninsula. Located in a small clearing in the forest, there are no views to be had here whatever the weather. A short walk away, Ko-dake (小岳) (1,360 m) - the 'little peak' - is likewise forested, but is next to a beautiful ancient stand of moss-covered Japanese beech.

I was soaked and bedraggled by the time I boarded the bus back for Itō - but it was good to get some fresh air and some greenery!

Flora
Here are some of the flowers I saw on my walk:

Torch azalea
(Rhododendron kaempferi)

Alder-leafed whitebeam
(Sorbus alnifolia)

Hydrangea hirta

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Nearby Attractions

Jogasaki Coast

Not far from Amagisan lies the Jogasaki Cape (城ヶ崎), with an attractive stretch of coastline where the black lava cliffs of eastern Izu tumble into the pellucid waters of the Pacific. There are various hiking trails along the coast, and the Kadowaki suspension bridge (門脇吊橋) offers some splendid views.

Tanigawadake (谷川岳)

Location:	Honshu, Japan
Range:	Mikuni Mountains (三国山脈)
Elevation:	1,977 m (6,486 ft)
Route:	Tenjin ridge trail (天神尾根ルート)

Japan Hyakumeizan (日本百名山)



Overview
Tanigawadake has a bit of a bad rep owing to the number of fatalities that have occurred on the mountain. Located at a point where weather systems collide over central Honshu, the mountain is notorious for its changeable conditions. That said, it remains justly popular for its rugged charms, and the Tenjin ridge trail is not inherently more treacherous than any other. Just go prepared - this is not a mountain to be underestimated.

Route Planning

Perhaps the easiest approach to the summit of Tanigawadake is via gondola (or 'ropeway' as the Japanese call it) to Tenjindaira (天神平) - the Plain of the Celestials. From Tenjindaira, there is a clearly-marked and well-trodden trail to the twin peaks of Tomi-no-mimi (トマノ耳) (1,963 m) and Oki-no-mimi (オキノ耳) (1,977 m). Note that the ropeway can get extremely congested in high season.

Source: http://www.tanigawadake-rw.com/tanigawadake

Log

I am not sure why I chose Tanigawadake for my first hyakumeizan hike. Perhaps it was the vague sense of familiarity: apart from Fuji, it was the only other one of the hundred celebrated peaks of Japan I'd heard of - lodged in my consciousness, no doubt, when a couple of friends climbed it the year before.

In the stories of my boyhood, people were forever setting off on expeditions on bright, beautiful days, with the sun beaming on their backs. Today was clearly not to be one of those days. I was optimistic enough when I hit the trail: 'Oh, the sun'll burn through the mist,' I thought. Instead, it began to rain.

The climb towards the summit begins in earnest from the Kuma-Ana-Sawa emergency hut (熊穴沢避難小屋) - a mouthful of a name for a little refuge in a clearing. I meet a few fellow hikers taking shelter, but they have about as much English as I do Japanese, so all we do is nod and smile. The trail is steep and rocky in parts, and slippery in the rain. There are ropes along some of the sections - but I still manage to slip and graze my palm. It could have been worse, I suppose...

The small snow field on the upper reaches of the trail came as an unpleasant surprise. Compacted into ice by the press of passing feet, it made for a tricky patch. A fleece and a pair of crampons would have been a boon, but needless to say I hadn't thought to pack them - it being summer and all!

Thankfully, just above the snow field is the Kata-no-Koya (肩ノ小屋), a small mountain lodge in the shadow of the summit. I find the place rowdy with the chatter of the lunchtime crowd - no doubt dallying because of the bad weather. There's no denying that the warm fug of the interior makes for a welcome change to the cold outside. I manage to find an unobtrusive corner, where I nurse a hot coffee and tear into my pack of Pasco raisin buns.

Suitably fortified, I set out again to conquer Tanigawadake. The 'ears' of the mountain - Tomi-no-mimi (トマノ耳) (1,963 m) and Oki-no-mimi (オキノ耳) (1,977 m) - are a short walk from the lodge. (I wish I knew the origin of the names: as far as I am aware, no other Japanese peaks are called 'ears'!) Sadly, there are no grand vistas from the summit today - just a great grey murk of cloud and a cold, constant drizzle.


Still, I'll admit to a small, smug sense of accomplishment at having completed my first meizan!

Flora

Here are some alpine flowers I saw along the trail: 

Bird's eye primrose
(Primula farinosa)

Japanese moonwort
(Schizocodon soldanelloides)

Menziesia multiflora

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Nearby Attractions

Doai Station

Doai station (土合駅) on the Jōetsu line (上越線) has the deepest subterranean platform currently in use in Japan. Located 70 m underground (by comparison, the deepest Tube platforms at Hampstead are 58.5 m below ground), the climb up to the exit provides a good warm-up for the hike up Tanigawadake. There are no lifts or escalators, just 486 steps (I lost count, but the steps are helpfully numbered). The station itself is unstaffed and has the slightly run-down air of a rural outpost (which it is). A sign above the station entrance bills it 'Japan's premier station for moles' (日本一のモグラ駅).

Doai Memorial Park
Halfway between Doai station and the base of the Tanigawadake ropeway is a memorial park (土合霊園地) dedicated to those who have perished on the mountain. It is a tranquil spot with some interesting sculptures - such as Kōzō Naganuma's 'Image of Mountain Peace' (山の鎮の像) (pictured), which commemorates the death of a friend's son in a climbing accident. There is also a wall on which the names of the victims are recorded, with the earliest inscriptions dating from the sixth year of Shōwa  (1931).