I don't think it would be proper to say spring has sprung yet, but it is certainly coiled and ready!
Yesterday was a national holiday and I spent the night before planning and prepping for a long hike to a high, cold, snowy mountain. My plans were dashed near the end of the night when I realized that one of the trails I'd planned on using was closed. I had to pare back my plans. When all was said and done, hikeling to a nearer mountain made the most sense. I took my bicycle to the area behind Mt. Takao and headed up Mt. Kagenobu. This was probably my 3rd or 4th time there.
This was my bike route:
I rode along the pavement past the last bus stop. That is the Kobotoke Bus Stop which is a 27-minute ride from Takaosanguchi Station on the Keio Train Line. There is a parking lot a bit further down the road near the trailhead.
When the pavement ran out, I rode up the logging road/hiking trail . . .
. . . until ice and snow made that untenable. Then I got off my bike and put on my crampons to hike the mile or so left to get to the top of Kagenobu.
Kagenobu, similar to its neighbor Takao, offers great views--without the crowds of people that gather on Takao. This is Tokyo in the picture below.
I think this was the first time I've been up there that these places have been open. They serve food, drinks and sell t-shirts and the like.
They aren't in evidence in any of the pictures that I'm posting but there were a lot of people on the trails yesterday. I think Tokyoites are itching to get outside more.
Lake Sagami in the adjacent prefecture, Kanagawa.
Some of the hills of Kanagawa:
On the way home. Looking back where I'd been. I think this was a bridge over the Asakawa (Asa River).
Thanks for dropping by the cave.
Keep your fingers crossed. I'm really hoping go overnight somewhere while there's still snow.
Also featuring Dayan the Cat and bowls of steaming noodles
Tonight's Episode:
Searching for Nessie
Greetings cave-dwellers. This post will be a little bit different than others. For this excursion, I had Mrs. Caveman with me. What a treat. She's more fun than a sherpa! Better-looking, too. Truth be told, though, Sherpas will carry more of your stuff but what can you do? You can't have everything you want in life.
As I was saying, me and the missus took a day trip to Kawaguchiko (Lake Kawaguchi) to take in some views of Mt. Fuji. Even though winter is one of the four best seasons to see Mt. Fuji, this is the off-season so it was a win-win because we had the place to ourselves.
There are many ways to get to this area. For us, the cheapest and easiest was to catch the highway bus that runs from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko Station. We didn't have to go to Shinjuku because we could catch it on the highway along the way. Here is a link to the bus company's website. http://bus-en.fujikyu.co.jp/highway/ You can also get there by train. To do that, you would change to the Fujikyu Railway at Otsuki and head toward Kawaguchiko Station. (These methods or transportation will get you to Fuji Q Highland Park too.)
Here is where we alighted the bus. This station is also the departure point for the bus to the 5th Station on the Subaru Line for climbing Mt. Fuji.
(No Nessie there.)
From there, we walked about 10~15 minutes to hop on this ropeway up to Tenjoyama Park. The ropeway is a 3-minute ride and costs ¥900 roundtrip. You also could walk up to the park but the Missus and I have decided not to discuss that anymore. The ropeway also offers package deals combining their fare with the various buses and trains running in the area. We bought roundtrip ropeway tickets combined with a train ticket to Otsuki Station for our return home.
These pictures are from Tenjoyama Park. There are (of course) a giftshop and snackbar up there.
That mountain below is what brought this trip about. My plan to climb it last week was thwarted by a large dump of snow the night before I was going. So, my solo hiking trip morphed into a date with my better half.
(Is that Nessie under the bridge?)
(No. Still no Nessie.)
Sakasa (Upside-down) Fuji
(Obviously, Nessie was here. What else might have stirred up the water to disturb the reflection?)
The local delicacy is called Hoto, a hearty dish with thick, udon-type noodles. This restaurant is called Fudo Hoto (不動ほうとう) and has two branches on either side of the lake. It was yummy.
Notice the shape of the condiments containers.
There are lots of places serving hoto in the area but this one was the most advertised and also happened to be the only one open. Its good reputation is obviously well-deserved. Not only do they serve hoto, but you can get basashi. (Look that up in a dictionary.) Their website: http://www.houtou-fudou.jp/english.html
The one drawback? They don't serve Nessie.
It's always Christmas at Lake Kawaguchi! It's just like the North Pole or the Philippines!
Mrs. Caveman posed at the Kawaguchiko Craft Park with the owls. She's a looker so she's used to a lot of hooting.
We didn't do anything at the craft park other than taking a few pictures. They offer lots of craft experiences, rent bicycles, have a restaurant or two. . .
. . . and they have a lot of owl carvings! I think the guy in charge of wood carving learned how to make an owl and then stopped studying. There are owls everywhere but nothing else.
He most definitely never learned to carve Nessie.
One other place we dropped into gets no pictures! That's their fault. The Dayan Cat Museum didn't allow pictures. http://www.konohana-muse.com/indexenglish.html
That place wasn't really my cup of tea. We only went there because the Fudo Hoto restaurant gave us coupons for cheap entry and a free drink. Their coffee and their restaurant were top-notch. Too bad we were already full from eating the hoto.
I'll be back for those another day. Maybe Nessie is up there?
That's all for now. I'm on my way out the door to go hikeling now. I'll probably blog about that later if anything interesting happens.
I hiked in Saitama and Tokyo a bit today. The skies weren't clear enough for any good views, but fairly fresh snow and empty trails made for a nice day.
Crampons were a necessity today.
Here's my trail today.
I started at a parking lot near Nagurigawabashi and hiked up to Bonorei (Mt. Bono). From there, I hit three or 4 more peaks before the last one, Mt. Iwatakeishi. From there I descended to Route 202 and then walked along Route 53 back to where I'd parked. I walked about 5 km on the pavement today, 16km in total.
The hike took a little more than 6 hours. The snowy parts were slow. The pavement allowed me to make up time.
I don't have anything super-beautiful or insightful to share so I'm tempted not to blog about this hike but have decided to just to give the information about the trails.
This was my starting point near Nagurigawa Bridge. There is a bus stop nearby. I'd assume the bus comes from Hanno.
A shrine by my departure point.
The beginning of the trail was paved.
I liked this rock.
Leaving the road.
This boulder is called Iwatakeishi. Not to be confused with Iwatakeishi Mountain which I'd climb around noon. This is where I put on my crampons. I needed them for the next 4 hours or so.
Today's highest point was Mt. Bonorei. Here are some pictures of it from today and from October.
Today
October
Another spot today
The same spot as the last picture. I think this was in October.
Mt. Iwatakeishi. It was standing-room-only last time I was here.
Basically the same spot last April.
On the way down.
This cafe is popular with bicyclists. It's at the beginning of a hill that bicyclists ride up for training.
I don't like to descend the same way I go up that much so I often will hike in a circle. This sometimes means I need to close the circle between different trailheads by walking along the road. Today was one of those days. I don't mind it that much. I'm still walking in the woods.
That's all for today. Drop by the cave again sometime.
A nice walk from Okutama Lake to Okutama Station. Pleasantly surprised to see not one but two kamoshikas on the way.
This is Okutama Lake, a major source of Tokyo's water supply. It was created by damming the Tama River in 1957.
I took a bus here from Okutama Station. My plan, basically, was to walk along the Okutama Mukashi Michi from the lake back to the station. Muskashi means old. Michi means road. One way to translate it would be "The Old Okutama Road". Mukashi has another use, though. Japanese fairy tales always begin with "Mukashi mukashi"; ie, "Once upon a time."
Before actually going to the Mukashi Michi, I wandered around the dam and took a few pictures. Then I headed uphill behind the Okutama Water and Green Friendship Hall to check out those trails. There are a lot of switchbacks up a steep, southeast-facing slope and it offered some really spectacular views of the lake as the morning sun rose higher and higher over it.
As you can see from this map, a lot of trails were closed. I had to retrace my steps and start over to continue onto the Mukashi Michi but I had wanted to take a look around that hill for a long time and decided it was worth it.
It was! I ran into this guy. This is called, in Japanese, a kamoshika. The name is similar to the Japanese word for deer, but it's not. It's a serow in English. Out of all my trips into the Japanese woods, this is only my 4th sighting. And I got to see two at the same time today!
Not only were there kamoshika here, but there were a lot of monkeys. It was like a petting zoo.
My wildlife encounters weren't over. I found some poop!
I encounter scat (poop) in the woods often but usually have no idea what it is. Today I dropped into the Okutama Visitor's station before getting on the train and was told the poop in my picture is probably from a tanuki. (Japanese raccoon.) The reason the pile is so large is that they poop in a communal spot.
While I was there, I asked about bear poop. I know I've seen that before, too.
The Mukashi Michi was a very gentle, pleasant walk. I think this is my first hike in a few years that didn't bring me to some mountaintop or other. Most of the road is paved. Since I started at the lake (upstream), most of my walk was downhill. The only people I met on the trail were coming from the other direction. I liked my plan much more than theirs!
Remnants...
This is on the 3rd floor at the business across the street from the Mizune Parking Lot. On the street just below, there is a sign warning people to be careful of bees' nests. I don't think they are kidding.
A "grow operation" in the mountains.
The green stuff behind the fence is wasabi.
Getting there from Tachikawa means taking the Ome/Okutama train line to Okutama and then the #14 bus. From Tachikawa it would take about an hour and a half.
My jaunt was a nice, fairly gentle hike. I took my time because I took so many pictures and gawked at the kamoshikas but still finished in about 4 hours. It was a little more than 8 miles or 13 km. I walk a lot, though. Many might balk at walking 8 miles.
The Okutama Water and Green Friendship Hall has a lot of exhibits about drinking water and forests, but it's not geared to people who don't speak Japanese. That place has a nice cafeteria-type restaurant and a gift shop.
The dam has some exhibits, too. I seem to recall a diorama-type exhibit there.
If you are interested in the area but don't want to walk all the way back to Okutama Station, you might enjoy spending a few hours around the dam. One option would be to start at that Hall and take a walk to the far side of the dam to the Ikoinoro trail (いこいの路). https://goo.gl/maps/U1MBnBTPgCsNRW4w5
That trail traces along the lake so it's basically flat. It still manages to offer great views. I've seen lots of monkeys and once a bear on that side of the lake. I have even seen masses of bullfrogs doing things that I don't want to describe. It was yucky. My biologist nephew would probably think their activity was interesting. There are plenty of picnic tables around if you want to bring a lunch or you could drop into the restaurant at the Hall.
