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. . . about Mt. Zao (蔵王山)
Mt. Zao is the name given to a collection of peaks extending across the border line of Miyagi and Yamagata Prefectures. It is a place famous for skiing, snow monsters, onsens and beautiful scenery.
Area: Tohoku (東北)
Tohoku is the name of this region of Japan. "To," which sounds like "toe," means east, and "hoku" means north. This area of Japan is famous for agricultural products inland and for fish and seaweed along the coast. The western side of Yamagata is on the Sea of Japan and it's eastern edge borders Miyagi in the center of Honshu Island. Miyagi extends from there to the Pacific coast in the east. Much of Miyagi was devastated in the disaster on March 11, 2011. Perhaps you remember the names of places such as Sendai or Sanriku?
Location:
Map: ***If you want a link to the latest Yama to Kogen map, comment and I'll get you a link. This link is to a printable topo map of the Zao area.
Starting and stopping point:
Peaks bagged: Mt. Katta (刈田岳 )and Mt. Kumanodake (熊野岳)
(First-time) peaks # 1,113~1,114
(100 Famous Mountains) peak # 58
Getting there/getting around:
I drove. There are buses also. Zao is a famous tourist destination so there are lots of ways to get there. You will often see skiing advertisements for Zao in Tokyo. If you want to go to Zao from Tokyo on public transportation, take the shinkansen to Yamagata and then transfer to a bus. You can get to Yamagata Station from Shinjuku by bus as well.
N.B. The public transportation options I just gave will bring you to the Yamagata side of Zao. I hiked from the Miyagi side. We also stayed on the Miyagi side at a great Airbnb in the Togattaonsen District.
Helpful Info
Weather Information:
Time and distance
YAMAP's Estimate Time: Distance:
The Caveman did it in: Total Time: Break time: Distance: km
Elevation: Lowest: m Highest: m Total Ascent: m Total Descent: m***
***This is a fairly easy walk. There is only an elevation change of about 200 meters and the distance is only about 5-6 km. I had Mrs. Caveman with me so went at a much more leisurely pace than normal. We spent about 3 hours taking in the scenery and enjoying ourselves.
Technical considerations/difficulty:
I guess in winter it would be a different story, but hiking here on a summer day could be done in sneakers and jeans.
Facilities:
The parking lot we started at has restrooms, a restaurant and a shop for souvenirs. It's the type of place tour buses use.
Thoughts/observations/recommendations:
So glad we did this. This was part of a four-day trip we took. We had basically 3 days in Miyagi. One we spent on the mountain followed by an onsen. On the other days, we dropped by a kokeshi doll museum (those are particular to Tokoku), we went to a bird museum of sorts called the Kotori Hausu, and on the same day, we checked out the Michinoku Public Park in Kawasaki was amazing. We also dropped into a fox Zao Fox Village. It's a giant fox zoo which you can walk through. The foxes are walking around freely. Not only that, but for ¥1,000, you can hold a baby fox and have a picture taken. They are really cute. On the way home, we drove through Sendai and then up to Matsushima. That part of the trip was a bit poignant for me. After the disaster in 2011, I volunteered in that area several times and on Sunday morning, we went to Mass at Shiogama Catholic Church, which was the base of volunteer operations. The volunteers would sleep on the floor of the Church and go out from there during the day to help with the cleanup. It was nice to see some of the locals and to see how the area has recovered in the past 15 years. Our final stop was Matsushima, a harbor with an amazing collection of islands strewn about it like dark jewels scattered on a light green carpet. Matsushima gained its title as part of the 日本３景 (Nihon sankei), (Japanese 3 scenic spots) in a book written in 1643. It is something to see.
Here are some pictures:
A longer video is here.
On the drive there
This is at the top of Mt. Katta
I try to make at least one snowball every month. I was successful this June.
With Mrs. Caveman with the Okama in the background.
This is at the top of Kumanodake
Looks almost like a cave!
Here are a few pictures from the rest of the trip....
I'm not saying where this is.....They don't want pictures uploaded to the internet.
Matsushima
Zuiganji Temple in Matsushima
Matsushima deserves a video because it is cool. I'm too tired, though.
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Caveman out
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