(Taken from Mt. Iwaki)

S'up?

Trigger warning. Discussions of nudity ahead.

This summer vacation's goal was to come do some hiking in areas of Tohoku that I had not yet touched. I had never hiked in Iwate, Akita, or Aomori and wanted to knock off all of the 100 Famous Mountains that are located here. Unfortunately, when I planned this trip, I was really bummed out because one of those mountains was off-limits. Mount Hakkoda was closed because of a bear attack, and I resigned myself to having to skip that one. Fortunately, Mayor Vaughan took the bull (bear) by the horns and managed to open the mountain.

As it turns out, I didn't meet any bears. Phew. I encountered far more dangerous creatures, though. Naked women. Read as far as my report on facilities below to find out.

How I found out about the re-opening of Hakkoda was quite serendipitous. Mrs. Caveman and I were checking out of one Airbnb (in Kuroishi, our base for Mt. Iwaki and for going to the Nebuta Festival in Aomori), about to head to our next one in Miyako which would be the base for my hike to Hayachine. As we were leaving, Mrs. Caveman casually mentioned my thwarted trip to Hakkoda to the host and he told us it was open. I'm sure my face lit up like a Christmas tree. On the spot, we decided to go to Hakkoda on the way to Miyako.

Mrs. Caveman is the best. First, if she hadn't mentioned Hakkoda, we wouldn't have known about the opening. Second, she is the one who said, "Why don't you do it today?"

. . . about Mt. Hakkoda

This is one of the 100 Famous Mountains. It's actually a range of 16 peaks. The highest one appears to be alternatively called Ouda, Ou or Oodake (大岳).

Area:

Nearby Lake Towada seems like a cool place.

Barayaki is the local specialty. Try it out, if you can.

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 this area.

Starting and stopping point:

Hakkoda Sancho Koen (Ropeway)

Beward of Bears

This mountain was closed for about a month because of a bear attack. The dead body of a man who had been picking mountain vegetables was found with evidence of a bear attack at the end of June. Eventually, a bear was captured, and DNA evidence of the man was found on the bear. The bear was culled, and the restrictions were lifted at the end of July.

That incident happened off the trail, near the Sukayu Onsen, but I was thinking while walking through the trail that it was the type of place that a bear could easily be hiding in the thick vegetation eating or doing whatever it is bears do.

Bear Information kumamap

Peaks bagged: Tomoyachi ~ Odake ~ Idodake ~ Akakura

(First-time) peaks # 1,135 ~ 1,138

100 Famous Mountain #64

Getting there/getting around:

I drove. The road up to the Ropeway costs ¥2,000 and the ropeway itself is ¥2,500 roundtrip in 2026.

There are buses from Aomori or Shin Aomori Stations.

Helpful Info

Weather Information:

Tenkura (Japanese)

Mountain Forecast.com for Hakkoda Ski Resort

Time and distance

YAMAP's Estimate Time: 4:18 Distance: 7.8 km

The Caveman did it in: Total Time: 2:55 Break time: :04 Distance: 8 km

Elevation: Lowest: 1,191 m Highest: 1,584 m Total Ascent: 640 m Total Descent: 640 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:

The area around the marshland next to the ropeway is suitable anyone. When you depart from there and head to the higher elevations, there are steep parts and several places with ropes.

Facilities:

Sukayu Onsen is the home of the Sennin buro (一千人風呂)--"1,000 person" "bath." This is a mixed-bathing onsen. (No kidding.) You can rent a bathing suit if you are less than adventurous. One thing to note is that the mixed bathing spot has no place to wash your body. You must do that in a completely different spot, the Tama No Yu (玉の湯). It's quite confusing because the big bath seems like any other onsen. There is a hanging curtain (noren) over the entrance to a changing room. After undressing, you can enter the bath. Well, that's what I did. I went in, disrobed my stinky, sweaty, yucky clothes and entered the bathing area to not find the expected shower/body washing stations. After some confusion and consultation with the locals, I was told to go down the hall to the Tama no Yu to wash up before I could come back to this one. Gross. I had to put my yucky clothes on again to walk down the hall . . . and then, after washing had to get dressed again to come back.

The Tama no Yu is separated into men's and women's sections.

I went down there and took a dip. Then went back to the Sennin buro. It wasn't until I got back in there the second time that I realized it was the mixed bathing area. I hadn't noticed before because I was too busy looking for shower equipment to note the biological equipment the bathers were packing. Sure enough, there were people packing different equipment than I!😏 There were people of all ages. Although clothing was optional, it seemed that only women opted for bathing suits. I think there was only one naked woman in there. TBH, I was glad the ones wearing bathing suits were clad. They weren't exactly runway material. The naked one was a different story, though. Hubba hubba. She had reason to be confident.

So, that's my story of seeing something more dangerous than a bear. I'll wager that in the history of the world, naked women have damaged men far more than wild bears have!

Mt. Hakkoda Ropeway (Japanese Only)

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

Great mountain. Do it. Fall must be out of this world.

I am very glad we did this in conjunction with a hike to Iwaki the day before. Iwaki was very visible, and very pretty, from Hakkoda.

If I did this again, I might eschew the ropeway and use the onsen as a base. I used the ropeway simply because I wasn't alone and we had time constraints.

Pictures

Just over Mrs. Caveman's head you can see Mt. Iwaki. We climbed it the day before. It was nice to get a good view of it from here.

This is a view of Hakkoda from Iwaki

Back to pictures of the day in question.

The weather made for a picturesque walk.

That's Odake. Today's highest goal.

At the top

The port of Aomori was barely visible. I think on a crystal clear day, you can even see Hokkaido.

Don't quote me on that, though.

Idodake

Akakuradaka

Here and there I encountered these pallets of construction materials. Obviously, they were slingloaded up here by helicopter. It reminded me of when I climbed Mt. Ryokami and met the owner. (Yes, that mountain, like many, is privately owned.) That hard was as hard as woodpecker lips. He was probably 60 but had the physique any 20-year-old would be proud of. Mt. Ryokami, in Saitama, is not very high but it is a rugged mountain that demands respect. I was really amazed at all the improvements on the trail: concrete or cast-iron stairs, chains, ladders, etc. I asked the owner about the expense of getting all that stuff up there by helicopter. He looked at me sideways and said, "I guess they might do that nowadays. I carried all that stuff up there myself." Wow.