The One that Got Away

To cave-curious comrades, cronies confidants, and cretins of all ages and both sexes, welcome.

**(Friday afternoon)**

A three-day weekend is going to start in about 3 hours and I'm at my desk anxiously twiddling my thumbs working hard.  I am just killing time maximizing the time left here until I can blow this joint they force me to leave.

Don't get me wrong.  I love my job.  I really do.  Except for the TPS reports and their cover sheets.  I don't think I'm going to do them anymore.  It's the best.

I was just telling my friends, the Bobs, how hard I work.

It is an absolutely picture-perfect day here--at least it is outside my cubicle.  The weather forecast for my weekend's camping trip and hike is not looking so swell, though.  Keep your fingers crossed that the meteorologists are wrong again.  

Enough with the silliness.  Let's get on to the cave report.

**(Monday afternoon, upon returning)**

What a great wet trip that was!  Mrs. Caveman and I drove to the Togakushi area of Nagano City on Sunday morning.  After taking up residence at the Togakushi Campground, we did the tourist thing.  We had soba for lunch because it's the specialty up there.  We went to a ninja museum and went for a walk in the woods.  Last night was spent next to a campfire.  Lovely. 

I slept like a log very little last night.  I was awakened by the pitter-pat of raindrops around midnight.

We got up and had breakfast before putting the day's plans into action.  Mrs. Caveman was to stay around the campground and visit the Togakushi Ranch while I climbed Mt. Takatsuma.  We had breakfast and I headed off the trail leaving her to do her thing.  It was a great day.  Mrs. Caveman got to sketch some fall foliage and I got to bag another of the 100 Famous Mountains. took down a very wet tent and packed it up.  We packed everything up.  It had rained all night and was showing no signs of letting up

So . . . Our trip was cut short and I don't have a mountain report for you.  Some day I will get back to climb Takatsuma.  I like spending time with Mrs. Caveman, so it wasn't a big loss.

If you're interested in going there and want information, I'll leave what I'd already input into my template.  Below that, I'll post some pictures of the places we went.  

Location:  高妻山　Mt. Takatsuma Togakushi, Nagano

Starting and stopping point:  戸隠キャンプ場 Togakushi Campground

Peaks bagged: 

(First-time) peaks

Getting there/getting around:  

I drove.  Mrs. Caveman and I spent the night at the Togakushi Campground and I left our car there.  There is free parking near the trailhead for daytrippers.  Checkout is in the morning, but if you get the basecamp plan, they'll let you check out at 4:30 for just another 500 yen.

It is possible to get there by public transportation.  From Tokyo, take the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Nagano Station.  (Or you could take the bus from Shinjuku to Nagano Station.)  Change to the Nagano Togakushi Bus Line for the Togakushi Camp Ground.  Depending on your choice of routes, it should take between 4 and 6 hours and cost between 6,900 yen and 10,000 yen each way.

Map: 山と高原地図18 妙高・戸隠・雨飾 火打山・高妻山・信越トレイル

Weather Information: Japanese weather forecast

Total Time:   Break time:   Distance:  

Elevation:  Lowest:  Highest:  Total Ascent:   Total Descent: 

Technical considerations/difficulty:  

Facilities:  Togakushi Campground

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

Today's listening: Bible in a Year

Places we went and things we did.  

Togakushi Ninja Museum/Trick Mansion/Folk Museum  This was fun.  Togakushi is home to Togakure Ryu Nippo, one of the three schools of ninjutsu.  The ninja museum has a lot of pictures of ninjas in training and lots of (real) tools of their trade.  That was very cool.  Make sure you read the captions on the pictures.  The Trick Mansion is a building you need to find your way out of by finding hidden passageways.    There are a few other attractions there.  It was 650 yen.  Well worth it.  

Togakushi Ranch 戸隠牧場

82 Mori no Manabiya  The 82森のまなびや is a cool place.  Mrs. Caveman and I dropped into it and checked it out.  There's a lot of great stuffed animals--deer, serow, eagles, hawks, foxes, ten, etc.  Also, there is a lot of good information about the forest habitats.  It's really well done and entertaining and informative for kids of all ages. 

Togakushi is also famous for some shrines.  That's not our bag, so we didn't go to any.

Here are some pictures:

Those are some of the hills I had planned to hike . . .

On Sunday, before the rain started, we dropped into the Ninja Museum/Folk Museum/Ninja House

One building houses articles one would find in a farmhouse of about 100 years ago.  

This first picture is what the kitchen was like.  

That open hearth is called an irori.  It was a place for cooking and usually the main source of heat for a home.

On the second floor of that building is the ninja museum.  There are three schools of ninjutsu and there are only one or two trained ninjas left.  (Depending on who you believe.)  The man that is the head of this clan is named Masaaki Hatsumi.  He also founded Bujinkan, an international martial arts organization, which boasts several hundred thousand members.

There are pictures of people doing ninja training all over the museum but I have no idea about who they are or when and where they were taken. 

The caption says, "Art of Disguise."  

I guess he was shooting for Quasimodo?

Or, perhaps, Kato, Inspector Clouseau's trusted servant?

I was surprised at the variety of weapons they had which utilized fire.  Poison also was big.

I love these roofs.

After the museum, we went for a walk through the woods.  We started down the trail toward one of the shrines but--it was far and we weren't that interested.  We walked on a trail that parallels the road.

After a bit, we reached the 82 Mori no Manabiya.  (82森のまなびや)

82 is the name of a bank, my bank, actually.  Mori no manabiya means "forest-study-house."

It has some great displays.

No wonder my bank fees are so high.

Wild boar (inoshishi), serow (kamoshika) and the butt of a deer.

That was Sunday.  

Sunday night it starting raining around midnight and rained non-stop.  I decided to give up on hiking Mt. Takatsuma during the night.  This is what our site looked like in the am. 

On Monday, we packed up and dropped by the Togakushi Ranch (戸隠牧場) before heading home.

Sigh

Guineau Pig Pythagora Switch!

That's all for today.  Subscribe, etc.

Caveman out.

Scandalous! Japanese woman bathing al fresco in the mountains. Japan's highest outdoor bath and Mt. Tengu.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cave visitors of all ages.

How'd you like my clickbait title?  It's hard to become an influencer.  In my last few posts, I mentioned skinnydipping and you wouldn't believe how many views I got.  I'm not sure how I feel about the type of new readers I'm getting, though.

Unlike many internet entities; I'm not lying with my titles.  Maybe gilding the lily a bit, but I'm not lying.  Keep reading and you'll see what I mean.

Honest.  You can trust me.  I'm not like the others.

Anyway . . .

I went for a bit of a hike on the Yatsugatake Range yesterday.  It wasn't a picture-perfect day, but it was still a great experience.

Location:  Tengudake 天狗岳 Nagano

Starting and stopping point: 　稲子湯唐沢橋登山口（みどり池入口）

Peaks bagged: Higashi Tengu (東天狗岳) ~~ Nishi Tengu (西天狗) ~~ Neishi (根石山) ~~ Mikaburi (箕冠山)

(First-time) peaks #828, 829, 830, 831

Getting there/getting around:  I drove.  There are buses to the trailhead I used.  They run between the Nitago Onsen and Koumi Station 4 times a day starting in April 22.  I guess they run until the snow makes the road impassible.

Map:  Yama to Kogen Chizu 33 YATSUGA-TAKE TATESHINA・UTSUKUSHIGAHARA・KIRIGAMINE 八ヶ岳蓼科・美ヶ原・霧ヶ峰

Weather Information: Nishitengu (Japanese)

Total Time:   7:08 Break time: :36  Distance:  16.5 km (just over 10 miles)

Elevation:  Lowest: 1,571 m Highest: 26,46 m Total Ascent: 1,386 m  Total Descent: 1,386 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:  Much of this is above the treeline.  There are not a lot of spots with chains or ropes but a lot of this hike is steep and there are a lot of boulders to negotiate.  I think the only places where getting lost would be a possibility would be at trail intersections.  Most of them are well-marked, though.  If you pay attention, you should be fine.

Facilities:  There are lots of onsens, huts and waterholes.  There are several campgrounds.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  This is, I'm sure, a great collection of mountains, but I really don't know just what they look like.  It was not clear enough long enough over a wide enough area for me to have gotten a good look!  The one peek I got of the peak of Tengudake from below was really cool.  This is another on a long list of mountains I have to go back to.

I was surprised at the number of onsens and campgrounds in the area.  I also was surprised by the number of people I saw.  It didn't ever seem crowded, but there were a surprising number of hikers up there.

Today's listening:  

Bible in a Year

                               

 Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton, read by David Grizzly Smith  

"The only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge. Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel." Orthodoxy

I have listened to or read Orthodoxy, and a few other Chesterton classics, several times.  I find more and more gems each time.  He's not immediately accessible.  I find that the first 90% of a chapter is usually bewildering and takes a lot of concentration.  The last 10% or so when he pulls everything together makes the hard work worthwhile!  And, along the way, some of the quotes are just so clever and, well, quotable.

OK.....let's look at some pictures

The Shirabiso Hut next to Midori Ike.  There are camping sites here as well as some food, etc.

Midori Ike (Green Pond)

Looking up toward my invisible destination, Mt. Tengu.

Looking up from Midori Ike in another direction toward Mt. Inago.

Back on the trail

Mt. Tengu's eastern peak

Looking back at the eastern peak from the western peak. 

People were standing and waiting with their cameras for a long time hoping for breaks in the clouds.

This is the first fall foliage I've seen this year.  It's at an elevation of about 2,500 meters.  It's still all green down below.

The buildings are the Neishi Hut and that is Mt. Io behind them in the cloud.

"Io" means "sulfur".  It is the same word as is "Iwo Jima" ("Sulfur Island")  Sure enough, it smelled like sulfur around here.

That is a woman taking a bath in Japan's highest outdoor bath.  I'm glad she was clothed!  Even so, I wish she wasn't there.  I really felt creepy taking a picture with a scantily-clad maiden (actually, more like a grandmother) in it--even from a distance.  I couldn't not get a picture of this pool, though.  That is cool.  

The path to the outdoor bath . . .

This is the marker proudly pronouncing Japan's highest outdoor bath.  I felt really awkward whipping out my iphone to take a picture here.  The woman in the bath was the only person around.  I made some small talk with her when I took this picture and tried to make it obvious I was more interested in the sign than in her.  Haha.  She didn't seem to mind me being there.

Mt. Io

This is the Honsawa Onsen.  This is the business that owns the outdoor bath.  (1,000 yen, by the way.)  They have some indoor baths, too.  There is also some lodging and several tent sites there.  I saw quite a few people there and they all seemed to be having a great time.

Walking through the Honsawa Onsen

Before heading back to the car, I passed by the Midori Ike again.  Thankfully, the clouds had cleared and I finally got a picture of Mt. Tengu.

Well, cave dwellers, that's all for now.  Come again.

Caveman out.