Good x-rays. A long tale before getting to the long trail

 



The good news is that the x-rays were OK.  What x-rays?  Keep reading to find out.


I haven't blogged about my last few excursions.  I'd just been running a few days after school in the Uratakao area and it didn't seem worth blogging because the weather wasn't conducive to pictures.

One noteworthy thing about being in the mountains during rainy season is how slippery it can be.  One case in point was the other day.  I was just starting to descend from Mt. Kagenobu.  It's quite steep and the mud was slick so I was really being careful.  Just when I was very conscientiously picking my way slowly downhill both legs went out from under me and I crashed down to the ground on my 4th point of contact*.  If someone had a camera running, I'm sure I would have become famous in one of those virus videos I hear the kids are watching on the youtubes these days.  It must have been something to see.  We're talking Three Stooges-level slapstick.  Simultaneously with my legs going out from under me, my arms pinwheeled back and both hands smashed into the ground at precisely the same time as my posterior made contact. 

*"4th point of contact" is how paratroopers say "ass".  It comes from the order your body parts should hit the ground when parachuting. 

My first thought was, "A broken hand would really be inconvenient."  Well, not exactly.  My language might have been a bit more colorful than that.    Both hands hurt just enough for the rest of the day and into the next morning that I decided to get an x-ray to be sure I was ok.  It wasn't the pain or injury that bothered me so much as the thought of having to negotiate life in a cast (casts?) again for a while.  I broke my right hand a few years ago and that was one of the more inconvenient injuries I've ever had.  As someone who writes on chalkboards and whiteboards for a living, work was no fun for a few weeks.  I wanted to be 100% sure also because I still remember breaking my wrist when I was 5.  Mom didn't take me to the hospital for several days after I broke it assuring me it must be nothing--that every time we ran right to the hospital it turned out to be nothing.  We were surprised when we finally went to the hospital to find that it was broken.  Since then it has seemed whenever I do nothing, it's something I should have worried about. When I overreact, it's nothing.  Overreacting now seems wise.

I put off dealing with a pimple on my cheek for a year or two.  That turned out to be cancerous and necessitated two major operations.  As a wise man is fond of saying, "d'oh!"

So, when the doctor showed me the x-rays the other day with my beautiful hand bones all intact I was happy.  I felt like I'd won the lottery.  

While we're on the topic of breaks and x-rays, I'll never forget breaking my middle toe a few years ago.  I stubbed it one night in the dark.  I knew it was broken because I'd really whacked it hard.  I also knew nothing could really be done about it but I decided to get the x-ray anyway.  I'll never forget the doctor solemnly pointing at the image of my toes, "As you can see, it's broken here."   

Except he was pointing at the wrong toe.  He didn't miss a beat when I told him that it was the toe next to the one he was pointing at that hurt.  He just said, "Like I was saying, you can clearly see it is broken here."  

I should have asked him for my money back.  Heck, I should have charged him for teaching him how to read an x-ray!

But I digress.  It's my prerogative.  Besides, the name of this blog is Mostly Japanese Mountains after all.  Since I've gone into telling you that much of this story--and others to boot--I might as well give you some details on those two excursions before getting into what I did yesterday.  That one's the real point of this post.


June 3, Hachioji

One day I went hiking/running in a remote corner of Hachioji.  It was a nice trail for running.  Here is the map*



I started on the street but could probably have parked at the  Shingenin Shrine (心源院) where the trail starts. 1970 Shimoongatamachi, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0154   Shingenin/Shosanji

  The shrine:


This run took me by the ruins of Hachioji Castle.  I can't say they were much to look at but it is nice to know there is history there.  There's an information center for the castle ruins in the shrine's parking lot, so the ruins are obviously a big deal to someone.  I didn't take any pictures of the ruins because they weren't really much to look at, being ruined and all.
The run was 8km.


This is from the trail:




June 10

The day I hurt myself was on my next hike which was up to Mt. Kagenobu and Mt. Kobotoke.  Those two mountains are also in the Uratakao ("behind Takao") area.  They're not huge and have nice views of Tokyo and Mt. Fuji just as Mt. Takao does.  Kobotoke is particularly useful for working out because along with several trails there is a forestry road right to the top if you want to bicycle up there.  Near the bottom of that road, there is a campground called Hikagezawa Campround.  Hikage means shade.  Zawa means stream.  That name for the campground fits. 


This is the route I took that day.  (I started and finished on the right side of the picture.)





This is just before I fell on my butt.  That is Sagami Lake down below.




Musashi Itsukaichi Station to Sagamiko Station
June 13, 2022

We finally get to the latest trek.  On Monday of this week, I had the day off and decided to take advantage of it by hiking from Musashi Itsukaichi Station in Tokyo down to Sagamiko Station in Kanagawa.  This is about a 24 km (15 mile) hike.  I've hiked most of the way many times in the past but not this far at one shot before.  This is the route.



Let me get the details out of the way
Getting there:  Musashi Itsukaichi Station is the terminus of the Itsukaichi Line.  That is a spur off the Ome/Okutama Line--which  itself is a spur off the Chuo Line. The Chuo Line is the orange train line that runs east to west from Tokyo Station.  Depending on how much you spend/what kind of train you ride, it can be reached in 90 minutes or so from Tokyo or Shinjuku. 
Use googlemaps or something like that to get to Musashi Itsukaichi.  If you don't know the area, the orange trains can be confusing.  Some trains split in half and the front and back cars go to different destinations.  All manner of bewildering things can happen.  
Getting Back:  Sagamiko (=Lake Sagami) Station is the first station west of Takao Station on the Chuo Line.  Coming back to Tokyo, you may or may not have to change trains at Takao.
Distance:  24.5km 
Elevation:  Up 1,973m Down 1,959m
Facilities:  No water on the trail.  The only public restrooms are on Wada Pass, Mt. Jinba and Myou Pass, all of which are a long way into this hike.  Myou Pass and Mt. Jinba have some kind of snack bars but are only open during the busiest times; ie, almost never.
Time:  I did it in eight and a half hours.  I don't run, but I'm faster than most people.  



For this hike, I started at the Musashi Itsukaichi Station and walked along the street (Akikawa Kaido) for a bit before turning left, going down the hill to cross the river at the Kowada Bridge and finally passing into the mountains by the Kotoku Shrine.  Kotoku Shrine Map


This is Tokyo.  Can you believe that?

The shrine


This is a power substation.  I've seen this on maps before and was curious but have never taken the trail that passes by.  Seeing it was impressive.  It's huge.


This hike takes you across 15 mountaintops so there are several nice places to take pictures.  These are just a few.  (This post is already too long.  You deserve a medal if you're still with me.)



Skytree





This is Wada Pass.  You can't quite see it from this picture, but there is a street that runs perpendicular to the viewpoint of this photo.  It slopes down steeply on both sides.  Hachioji and downtown Tokyo is to the left.  Hinohara Village and Yamanashi are to the right.  There is a parking lot here.  (You have to pay.)  There's also a public restroom and a snack bar.  Mt. Jinba is 700 meters to the rear of that shack.  Mt. Jinba is one of the mountains I've climbed the most times because of its proximity to this street.  Every time I have ridden by here on my bike I have taken the opportunity to go to the nearby top of Mt. Jinba.




That horse-type statue is on the top of Mt. Jinba.
What exactly it is, and what exactly Jinba means is a mystery to me.  The Japanese character for Jinba has some relation to "battle formation" and "horse", maybe.  "Battle formation" and "place" seems to be one alternative old reading of Jinba.  Either way, it seems this mountain's name has something to do with where Takeda's army set up camp during the Sengoku ("warring states") Period. 


Whatever the etymology.  It is a mountain with really nice views 360 degrees around!  Fuji was hiding this day, though.




Getting close to the station.  This is the Yose Shrine.







I hope mountains keep me small.  That is, to say right-sized.  About the size of these guys.  I hope I never get too big to wonder at the beauty of Creation.
(This is a little installation at Sagamiko Station.)




 

Be sure to drop by my cave again soon.












test

 


This is a request for you cavedweller types.  

I'm trying to figure out how to link to GPX files so I can show more interactive maps on the blog.  Do me a solid, will ya?  Click on the links below and leave a comment to let me know if you see an interactive map or not.  So far it hasn't worked for me.  Thanks!

TCX Hachioji Castle

GPX


https://drive.google.com/file/d/18TRZZlg73bCRe94Hk0hANmKX_uoV7Oid/view?usp=sharing



Mitsumine Shrine to Nippara


Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, spelunkers and cave enthusiasts of all ages.  Welcome back to my mancave.  I'm glad you could drop by.  Pull up a rock and let me tell you a tale of a fateful trip.  It started from a tropic port aboard a tiny ship.

Oops.  Wrong tale.  This one is about Golden Week, 2022.

I was in a quandary as to what to do for a Golden Week trek.  There were a lot of options to sift through.  I finally decided to head to a particularly hard-to-get area to try and complete some trails that I haven't been able to yet.  

I love maps and have a few walls covered with them.  Maybe I am O.C. or maybe it's just because I'm a guy.  (I think it is the latter.)  But, for whatever reason, any mountain trail I see on those maps must be hiked.  It's not enough for me to climb every mountain a la Maria von Trapp, I have to trod every trail.

This section of map below shows an area between Chichibu City in Saitama to the north and Okutama, Tokyo to the south.  The dark blue line represents a stretch of trail between Mt. Imokinodakke and Mt. Tenmoku that I have wanted to complete for a while.  It's been frustrating because this area is kind of remote and it's not really possible to do in a day.  Even cutting it up into sections has proven impossible.  The light blue lines on the map represent plans I have made that were thwarted on the ground.  Twice I had to turn back because I encountered impassible spots on the trail.  




So . . . I decided to make an overnighter and knock out as much of this as I could.

Here's what the map looks like after my latest trek.  There is only a mile or two stretch left but even just that will take another whole day.




Let me get the transportation and stats out of the way and then I'll show a Google Earth view of the hike.  

Getting there: train to Seibu Chichibu Station--the end of that line.  Then a bus to Mitsumine Jinja (Shrine)--the end of that line.  This brings you to Mitsumine Shrine/the Mitsumine Visitor's Center at about 10:30 am.  I would have preferred to get there earlier but that's basically the earliest I could get there from where I live.  If you were coming from Tachikawa, you would have to get on a train before 7 to make it.

Coming back: bus from Higashi Nippara Bus stop to Okutama Station  (27 minutes).  Then the Okutama Train Line back to civilization.  

Staying:  The Toridani Refuge Hut.  I stayed inside the refuge hut for the first time in a while since COVID started.  People have discouraged their use except in emergencies since COVID started but people seem to have lightened up recently.  You can pitch a tent outside here, if you like.  There is water and a rustic toilet.  (Be prepared to bring your used toilet paper home with you.  Ewww.)

Route and Stats:

The first day I headed south toward Mt. Kumotori for something like 7 or 8km and then turned left (east) onto the Nagasawa Hairyo Ridge.  I followed that for another 10km or so to Mt. Toridani and then descended just below the summit to spend the night in the Toridani Evacuation Hut.  I had planned on going from the Toridani Hut directly down to a bus stop in Nippara the next morning but that trail was closed so I decided to retrace some of my steps so as to descend via Mt. Tenso.

I have had three or four smartphone apps and computer programs analyze the GPS data.  Depending on which one you believe, I hiked somewhere between 30 and 45(!) kilometers.  The consensus among the digital entities seems to be about 35 kilometers.  That's about what my body feels like, too, so I'll believe that.  Day 1 was 19km and day 2 was 16km.

One app reports that I burned 7,288 calories.  I believe it.  I came home more than 1kg lighter than when I left.  (It'll probably be back by tomorrow.)  

One app reports that I went up ☝3,648m and down 👇4,076m.  According to that app, apparently, I crossed a milestone of sorts with this trip.  Cumulatively, I've now climbed over 300,000 meters in elevation.  

I'm American.  As soon as I find out what that means in feet or miles, I will probably be impressed.

I may not be much, but I'm all I think about.  😉😉😉

This trip had me summiting 11 mountains, and 3 or 4 of them twice!




This is the Seibu Chichibu Station.  I was surprised at how many people were lined outside for my bus.  They had to order a second bus to accommodate us all.  I have mixed feelings about the number of people.  I go to the mountains because I like to get away from people.  On the other hand, I'm happy to see Japanese people back to recreating and I'm happy to think that maybe the tourist industry is doing better.

After an hour or so on the bus.  This is the sign that greets you at the terminal.  The shrine and the visitor's center here are worth seeing.  I skipped them this time because I've been there before but I'll put up some pictures I took on past trips.


The Mitsumine Shrine  (2019?  2020?)





The visitor's center had much cooler displays than I expected.  Definitely worth dropping in if you go by it.




I took this picture when I was headed toward Mt. Kumotori a few years ago.  That was a great trip.  I wish that I had started blogging before I climbed Kumotori.  There are actually many worthy mountains that I hiked before the blog.😢


Mt. Kumotori a few years ago.  I love that mountain.  I've climbed it 6 times.
Kumotori means something like "cloud" "gather".  Being the highest point around, it does gather clouds around it often.


The refuge hut on top of Kumotori.  It has breathtaking views and deer all around.


From Kumotori







OK.....back to this week.  

I mentioned there were a lot of people on the bus.  There were also a lot of people on the trail.  There is a mountain lodge on Mt. Kumotori and it was booked solid all week.  I don't think it gets that much business in most regular years because Kumotori is a challenge.

Happily, the crowd thinned out when I turned off onto the Nagasawa Hairyo Ridge.  I didn't see anyone else all day.

This is near the beginning of the trail.

This is near the top of the first mountain, Myohogatake.



Looking toward the Nagasawa Hairyo Ridge, where I was heading.


One thing I noticed about the first several miles of this trip.  There are a lot of sturdy, well-maintained break areas on the way.


I couldn't make out all that is written on the plaque, but this is a memorial for the shrine.





I was not making the time I'd hoped to.  It was a slow slog much of the day and I was running to beat the sunset.  These next few pictures were near the top of Toridani, my last mountain of the day.  I was really tempted to stay on top for the sunset but decided against it.



I made it down to the refuge hut before sunset.  Yay.  There was one guy, (middle-aged Japanese man) there already.  He had slept on Kumotori the night before.  

It's a nice hut.  I hear there is room for 7.  It would be a tight fit.


This is looking toward downtown Tokyo.  Can you pick out Otake?



After waking up at 4:10 am, I set off at about 5:30.  It was a little clearer on day 2.  Unfortunately, day 1 was pretty hazy and I didn't get many long views.

The mountain above my logo in the picture below is Mt. Ryokami, one of the Famous 100 Mountains according to Kyuya Fukada's book.


Mt. Ryokami, like many mountains in Saitama, is not very high but can be challenging.  I would even say dangerous. 

A hint of a rainbow!🌈











The shrine on Mt. Tenso.

It got really steep from here on down.  I was so glad I was going down this route and not up it!



The trail lets out onto the street near the Hatcho Bridge over the Nippara River.  It was a pleasant walk along the river for the last few kilometers to the bus stop at Higashi Nippara.  

There is trout fishing in this river and there are limestone caves you can visit, too.  




This is the Inamuraiwa ("rice plant" "village" "boulder").  It's a great landmark.  There is a trail to the top of it and I've been dying to get up there for a few years.  There was a big typhoon at the end of 2019 which devastated a lot of trails.  Then COVID came right after that and much of the repair work still hasn't been done.



This is just someone's house in Inamura.  What a beautiful garden.



























 



My dogs were barking!  
I had planned on putting more of my body into the water but it was so cold I thought my heart my stop.


That's all for now.  Drop by the cave anytime.


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