To the Mountains

Flowers and Missing a Cable Car

So, picking up where I left off in the last post, I checked out the flower fields. On the walk there There were some blossoms blooming and I snapped this picture.

I accidentally went the wrong way and turned left instead of right into some allotment area. But I found my way back to the road.

Next to the flower fields there is a cherry blossom viewing area/park sort of place. There were some more blossoms blooming but only several trees in the entire park. Still looked pretty nice though.

Next I made my way round to the flower fields. Which were almost void of any flowers. I say almost because there were some just starting to poke through the soil.

After that I took the train up north to the moutain Hodosan. It was a short walk from the train station to the cable car.

If you read my previous post you’ll know the original plan was to take the cable car up. But I was a little late and I got to the station at the bottom 5 minutes past the last trip. It was getting dark too. Then I thought f**k it and I decided to hike to the top. It was only an hour to the top and I’d get a nice sunset.

The trail was pretty steep and tiring, but I made it to the top eventually. I bought a sports drink from a vending machine next to the cable car station and ate some Japanese snack that was very bready and sugary.

I took some more shots around the top then headed back down.

It was completely dark by the time I got to the bottom of the mountain.

Into the Mountains

The next day Alessio and I had a wonder around and checked out the nearby shrine, after spending the morning chilling in Waplus Coffee and leeching off their wifi.

There was a big circle of what looked like hay, which apparently will cure illness if you walk through it a few times in a figure of 8. Lots of people were doing it in light of the COVID-19 situation.

We had a bit of time before my train out of Chichibu so we had some deep fried miso pork and gelato for lunch.

I took the Chichibu line to Mitsumineguchi. When I got out of the station it was pretty deserted. Almost no one around. The guest house was a short half an hour walk from the station. The scenery was pretty mountainous. On the way I snapped a couple shots.

There was some sort of dam or water treatment centre right next to the village the guest house was in. The village was right on the side of a really steep valley. Impressive scenery.

My room had a great view, but the thin japanese walls made it pretty cold. I didn’t mind shelling out an extra 500 yen for the heater.

I also found this Aohana wall scroll buried behind some furniture in the guest house. Looks like the owner is a fan 🙂

The next day I woke up and made some music. Felt great composing to that gorgeous view.

Then I walked back into town to check the bus times and get some food.

I’m planning on taking the bus as far as I can towards Kofu, hiking over a mountain, then taking the bus on the other side of the mountain into the city to my next hostel. The guest house owner seems to think it’s rather dangerous and is offering me a lift, but I’m not sure what his definition of “dangerous” actually is. Anyway, I’m going to give it a go. If it gets too dangerous then I can always turn around and go back.

Anyway, I found a small off licence shop in the village and bought some curry, bread and an ice cream. The shop keepers were quite old and there was very little stock on the shelves. They were really kind and asked where I was from (I don’t speak any Japanese but I picked up on the “doko” part). I headed back through the village and crossed a bridge, deciding to walk along the main road instead of the smaller one I used last time. I had my ice cream on the bridge. Again, really nice scenery.

And that brings me to now. I had my curry and rice, and I’m chilling with two other Japanese guests around a kotatsu. Hopefully tomorrow’s hike goes well.