Hiking to Fumotoppara
I didn’t see a single person from start to end. It was a nice contrast to Koan Camping ground which was a bit too packed for my liking. I was playing music through my little bluetooth speaker and singing along like no one was watching, because literally no-one was. I came across a handy mirror for me to take a selfie.
Eventually I left the road and my navigation app, Komoot pointed me down a hiking trail. Really recommend it by the way, it’s like google maps but it has all the hiking trails on it too. It also gives handy information about the routes like surfaces, gradients, altitude, etc.
It felt nice to be in the middle of nowhere.
Eventually I got to a little junction, but the trail I was supposed to go was technically closed. A little bit of rope isn’t going to stop me.
The trail was sort of hard to find at times through the woodland part, with only the red tape on the trees to follow.
But once I reached the path up the mountain the path became super clear. And by the way the path was pretty steep, and my super heavy backpack didn’t help.
Halfway up I had a little break and ate my strawberry edition pocky. mmmmmmm.
Eventually I reached the highest point of the trail. I had the option to turn left and hike up to the peak of the mountain I was on, but with another 2 hours still to go I decided not to. There was a nice view of Fuji though.
I followed the Tokai Nature Trail back down the other side of the hill into the Shizuoka Prefecture.
I was about to cross a small stream when two huge white-tailed deer screeched and jumped off from the other side. They were too fast for me to take any pictures of 😦
The trail started to flatten out as I was approaching the bottom of the mountain.
Then finally I made it out of the forest.
Looking back towards the mountain I hiked over.
Strangely I came across this public toilet in the middle of nowhere.
And this rather lonely-looking pigeon.
Then I made it to some wide open farmland.
I met some cows.
I came across this very strange abandoned funicular sort of thing just off the side of the trail.
Just before I reached Fumotoppara I spotted this at the top of the hill. Maybe the funicular leads up to there?
Anyway, I was only a couple hundred meters away from the next campsite.
Tom's Blog 