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Monday, Monday. It’s probably my least busy day at work, but it’s also my prep day for the entire week. That means I have no “catch up” days for the next 4 days, just business. However, I’m finding that a good hike on the weekend helps me return happily to work the next day. After Otakine with Eric I climbed up Utsushigadake with Dan last Saturday. After summiting 3 times and encountering rain, fog, wind, and snow, the 4th time was the charm as I came over the last rock to find the sun shining warmly. New signs had be erected, proclaiming the dangerous peril of the eroding summit peak…some things just WANT you to challenge them! They’re pretty much asking for it. 


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This week I made a dream come true and hiked up Mt. Bandai with Rachel. It’s the local volcano, last erupted in 1888 and leaving several lakes and a chunk out of the mountain in its wake. I supposed I should say “one” of the local volcanoes because we’re on the Ring of Fire for cryin’ out loud. It’s neighbor, Mt. Adatara to the north, blew up a year later in 1889, and is famed to host one of the most beautiful 360 views in the region. It’s now on my list. I’m getting this terrible habit: as soon as I summit a mountain and look around in my binoculars, I spy a mountain even cooler and higher than the one I’m on and start planning my next ascent. Thanks to google maps and google earth and google in general I’ve got a system for route planning:

1.     Figure out the name of the mountain. This is a little difficult since it’s not always written in both kanji and romaji (English letters).

2.     Google the daylights out of it and try and find a blog or trail map in English. This usually fails, especially if it’s a local mountain.

3.     Google the mountain in Japanese, which usually results in too much information that I can’t read or sift through.

4.     Go to my new favorite website, yamareco.com and find the mountain using the map function. From there I can click on users’ routes and hope they took lots of pictures. It’s unique in that it utilizes the GPS information uploaded by the user and matches the picture taken with the exact point on the topographic map. Super helpful, especially when you need to know where to turn in a land with no street signs.

5.     Find someone crazy enough to follow my directions.

6.     Find a weekend where I don’t have some random work activity and the weather is nice and I’m not sick.

7.     Have a wonderful hike.

Of course I’m a little limited in the transportation department. If I ride my bike I can’t go too far. If I take the train I can’t bring the bike because it’s not allowed. I can hope there’s a bus at the train station but then I have to be SUPER sure it’s going in the right direction and pretty much know the names of all the local places where I’m headed…and how to read it in kanji. And hope the bus schedule fits my hiking schedule/route. And make sure I’ll be in time for the last train home.

Anyways, I got up at 6am to make myself some power pancakes (wheat pancakes, wheat germ, blueberries) and pack up for the day. We took the 8am train and waited only 3 minutes in Koriyama before our other train left for Inawashiro. Upon arriving we sighted the mountain and plotted the first part of the course: through the rice fields. Turn left from the station, go about 1 mile and turn right by the shrine. Oooookay. From there we easily found our next checkpoint and passed some campgrounds. Then we had a map fail. Right at a crossroads in the map, a giant circle had been superimposed and it was impossible to tell whether we should turn or go straight. We went straight. After about 5 minutes of walking on a paved path-like street a lone woman came walking towards us carrying freshly cut mountain flowers and grasses. She was wearing a bear bell and it clanged noisily with each step she took. Covered head to toe with layers suitable for gardening, it was obvious this lady was not out for a stroll up the mountain. She was also the only person we’d seen for the last half hour. I stopped to ask for directions.

“Excuse me, is this the trail up the mountain?”

“Nope, this definitely doesn’t lead up the mountain.”

“Oh, I see. So, where is the trail?”

“I’m not sure, but this isn’t it. You should turn around.”

“Okay. I brought a map. Can you tell where I might have missed my turn?”

“Hmm….you should turn at the road. That will lead you in the right direction and keep your eyes peeled for the trail. Good luck!”

She walked us to the junction and bid farewell. We took the prescribed turn and shortly found the trailhead, well marked of course. The next half hour was a steep climb up a ravine, swatting at gnats that swarmed around our faces.



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Lake Inawashiro ski slopes.
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Lake Inawashiro, town, and rice paddies
We came out of the jungle at the nearby ski resort, tumbling onto the waving grasses of the wide slopes. Ever upwards and onwards, the bugs quickly dissipated and the sun shone brightly though never hotter than a mild 70 degrees. Perfect temperature combined with blue sky and a light breeze served as our hiking weather throughout our entire duration on the mountain. Climbing up the trail we continually looked behind us to an unobstructed view of Lake Inawashiro and its town. The flooded rice paddies reflected anything and everything, giving the earth a shiny, serene appearance. We passed a few people coming down and a few people going up, mostly middle-aged men and women out for a group hike. 

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Southeast side. I'm gonna climb you!
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rounding to the north side
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The terrain varied as we approached the saddle of the mountain. There are actually two peaks opposite each other and in the middle is a swamp filled with croaking frogs and sketchy half-dried pools of stagnant water. It’s regarded as a national reserve area. This saddle area was very flat as we walked from the east to the west. 


Starting to climb again we approached very rocky trails, the result of the eruption. It blew my mind (pun intended) to think of these large rocks, boulders, being effortlessly shot out of the ground like rockets from a huge force of the bowels of the earth. Pffftttt! We made our way to the roped off area of the crater, which was more like a huge chunk of the mountain completely blasted away exposing its red layers. From the crest we saw a panoramic view of the north valley, Goshikinuma, Lake Hibara, and other lush valleys and lakes created from the eruption. 

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We continued up and found a natural spring to the side of the trail, welcoming travelers with fresh cold water. There was even a complementary cup provided if you were willing to share with everyone else. I just used my imagination.

We started to pass more and more hikers as different trails started to merge towards the top. We passed a hut serving refreshments but didn’t stop. On the last trail to the top we frequently pulled over to allow others to pass on their way down. It was a nice break from the stair-like trail to stop and look at the mountain sakura in bloom. Finally approaching the summit we looked around for less than a minute before sitting down and greedily reaching into our packs for lunch. I was so hungry! Good thing I made power pancakes. 


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Let's go walk over that cliff!
Like I mentioned before, there are several trails to the summit, each one starting in a completely different location surrounding the mountain. We decided to take two trails, one up the east side and one down the south side. The south trail is the shortest but also the steepest since it goes straight down the ridgeline. It also parallels a gondola from a ski resort so we hoped it was running for the summer hiker season. Before we hit the trail we asked a few bystanders to take a picture and asked if they knew about the gondola. They didn’t know if it was running, but suggested hitchhiking if nothing worked out. I didn’t know the word for “hitchhiking” at the time, so she gestured pulling up her pant leg and sticking out her leg! Of course I understood immediately and we all got a good laugh out of it. International signals. Awesome.   


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Climbing down was an adventure in itself; the trail was so steep we couldn’t see very far in front of us because it looked like we would fall off of a ledge. The top half of the mountain was above the tree line so we had an unblemished view of Lake Inawashiro the entire time. We passed a few patches of snow, happy mountain flowers, and enjoyed the bug-free zone of high altitude. We eventually got to the gondola station, which was closed. It may not have even opened for skiing this year. So, instead of catching a ride we continued walking all the way down, down, down, down, down, down. 

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But I want to go THAT way!
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Ski slope trail and the ridge of Bandai in the background.
Finally arriving at the ski slopes we took a shortcut down one of them. I sat on my rain tarp and started to slide down, but quickly stopped to avoid ripping a hole in it. Next time I’ll be prepared with something more durable. After tearing up our calves and shoving our toes into the top of our boots for such a long time, we walked backwards down the grassy slopes for some relief. From there it was the long road home, or at least the road to the train station. 


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Since we took two different trails from two different locations, we ended up closer to a different train station. It was a smaller station and some rapid trains don’t even stop there. We had an hour to kill so we went in a little local store and loaded up on snacks and drinks. We took naps on the train platform because it was delayed by a half hour. When we finally boarded and started making progress, it stopped on the tracks for another half hour to wait for passing trains. When we finally got to Koriyama we beelined to a ramen shop and ate a hot bowlful of yumminess. I’m not sure what the broth base was, but there was a nice slice of tender pork, boiled egg, veggies, and noodles.  What a great ending to a great day.