Osaka to Kyoto

I started the journey this year from a friend's place in Esaka, Osaka somewhat in the middle of the commercial and office area of northern Osaka. We met since the very beginning of my stay in Japan, having matriculated at the same time, him a masters student and me a doctoral student. We have not seen each other for quite some time so we had quite a lot of catching up done since graduation.

Just staying a night in Esaka, I proceeded northwards to Kyoto, stopping for breakfast in Hirakata where there is a famous amusement park. I rode along the golf courses on the banks of the Yodogawa and by 1pm in the afternoon, I reached my guesthouse in Kiyomizudera, Kyoto city. Unfortunately the nearest bicycle parking was about 500m away near the river. Check-in time was also a few hours away so I used Couchsurfing hangouts to while away my time till then.

Together with the couchsurfer from the US, IG @radiant_void and I went to Fushimi Inari Taisha (again!). She was late so I went to have lunch in the ramen shop just outside the train station. It rained on our way up the hill but otherwise it was a good walk. That place is perpetually full of tourists and really difficult to take pictures.

Replica of the boats that used to ferry goods up the canals connecting Kyoto and Fushimi Inari.

After that it was time to check in to my guesthouse so I did and rested a little bit before meeting up with another couchsurfer from Singapore. We met up in a coffee place near Kawaramachi station. He happened to be the guy who quit his job to travel and see the world.

One of the shrines I passed by while exploring Kyoto

The next day, there was really nice weather so it was really good to have come to Kyoto with a bicycle. I explored all the back alleys and paths behind those houses and small shops inside the Kyoto city blocks. Eventually I reached Kinkakuji area where I started to turn back towards my guesthouse again. I rested a little and had something to eat for dinner before meeting and talking at length with some Japanese guy who was interested in physics.

Hakusan 白山

The temperature in Osaka has almost reached its summer peak, hovering at about 33 to 37 degrees. Seeking respite from the heat, some of us from the Physics Department took a night bus from Osaka JR station to Kanagawa in the Hokuriku region and then joined other hikers from around Japan to climb Hakusan 白山, one of the three Holy mountains of Japan. The other two being Fujisan and Tateyama.

Source: http://www.kagahakusan.jp/

The night bus started off from the station at 10:30 pm and we reached Kanazawa train station in the early morning at about 5:30am. We each paid 5000 yen for the one way trip. There was still some time for us to get some breakfast and do some last minute shopping for supplies at the ever present 7-11 station store.

We did not expect was the number of people queueing up to get on the bus. It was not any special holiday of season although it was just about a week before the 'celebrated' Mountain day 山の日 public holiday, which happens to be the day I am writing this. One bus was not enough and to my surprise they added another bus in the last minute. We each paid 2200 yen for the two hour trip to the starting point of the hike, Bettoudeai 別当出合.

The welcome rock. Hakusan National Park.

Nature awaits us!

We had no idea.

Our first stop for lunch was at the Jinnosuke Shelter Hut 甚ノ助避難小屋 . We ate our onigiris and various snacks while the other hikers took out their elaborate cooking equipment and boiled hot water for nice hot meals.

Lunch stop

Relieved that most of the difficult part of the journey that day (climbing mountains and hills) was over, we mad our way through fields of wild flowers and harvesting bees and annoying insects to our room for the night. The room fits five and we paid in total about 12000yen.

Other hikers who were going to minamiryugababa 南竜ヶ馬場

We are also on the way.

Can't wait to dip in the stream.

Definitely has the Swiss cottage look.

View from the other side.

Playing with ice cold water in a hot summers day on a mountain!
We are definitely closer to heaven that day.

So peaceful.

View of our shared room.

I've actually skipped a lot of details here. Nobody really reads a long blogpost anyway. Let's talk about what we did very early the next day. We actually woke up at 2:00 am. Had a quick breakfast, packed everything and started our ascent to the mountain peak. We made it a few minutes before the sunrise. Here are the pictures.

My first meeting with a glacier! I'm actually not so sure if I can call it that since its so small.
But it is made of ice, and its on a mountain.

Sun is coming up soon.

Hikers resting and waiting for the final moment.

There are way more hiker behind these.

朝日！Sun rising from the sea of clouds.

More sun pictures.

Just wow.

Someone broke his phone playing Pokemon Go.

The view of Murodo, the other accomodation closer to the mountain peak and the two glaciers.

We started the descent down back to the bus station at the starting point, 別当出合 to catch the first bus back to Kanazawa at 11:30. There are only three buses out from the mountain, 11:30, 13:30 and 15:30. We decided to walk down using another path, which is aptly named 観光新道 as there we saw the flower fields.

Some of the common flowering plants we saw.

Blue bells!

Those are some humongous pines.

魚中にパンが入ってる？パンの中に魚が入ってる？

Amazing right.本当にすごいの風景。

I really like this picture.

People and their phones. Sheesh.

The trip down the mountain was really bad for the knees and ankles. Even a few days after the trip I was feeling the pain and wasn't really able to walk down stairs or slopes. 足がまだまがらない。

We're not in Switzerland. But we might as well have been!

Thanks for the amazing trip!

Here is the link to the accommodations available at Hakusan, http://www.kagahakusan.jp/file/shisetu/etc.html 

To the peak of Mt Fuji

Getting there

There are many ways to get to Mt Fuji.

From Osaka (大阪): Take the Shinkansen (新幹線) from Shin-osaka (新大阪) station to Mishima (三島) station and then take the Fujikyu (富士急) bus to Kawaguchiko (河口湖) where you can then take the public bus to Fuji 5th station (五 合目).  Starting from the 5th station is one of the popular ways to hike to the top of the mountain. The timetable for the Shinkansen is provided http://english.jr-central.co.jp/info/timetable/

From Tokyo (東京): There are numerous bus companies operating from Shinjuku (新宿) direct to Fuji 5th station or Kawaguchiko. Bus information can be obtained http://highway-buses.jp/fuji/

In the summer, there is also the Narita express than runs twice a day direct from Narita airport (成田航空) to Kawaguchiko station.

The fun begins!

I travelled with a good company of people from my lab in the Experimental Particle Physics department in Osaka University to Mt Fuji on the 13th August 2015.

Excited climbers who can't wait to reach the top of Japan!

We started of at the 5th station after a nice lunch and about an hour of attempted acclimatisation. The weather was good with few clouds that blocked out view of the peak. The 5th station is about 2350m above the sea level. The 5th station also connects to the popular Yoshida trail (吉田ルート) http://www.fujisan-climb.jp/basic/trails/yoshida.html

Guidebook, leaflet and badge provided by Yamanashi Fujisan management when we paid (donated) our climbing fee of 1000 yen.

At the 5th station, there were frequent announcements to climbers to pay the 1000 yen fee which is used for maintenance and building safety structures. You are definitely very much encouraged to pay it. Toilets are 200 yen for usage on the mountain.

From the 5th station, we took about 6 hours to reach the 8th station Tomoe-kan (トモエ館) which was about 3400m above sea level. There were sandy and rocky paths and places where you might need to do a bit of rock climbing with you hands :). We rested for a few hours there before starting our peak ascent at 3am.

View of the mountain from 5th station.

Markers to tell you that you are on the right track.

Onward to Yoshida trail.

Map with a hint of mistiness.

This is so cool.  One of the guesthouses had this firewood kettle.

Prices of items increases as we went up the mountain.

One of the rocky paths.

The inside of Tomoe-kan.

The crowded sleeping/resting area. Not particularly comfortable for a good night's sleep.

It was the last night of the Perseid meteor shower. I did manage to see one of them that night although I felt quite tired due to altitude sickness. Not a good feeling but I did manage to recover after a few hours of sleep. 

Not too sure where this is. Maybe between 7th and 8th station. We were above the clouds most of the time during our climb.

The mountain path to the peak was getting quite crowded with people in the early morning. It was very misty and rainy too. I was glad we stayed at the Tomoe-kan so we could start our peak ascent later.

At the mountain peak.

We managed to reach the peak in time for the sunrise. Really spectacular.

The sun rising from the sea of clouds.

I had tonjiru (豚汁) or pork soup for breakfast which costs just too much at 800 yen. It was terribly windy and cold at the top too so some of us went down the mountain at about 5:30am or 6:00am, I am not too sure about the time.

These people were blocking my way up the mountain...

It feels like walking on soft sand on the beach, but downhill. Really hurts the knee. I could run all the way down but I do risk rolling down the hill for kilometers x_x

The path downhill was different from the one up. For the most part, it was sandy and I felt like I needed to keep stopping myself from going to fast.

Group photo after the climb. Glad to see everyone came down in one piece :D.

I was quite hungry, dirty, sweaty, grumpy,  and [insert negative adjective here]. Haha, ok, not really. Mt Fuji was a very different experience of a mountain for me as it is very steep compared the the other mountains I have climbed. We headed back to the foot of the mountain to clean ourselves and relax at one of the onsen and I had a huge Tenpura meal. Yums...