Hiking, Japanese Style

Hey folks,

last weekend we finally went on the hiking trip that Shinji promised me and I've got to say, it was quite an experience. Not only was the area not as crowded as the other places I went to so far but it was all the more fun with a group. Most of all though, it was the beautiful countryside that kept me in awe. Japan is simply astoundingly picturesque. But let me start from the beginning...

The day started with me walking up at 5:30 am since we had to travel around 3 hours to get to the area of operations in the countryside just outside of the Tokyo metropolitan area. And this is the scenery that greeted us at the train station:

The seclusion is just my thing

Our trip included a couple of waterfalls, a thousand years old buddhist temple and a viewing point about 770m high. All around a 5 hour trip with a lot of ascending and descending which made it quite an exhausting endeavour. Here are some pictures:

Steep stairs to the temple

Our first waterfall. Unfortunately there wasn't much water.
Shinji is standing in the front on the left by the way.

View from 770m altitude. Can't complain.

Our second waterfall, this time with no water at all.
Apparently there lives a god in these cliffs.

At the end of our trip we went to a nearby hotspring, which according to Shinji, was the main reason for picking this area. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this part of our trip, for obvious reasons. What I do know now though is that a water temperature of 42 degrees is way too hot for my taste. After that we went on to get dinner and drunk. I learned that sake can taste really good if you let the locals chose it. And they have a really interesting style of serving it. They place the glass in a wooden, quadratic bowl and fill the glass until it overflows. Everything that lands inside the bowl is a "bonus". So if you're nice to the waiter you get more sake. The food was outstanding as well. I really enjoyed this trip.

Until next time,

Nils