Another hike in Japan... in training for the BC wilderness

I have another two and half weeks here in Tokyo before I head back for my summer break in the beautiful mountains of the Kootenays in BC. As Shelley (who is already there) fills me with stories about green, quiet, cool and peace I got desperate to head out of the hot and muggy city for a day of mountains and greenery. 

As mentioned before it is amazing that Tokyo has so many mountain hikes available within a day's trip of Tokyo. This time I headed back to the Okutama valley after checking out a new route on my topo map that started in Ikusabata. An early morning series of busses and trains got me there at reasonable start time at the local station. Hop off the train, reach for my map... oh no; I forgot my map!

Serious concern; a new hike with no map! Check at the store there (where I should have bought more water!) but they had no map. Ah yes, this is Japan... there is a big map sign right at the exit of the station. I took a photo of this and had it with me the whole trip... Thank you map makers! 

Like many of these hikes the first section is through the edges of the local village. I hiked past big luscious gardens...

Past beautifully kept homes with perfectly trimmed banzai gardens and flowering shrubs. 

Intermixed with these beautiful homes were swaths of dense undergrowth that is slowly taking over the abandoned houses left by the declining rural population.

I continued up through the village with power lines almost always in site the entire hike and some logging in the background (signs of home!).

Each batch of houses had the tower with the public address system linked to it ready to warn for earthquakes or any one of the many catastrophes that hit this highly geological volatile land. When not announcing crises, they play regular music at 6:00 PM all across the country (everywhere we have been it is usually the same little ditty!).

Any hike in Japan will confront you with how intensely managed all liveable spaces are here in Japan. Every road has huge hand-built rock walls as retaining walls. 

Every water-way, creek, river, gully is lined with concrete and texture to help manage water run-off.

The road took me by a variety of spiritual statues and structures nestled into the mountain-side. Near a grave marker:

Then, finally, the trail got serious and headed straight up the mountain past (another!) dammed stream,

and into the dark forest. You can see in this photo how deeply gouged the trails are from hundreds of years of hundreds of hikers hiking these paths. Their highly eroded state makes me think of Mountain Station bike trails in Nelson, BC.

Of course the trail would not be complete without a series of mini-shrines to the various sacred trees and rocks...

And signs that warned me of impending danger... completely un-intelligible to my uninitiated brain:

Aha, the frog from that mini-shrine telling me....??

It was thrilling to reach this gate quite near the top of the first mountain to discover an ancient temple on its own, tucked in the dark forest. 

This temple was definitely not as rich as many we see in Tokyo. The monk housing looked abandoned and the site itself was cared for in a rather rugged way. 

From there I scurried up to the tallest of the three peaks of the day to get a glimpse out over endless other small peaks stretched to the horizon. I had lunch at the site with the usual crowd (smaller than usual probably due to the humidity!) of hiking enthusiasts from Tokyo of all ages. 

Scrambling back down to the valley bottom permitted me to slow down the sweat pouring out of my body on the way. The site of the rushing Okutama river was a welcome one. 

From the Mitake bridge I hiked along a very civilised trail that ambles along the river's edge. Stopping right away for a quick dip in the racing river got me feeling a little less wilted.

 Along the way a series of foot bridges cross to the other side of the river...

and the trail winds through countless flowering shrubs...

Past the ubiquitous vending machines (just in case you got thirsty since the last vending machine 500 m back!)...

To an absolutely essential stop for all passers-by: a sake brewery that has been brewing here for the last several hundred years. I stopped here to rest, to soak in the shade and peace and quiet... and the deliciously cool sake:

They give you a series of samplers to then decide on the bottle you really like.

The last kilometre along the river back to the train station was a lovely meander in the shade. 

I hopped on the 5;30 train that whisked me back into the heart of the largest urban agglomeration in the world (click here for details) by 8:30 refreshed to be reminded about the beauties of Nature.

Bring it on BC; I am ready to hike! (But will there be a vending machine half-way up the mountain for when I finish my water bottle?)

What a little research will do...

I always like scanning media, looking at web-sites and talking with anybody we meet to discover another nook of Japan that we haven't visited yet.

This was how I ended up on a wonderful bike ride to a new neighbourhood in Tokyo to visit the dramatic catholic cathedral of Tokyo in the setting sun; a beautiful surprise to me only discovered thanks to my internet research:

In the same way I discovered about this cool island in the Izu Islands called Miyake Jima, described by its beautiful beaches, its birds and wildlife and the possibility to swim with dolphins. We jumped on the opportunity, pleased to find that not only were there boat tickets available but also there was lodging to be had on the island that we could book at that late notice.

So once again we bicycled across this huge city with our weekend gear packed on our bike racks to the ferry terminal (though in my casual arrogance I assumed I knew the way without checking Google maps and added 5 km to our route there!). At the terminal we took our bikes apart and packed them in our bike bags and piled on quite a large ship to head out for our overnight trip.

We love steaming out of Tokyo harbour at night with all of the lights glowing as far as the eye can see...

Under the Rainbow bridge....

Sleeping in a simple bunk on the big ship to arrive at the Miyakejima at 5:30 AM. Our BnB host whisked us off to his lodge for a great breakfast of fish, then we put our bikes back together and peddled off around the island. It was a forty km ride with lots of steep ups and downs on a hot, hot day, but totally worth it.

We were struck by how beautifully maintained the roads were on this remote island as in so many other places in Japan: sidewalks all around the island, railings that often look more like sculptures, a row of flowering plants along most sections of the highway and street lamps (you can see one in the photo) almost the entire circumference of the island, houses or not! Public tax dollars at work!

Not only was there scenic beauty on the island with sweeping beaches, cliffs and crashing waves, there was also lots of remainders of a very active volcano on the island. This next photo shows all that remains of a temple (the roof in the background) and its Torii gate swept in the torrent of lava from the volcano in 1980. 

Many sections of the coastline were covered with dark and colourful swaths of lava slowly being reconverted to fertile growing areas:

Notice the lack of people on the beaches:

The woods themselves were deep and luscious rain forest vegetation with trees competing densely for the bits of light they could find in the deep foliage. 

We stopped several times on both Saturday and Sunday for swims along the isolated shorelines, always enjoying benches, outdoor showers for bathers and spotless bathrooms to change in. Did these ever get used by others?

Half-way around the volcano we pedalled into a sobering area that used to be a village of 3000 plus residents before the eruption in 1980 (zero in on the photo on the sign you can). In 1980 lava came sweeping down the mountain and buried most of the town. This is the remains of the elementary and Junior High school with lava spilling out through the orifices. 

We peddled on right into the evening with the gradually setting sun to the West and distant islands sprinkled on the horizon. Beautiful bird songs accompanied us the whole way with only a few cars and trucks passing by at infrequent intervals. 

Every corner of earth was bursting with growth, with flowers and with beauty. We were thrilled to get away to such a peaceful retreat so close to Tokyo.

Now back to the "What a little research will do..."! On the long slow boat ride back to Tokyo Shelley had a little more time to research about Miyakejima. She came up with this (link). Title of the article: "The Town Where Everyone Wears a Gas Mask" Hmmm...

As we researched more fully it turns out that there was another massive eruption in the year 2000 that did not do so much lava damage but that set off 17500 earthquakes over the next 3 months (!!!) and began spewing 20000 tons of sulfuric dioxide poison gas from its summit every day. Not surprisingly the island was evacuated.

In 2015 those who wanted to were allowed to return. Nevertheless there are signs everywhere (in Japanese) saying to carry a gas mask and listen for announcements just in case there was another gas leak. Well... we missed that part of the memo.

Shelley saw something about gas masks and asked our host (the one in this photo without a mask) who said, no, there was no problem. None of the other Japanese guests seemed concerned either. 

Gas mask tourism was a bit of fad here when residents were first allowed back (see photo) and the convenience stores all have gas masks (we missed that memo as well!). 

It is a beautiful island that is not crowded at all. There are amazing and remote beaches. The birds fill the air with beautiful song. The residents are extremely kind.... and there is a risk of sulphur dioxide spewing out of the mountain!

Life is complicated and sometimes a little more thorough research is helpful! Thank you Shelley!