#020 A trail to the heaven
Mt Fuji isn't the only the mountain in Japan, but there are other charming ones.
I just didn’t think of writing my 20th newsletter when I started. I thought focusing on travel tips to Japan may restrict my writing topics and could have been a legitimate excuse to terminate of my writing. But here I am, and I will write about a bit of my secret hiking route in northern Japan. At the same time I would like to show that Mt Fuji (Fujisan) is not the only mountain to target if you are visiting Japan. There are numbers of attractive mountains which it may worth trying if you stay in Japan long enough and you are crazy about walking in the mountains.
I don’t mind if you criticize me as an unqualified mountain climber or whatever it is, I left Mt Fuji as a last mountain to climb, in another word Mt Fuji was not in my shortlist and I have a long list of mountains to climb. In short the followings are the main reason why I am not so interested in climbing Mt Fuji.
There is no other mountain to enjoy around Mt Fuji since Mt Fuji is a volcanic isolated peak.
There are not much of the vegetation and most of the trail is sandy rock one.
Whatever the route I take, ascending and descending the landscape is pretty much the same. There is not much of a variation.
All what you get is the accomplishment of conquering the highest peak in Japan. There must be lots of arguments about Mt Fuji and please refer to my previous newsletter.
Now let’s get into this week's topic. I have been very busy this year and this hiking experience goes back to almost the same time in August last year. I wanted a mountain with not so much of the hustle and quiet enough to enjoy, and final factor was a good access by car and easy parking. Then Mt Aizu-Komagatake came up. It was a bit of long drive 3 and half hours of driving, but the combination of motorways and quiet local road gave me quite pleasant driving. I made 250 km in 3 and half hours for one way.
The mountain is located at southwest corner of Fukushima Prefecture and it is very near from Oze. Oze is the largest high moor in Honshu Island, and it took 6,000 to 7,000 years to form a 4. 5-5 m thick 'peat layer', giving the area its current appearance. From the top of Mt Aizu-Komagatake, similar traces to Oze can be seen geographically. So I would say this part of the region has a very interesting geological feature to explore.
Once you get there, deciding the parking space is a bit complicated. There is no large parking place, but you will see several parking slots on the way up to the dead end of the road. It means the earlier you get, the closer space you will find the entrance of the trail. I presume there will be lots of cars before and during weekends.
First half of ascend was relatively steep, but by the time I reached the forest limit line, the trail became fairly flat, and I really had a relaxing time. But after the forest limit line most of trails become a wooden path and I personally don’t like them. It is mainly because of the protection of peat layers and this wooden path is a symbol of it.
The highlights of this mountain are tranquillity and ponds in high moor. Very early start and weekday hike gave me a real reward and I have only seen around 10 parties on the top and I really wanted to be there forever. Mt Aizu-Komagatake is listed Japan’s Hundred Famous Mountains and there are lots of climbers who are eager to climb all these 100 mountains. One of the pictures I used on top is taken next by the hut called “Komanokoya” and you can expect a mirror-like surface of the pond on a sunny windless day.
Komanokoya is located on the edge of the plateau and it looks like the hut is located on the horseback. The hut is located at the elevation of 2050 meters and you still have to ascend another 83 meters to the summit of Mt Aizu-Komagatake (2133 M). It is an easy 20 minutes’ walk, and you will get totally different views from there. You will get 360 degree views, especially to the north and you will get the whole picture of Oze area. Again, please avoid weekends and you’ll see so many people and face difficulties of finding your parking spot.
After the pandemic, hiking was considered to be an ideal exercise to avoid infection. That’s why there are more people who start visiting the mountains and you will see lots of congestion in the parking or summit of the mountains. That’s why I no longer go hiking during weekends.
After conquering the summit, just take it easy and make a cup of coffee next by the pond. When I visited in the middle of August, autumn was approaching, and thousands of red dragonflies filled the sky, and it was really something. You may have to fight with your temptation to stay on the spot, but make sure to start descending before 13:00 in summer. Thunderstorm tends to emerge later afternoon and when it comes it is a really bad one. It doesn't take long for the sound of thunder to be heard before it comes. Once you start descending it only takes two hours to reach the parking.
The course time
Parking—1.5H—Water Point (2 min off the trail) —1.5H--Komanokoya (Hut) —20 min--Summit of Mt Aizu-Komagatake—15min—Komanokoya (Hut) —2H—Parking In General, 6 to 7 hours of walking including breaks.
The term “Koma” means a horse and the origin of the name of the mountains “Komagatake” is either from the shape of the mountain itself or lingering snow patterns in spring and early summer, which can look like the shape of a horse, and may be used as targets for agricultural progress or accompanied by legends explaining their origin. So there are 18 Komagatake mountains with their names entered on topographical maps at 1:25,000 scale. Moreover, most of these mountains are located in the east of Japan.
When it comes pursuing trail walks in Japan, it is going to be unlike walking on flat land such as those of in Europe. Japan is so mountainous and wherever you go you really need to go up and down. And most of flat lands are heavily populated and trails will be in the mountains if you really want to enjoy the nature. But I can name lots of other destinations. Please leave a comment if you are interested.