Climbing Youtei San, 羊蹄山, 1898m.

It had been raining pretty much non stop since Thursday, I went to bed to the sound of rain, and I awoke to the same sound. Friday night it was clear and looked like it would stay clear for Saturday - the day Aleisha and I had decided to climb Youtei San, the local mountain right in our back garden, also known as Ezo Fuji because it's reminiscent of Fuji San.

As I had to work in the evening, an early start of 6.45am was required. We were on the track up the mountain just after 7.00. There were a few cars in a car park and people heading up to the mountain also, so we began going straight up on the Hangetsu-ko side of the mountain. This is the most direct route and therefore the steepest. There were 9 stations to the summit, each fairly nicely spaced out. The path was muddy, full of boulders and gravel. The path was pretty sheltered by all the shrubbery and trees. 

At the top was a different story, server winds that felt like they would blow us off the track, from about the eighth station the cloud cover started to come down. I couldn't see anything at the top, there were piles of rocks that looked like the top, top. In Japan there is usually a marked sign with the height and name of the mountain you've just climbed. In the end we found one that looked like the one, took our picture and headed back for the shelter of the undergrowth.

Going down was a hard and took as long as going up. My knees were in agony for most of the four hours down. But there was no other option, down was the only option. The muddier sections were a challenge, I was grabbing on to the roots and plants, anything that would help me balance as I negotiated my way down.

We got down about 3 o'clock, our total hike time was eight hours, we didn't take proper breaks, just little ones at each station. It cleared up in the afternoon and the lower part of the mountain was actually a pleasure to walk in the sunshine. The climb was comparable to the Fuji and Bandai San climbs I've done in Japan.

I was now in desperate need of an onsen, we took the taxi up the hill to J-First, and into the blissful warm water of the onsen that over looks the mountain I had just climbed. Having climbed it, I now have a new perceptive of the mountain I see everyday.

Click on the photo to see the whole album.

Climbing Youtei San, 羊蹄山, 1898m.

Summer in Hokkaido

I arrived back in Japan in mid July some time. The ski resort is dead quiet and very green. The plants have grown like crazy and it's quite jungle-esk in the village. Seikomart is still open, Abucha has moved up the hill, the SkiJapan building is still red and I still live in Echo. Summer is fairly short up in Hokkaido. Just this week, I have felt a change in the wind when I leave work, there is slight bite to it that just wasn't there about a month ago. According to Ryoko, summer is over after Obon. So that's it, summer is over. It has been very wet, cool, rather like a British summer. There has been the odd day or two that has been glorious. Like my birthday weekend, I hiked across to the Hilton, hired free bikes and ate some very yummy ice cream at a dairy farm with not a cow in sight. The farm did have a token tracker and bale of hay to pose on as well as a couple of horses to plod you up and down a dirt track. The Hilton was a great place to stay, we managed to organise a free birthday cake, glass of champagne and discount on a really good buffet dinner. I also went in a ten minute helicopter ride, that took us right into the crater of Mt.Youtei. Pretty cool experience, felt a little like an extended theme park ride. At the beginning of August, Kutchan hosted the annual Jaga Matsuri (potato festival). The town logo is a potato on skis and Hokkaido is famous for potatoes. I was slightly disappointed in the lack of potatoes on offer to eat. There was the usual festival foods available, yaki tori, yaki soba, etc but no potato specific foods that one might expect from a potato festival. There were these fried chicken and potatoes on skewers that were pretty oishii yo! After the sun set there was a mini Nebuta parade though the town. As I've never been to the real one in Aomori, I can't really compare, but I quite enjoyed the Kutchan one. As the summer is so short, everyone is very active in Hokkaido. Aleisha and I got into the spirit of the outdoors and hiked up Mt. Annpuri, the mountain that I hiked up in the winter and boarded down. We also hired bikes and went out to Hangetsu-ko (half moon lake), the lake we snowshoed across in the winter. Continuing on from there we went past a fantastic vegetable market. There are no rice fields up here. There are just fields and fields of vegetables and as a result they are so cheap and available here at the moment and they taste so good. There are honesty veggie stands, 100yen for various bits and pieces. My personal favourites at the moment would have to include sweetcorn, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes. Click on the photo below to see the full album.

Summer 09