9 November 2018
Repeat mountain and beyond
Hiking from Dazaifu to Mount Homan and Mount Sangun from Dazaifu station
There will be a lot of pictures today so get that scrolling finger ready. They wont all be of mountains so maybe its worth not scrolling directly to the comments.
Today I went to the excellent Dazaifu (been there before), climbed Mount Homan (climbed that before), then got lost but eventually got to Mount Sangun (not been there before). All up including getting lost it was about 6 hours, and awesome. Dazaifu in general gets my AAAAA (5A) rating for Japan. Both times I have been I thought it was great.
Getting there is really easy, the subway from Tenjin goes to it, theres a special line for the last 2 stops. That gets you to temple town and temple town shopping street, photos below, its super popular, and justifiably so. Even on a Friday they needed crowd control in the afternoon when I returned.
Getting to the Mount Homan trail head is about a 2km walk around or through temple town. I think theres a bus, but there was no way I was waiting for a bus, time to get jogging.
The first part of the hike to the summit of Mount Homan is very popular, last time I think I went on a weekend and had to wait for people constantly, today there were just 50 or so people in total and only one guy to wait for. The climb is relentless, big concrete stairs for 2 hours, no let up, it only get steeper the further you go, I thought it was excellent fun. Unfortunately a little elderly Japanese man was in front of me. I think he wanted to prove to me that he could stay in front of me. I waited for him to get ahead, but then he would wait. And if I tried to pass him, he would just about kill himself to stay in front of me. Eventually I resigned to my fate of following 20 metres behind him. When we got to the summit I said hello, lovely day, nice mountain, he did not even look at me. Weird. Perhaps he was trying to not have a heart attack.
The good news was, thats where I left him, because he went back down from there where as I was only halfway through my own adventure. So little old racist (perhaps deaf?) man, you are half the man I am (literally), Mount Sangun is another 2 hours hiking (if you get lost and jog).
Beyond the temple on the summit of Mount Homan I saw only one other guy, a proper fit looking trail runner with all the expensive gear. He was quite talkative when he passed me while I was heading back, as I was also jogging at that point. The trail after the first summit was flatter for many sections, so you could jog to cut the time.
Unfortunately, I still had to descend the never ending potentially knee ruining steps from Mount Homan. These days I only hike in trail running shoes, not boots, which offer less protection. At one point my foot slide forward and I stabbed my big toe with a rock. Now its bleeding under the folded back nail. It doesnt really hurt but I wonder if the nail will fall off. Oh well.
Now onto the thousands of photos.
There are a huge number of pictures today and I already dribbled on for too long above, so dont expect massive descriptions here.
In the early light, the colors of the nice gardens around the Kyushu prefectural museum were rather subdued.
This is the outside perimeter of the main shrine, more on that later.
One last pre hike shrine shot before I come back in the afternoon and take more shrine shots because everyone likes shots of a red shrine.
This is not my mountain, but its looking colorful, nice blue sky. I was very excited at this stage.
Here is my mountain, and a road. Well its part of the mountain. The range extends along behind it.
I think I took this photo 3 years ago from the same spot, I will check later. Its rice.
Oh my god, they cut the heads off kittens and put them in a bag!
Now I am at the secondary shrine at the base of the mountain, where idiots were burning a lot of rubbish, still a common practice in Japan by farmers and shrine owners.
It was nice and colorful here, I have not been able to work the leaves out on this trip. Am I too early, too late, both?
Last one of the upper shrine, the rest was too smoky to bother, plus smoke and my camera lens is not a a great idea.
I passed by these name tags being handed out to the local Amway conference attendees.
Todays snake warning sign is particularly scary looking.
Ahhh, now we start our climb, for the first 3 metres its nice and flat.
Then the steps start, not too steep at first.
I was enjoying the light through the trees, breathing in the rotting decaying leaves.
The trail is mostly closed in until the top, this is one of only 2 spots to take in a view... of the wires above.
More steps, getting steeper.
Very steep steps. After this theres a few chain / rope pull sections over rock face, but very easy comparatively.
I never bring a first aid kit. I probably should. This is a very popular hike so Japan has provided one
Here is the other view spot.
These 3 old dudes were not my old man nemesis. He was waiting 10 steps ahead of me to finish taking this photo so he could continue to get in my way.
Some rocks and color.
I took a brief detour to examine this cave / grave / whatever it is. But this is not where I got lost.
Very colorful now!
Actually this is the third view spot, the view of the non city side. Its very near the top.
I thought it was about to get cloudy so decided here was the time for the awesome shot of my huge head. Last night I spotted a throbbing huge vein in my forehead. The internet suggests I have one of about twenty fatal illnesses. It is clearly visible here in a 1:1 zoom. I have a long neck like a turtle.
The top of Mount Homan has a shrine. Last time I was here there was nowhere sit. Just 3 or so other people up here today. Shrinking population at work.
Now we start with the view. A bit cloudy by now.
Here is a view framed by rocks. I climbed over rocks to get this rocky view of the rocks. I think it rocks!
Rope / cloud / shrine. In a rare event, this rope is not the black and yellow kind. It is just a much thicker yellow kind. I am an expert on Japanese ropes.
Now some redundant view. That is Fukuoka.
The other way, I am not going that way.
This is the way I am going. Mount Sangun is around there.
Last view, view with a cool tree. Well, last of the view for now. I cant make any promises there wont be more view.
After Mount Homan you have to descend down some chains and ladders before you start your ridge walk. I just came down from the top of those rocks.
After the first summit the path got flatter, more colorful, and devoid of other humans. Soon after this I took a wrong turn, and decided 30 minutes later that the path I was following was going down too far and was too under used to be the right path. I wisely doubled back.
It did however get cloudy, windy and bit mysterious.
This is nearing the top of Mount Sangun. I like this photo.
Hmm, the peak of Mount Sangun has been ruined by radar, mobile phone, tv and godzilla spotting towers.
I said there would be more view, heres the view from almost the top of Sangun.
The view from the actual summit was hard to admire properly. I am almost in cloud now, it was very cold at the top.
The summit area is a bit disappointing. I dont think many people bother.
So many towers!
After a few grey hours, I was back at the bottom, waiting to see if the sun would peak through for a photo of this man made lake. It didnt.
I found an exciting different way to go back to the shrine, it involved a tunnel. Everyone loves a tunnel.
And then the sun made a reappearance, just in time!
This place is very popular. School kids again as usual. They dont have schools in Japan, just permanent excursions.
Some poor suckers getting married. DONT DO IT!
Look at these annoying idiots taking photos of the shrine getting in the way of me taking a photo of the shrine.
I am always in Japan in time for the chrysanthemum displays. I like the bonsai ones more than these ones.
I was damn starving by now, luckily I had arrived back at Dazaifu shopping street. Why didnt I take my trusty calorie mate block with me on the hike today?
I snuck up behind these two playing dress up to take a creep shot. Actually I kind of think they were enjoying being the attention of everyones photos.
And for the last photo of the day, the view up the shopping street from the station. After taking this shot I was interviewed by school kids with a huge outdated looking video camera. They gave me a paper crane. Their questions are always the same every year when I come to Japan. Standardised textbook I presume.