20 April 2025
The curse of the sunscreen
Ogi Shioji Obaru from Tofuro-Mae station
Every time I put on sunscreen, it rains all day, and today was no exception.
My hike today was shorter, not too high, not far from downtown Fukuoka, and apparently included 3 summits, Mounts Ogi, Shioji and Obaru.
It is mainly known for the many ruins scattered throughout the hills, and there were indeed a lot, at least 20 sets, well sign posted.
Given the risk of drizzle, I mostly had the place to myself, and so, here are the stats and a bunch of foggy photos -
25,600 steps
14.04km - mostly trails today, almost no roads
4 hours 13 minutes
702m vertical ascent
1,172 calories burned
Here is Tofuro-Mae station, if you are staying at Hakata you have to walk to Tenjin or transfer near Tenjin to get on this line, but then it is only about 30 minutes out of Fukuoka.
The first of the many ruins, remains of the Dazaifu government office. This location is also very near Dazaifu, the main tourist attraction near Fukuoka.
A food truck / market was setting up, burning various things.
Starting to rain, very lightly.
The first bit of trail was bitumen.
Some of the many ancient ruins, a rock wall.
Very dark again today, a theme of this entire trip.
Enjoy the view. There were a lot of view spots today, but no view.
Parts of the trail were of the mini ravine style we have come to love.
Next view spot.
Non ruined shrine, a rarity on this hike.
There is a road running through the middle you have to cross, but thankfully not walk along, right where you cross the road was a surprise amphitheatre.
More ruins, right by the road with a car park, and near the amphitheatre, so probably the most famous bit of this area.
Very steep with a few sets of ancient walls.
So popular they needed to put in a toilet.
This is the outlet from the toilet.
Now it is time for some fog shots.
No view today, so let's overdose on fog.
Photos do not properly capture fog, I say it was foggier than it appears in the photos.
More view.
These ruins are a bit suspicious to me, there is metal and concrete edging around the rocks. I think they just encased some cool old rocks they found.
No view, so I will take a photo of the photo explaining the view I could not see.
So many culturally significant signposted things.
The path down was dark and ferny.
Last bit is a nice garden with a few blossoms still hanging around.
And then I was back where I started, completing my loop, the hills now have fog which was not there when I started.