lost or what?

Here is Yahiko, and the small mountain range in the background. The train went through a smaller town with a ridiculously huge Torii gate on the way, Yahagi. I think this area has something to do with a deer and a rabbit. Probably an anime.

You know you are in a tourist area when the station is painted red.

Steam was coming out of various little shops to herald my arrival.

The little streets of Yahiko are lined with shops. Most were only just putting up their flags as I got there.

People have made a real effort with their gardens. It is now illegal in Japan to take a photo like this. People recently got arrested for doing this in Kyoto! True story.

There is a gate at the end of the street.

Behold the gate, and flowers.

So many flowers.

Ridiculous amounts of flowers.

There is no end to the flowers.

Finally after hiking through displays of flowers for about 2 weeks I got to the shrine. I would walk along all those mountains behind it.

It was a really nice area. Old people would love to visit here. Also just out of the picture was a huge public toilet made out of enormous intricately carved old growth forest, with heating and a seating area to admire the toilets.

MORE SIGNS LIKE THIS PLEASE! Very helpful.

The first half of todays path, which roughly follows the cable car, was all steps with signs everywhere, and lots of people.

About half way up a view appeared. This mountain is only 640m high, but you start at 20m, so its still sweat inducing. It is located very near the coast and as you can see the farm land is dead flat.

It was quite colorful, but the very grey sky prevented me from having a retina explosion.

Behold the Ocean, the East China Sea, and Sado Island.

Here is the view down the coast. It never rained once all day despite threatening to for most of it.

I have done well to hide the communication towers. This spot is a little bit away from the top cable car station, but theres a concrete path up to here, so quite a few people hanging about hacking up phlegm and chortling snot while eating cup noodles, and a mini shrine with a priest inside selling blessings.

Now I will walk all the way along all the ridges of the entire range. Whats that strange pole on the left?

Before we go look at the mystery pole, here is my head. Also a mystery as to how a head so large stays on my shoulders. That vein in my forehead still hasnt reappeared!

So flat.

OK, this pole has a cylinder full of people that goes up it very slowly, its near the top here. It rotates as it goes up. I dont really understand how its a better view than where I am standing, except that you get to go inside a strange contraption that looks like it was made 50 years ago. The cylinder thing is large, it has 2 levels of stadium seating. There were quite a few people trapped inside of it. To get down to the base of it you take a little step train thing. It seems like a lot of effort to go to so that you can enjoy the same view.

Theres also a lot of restaurants as you shall see. Here is the view from the roof of the restaurant complex.

All the standard Japanese fare. Very reasonable prices too. They dont serve dog meat according to the sign. Disappointing.

There are 3 levels of restaurants. Each with roughly the same menu.

Here I have walked a bit along the ridge away from the popular area. It is a semi manicured garden for a while. There is also a road up here, a Skyline as they call it. Skyline is not just a type of Japanese car, its a type of Japanese road. Generally it means theres a high toll to pay to drive on it. Look at all the communication towers!

Soon after, the path became excellent. There were only a handful of people for the next few hours.

Summit #2, which is only about 1 metre lower than the main summit, has almost no view. Theres a large weather station thing with the golf balls attached blocking the view.

Then it became my favourite kind of path. Colorful, silvery trees, gently sloping downwards. I love steep uphill, but prefer gentle down hill.

Every time the sun poked out, I was too late to capture the color before it disappeared again. The sun was teasing me.

I passed a number of mini shrines and graves on my way down. Heres a low down view looking back towards Niigata. A good spot to urinate I decided.

Once down from my small mountain range, I had a long walk back to the station. There were a few abandoned looking hotels, and this colorful place on its own that looks like Pachinko Parlour. I suspect it too is abandoned.

That is a smaller bit of the range I did not climb. I think I should of. I came down too soon and walked too far along the road.

As you can see, I had to walk a long way away from the mountain to get to the station. I walked all the way along all of those ridges. The angry geese in this photo chased me, but I am fast. I only had to kick one of them (in self defence of course).

After an unexpectedly long walk I arrived back at Maki station. During my 20 minute wait for the train the guard came and checked my pass 3 times. I suspect he had not seen one before? Today was a much longer and much more interesting day than I thought it would be! I used too many exclamation points!!