Trip 13 to Japan - October and November 2025 - Page 4

As mentioned, Itayado station has it's own Shotengai, everywhere in Kobe does.

I followed my map a couple hundred metres through alleyways to this staircase, which is the start of the hike proper.

Obviously there is a shrine.

Low view was already good. Cloud here looks cloudier than it was.

Soon after the shrine, an old man hang out spot. They were nearby collecting pine cones. For what purpose I have no idea.

Next view, into the sun, with the ocean. A lot of sun and ocean today.

The hiking trail was nice enough, despite the low altitude. I thought most of it would be just like this.

More view.

I thought the rocks and gravel on today's trail reminded me of South Korean hikes, and then these apartments also reminded me of Korea.

Hmm, that looks exciting.

It looks like I will head up the rocky ridge.

There were a lot of other people along this section, today is a national holiday, culture day.

Surprisingly, parts of this hike required concentration, or else a potential plummet might occur.

Back in the direction from which I had come.

Ridge traverse safely completed.

A view of people enjoying the view.

I will continue in this direction, there is the bridge from yesterday.

Redundant similar view to previous photos, enjoy.

Did I actually take the same photo twice? Too late now, I already exported it.

The next peak, according to the map there were 4 or 5 along the trail, I cannot find all their convoluted names now.

Time to head down, through the suburbs, and up that next smaller 'mountain'.

Yes, this hike goes through some apartment buildings, mid hike.

However they have provided bridges and walking paths to link the two.

I stopped here to annoy a very old cat that had no interest in moving at all. The old lady was debating the cat about how lazy it is.

The next small mountain, it appears to have a staircase going up it.

More South Korean style housing. They just lack the big numbers on the side.

The top of this second mountain is very developed, there are numerous cable cars, you will see more later.

Another view of people enjoying the view.

Surprisingly, the trail then got good again, and not without potential slipping onto your ass areas.

But also nice flat areas, although as mentioned, since it was a shorter hike, I did not run.

Eventually I got to the last peak, with a lot of other people.

One last view of the coast back towards central Kobe.

And another view of the bridge.

Here is one of the cable car options to go down, fully enclosed for some reason.

There was a games arcade and restaurant at the top of the last peak, and so I took a photo of people getting conjunctivitis. Really, don't put your eye on that.

Too many photos today.

The path down if you avoid all the cable cars, is a staircase.

And then after not too long at all, I was back at Sumaurakoen station, which is both a train and a cable car station.
Since I was back early enough, I then went and did my washing (laundry) at a coin laundry. I hate the free hotel dryers, the huge ones at the coin laundry are awesome. Usually I take a photo of the dryer, but I took too many photos today already.

I think this is a giant prawn. It is translucent and you can seemingly get inside it.

Here is the earthquake memorial.

The port authority metallic structure.

I presume you can go up this tower. I did not.

It seemed rather fitting that a fake pirate ship would pull up. The sail is a purely decorative mesh.

First long exposure of this trip. All of the port.

This is Mosaic. There are probably 40 restaurants here, some expensive, some cheap.

I always get mildly excited at the opportunity to photograph a ferris wheel.

I decided to go to famous Chinese chain Nanas green tea for dinner, they normally have something healthy. The spinach curry was nice, the cheese was unexpected. Paper cup of tap water tells you it is a classy establishment.

Then I discovered that there is yet another underground complex leading to the largely now pointless Kobe station.

Which soon lead back to the longest of all the Kobe Shotengai, Motomachi, which goes for 1.5km straight back to my hotel.

All terrible photos today. Here is the view of the drivers position on the bus. Exciting.

Everyone on the bus, except me, shut the curtains, and glared at me for not doing the same. Standard behaviour for Japan.

This is the view going over the main bridge, the one I hung off the bottom of 2 days ago. This one takes you from Kobe to Awaji Island.

Where as this identical looking photo is the bridge from Awaji Island to Shikoku, which is also an Island, located in an Ocean.

Here is the view somewhere near Naruto, which is not technically part of Tokushima, but it is joined on.

There is my bus. A Hino. They know how to make em.

Now for my room. Great desk and chair, full queen sized bed, bonus powered massage chair I won't use.

And the bathroom then has a room with in a room, with a large bath. Luxury, all for $70 (Australian) a night. I guess Tokushima is not a popular destination.

Here is the station area. There are a couple of big department stores behind me. I will do more photos of that area on another night after a day of hiking.

To get from the station area to the old city area, you can follow the above ground walkways, which ensure the stores below get zero foot traffic. The little mountain with the cable car can be seen in the distance.

Time to look at everything being closed. Cyclists go down here at alarming speed. I believe it is called Kagoyamachi.

This bit is more colourful, with a few open shops mostly selling second hand clothes, furniture and laserdiscs.

I was a bit surprised that a lot of the crossing streets are semi pedestrianalized, but still basically closed. This was the busiest looking of about 8 similar streets.

The supermarket seemed to be a focal point for activity.

Along this street, every single one of these covers (at least 20) had deliberately been put back the wrong way around. It was chaos!

A lot of bikes, not many cars.

This little alley was particularly grungy looking.

I found the people, they were stuffed.

Running off the grungy alleyway, was a dark corridor, with a very uninviting Ramen shop. No pictures of the food, ticket machine, cash only, no English. It took me 30 seconds to figure out how to open the door. I had read reviews on google maps and the pics of the food there looked great, so I showed the guy a picture on my phone and he showed me which button to press on the ticket machine, and it was possibly the best ramen ever. We never exchanged a word.
Anyway... blow torched pork, a full egg, huge bamboo shoots, and thicker very square shaped noodles. Excellent.
Tomorrow is a hiking day, the trains here are CASH only, so I will need to leave enough time to figure that out and make sure I carry change and notes that are not too new for the ticket machine to accept.

There is my mountain, with some cloud. My camera makes it look further away than it is. It is about 2km to the start of the trail. Today is an out and back hike, so 4km on roads total.

Another view of the mountain. I should mention there are actually 3 convenience stores near the station, very surprising as the town seems almost abandoned.

Here you can just see the mountain, in the distance past the ridge in the foreground with the giant electricity things on it.

Looking back down the valley towards Awa-Yamakawa station.

Convenient signage to tell you where to start the hike. You can find this on google street view easily enough (I did).

It is a real trail from the get go, but does cross a couple of gravel logging roads or shrine access roads. There is another road up to the top shrine that loops around the back, but I heard and saw no cars all day.

Bear trap! Actually these are for pigs.

The trail is well maintained, and must get a lot of foot traffic, however today I saw only one other person all day. There were no cobwebs though, so someones been up or down today.

You saw these giant power poles in an earlier pic. Now I am standing under one. Not a lot of spots for a clear view today.

The trail was great.

A shrine at the mid point. Or a temple.

It was very grey today, but there were some nice trees around.

Getting nearer the top, here is a spot to take a rest.

Approaching the top shrine. There were a lot of gates and stone tablets around.

Torii gate and a bit of fog. I wished there was more fog.

Top shrine. No one else here. There is a real road nearby with a car park (according to the map), but I saw nobody.

More torii gates at this Buddhist temple.

Lightning conductor.

It was a large complex with many attractions, but it was time for me to move on, the real summit is still to come, but not too far.

I think this is the highest point. Nice.

Still no view spot down to the valley though.

There is however a view over the back to Mount Tsurugi (except its hidden by fog), which is the most popular mountain on Shikoku. It is strangely very hard to get to Tsurugi with public transport, despite it having a cable car. So I will not be going.

More shrine or temple related items littering the mountain.

Probably the most colourful view of the day, although it was very grey skies the whole time (but no rain).

Time for my descent, the same way I came up.

Back at the bottom. There are other hikes nearby.

Nice one! I enjoy looking at the lines on my face.

Down there is an onsen (hot spring) joint.

And finally, back at the station. Nice light in this shot. I had to wait a while for the train, so went to one of the 3 convenience stores and had an omelette sandwich. As for the train itself, very slow. Single track train line so you spend a lot of time waiting at stations where there are 2 tracks for the train coming the other way to arrive and pass. Also, cash only, but I did buy a return ticket at Tokushima which made it mildly less irritating. OK rant over.

A busy street corner.

A lot of overpasses provide good photo opportunities.

Of course, there are still some dark and empty streets to appreciate.

I do not really know what these are for, I don't think it is for a grand opening. The English words do not make sense. This was not the only establishment featuring these kinds of decorations.

The basement area under the station has more than just a few restaurants, there is also some local food and souvenir places.

And so I ended up having dinner in the station basement. A bowl of chicken of some sort. It was really quite nice, and the serve was not too huge.
Tomorrow, NOT a hiking day, but I might go up a small mountain anyway.