Climbing Mount Bandai from Inawashiro station
Today was the longest hike of the trip so far. Unless I get lost somewhere on my 3 remaining hiking days, it will likely remain the longest hike of the trip.
The weather was absolutely SUPERB. I cannot overstate that. I had seen photos taken just 4 or 5 days ago from near the summit of Mount Bandai that showed a similar amount of ice to that which I experienced on Mount Zao. Probably taken on the same day as I climbed Mount Zao then I guess. There was no ice at all today, and taking my jacket was a mistake. Shorts would have been fine!
The hike today can be split into 5 distinct sections.
1. From the station to the ski fields.
2. From the bottom of the ski fields to the hiking trail.
3. From the hiking trail to the plateau.
4. From the plateau to the emergency shelter.
5. From the emergency shelter to the summit.
Then you have to do them all again in reverse.
Most people would not walk, or run as I did from the station to the ski fields. In fact most people use a completely different much shorter trail approaching from the west which meets up with the trail I used at the Emergency shelter. Going this way requires a car, but would halve the time taken.
Getting back to the station at the end of the day was a mad sprint. I ran the last 5km at ridiculous speed, wearing my jacket, and had a full sweat going on as I made the train by 5 seconds. Missing it meant a 90 minute wait for the next one! It sure was exhilarating to run so fast at the end of a long day. Then the train was quite full of people looking at me trying to figure out why I was wearing a jacket and sweating profusely.
Lots of pics today, the very bright sun ruined some of them, as did the farmers smoke which created a terrible haze. The sky was amazingly blue at times, the difference between bright sun and dark shadows made it impossible not to clip exposure levels in some shots.
Thats enough text, lets do the photos.
The peak at the back is Mount Bandai. Theres a cliff with rocks that you will see later, so you have to hike around the back to get to the summit.
I passed a shrine on my way up to the ski field but had no time to explore, just enough time for this leaf shot. As you can see a tv crew was filming below. I ruined their live cross to NHK.
The view from the ski field car park is pretty good, apart from that damn smoke rising into the sky everywhere.
Time to start my ascent through the ski fields. There are not as many ski runs as Mount Zao, and there is no sightseeing cable car at all, just the ski lifts which obviously are not yet operating.
The view back down remained great. I was following a yamap map again to know which ski slopes to run up.
I can assure you its much steeper than it looks. The only vehicles using that service road have caterpillar tracks.
Lots of mountains around here.
The peak does not seem to be getting any closer.
You will see a lot of Lake Inawashiro today. It is the fourth largest in Japan.
Here is the view from the very top of the ski fields.
Time to start phase 3 of the hike, ski fields to plateau.
I thought the weather could change at any point, even though it never did, so I was getting every kind of photo while the sky was still clear, including one of these.
This is the start of the plateau section, with the peak of Mount Bandai in the distance.
There are a number of small lakes and marshes in this area. It was a great part of the hike, quite flat, I ran most of it.
A small shrine of some kind.
Now its time to get out of the trees and start appreciating the view. Below is what I have been referring to as the plateau. Word of the day is plateau, you will hear it some more.
It still looks like a long way up from here!
There is nowhere you can really plummet on this hike, but this area has been roped off, the ridge was very fine volcanic looking rock. Also, check out those snow capped peaks in the distance, those are the ones I saw on the train from Niigata to Yamagata.
I believe that area is off limits.
Now this is the far side of the mountain, and its a high plateau where all those blue lakes are. It does not look anywhere near as far down as the ski field side to Lake Inawashiro. Keep scrolling I will show you.
This part of the hike had great views of cliffs.
The peak STILL seemed far off, but I was enjoying myself.
Looks like a quarry has destroyed the mountain, I suspect a volcanic eruption did.
Here is the emergency shelter, it is where the main trail from a road joins on. I saw only one other person before getting to this hut. After the hut to the summit there were lots of people.
Bonus pic of small lake plateau.
Cool cliff, tricky light. This kind of shows how I had hiked around to the back of the mountain to get up.
Some more snowy peaks, very near the top now.
Here is the summit. It was actually an easier hike than I thought, it took a long time because I had to get from the station to the ski slopes, but the path was well maintained, no ropes or ladders anywhere.
Now for some summit views, there are those yellowy looking sandy ridges.
I think this is looking back towards Koriyama over smaller mountains.
And there is all of Lake Inawashiro. It fits in one shot! It looks a long way down! I started from very close to the lake where the station is.
Time for another shot of my big old head.
There were a few others at the summit.
I am on my way down here. This side is mainly in shade this time of year, and its where I saw an ice tunnel in recent photos. No ice today.
The light was better on the way down, but I did not take as many photos. I am sure you are all relieved.
A nice green area. Slimy.
Oh, its the plateau again. Both on the way up and down I had this all to myself.
The path down was rockier than I remembered on the way up!
I had made very good time, so I decided to take a slight detour on the way down to another peak. It only adds 20 minutes or so. Here is the view from unnamed peak looking back at Mount Bandai.
Of course I had hiked back up hill so I could hike futher down hill.
But it did allow me to complete THE STANCE. Note these are my mountain clothes. They appear in many photos on many trips for many years now! The top in particular is more than ten years old, and looks it. It was soaked through on my back with sweat!
Cool view down. I am over half way down at this point, better light, better detail. Oh look, some cloud on the horizon.
Back at the ski fields, now I can run!
I did not run the whole way, but should have, I should have checked earlier when the train was coming....
It does not take long to get back to the ski field parking lot. I NARUTO RAN the last bit. Look that up.
Then I checked the train timetable, and realised I had about 25 minutes to run 5km. At least it was down hill, but remember by now I had hiked up a mountain and already travelled over 20km. TIME TO GET RUNNING. I made it onto the platform just as the train arrived, no joke!
Here I am, sweating profusely as I board the train. Another great day in the mountains today, the weather really helped make it excellent!
Eating Champon in Koriyama
Champon, also known as chanpon, is the main thing people eat in Nagasaki. I was not brave enough to eat it when I was in Nagasaki last year. It is literally udon noodles and other things, cooked in lard. The soup then has lard added to it. And yes it tastes like lard. I am not a big fan! I decided today was the day when I had burnt enough calories to give lard noodle soup a try. Once was probably enough.
I have now explored Koriyama a bit, but not too much, I was taking it easy this evening. Initial impressions are that Fukushima, just up the road, is busier and nicer. Thats not to say Koriyama is horrible, I am just trying to pick a winner.
I see there are 2 big malls quite near the centre of Koriyama, those may have impacted business in the city centre. Rain is forecast tomorrow, so who knows, I might end up at a mall.
Japanese concept maybe. You have no kitchen in your house, you go to the rental kitchen when you feel like cooking.
I thought this evening I would just go to the station and that would be the end of that. Here is the station photo. But as you will see, I then decided to wander and gawk a bit.
The covered street thing is pretty small here.
The station has their christmas illuminations ready to go, but they do not seem to be turning them on yet, instead I present, snowman out the front of a bar.
The main street was busy enough.
There are also a few busy side streets.
If I was going to go to a bar, this is the one for me.
A lot of Koriyama places are quite vertical, and many of them are owned by a company called 'Elite'. There are at least 10 such towers I noticed so far. All seem to be a mix of bars, love hotels and karaoke in one building. Also I did not photograph it but theres a cool looking cinema, with 10 screens, in 5 buildings. Very unusual. The 5 building thing is why I did not photograph it, 5 photos would have been too many.
The alleyways here are not too narrow.
Tourist information centre. I went in and asked what time the zoo would be open tomorrow.
And here they are, lard noodles. If you like lard, give them a try!