藤向堂　Fujisakido: 2019

Toh no dake via Yabitsu (solo) + ヤビツ峠～塔の岳 (ソロ)

Summary: I need sunglasses and crampon to climb Tanzawa between Dec to March.

　　Even though I visited the same exact mountain in the last week, I wanted to climb up there from the other side my myself.

I originally planned to start from the bus stop at Yabitsu peak, but I heard the bus stop was temporarily closed down due to the snow fall last week. So, I decided to get off at the alternative bus stop at Minoge bus stop. It left Hadano station at 7:05 and reached the destination around 7:30ish.

It took 1 hour extra walk to get to Yabitsu peak using Kashiwagi path. The path is peaceful with natural fountain and old remains of villages. That was good. However, when I reached Yabitsu peak, there was a bus. Geez, the bus line was fine and operating. I should have taken the bus line to Yabitsu bus stop to save my energy for an hour's walk, but well, Kashiwagi path was beautiful and useful connecter between Yabitsu (sparsely operated) and Minoge bus stop (frequently operated). So, that was a gain of knowledge after all.

The entrance to the mountain is a bit away from the bus stop. The starting part of the path requires steep climbing, but rather enjoyable. On the other hand, some remaining snow creating a frozen path was not enjoyable for me at all. I should have brought my crampons and sun glasses. My bad.

From Sanno toh

Shin Dainichi

The weather was beautiful. This path was great to see the whole Tanzawa cluster of mountains. But parts of the narrow ridge were even narrower due to several harsh storms in this year, and a bit dangerous to path through.

I saw people who are enjoying para gliding and parachuting.

From Omote-one

The notorious vertical gap with chains that make climbers to use their upper arm strength was scary as hell. I regretted I should have waited until my left arm completely healed. Also, I have to admit having weak upper left arm break my balance whenever I had to pass a shady part with snow on the ground.

Top of the Toh no dake

I reached at the peak around 13:00. The place was packed with climbers. I only had a sweet bean bread and a rice ball. I crave for a warm meal. I will bring my gas stove next time!

The Southern Alps were visible

Tokyo looked so small from here.

There was a trail running group who apparently a westerners father, a Japanese mom, and their teenage daughter and their friends. As an another international family, who run trails, I was ashamed of their behavior lacking consideration for the other hikers.

The basics of trail running from the textbook are :

1. If you are running crowded trails, you are supposed to slow down and walk when you pass other hikers. Meaning, you cannot run crowded trails in weekends.
2. Do not casually scream at each other. This is peaceful mountain, not a training track.

Hanadate Sansou

I used the Ohkura "stupidly stairs" path to go down, and reached Ohkura bus stop 15:20.

Komadome hut

Kannon hut

Toh no dake via Baka ridge with dog 塔ノ岳　バカ尾根 with 犬+家族

Even though I am still under my rehabilitation regimen, I was craving for hiking. So I decided to climb up Toh no dake. This is the first attempt of the long hike after my injury.
I usually prefer Mt. Hiru in Tanzawa, located in the north side of the area, however, since my left arm is not completely recovered yet, I decided to climb more popular and well-managed mountain than rusty Mt. Hiru, so that the risk of tripping over on the route is relatively less, presumably.
The Ohkura route has steep stairs literary forever to the top of Toh no dake. The route is called Baka-O-Ne (A ridge with simple, stupid stairs) Since this route is quite well-known, well administrated and have huts and bathrooms.
We left home around 4:45 am, and reached to the 24 hour parking lot nearby the entry point of the hiking trail in Okura around 6:15 am. The parking fee is 800 yen for a day. The parking lot machine only accepts 1000 yen bill and coins.
It was cloudy on that day, but no rains. The Ohkura bus stop has a bathroom and the post you can submit your climber registration. Please submit it here, if you have not done so beforehand.

At the bus stop, waiting for us using bathroom in turn.

At the 2km point, we found a camping ground. Apparently this is the only camping ground inside of the Tanzawa mountain area. Only if we could bring up water up here, we could enjoy camping in this silent environment away from city noise. Unfortunately, the hut was not in operation. They had closed business 3 years ago, according to the notice in the front door. The camping ground is still free to use. We had a breakfast here looking down the great view of Sagami Bay.

From the front yard of the abandoned hut, we could see Sagami bay.

Right after Miharashi Chaya, the course changed to have series of brutal steep stairs.

Miharashi hut

I had my dog on my chest string, and my dog pulled me forward to her excitement from climbing. So I had an accelerating force to step forward. On the other hand, my husband had hard time to keep stepping up these forever-assertion of stairs. Naturally, as we climb up, the temperature goes down. Meanwhile, we get sweat from this vigorous exercise. This could be a problem as soon as we stop for rest, since our wet cloth immediately cool down our muscles.

Hanadate hut; Closed. The bathroom was in operation.

At the top of the Toh no dake, icy gust of wind welcomed us! It was foggy, no view of other Tanzawa mountains, and forget about Mt. Fuji view! I managed to change my upper clothings in the bathroom at the Sonbutu hut. The usage of the bathroom is asking for 100 yen. Since we did not have changes, I bought a memorambia pin for 500 yen, and gave the rest of the change to the bathroom for my small donation.

One of the party of 2 ladies at the top talked to us and the conversation was memorable. They looked like a mother and daughter, seemed to love dogs. The mother figure said "Did you carry your dog up to here?" I replied. "No, she... wait, what is the question?" They said they have just lost their 14 year old doggie. I imagined that doggie would have been a happy toy breed.
We decided to use Komaru route, rather than going back the exact same Ohkura route, which is getting busy in the middle of the day. Komaru route is a bit quieter, but does not have get served by huts along the side of the route, meaning no bathrooms. We enjoyed the quiet, deep autumn mountain though. The end of the route is the prefecture park without any hard-to-walk rocks on the ground nor knee hurting slopes.

Quiet Komaru route

We reached back to the parking lot around 15:00.

Uncanny valley of sound

Excuse this post lacking of subject, just to avoid search engine.
I am repeating these tweets after 7 years of his death.

I appreciate my husband who put up with my speech in every dinners about my most respected musician for 3 weeks now. #fb
— Fujisaki Kickno (@kickno) February 12, 2012

ここ数週間でがくっと体重が落ちたんだけど、筋肉も落ちたみたいで、7mileがちゃんと走れなかった。ともちゃん引っ張る引っ張る；
— Fujisaki Kickno (@kickno) February 5, 2012

今日も夜2時くらいに目が覚めて、結局寝に戻れなかった；最近ずっとこのパターン。寝不足で気持ち悪いー。今夜9日ぶりのレッスン、出ないともっとブランク長くなって後で大変なことになるんだよな・・・。
— Fujisaki Kickno (@kickno) February 6, 2012

Since I am an auditory centered person, attending the show (great show!) without him　gave me a strong sense of deficiency, cut-off and a lot of flashbacks of my memory. These make me sick.
Since the inheriting guitarist is such a skillfull guy (and, good person), accurately copied phrasing by him created; uncanny vally of sound. Hopefully this is just for me. Hopefully everyone else enjoyed the show.

Don't mistake. They are DOING the RIGHT thing. I support them firmly, no matter my personally preferred sound is abstracted out and hidden from the front layer, their direction keeps his music alive, and I appreciate it a lot.

The contradiction between what I understand how the band going and rejection from my physical (auditory) sense has been giving me sickness. Physically and mentally.
7 years ago, after his funeral, I started to get into a lot of piano practice, got on stage and played piano for the nearest church.
This time, unfortunately, my arms] are injured thus I cannot play the piano, cannot redirect my feeling of loss.

/me dealing with depression for a while now.

Chromesthesiaの話

最近このCognitive Disorder（知覚変異？)があまり日本語で話されていないことに気づきました。
なので日本語エントリ。
米国でくらしているうちに、私は英語でこの症状にあたることに気づきました。

● Chromesthesiaとは

---
Many synaesthetes, however, are born with the variance known as chromesthesia. This results in specific sounds, pitches and timbres generating corresponding colours and textures in the field of vision (or, as some describe it, in the “mind’s eye”).
---

聴覚で聞いた音を色や質感として理解する脳の働きをする症状を、Chromesthesiaといいます。日本語での呼び名を私は知りません。

● Chromesthesiaはどう見えるの？

私は認知学専門家ではないので、他の方はわかりません。なので私の場合だけを話します。

1．日常生活

まったく問題ありません。だだ、比較的人ごみを「うるさい」と感じてイライラする閾値は低いので、耳栓は常に持ち歩いています。

2．音をちゃんと聞こうとする場合
Chromesthesiaは、主に集中して聞いているときに発生します。録音された音をヘッドホンで聞きながら通勤しているときは発生しません。
録音された音でも、静かな環境で集中して聞くと発生します。
しかし一番発生率が高いのは、生の音を聞く機会です。ここではコンサートの場合と、授業の場合を二つの例を上げます。

例1. コンサートなどの場合:　
色を感じ、その場の空気の質感？が変わります。色の錯誤認識が一番頻繁に発生し、会場のライティングとは関係ないため、音の影響でライティングと混ざった印象を受けます。
感じ方はレイヤを重ねた感じ。ずっと見えているわけではなく、一瞬見えて消えたり、しばらく続いたりします。
音をトリガにして自分の記憶が見えることもあります。これはちょっと、心理的にキツイ場合もあります。😥

支障が出た唯一の例では、スタンディングの洋楽コンサートで、トゲトゲした赤い空気を吸気できずぶっ倒れ、セキュリティの方にこぼう抜きで救助されたことがあります。あの時はマジホントすみません 🙇 > スタッフの方
体調の問題だったかな、と当初思っていましたが、上記より数か月前に、同じ会場でもっと混んだ国内アーティストをみていて、その時は大丈夫だったし、そもそも学生の若いころだったので、Chromesthesiaのせいだったかなと今では思います。

利点としては秀逸な音を聴覚の印象だけでなく、美しい視覚の印象として記憶に残る、というところです。万人にとって利点かどうかわかりませんが、私にとっては利点でした。

例2．授業などの人の声の場合：
こちらは色は見えません。ただし、話が面白いと思って聞いていると、話者の顔が巨大になったりしぼんだり、鼓動しているように見えます。
空気の質も重く丸くなります。球体の中に教室が入ってて、その人の声だけが鋭く聞こえる感じです。
利点としては、こういう状態で聞いた話は長く覚えています。なので、なるべく集中してこの状態に持っていきたいと意識します。残念ながら、最近のリモート会議のプレゼンでは発生しません。少人数のクラスであればあるほど発生しやすいです。

● Chromesthesiaになる原因
上にあげた記事では生まれながらの性質のように書かれていますね。Wikipedia　のエントリによると、聴覚刺激により、視覚野へ刺激が発生しているのが記録されているとか。へー。
先天的、後天的、どちらかは私に判断つきません。こどものころからピアノをやっていたので、その影響かもしれません。
また、あまりこの話はしたくないのですが、一般的に言う良い家庭環境では育っていないので、子供のころから押し入れの中から階下の会話に耳を澄まして理解するという地獄耳の特技もありました。
なので、耳は良いほう、だと思います。年とともにどんどんこれからも落ちるんだと思いますが。

一方、私はかなり若いころから近眼で眼鏡なしでの生活はできません。
おそらく関係ありませんが、亡くなった父は色盲でした。私は女性ですので、色盲ではありません。ただ目が悪い分、耳に頼っている、のかもしれません。

● まとめ
Chromesthesiaについて書きました。若いころは音について話すと、えーｗ面白いこと言うねーといわれたり、変な人とという印象を与えてしまうことが多くて、ひしょげたりしていたのですが、米国に行って症状名を教えられて、少し安心しました。
なので、同じような症状のある方は、変人扱いされたら、Chromesthesiaっていうんだよ！　と返してください。
あと、日本の認知学をやっている方がいらしたら、日本語訳の名前をつけてあげてください。よろしくお願いします。😉

I broke my bone in my upper left arm.

Therefore, no climbing record for this summer. Doctor says healing will take at least a half year. Bummer. :(

Southern (Omote) Tanzawa without dog 表丹沢（ソロ＆犬なし）

Summary. Nice pace climbing up, though failed for my ill-planned route coming back.

I arrived at Shibusawa sta. 6:45 am, and the line of the people who were waiting for the first bus to Ookura stop, the entrance to the hiking route, was quite long already.

At the Ookura stop, there was a Caucasian guy who seemed to be inquisitively looking at hiking registration post and its card ... written in Japanese only. So I helped him to submit hiking registration. The city of Hadano should also place a multilingual hiker registration form.

The town around Ookura bus stop

The route I took was starting from the prefectural forest park. The route is well managed and paved alongside the river. Most of the people I rode with bus apparently used another major path to To no dake. So the path was quiet. Other than the odd entrance to open the netted door for deer to get in, the route reminded me of walking down Yarisawa last year.

The path to climb up to Nabewari mountain was quite steep. My heart rate hit high according to my GPS watch. Also, my new phone was kept beeping for not having internet access. I was annoyed and thought it was a silly default. If I don't have the internet, the last thing I want my phone to do is using extra power and draining out its power.

The city of Hadano is also visible from the top of Mt. Nabewari.

Mt. Fuji was impressively visible.

At the top of the Nabewari mountain, there is a hut serving Udon noodle. Originally, I was thinking of eating udon for my breakfast. However, ... no offense. I admire the effort to serve any food in 1200m point without access road for vehicles, but I lost my appetite after noticing so many fries in the back of the hut, presumably their kitchen area. Their hygienic standard simply did not serve for me personally. Everyone else should go ahead and enjoy their udon (1000 yen). But I personally preferred eating my own riceball.
I used their bathroom and paid 100yen. No flushing the toilet paper in the mountain!

The path from Nabewari mountain to the next destination, To no dake was quite easy.

One of the named ridges is called "Kin Hiyashi", where is supposed to be high and frightening (Kin is an implication of male genitalia, so the literal meaning of the word is "shivering genitalia"). But I did not find the ridge was scary, compared to the place around the Hirugatake, the other side of the Tanzawa.

The top of the To no dake also have a hut. Back in the day, an animism group worshipped the mountain. The Inn served for the congregation.

Again, Mt. Fuji

From the To no dake to the last destination, Tanzawa mountain, which is considered to be the most significant mountain, was also an easy-going ridge road. Having said that, in my opinion, Hirugatake is higher and significant with more serenity with it. But the service they have with Miyama hut is indeed through and have more staff member here.

I used their bathroom(100 yen), bought 500ml water (500 yen, mountain price) and purchased mountain pin badge.(800 yen)

Yushin valley and Mt. Fuji

Coming down from the top of Tanzawa, I chose the Tennoji peak route, which was the beginning of a chain of my bad decision. The route is well managed but filled with gravel limestones, and some parts of the path are collapsed. I used up my muscle strength coming down this route.

I saw these mini tents in the path. I wonder what these are for

Getting on the paved road, prefectural Rd. 70 at 16:00, I found NOTHING along the road. I honestly expected to see some vending machines, after coming down the graveled path, otherwise, paths consisted of intricated roots for 3 hours under 33 centigrade (91.4 F) and I was dehydrated.

The water in the river next to Rt. 70 is clear. But not for consumption.

random unnamed waterfalls are everywhere in Tanzawa

I decided to walk along the Rt. 70, hoping I will find either a vending machine or coffee shop. The effort ended in vain. I did not have internet access in almost the whole time including in Rt. 70.

Survival first. I started to focus on resolving my hydration problem. I looked for any possible water serving point in the map. At the climbing entrance to the Omote Tanzawa major course, I found a water spring. I walked up there, I filled spring water to my 1 liter Nalgene bottle. Paid 100yen.

Next. Getting the heck out of this Rt. of nothingness! The route is not only void but many speeding vehicles running down since the winding road is an attraction among motor enthusiasts. It is dangerous for pedestrians to walk along. I finally noticed my cell phone service recovered when I reached Yabitsu peak, where used to be a battlefield, and have numerous rumors of haunting (and many suicides follow). I called a cab at this point at 18:00. Also, after deep consideration, I used that haunting public bathroom while waiting for the cab.

There was another solo dude, parked his car at the parking lot, and tried to have a conversation with me. I had a short and casual conversation with him. No one around while waiting for the cab and it was getting dark. Considering just in case situation, I called my husband on speaker phone, started to have a conversation aloud in English with my husband over the phone. I repeated "Human is far scarier than ghosts." in my mind.

The cab arrived, and I paid 4,690 yen for the service to Hadano station. I could ask the cab to take me to the closest major bus stop, Minoge bus stop so that I could have saved money. But I was exhausted and wanted to go back home as early as possible.

Next Omote Tanzawa trip, I hope I could plan better so that I don't have to use a cab to go back to public transportation.

Inukoeji (Dog summiting path) in Tanzawa 丹沢の犬越路 with Dog

We climbed up Inukoeji (Dog summiting path) where the army of Takeda clan used to march for the purpose of military attack back in the 16th century. Takeda clan used military dogs, so we took our dog too... well, we always take our dog to trek anyway.

The path has paved road used for lumberjack business even now. Motor vehicles need to have a permit to pass, but pedestrians can use anytime. Having said that, I wouldn't use this path after dark.

The place is quite silent. They even have an 800m tunnel to connect to the other side of Tanzawa, West side of Tanzawa where holds massive Tanzawa Lake. That hollow existence adds creepiness to the whole path.

On the bright side (literally), at the top of the Inukoeji path is the peak of Oosugi-Maru. There is an evacuation hut and bathroom. I had a sweet bean bread for breakfast there. We did not go up to Mt. Omuro, but Mt. Fuji was partially visible from the path.

Mt. Fuji

We parked our car at Kannnogawa Hut. The parking is 300 yen. To loop back to the parking lot, we used a minor path, a steep ridge path without any signpost, to go down. According to the West Tanzawa Map, it was about 700m to descend the minor path. I set my GPS watch to track the distance to descend for just in case we lost track. The path was buried with pine leaves, but clear enough to follow, especially for our dog who helped us to follow the path.