藤向堂　Fujisakido

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...

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 ...

  Among several routes to climb up Mt.Hiru, I like the routes from Aone village, since these routes have the least climbers because of  its inconvenience in public transportation. In the early morning, I drove to  Kibikara yama Parking Lot.  The parking lot could contain barely 5 small cars, but was empty at the time of 6:30 am. Going through block gate build for vehicles, permitted to go over for walking climbers only, I walk on the paved road up to the intersection to Haccho-saka route. BTW, if you see any climbing path prefixed by "Haccho", that would be the indication of steep hill in Japanese climbing community. The path going up to Haccho kashira would take good 2.5 hours of walk. Here is what I tried to record a video footage with GoPro. I apologize for my clumsy angle configuration, since my phone app was not prepared well for this expedition. After reaching up to the top of Hacchozaka, the route change to a nice and easy ridge route t...

Before moving to Fujimi plateau, we climed up to Iimori yama This was meant to be quick and easy hike. Iimori yama Then we drove to the hut we rent out for next two day, which have fences around yard for dog. You have to be careful for the rural area rule. We arrieved this local town, to the station area around 2pm, expectng to have some lunch. But all of these shops are closed. Since they operate 11-1pm, and 17pm-20pm. in the old style everyone live in the same schedule. We ended up with going local chain grocery and picked up some Tako-Yaki. Fujimi resort rental house The hut was quite old, and do not have enough lighting.  But had decent laundry machine and laundry line under awning.  (No detergent, nor laundry clip) Not only the laundry machine.... I mean, they have good table stove and frying pans, but no condiments, tin-foil nor microwave. They got nice bath chair and washing bowl, but no shampoo nor conditioners. Kitchin sin...