Japan Archives | Page 2 of 4

November 27, 2017 / 6 Comments

Hiking the Yakushima Traverse: Ohokabu to Yodogawa – Part 2

This post is part two of two about hiking the Yakushima traverse in Japan, for part one go here.

After waking up to a little bit of sun peeking through the trees, we had breakfast and started to pack up. The tent was wet from the inside due to condensation and there was no way it was going to dry out in the humid climate, especially with the forest blocking out the direct sunlight. At least it wasn’t raining. At around 7:45am the first day hikers arrived at the Ohokabu (大株歩道入口) coming up from the Arakawa Trial Head (荒川登山口) and said hello while we had a coffee. The day was going to be long so we finished everything up quickly and left at 8:15.

After 30mins we arrived at the famous Wilson Stump (ウィルソン株), which is Cedar tree stump so large that you can go inside!

Special about the Wilson Stump is the shape of the cavity in the stump, it is shaped like a rather perfect heart and thus very popular in Japan! Apparently, most Japanese people have seen the stump’s shape at some point on TV.

October 1, 2017 / 3 Comments

Hiking the Yakushima Traverse: Miyanoura Port to Ookabu – Part 1

This two part series will give an overview over hiking the Yakushima traverse in late summer (beginning of September) in 2017. Part 2 can be found here. Yakushima itself is an island in southern Japan (south of Kyushu) and a part of the Kagoshima prefecture. So consider this to be an excourse from Hokkaido ;)! There are no more active volcanos on Yakushima but still plenty of (amazing, seaside) onsen around.

Planning the tour

The Yakushima traverse hike is the grandfather of the hiking routes on the island but multiple variations of the route are possible. We decided on the route starting at Shiratani Unsuikyo, passing Jomon Sugi, climbing Mt. Miyanoura and finishing at Yodogawa. Furthermore, we aimed at bringing the least amount of gear possible with us to keep our pack weight low. However, as it was the first attempt we kind of failed and brought too much of all types of items (food, clothes, misc stuff that “might” be needed). We landed at the northern Miyanoura Port (宮之浦港) at 13:50 by high speed ferry from Kagoshima (depature 12:00), which was a little bit late in hindsight. A note on Kagoshima port: you can leave your car at one of the public parking lots near the ferry terminal for a fee.

Then we took the bus at 14:00 from the port directly to the northern trail head Shiratani Unsuikyo (白谷雲水峡) which took around 45mins. The trail head is at an altitude of 600m and lots of day tourists were coming back from a hike around the massive Cedar trees close to the trail head, such as the Yayoi Sugi. At the entrance, you have to pay 2000JPY per person if you indent to sleep within the National Park (same for Hut and Tent) and fill out a hiking iternary, in case of emergency. Strangely enough, after asking I was told that we don’t need to fill out a similar sheet upon completion of the hike. At that point we hadn’t decided yet if we were going to stay at the Shiratani Hut (白谷小屋) or walk further so we left both options on the sheet.

May 1, 2015 / 5 Comments

Eastern Hokkaido Part 3: From Kawayu Onsen to Ikeda to “Butadon” to Sapporo

Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here

We started the day off at Kawayu Onsen – on the way to the bus stop we spotted a Rotenburo (open air bath), which was charmingly located next to the road!

We were heading for the train to go south in a comfy local train..

March 3, 2015 / 12 Comments

Eastern Hokkaido Part 2: From Shiretoko’s drift ice to Kawayu Onsen

Read Part 1 here beforehand, if you like.

The next morning we woke up early as we booked a drift ice walk at 0630am. Fortunately, the weather was way better than the expected rain..

After changing into the provided dry suits we jumped right in!

March 2, 2015 / 9 Comments

Eastern Hokkaido Part 1: From Sapporo to Shiretoko

From the 22th to 24th of February, I went on a trip through Eastern Hokkaido with my friend Park. The landscape of eastern Hokkaido is stunningly beautiful and we were really lucky with the weather. We travelled by bus and JR Trains on a 3 day Rail Pass. In hindsight a rental car would probably have been the more sensible choice as there are only very few buses in remote areas (like three per day) and the JR Trains are not cheap at all – even on a 3 day student pass (20000jpy).

After around five hours on the train from Sapporo, we stopped at Engaru Station. There are only few dead-end stations in Japan, from what I have experienced – in contrast to Europe. However, Japanese trains are of course equipped to deal with that, so it is possible to rotate all seats on the train by 180 degrees! That is also incredibly useful when travelling in groups, as you can just turn the seats and then easily talk with four people!

At Abashiri, we changed trains and hopped onto the Ryuhyo (Japanese for drift ice) Norokko Train, a special, old train that runs along the coast so you can see the drift ice from the train.

February 2, 2015 / 23 Comments

A road trip to Cape Kamui – Shakotan

Once more a post about a trip from a while back!
A friend visited me in Hokkaido and we went on a trip around the Shakotan peninsula, just north-west of Sapporo. While Shakotan can be accessed by Bus, it is a whole lot more convenient by car especially in Autumn/Winter as the Bus service is very limited.

We stopped by in Otaru and its Habour to have some Sushi and rent a car..

And off we went! Shakotan has a lot of mountains – or rather hills. Therefore, there are an astonishing amount of tunnels, some of which are a few kilometeres long. I am always wondering about the viability of building and maintaining those tunnels – it probably does not pay off, considering that Shakotan has a population of only 2500 people. But fortunately Countries are not entirely for profit entities – yet…

January 24, 2015 / 88 Comments

A winter trip to Biei and the blue pond

I haven’t posted to my blog in almost two months! There is a lot of stuff keeping me busy at the moment and I have hardly taken any pictures at all recently. I’ll try to update my blog more frequently (predominantly with “old” stuff) in the coming weeks though.
During the New Year’s Holidays I went to Biei, Hokkaido with a couple of friends. I have been to Biei before in autumn but it was worth visiting again, especially since the blue pond was going to be lit up in the evening.
Before taking the bus to the Blue Pond close to Biei we walked around Biei’s famous Hills. Unfortunately time was rather limited as the bus only runs three times a day.

After a 30min bus ride we arrived at the Blue Pond! In hindsight we could have guessed what we were going to see..

Of course the Blue Pond was frozen and covered with snow! It is called the Blue Pond due to the blue tint of the water, for which the cause is not known yet. We were able to see some blueish water a little bit down the stream though:

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