Mt. Kita. 3193 meters. The second highest mountain in Japan, after Mt. Fuji.

A good question: Along the ridge an 80-minute climb away from the summit of Mt. Kita, there is a a lodge (Kita-dake-san-so). Why would you stay there?

In the afternoon, hundreds of hikers arrive at the lodge. They have sweated for five or six hours, maybe more. There is no shower, no bath. But there is one changing nook available. It is about two feet by two feet wide–with a curtain. You can strip, wipe yourself off with a towel, dress. There is a plastic bottle crate to put your clean clothes on—or to rest your bare bottom on. Maybe only a few people will open the curtain to see if someone didn’t forget to change the “occupied” sign to the “now available” sign. Most people will just talk to you through the curtain.

You will sleep on a massive floor with hundreds of others, the foot of your futon touching the foot of someone else’s, the right side of yours touching the left side of someone else’s, the left side of yours touching the right side of someone else’s. Imagine a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces fit together tightly.

If you decide to get up, say, to go to the restroom, between 6 PM and 4 AM (pitch dark after 8 PM), you will have to negotiate this sea of futons. Shielding your light, so that you disturb others as little as possible, you’ll dodge the feet. (Keep in mind that your legs are probably not feeling the most nimble they ever have.) If, when you return, you mistake your spot by one row of futons (and there are many!), you may lower yourself back onto your futon and accidentally flop down upon a stranger. Bad form. I almost did this!

If you are taller than about 150 cm, you will have to sleep with your head under a wooden shelf. All night long, you will hear–Whack!!! “AH!” You will probably whack your own head at least twice. I hit mine maybe five times.

You will, in the night, have the joy of playing footsies three or four times with the fellow whose feet are “facing” yours.

All night the plywood floors will creak.  Some will not be so good at minimalizing their lights. In the case of a strapped on headlight on high beam, you’ll feel a laser show has begun. This will only be every twenty minutes or so, though.

People snore a lot. Really. A lot.

So the question is: Why would anyone endure this? Why would you spend the night here?

Hopefully, the pictures that follow, in this post and the next, will answer this question sufficiently.

From Shizuoka, we drove two hours and spent the night at an inn near the public parking lot at the end of the public road. The next morning, we caught a 5:20 AM microbus that took us up the “closed” road—about 45 minutes—and to the Hirogawara trailhead. From the trailhead, if the sky is clear, you can see the peak of Mt. Kita (above). Our goal, on this first day, was to get to the Mount Kita lodge (about 5.5 hours it took), just below the Mt. Kita Peak, and then turn left on the  ridge and walk to Mt. Aino and back (about 3 hours it took), and spend the night in the lodge. We’d save the summit of Mt. Kita for the next day.

In the end, though, because of a couple of trail mistakes, we ended up walking about 9.5 hours. Mist and a rocky trail that looks pretty much like the rest of the  rocky mountain can be a dangerous combination. At least, it proved so for us a couple of times. Take note, if you visit Japan, you may not want to ask me to be your guide!

The first thing you do is cross the suspension bridge that spans the Noro River. Take it slow and enjoy it. It’s the last level ground you’ll experience for the next  six hours—and about 1700 meters of ascent.

After about twenty minutes, the trail splits. You can go right or left. Left keeps you snug to the Okabazawa Creek/River. It’s the straightest shot to the top, and naturally the steeper option. Steep uphills bother us less than steep downhills, so we turned left.

Purple. It was everywhere. Gave us a good chance to see how well nature could paint with a single tube of paint. This is a good thing to keep in mind if you want to take up painting. If you’ve got good technique, a single tube can take you a long way.

The flow of the stream gradually gets smaller.

Then disappears.

But the flowers continue.

Beautiful blue skies are great, but we were happy, most of the time, to be walking under the mist. We sweat enough as it was. A clear, blue sky may have done us in.

Regardless of the sky, though, it’s important to go at a pace you’re comfortable with.

Yes, climb at your own pace. The natives know to do that.

As we approached the ridge, there were patches of evergreen shrub all about, and there we spotted some Hoshigarasu (literally, “Star Crow”), called Spotted Nutcracker, in English. First time for us. Always, always, always something new.

We dropped our heaviest stuff off at the lodge, then headed along the ridge, back toward Shizuoka, and toward Mt. Aino, 3190 meters. Only three meters down from Mt. Kita, but enough to send it to fourth on the list of tallest mountains of Japan.

It was a grey, green, and rocky walk. And when the trail takes you close to the edge of the trail, which is often, you can see how steep the drop is into the valley opposite of the way you came up.

Of course, grey skies can be as lovely as blue. If not, why is this Hearty Hiker smiling so much. And after walking up for seven hours!

And yes . . .

. . . we made it to the tippity top of Mt. Aino.

Let’s enjoy the moment.

Okay, on the way back, we got turned around in the mist, and I’m ashamed to say, that after forty-five minutes walking back toward the lodge (ha ha!), we found ourselves back at the summit of Mt. Aino.

But apparently, according to one of our Hearty Hikers (Bless her soul!), this was a blessing in disguise.

Because while we were back up there, the skies went blue. They only stayed blue for about five minutes . . .

. . . but it did seem like a gift. Re-energized us for the long haul back to the lodge.

The flowers didn’t look much different in the grey or the blue.

And the Iwahibari below (Alpine Accentor, in English) seemed to be saying . . . “Just another day.”

9.5 hours of climbing. So much beauty. Put those two things together, and we were very very happy  to arrive back at the lodge and nestle into our little patch of futon.