kenleewrites in 日本

The road up Mount Tateshina begins here as we left the comfort of our abode. The last mountain I climbed was Mt. Fuji and that took many long and sweaty hours. Standing at just a little more than 1000m shorter than Mt. Fuji, from this elevation, Mt. Tateshina didn’t look like it’ll be that much easier to conquer.

The trek up starts at the gate. The plaque on the gate reads Tateshina Shrine. I don’t know if it means the whole mountain is a shrine.

It starts out pretty gentle.

And with makeshift steps up the slope.

We are only so lucky to have easy steps early in the climb.

Looking back at the view.

There is a mountain lodge “halfway”. Signboards point you in the right direction.

The mountain lodge and the final climb up.

Inside mountain lodge.

There are some pretty yummy things to fill one’s stomach with before ascending… or descending.

Tonjiru. Pork soup.

Sansai ramen (山菜らーめん). Ramen topped with mountain vegetables. Probably picked earlier that morning.

Lots more to climb. You can just about make out the line of hikers in the photo.

There were alot of people with us on the way up. Can’t blame them. The weather was just perfect that day.

Time to use hands.

It got pretty steep at times.

The view near the top was pretty nice. Not many tall trees once you get up to a certain height.

At the top! And some people going down already! Can you see the lodge where we had food earlier in the photo?

2530m!

Rest. Toilets were ¥200 a trip. Shows how much pee/poo is worth here. ^^.

Walking away backwards from the resthouse.

I like the V clouds in this photo. You know what, there was this short period where I was in the shade. But as the clouds moved, I could see sunlight rushing towards me on the ground and eventually filling the whole area with light. It happened in a matter of nanoseconds! That was a really cool experience!

A couple taking a rest.

One lone gray cloud.

Softbank doesn’t get much in terms of reception at the top. In fact, it doesn’t get any at all! Maybe if I had an antenna that long…

There are lots of rocks at the top. Mount Tateshina is a complex volcano. I remember studying about complex volcanoes in high school geography. Something about complex volcanoes having multiple vents to eject magma onto the surface.

Like a bad pimple on the Earth’s surface. Am I right?

From up here, even a cloud leaves a shadow on a sunny day.

After a long and strenuous climb up, most hikers at the top usually sit down, take in the view with their eyes, and food with their mouths.

Rocks! Lots of rocks! I really like this picture. Think I’ll stick it on my desktop for a bit.

I see lots of farmland.

And a lake too. Wanted to go “swan-boating”… but didn’t have the time.

There was a shrine at the top of Mt. Fuji as well. I haven’t climbed enough mountains in Japan to tell you if there’s a shrine on every mountain peak. ^^.

I brought along my gorillapod. Might as well have some fun with it. ^^.

Unless you see something where I’m pointing, I’m not pointing at anything in particular.

It was a good morning climb! This is the second mountain I’ve climbed this year. I wonder if there’s going to be a third…