Hiking in Nikko National Park. Oku-Shirane, Mae-Shirane and Goshiki-san traverse.
I’d long dreamt of hiking through the beautiful misty mountains of Japan, then returning to a cozy Ryokan (Japanese Inn) to soak in onsens (hot springs) while gorging on so many varieties of delicious Japanese cuisine. Deciding to combine a visit with my family in Tokyo with a few hikes through the mountains I find myself at Yumoto Onsen (spa town) with mum in tow.
We set out early after a huge breakfast, knowing we have a long day ahead of us. Leaving the tiny spa village of Yumoto we start following the silent summer ski lifts up a grassy valley before we see a small wooden sign pointing up into the forest; we are hot on the tail of a 70 year old man who’s summited Shirane-san 3 times already. He’s hard to keep up with, but we power on up a vertical ascent of tree roots; it’s not really walking anymore, but like climbing one long endless tree ladder, and after 2 hours of straight climbing we are dripping with sweat and panting from exhaustion. No matter how many times he’s done this climb, he always seems to forget how painful it is, he tell us; like child birth I guess. Today however he’s not going all the way to Oku-Shirane (2578m), but just climbing the front peak of the mountain Mae-Shirane (2379m).
Knowing we have so far to go today we hightail it up to Mae-Shirane-san where icy cold winds whip against our jackets; quickly shoving an onigiri (rice ball) in our mouths we start descending down the other side towards the volcanic blue lake of Goshiki-numa. From there we get our first glimpse of Oku-Shirane san, as the mountain emerges from the swirling clouds. I see a windy gravel path snaking its way up the western flank of the mountain; not exactly filled with confidence, but determined to give it a go we head down the green forested valley below before we begin our ascent.
It’s a long hard climb up but not nearly as exposed or vertigo inducing as it had looked from below; reaching the summit we are shocked to suddenly see so many colourful climbers dotted all along the ridgeline. Some with small children and one guy with a handbag dog! There is a ropeway on the other side we soon discover, from where it’s only a couple of hours walk up to the summit which explains why they look so fresh.
The summit has a small shrine at the top, with people taking the mandatory photo at the summit sign post. Eating our bento boxes, we search for the exit route; the problem is that small paths seem to lead out from the summit in all direction, tapering off into nothing, while the clouds drift in and out hiding paths and then revealing them again. After going round in circles a couple of times we latch on to a guided group who have also made a few wrong turns but have finally found the way. We slowly make our way down the gravely slippery decent, but upon reaching level ground we excuse ourselves as we pass the group, explaining that we are walking all the way back to Yumoto, and need to high tail it to get back in time. They look blankly at as, having no idea where Yumoto is as they’ve all arrived by way of ropeway. ‘It’s a long way’, we explain, ‘over another mountain and down a long valley’.
We quickly pass a small lake, Midagaike then it’s back uphill again to Goshikisan (2379m), our third and final mountain for the day. We haven’t seen anyone since leaving Shirane-san, but as we make our way up to the summit we see another lone hiker eating a rice ball while resting near the summit sign post. We decide to head off together through waist high Kumasasa (bear bamboo), while marveling about how lovely this path is after all the slippery rock slides we’ve been walking down; it’s overgrown however and our new friend informs us that this path is seldom used by hikers. We part ways at the Yumoto crossroads as he has one more mountain to climb (Konsei-zan) before heading back down to his car.
Finally we can see our destination! Yumoto, in the distance still seems a long way away. As we wind our way down, the path starts to get steeper and steeper until the path is no longer a path so much as water eroded muddy canyons, with tree root ladders which we use to swing ourselves down 2 meter drops at a time. We slowly make our way down into the darkening forest only to be assaulted by mosquitos and midges. It seems at this stage unending, and by the time we finally reach the bottom I have jelly legs and have lost the will to live. My knees ache and my legs wobble with each drop; looking at the time it’s been around 2 hours since we left our friend and I could have kissed the beautiful bitumen road that finally tells us we are in Yumoto Onsen. It’s a quick walk to ‘Hana no Ki’ (flower season) Ryokan, where we quickly grab our towels and head down to the onsen (hotspring), scrubbing ourselves clean; then we head outside into the rotenboro (outdoor bath), and lower our weary bodies into the natural hotspring. The water is 40C and of a milky blue colour, smelling faintly of sulphur. It’s so lovely I indulge too long and when I finally get up to leave I’m feeling quite faint; luckily there is nothing for me to do but flop down in our tatami room and wait for our maid to bring us our evening meal.
Our maid arrives on cue carrying two massive trays of food. Each tray takes up half the table and is at least a meter wide. On it are dozens of tasty little bowls of Japanese food; it is the final portion of our challenge, the eating challenge!
On our trays we have a cast iron pot filled with rice and smoked eel, we have beef steak on a hot iron plate heated from below, crab and mushroom shabu shabu which we dip in boiling water to cook lightly before dunking in sauce, green pickles and creamy salads, yuba (soy milk skin rolled tightly) with anemone on top, tempura vegies and prawns, one small whole river trout, fried fish pieces, bonito sashimi, miso soup, melon and mango for desert and one large bottle of Asahi beer each. Needless to say we pass out in a food induced coma, and only stir when the maids come in to clear the table and lay out our futons for the night.