Naeba Prince
Mikuni, Yuzawa-machi, Minami-Uonuma-gun, Niigata, 949-6292, Japan
 Hotel
 Snow Resort


Doragondora, the longest (5,481m) gondola in the world, is operated by Prince hotel group to connect two big ski resort, Naeba and Kagura(Tashiro). The line operates in winter and limited period in summer and autumn as well.

In autumn, the longest gondola operates for sightseeing of autumn color. The view from gondola is somehow special, it is like a sky walking.







We can walk the trail in the forest which is used for the Fuji Rock Festival.




Naeba Prince
Mikuni, Yuzawa-machi, Minami-Uonuma-gun, Niigata, 949-6292, Japan
 Hotel
 Snow Resort



Mt. Adatara (安達太良山 Adatara-yama) is a strato-volcano in Fukushima Prefecture, and is famous for ski resort in snow season and mountain trekking in green season. Adarata-yama Ropeway takes you to 1,350m in ten minutes.

Sunrise from adjacent parking lot.


It is recommended to start walking before sunrise to avoid congestion of tourists. Then you can enjoy quiet forest walking filled with colorful autumn leaves. 



Japanese poet Kotaro Takamura (高村 光太郎 1883 – 1956) married with the woman whose name is Chieko. He is famous for his poems collection Chiekoshō (智恵子抄 in English titled Chieko's sky). Chieko was born in the Adatara area and she really loved where she was born in. At the time Kotaro and Chieko live in Tokyo, Chieko said "There is no sky in Tokyo. The real sky is the vista of blue sky over Mt. Adarata". Following monumental inscription represents Chieko's word.「この上がほんとの空です.(Kono ue ga honntono sora desu)」






The mountain peak sign of Mt. Adatara at 1728 m.

Mt. Adatara has a crater at the summit surrounded by a sulfur smell.


Kurogane-goya, a mountain lodge.









Fukushima is not a radiation suffered place any more. We can live, work, enjoy mountain trekking!




The Yatsugatake Mountains (八ヶ岳連峰) is a chain of volcanic mountains on the border between Nagano Prefecture and Yamanashi Prefecture. The mountains consist of two groups, South Yatsugatake and North Yatsugatake, and both are in the Yatsugatake-Chūshin Kōgen Quasi-National Park.

Mount Aka (Aka-dake 赤岳) is a 2,899m mountain that is the highest mountain in the Yatsugatake Mountains.

See mountain weather forecast of Mt. Aka at 2899m

Access: Minoto-guchi (美濃戸口) is the one of the famous for starting point of climbing and mountaineering heading for the Yatsutagake Mountains. You can go there by car, public bus or taxi. There is a forest-road leading to Minoto-sanso (美濃戸山荘; Minoto mountain lodge), but the road is very narrow and 4WD is recommended. Many hikers are walk the forest-road for 1hr from Minoto-guchi to Minoto-sanso and we also did so. We got Minoto-guchi at midnight, parked our car, and start walking before sunrise at 20th September, 2015.

The starting point of forest road at Minoto-guchi.

The sign pointing to the Minoto-sanso.
 Walk a bit from Minoto-sanso, here is the starting point for a Yatsugatake climbing.

First, we take the trail that goes Gyoja Hut (行者小屋) walk through the mossy forest for about 2hr.

From Gyoja Hut (行者小屋), you can see Aka-dake (赤岳) well.

Many hikers set up a camp here.

The trail that lead to Aka-dake can be find behind the hut. The trail above the hut, it become hard and rocky ridge, but it is well-marked. About 2hr hike, we could reach the Aka-dake Tenbo-so (赤岳天望荘) that is very close to the peak of Aka-dake (赤岳). Hiked up again for 1hr, we stood at the top of Aka-dake (赤岳).

There are two major route to get back to the Gyoja Hut, and we chose the route through the Naka-dake (中岳). Once drop to the col between Aka-dake and Naka-dake, and go up to Naka-dake for 30min. When we turned around, there was rocky Aka-dake in front of us and Gyoja Hut below our eye.

Aka-dake from Naka-dake

Gyoja Hut from Naka-dake



Mt. Myoko at 12th April from Imori-pound

 We had a one day trek to Mt. Myoko, 2,454 m high. Mt. Myoko is also known as Echigo-Fuji, that means analogical formative to Mt. Fuji. Sadly, we could not see the whole picture of the mountain throughout the trekking yesterday.


We departed ropeway base station, "Myoko Sky Cable", at 8:00 am on Saturday 5th September, and arrived at trail entrance after 10 min riding to the top of the ropeway.
Myoko kogen, Akakura-Kanko Ski Resort
It was a relaxed trail the whole way to the top, initially through fagaceae wooded areas and then rocky area onto open mountain. It took us three and half hours to get to the top of the Mt. Myoko, where we could take a lunch, after climbing up about 1,200m a distance of about 4km.
Forest of fagaceae
The route to the top was well maintenance with iron chains & lopes particularly in the more exposed areas along the ledge. 
We arrived at the top 2454m, at about 11:40am.
Peak sign of Mt. Myoko
We arrived back safely at the ropeway station around 15:20am. See the detail of the trail log on the Yamareco site.
ropeway





You may have a impression about nuclear disaster at Fukushima power plant in March 2011. In fact, there are still a lot of people who cannot get back to their home due to the high radiation level, however, Fukushima prefecture is horizontally long shaped prefecture and there are few affects in the mountain side. There are many snowy mountains inland.

Mt. Aizu Komagatake (会津駒ケ岳)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Aizu-Komagatake
http://www.snowjapan.com/japan-ski-resorts/town/hinoemata




It will take 6-8 hours to hike up by snowshoes.


Spring is the time for a custom of cherry blossom viewing, which involves passing through or eating or drinking under cherry blossom trees. Cherry blossom start blooming from the south Japan in the end of March and move toward the north Japan, and finally finish at Hokkaido in the start of May.

Generally, in Tokyo or Osaka, in the middle of main island, it can be seen from the end of March to the start of April. The cherry blossom in full bloom is in a moment, say only one week or so.

In this year, we enjoyed cherry blossom viewing (Hanami in Japanese) around Tokyo.

In Chidorigafuchi:






In Akasaka:






At the river side of the Meguro river:





 Visit Japan in the end of the March and you may be able to enjoy them.