Mt. Mizugaki (瑞牆山) is the 2,230m high mountain belonging to the Okuchichibu Mountainous Region which places the Yamanashi Pref. and Tokyo. The peak features rocky formations and very good views of the surrounding mountainous such as South alps mountains and Mt. Fuji.
 

Mt Mizugaki is a famous mountain for the entry level hikers, kids, and students. The main route from Mizugaki-sanso is thus sometimes in very cloudy situation such that there is no place to park a car. However, there are some variation route for treking combined with Mt. Kinpu etc.

We have chosen a round tour route from Mizugaki-yama nature center.




The trail starts from the end of forest road for cars. 

Very quiet forest trail, stream of water, beautiful falls, Granite rocks...

From the top of Mt. Mizugaki, we could see the landscape of Mt. Fuji and South alps mountains.

瑞牆山
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%91%9E%E7%89%86%E5%B1%B1

Mt. CHOU (蝶ヶ岳：Chou-ga-take) is the Japanese mountain with 2,677m high peak. The climbing was started from Mitsumata (三股登山口) at 1,350m close to Azumino city.

A suspension bridge near the start point.

GODZILLA TREE

A wild berry..

There is a hut on the top of Mt. CHOU and you can stay here.

Mt. YARI is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains with 3,180 m high peak.

Panorama view from the top.

Monkeys!

Our tracks.

 Myoko area, Niigata prefecture in Japan, have been of interest for skiers and snowboarders around the world. The Myoko area is an area surrounding around the Mt. Myoko and have seven snow resorts. The Myoko area is famous for winter sports because of extraordinary heavy snowfall such like 50-70cm in a night. The area places very close to the Japanese sea, and snow contains sea water a lot. Therefore, snow is somehow heavy compared to the other ski resorts that is placed in an inland region.

Mt. Myoko from Imori pond (Imori-ike, いもり池) in April.

 The summer time in Myoko area also very exciting place for trekking, hiking, camping and staying. In autumn, a lot of tourists visit here to see the autumn leaves, but there are not so much visitors in the summer so it is very quiet. Comparing to the Hakuba area, which is very famous resort village, Myoko area is a simple, natural, rustic, not so much "resort" village. That's why we love this place.

 We went to climb Mt. Hiuchi, which is placed north-west from Mt. Myoko. Mt. Hiuchi is a 2,462m high mountain in Niigata prefecture in Japan.

Mt. Hiuchi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hiuchi
Mt/ Myoko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_My%C5%8Dk%C5%8D

 Last year, we climbed up the Mt. Myoko from Akakura-kanko ski resort. Mt. Myoko and Mt. Hiuchi are neighboring mountains each other. There are some routes to climb up the Mt. Hiuchi. We used the route starting from Sasagamine Plateau this time. At the Sasagamine Plateau, there are two large parking lot for the campers and hikers near the Sasagamine camping site.

 The trail is well prepared and boardwalk continues at the middle of the trail.

 At the forth part of the trail, there are twelve curves (Juuni-magari, 十二曲り) to climb a steep slope.

 At the middle of the trail, we could see Mt. Yake, Mt. Kage-hiuchi, and Mt. Hiuchi, from left in the picture. Mt. Yake is an active volcano and strictly exhibited to the entrance.



At 2,100m, there are the muskeg area near the Koyaike Hut.

Fun walking for just 4 hours, we arrived at the top of Mt. Hiuchi, 2,462m!!

Mt. Yake can be seen very closely from the top. It's an active volcano and the surface around the mountain top seems to be covered by the ash. A week after we visited, there was a news that tells Mt. Yake's activity is getting intense and a exhaust port increased to three!

The trail to Mt. Myoko from Mt. Hiuchi.

Myoko http://www.myoko.tv/english/index.html
Mt. Hiuchi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hiuchi
Mt/ Myoko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_My%C5%8Dk%C5%8D
Sasagamine camp site: https://www.tripadvisor.jp/Hotel_Review-g1021352-d7053778-Reviews-Sasagamine_Camp_Site-Myoko_Niigata_Prefecture_Chubu.html
Koya-ike Hut http://www.suginosawa.com/koyaike_yoyaku/

The Yatsugatake Mountains are a mountain range in the Nagano and Yamanashi prefecture in Japan. We have been to Mt. Aka where the most highest mountain sitting at the center of Yamtsugatake mountains last year. This year, we chose Mt. Gongen (Gongen-dake, 権現岳) and Mt. Amikasa (Amikasa-yama, 編笠山)

The Yatsugatake Mountains



The GPS tracking log of our day trip.
We departed from the Kan-non-daira, the starting point of mountain trail, at 1,560m. Around Kan-non-daira, it seems to be famous for the observation of a special kind of liverwort that looks green fluorescent, Hikarigoke (Schistostega pennata , ヒカリゴケ).

Note that for almost all area of mountains in Yatsugatake area belong to national park and it is prohibited to collect any kind of plants, flowers and trees. Keep rules and save a moutain environment.

Starting of a trail, it very smooth and easy to walk.

After 2.5 hours of hiking, we reached a today's first summit, Mt. Amikasa, 2,524m.

After pass through the Mt. Amikasa's summit, soon a hut can be seen. The hut is the Seinen-goya (Hut Seinen).

Many hikers had a brief break around the hut.

After we pass the hut, a rocky mountain appears in front of us, but it is not a next destination, Mt. Gongen.

We walk straight past the rocky mountain seeing a lot of alpine plant blooming .

Mt. Aka (the highest mountain in the Yatsugatake mountains) is in the cloud.

After 2hours from Mt. Amikasa, we reached the top of Mt. Gongen at 2,715m!

We headed to the Mt. Mitsugashira to make a round tour of the trekking route.

45 min from Mt. Gongen, we reached to the  Mt. Mitsugashira. We heard the roll of thunder so we walk with quick steps and go down to our car.

The round trip of this trail is not so popular and small number of hiker use it. Therefore the trail is very quiet.

Very quiet forest.

After long route of descending a mountain, we finally came back to our car. That's is not so much long course, however, it was very high humidity in the forest. It made us even more tired compared with usual. Exhaust...

We drove our car to the nearest spa and shopping place. We found blue berry ice cream!! It was very yummy for a weary body.

Michino-eki Kobuchizawa (道の駅こぶちざわ)　

After spa treatment, we discover a restaurant that looks good. Our choice was really correct. They provide a very good foods.

キースプリング

関連ランキング：洋食 | 小淵沢駅、甲斐小泉駅

Going back to the urban....