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.
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.
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.
Myoko Akakura is claiming to be the first international ski resort in Japan. Myoko area is located at the border between Nagano and Niigata prefecture. It can be accessed from Nagano City or Joetsu City where Nagano-Shinkansen stops.
The location is close to the Japan-Sea. Have you ever seen one meter of snowfalls in one night? This area, yes, you'll see.
In recent years, Myoko Akakura has a lot of ski or snowboard travelers coming from Europe and Australia mainly in February.
We went there at 23th March. The ski resort was completely fulling up with non-Japanese customers in Feburary, but we could enjoyed uncrowded course in the end of March. If you visit here at March then you can enjoy more.
The Tengendai-Kogen is found in the Yonezawa town in Yamagata prefecture and is a local, small-mid-size ski resort with three lifts and four ski courses.
As a small town, Yonezawa is still not a place you would stay for a weeklong. It is however a good option for staying one night at Onsen resorts near Tengendai-Kogen, for instance, Shirabu-Onsen, or Shin-Takayu-Onsen.
Notice that you can rarely find Japanese people who can speak English or any other language around these local towns!
This time, we made our first visit to Grandeco! Though it is already March, snowmonsters haven't been melted!
Climbing in snow is sometimes very difficult, put ourselves in danger, -- but sometimes give us a amazing experience. We joined the backcountry skiing/snowboarding tour in this weekend at Zao area in Yamagata prefecture. Love it!!
Though I don't know the correct English, Yukihatago-Lightning is the festival of lighted reproduced-tavern built by the snow.
A picture is worth a thousand words... This year is 10th anniversary of this festival. Gassan-Shizu onsen flourished as village of Japanese-inn for practitioners of Shindo who headed to Mt. Gassan. Now, the tavern in period building were reproduced by snow.
A shrine.
Snow rabbit.
Charmant Hiuchi snow resort has only three lifts but huge humid snow (high water content) in a day and "not pisted" entirely of its area. Because of its location that is very close to the Sea of Japan, the snow always contain a lot of water.
If you have strong legs, it is worth visiting. At the day we visited, it was a weekday and only 50-100 customers enjoyed fresh-heavy-snow!
Far behind the resort, we could see the mountains near Mt Hiuchi.
One day with a storm of snow, we headed to Hinoemata village.
Snow fell down every time after we arrived with not a moment to spare.
The snow falls continued through the night, and at 6:00 am next morning, the depth of snow reached 70 cm. One night, 70 cm of snow!! It's almost disaster.
It took more than one hour to remove snow falls to drive our car.
No one can walk in this historic deep snow...
Hinoemata village where snow is extremely deep.
If the condition is good for mountain climbing, we can enjoy as follows:
Hinoemata village
Hinoemata-mura, Minamiaizu-gun, FukushimaPrefecture
