Amakazari-yama!（雨飾山！）(32nd challenge to 100 mountains)

Three holidays in a row in Japan, but the weather forecast said it would rain in the second day. So in the last day which the weather would be fine, I and my wife decided to go to a mountain where we could reach the top within a day.  This time, we wanted to choose a hard mountain because we would be with our teacher of mountaineering, but we thought that choosing high mountains like Japanese Alps was high-risk, so we chose easier one.

We searched a mountain with a camping site near the entrance, where we could stay there the night before. Then we picked up Yakushi-dake(薬師岳) and Amakazari-yama(雨飾山) . Finally, we chose Amakazari-yama because the hight is lower and the weather seemed finer than Yakushi-dake. This mountaineering would be 32nd successful ascent of the one hundred distinguished mountains in Japan.


The night before, we arrived at the camping site. After the rain, we pitched our tent and started drinking party in a log cabin there.
There were not crowded so I felt comfortable.

Nest morning, we started mountaineering from the entrance. It was fine in the morning.

Wet red leaves were very beautiful under the sunlight after raining.










After going up in the mountain path, we came across beautiful scene. It was the collaboration of red leaves and a rocky track.












Then, we went up in the steep trail, and after that, reached Sasa-daira(笹平).  It's so-called flat place with bamboo grass.We could see the top of Amakazari-yama from Sasa-daira! The shape of the mountain was like a bowl. And we could see the Japan sea from there. So impressed because we hardly have chances to see the Japan sea. And rice fields in Itoigawa-city were brilliant under the sunlight.

We finally reached the top! There were a lot of people there. I ate a cupped noodle, then started to go down from the top.

Brilliant white sand! Hoh-oh san-zan! (31st challenge to 100 mountains)

As 31st chalenge to 100 mountains, we went to Hoh-oh san-zan aimed at enjoying autumn leaves with a tent for camping.
Hoh-oh san-zan consists of three mountains, Yakushi-dake, Hoh-oh-san and Jizo-dake.
The route was from yashajin-touge (夜叉神峠）to hirogawara (広河原) via the peaks of Hoh-oh san-zan.

I was very impressed by things as bellow.
- South Alps natural mineral water gushing out near Minami-mimuro goya (南御室小屋)


- Beauty of white sand and autumn leaves under clear blue sky
- Magnificent view of Shirane-san-zan, composed of Kita-dake, Aino-dake and Noh-tori-dake (白根三山（北岳、間ノ岳、農鳥岳）
- Scenery of Fuji-san like one piece of a picture
- Yakushi-dake-koya with a homely atmosphere
- Pleasant walking along the mountain ridge of Hoh-oh san-zan
- Statues of Buddhism at Jizo-dake
- Huge rock on the top of Jizo-dake called an obelisk
- Going down a steep slope

Yarigatake (槍ヶ岳) like a theme park! (30th challenge to 100 mountains)

Sep. 20th to 22nd, 2015
As 30th challenge to 100 mountains, we went to Yarigatake!
The route was from Kami-kohchi to Shin-hodaka hot spring via Yarigatake.
We left home before 2 a.m., arrived at Sawatari-area around 5:30 a.m.
Then accessed to Kami-kohchi by a taxi.











===Impressive things! ===
- Excellent view of Asusagawa-river and Hodaka-dake
- Breakfast set at Michikusa-shokudo restaurant of Tokusawa-en hotel. Costed 1,300 yen and very delicious
- Large field for camping at Tokusawa-en hotel. Seemed very comfortable.
- Great Yarigatake under the clear blue sky
- The path to the top of Yarigatake was very congested. We took 3 hours to reach the top of the Yarigatake. The distance was only around 100 meters. It's like a theme park.


- Camping for two nights in a row. Camping site at Baba-daira is riverbed of a small river. Public toilet was very clean. The tent site of Yarigatake-sansou had already been full at the time of the morning. It's located at 3,000 meters high, separated for each tent, so very pleasant to stay. It's for only 30 tents, so you have to pay attention to the capacity.
- Beautiful starry sky without clouds
- Satisfied with the supper and the breakfast at Yarigatake-sanso.

Mt. Tyausu with various colors! (29th challenge to 100 mountains)

We went to Mt.Chausu as 29th challenge of one hundred mountains in Japan.
We also went Asahi-dake and Sanbon-yari-dake in addition to Nasu-dake because mountaineering only one mountain was not satisfiable to us.

In the beginning, we accessed Touge-no-tyaya by car. The parking lot was already full, but a woman of the facility advised to park our car behind the tyaya at a cost of just 1,000 yen. The badges of mountaineering of Tyausu-dake was sold in this tyaya. We started mountaineering from the tyaya.

We could come across the beautiful view soon after the start point. We could see next check point, Mine-no-tyaya, so we were reassured. There were a lot of flowers of gentian. Those brilliant blue-coulored flowers were very beautiful!


We took a short rest at Mine-no-tyaya, and then headed to Asahi-dake. We climbed up on rough mountain path to Asahi-dake, and reached the top! The silhouette of Asahi-dake was very rough.
We headed next mountain, San-bon-yari-dake. In the middle part of the path to San-bon-yari-dake, there is a flat field called Shimizu-daira. There was damp ground and well-maintained wooden pedestrian road for hikers. The sunlight from the sky was shining on the ground, we felt fantastic atmosphere. After climbing through the bush of small pine trees, we reached the top of San-bon-yari-dake! We took lunch there, and finally we started the last mountain, Chausu-dake.

The fog were gradually getting up, so we felt uneasy about the weather. The mountain road to Tya-usu-dake was very rough. I though this was because Mt-Tyausu was still active. The shape of Mt.Tyausu was like a upside-down bowl. That colored red and brown or yellow, white... anyway, we could enjoy various colors of the mountain. The road was also very rough, and felt uneasy to climb up. Hot gases were discharged from the craters and could hear the violent sound. 

We were climbing up as listening violent sound from craters, and finally we reached the edge of the crater of the almost top of the mountain. It was about 100 meters in diameter, and we walked around the edge, and reached the top!

WE COMPLETED TODAY'S MISSION!
However, we couldn't see anything except for thick fog. What a pity.


Anyway, we could enjoy mountaineering of three mountains in Nasu, feeling various atmosphere. We were very satisfied with this mountaineering!

Rugged Goryu-dake! (五竜岳) (28th challenge to 100 mountains)

Aug. 15th ~ 16th, 2015

We wanted to start earlier, but started late just as I'd feared.

Taking three lifts, arrived at Happo-ike-sansou.

There were many alpine flowers at Happo-ridge.

I was looking forward to seeing beautiful scenery of Hakuba-sanzan, projected on the surface of Happo-pond, but I couldn't see that due to the dense fog. Damn it.

We could see Hakuba-yarigatake in place from the ridge.

We went up under the hot sunshine, came across the Ohgi-ravin with the perpetual snow.

We had a rest there. Many climber did like us.

After going up on gravel road, scree and so on, finally we'd reached Karamatsu-chojo-sansou.

After then, we reached the top of the Karamatsu-dake!

Next, we headed to Goryu-dake.

The path to Goryu-dake was very exciting because we had to pay attention to the rough road.

It's like an athletics!

After we were going along the ridge among in the fog, Goryu-sansou had suddenly appeared. We felt relieved at that time. ε-(´∀｀*

At Goryu-sansou, I bought T-shirt, printed with the words 'I love the mountains and Sake'. It's very famous for climbers. Actually I don't like sake so much. My wife also bought the T-shirt with different color. The T-shirts was made by Monbel and quite functional. 

The supper at Goryu-sansou was curry! Very very delicious! (゜д゜) I had another helping of cully.

We enjoyed seeing starry sky and went to bed. We made a reservation in advance, so we could stay on the second floor. The first floor was like chaos, so I recommend to make a reservation in advance.

In the next day, we reached at the top of Goryu-dake!

We could see Tsurugi-dake, Tate-yama and Yarigatake! It was really great scenery! 

This mountaineering became very impressive!