Mount Kitadake - A log of my second mountain hike in Japan Part 1

About the Mountain:

• Kitadake (北岳) is the second tallest mountain in Japan.
• The height of Kitadake is 3193 meter above sea level.
• It's located at Yamanashi Prefecture (山梨県).
• Kitadake is located along the stretch of mountain range called Minami-Alps 南アルプス (Southern Alps)

Pre-Climbing Ritual

Wednesday, 21st of Sept

Went to work as usual, ramen dinner, played Bishi-Bashi with JR and Tshush at MORES Kawasaki and completing it on one token each. Volunteer class at night, our own group Japanese lessons at night at Mister Donuts. Drank too much kopi lor. I took out my climbing stuff and left it on the floor as i needed the bag for work the next day. Slept at 4++am.
Thursday, 22nd of Sept
Woke up at 7.40am, feeling like a zombie. Worked (or rather, was surfing and doing my timing chart at the same time) till 6pm, went for dinner at MatsuYa, went to shop for some last minute stuff at MORES and then cycled back to the dorm with Tshush. Reached home 8pm, did some packing till 9.30pm and went to sleep. The previous night of sleeplessness helped the insomniac in me.

Friday, 23rd of Sept

Woke up at 2.30am, getting my stuff ready and putting on my Gatsby Clay (Ultra Tough) and my smell good stuff, hehe. Put on my fav holiday tshirt (a yellow Nike Dry-Fit) that i wear on the first day of every holiday. Put on my brother's Nike Running Shoes (to climb a mountain...oh...sorry bro, its kinda in a bad shape...haha). Went down to meet the rest at 3am, waiting for our rental car that shaonan collected. Waited 20min before we set off to Tsurumi, to pick up the girls. Tshush, Shaonan and Me in the car, Chee Keong, Augustine, James in the other car.

We picked up the girls and SN drove all the way to Kofu Station to meet up with the other car. Around 5.45am. around 2.5 hours ride. The other car got lost and we only saw them at 7.00am. In the meantime, we went to walk around, toilet breaks, bought drinks and food at FAmily Mart (something like 7-11) and to eat MacDonalds breakfast. We all rested in the car until they came over to the carpark. (pretty boring log so far huh...hehe)

Both cars then drove up part of the mountain to the carpark at 夜叉神峠...we then had a rather noisy toilet break, all thanks to some spider in the girls toilet. Jas had to go watch spider for Fiona. haha. We took a 45 min bus ride to the start of the trail because the roads are impassible for passenger cars. It is restricted to only busses and taxies. Con money? i think its because of the roads, pretty narrow. We also travelled through numerous tunnels that are so small, it looked like it fits the bus just nicely. 820 yen poorer by the way. Luckily i got a seat with Augustine. The bus was quite full with all the haversacks and people. 2 people also came up the bus with their mountain bikes. The destination, Hirogawara (広河原), the starting of the trail.
We reached the starting point of the trail around 11am, a bridge that crosses the river coming down from the mountain. Starting at an elevation of around 1520m i believe, we have 1,672m to climb. Total hiking distance covered is around 10.7km. Mt Fuji, we only had to climb 1472m ONLY. hehe.

The beginning of the route was through some trees, like in a forest in Bukit Timah Hill. Then we meet the river, and followed its path upwards. The river provided alot of photo taking opportunities with its various falls and rock. The scenery was nicer once we got out of the woods, where the valleys and mountains are in plain view. The fauna and flora were ,sad to say, inadequate. I was expecting more colours than this. Perhaps it is autumn now, I should be greatful that its not all stones and bare trees. The trees are still green by the way, showing no signs of yellowing. The flowers however, are few. The gradient at the beginning was good. Not steep. It was comfortable.

Halfway up, we met some people, from Belgium and Japan. One guy stayed so close to us at motosumiyoshi, he was like saying "why bother to come all the way up here to meet up?". As they departed, they warned us of rain/strong winds at 3 pm/am i dunno. hehhee. Nevertheless, we still moved on without putting on our raincoats.

The pathway to the top of the mountain is not entirely clearly demarked. Sometimes we reach a rocky area, wondering which was the right way. Of course, some nice people before us actually took the effort to mark out the right path with some red/yellow spray paint. Drawing arrows denoting the direction to go. Thanks!! it saved us on many occasions. Especially when i was thinking "are you sure this is the path?? its all rocks upwards"...only to find the arrow pointing straight up. haha. okay, not that tough, as long as we stick to the route, dun miss our footing at the side of the track, which i think is not possible if you are not drunk, you wun fall off the cliff.
Walking up the slope, though easy at the beginning, is not meant for your regular grandpa and grandma. Its tough actually. Maybe we are unfit. hehe. But i was already perspiring alot when we were just a tenth of the way through. As we walked further up, the challenge starts. No more are the paths nice and walkable. Some small climbing is necessary to get to the next walking path. Its not dangerous or hard to do, but just would have preferred to walk all the way up instead. hehe.

The rain came down on us halfway, we were starting to see clouds passing through us. Probably at a nice height already. we thought. It was cold. We started to put on our first layer. and a raincoat. It was a light rain compared to the one we experienced on Mt Fuji. No wind. Short. We were actually wet on the inside due to perspiration and condensation, rather than the rain. Honestly i do not remember much of the details on the way up. Most of the time, we were just climbing and climbing, rocks after rocks, path after path. I was just tackling the most immediate obstacle and such. The scenery was nice, with the valleys and mountains. By right, we could have seen Mt Fuji, but i din take notice. We were in the woods for quite some time. Berries we saw. Red. but dunno if poisonous.

Alternating woods with open spaces, this hike was more interesting than Mt Fuji. The first batch of people, CK, James, SS, Ron, Richard all went up the mountain first. They were faster. While the rest of us, TTT, YH, SN, F, J and me took our time. J was experiencing chest pains along the way. Poor thing. Can see she was pretty run down.

The walk was tiring when we first start off from our rest. maybe we need to get used to the little oxygen up there. After a while, when we gained momentum, it was fine.
At the last stretch of the journey, people were just saying "look, the hut is in front". which is of course a bluff to encourage everyone.
Followed by 7h 18min of climb later, we are at the hut.

The time was around 6-ish pm, or something, and it was dark already. The stars were out in full bloom. It seems like i am in an omnitheatre, with all the stars staring down at us. The milky way was also present at the top of our heads. Awesome. We straight away went into the hut seeking shelter from the cold and also to get our empty tummies filled. Surviving on Snickers Bars throughout the journey, i was feeling pretty famished. We went in to find the people over there
The 800 yen bowl of ramen did its job.

/******* 17th April 2006 ********/
Hmm...it seems eons ago when i typed this. I think its time to publish part 1. Wanted to complete it first...but i guess there wasn:t time once my real project started. Anyway, I have absolutely no idea what happened after that. Need to see my photos for a recap. Hehe. Hope u enjoyed part 1. Photos will be up in Part 2 =) Ja Ne.

The other days i owe my readers:
Saturday, 24th of Sept
Sunday, 25th of Sept
Monday, 26th of Sept