Photo Update: Bandai-san, Japan
We climbed up a mountain and everything. The dormant volcano of mount Bandai, in the erm, Bandai region, central-Northern Honshu (the main island)… We’re gonna to boast about this to anybody who will listen, including you lot.
This is town of Inawashiro,. It’s a slightly run-down ski resort – not sure if the Japanese recession made people stop taking ski holidays – we were there in the off season anyway:
That’s Mount Bandai in the background.
Arrival in our hotel – a ‘Resort Ryokan’, which is a bit of a an oxymoron as Ryokans are small Japanese Inn – is an excuse to drink the complimertary o-chai (Green Tea):
Mmm. Also, there were little complimentary biscuits with poppy seeds in, and a chesnut set in sweet jelly each.
They’d stuck us in one of their ‘Western Style’ rooms – to be honest I’d rather have stayed in a Japanese room with futons and tatami wicker mats on the floor – but we had a television:
Japanese telly is to be avoided at all costs, as it seems to be formulated to either really annoy you or drive you slowly insane.
That said, there is a samurai drama (of varying quality) on at least every night.
Without further ado the next day, we went off to climb the mountain, if we could. We were gonna play it by ear and see how far we could get up, see how much snow there still was around and so on. Ended up going all the way to the top. These are the bare ski fields at the base near the hotel:
Yes, that mountain Tim’s pointing out. It was MAN VERSUS MOUNTAIN.
(We also spent the entire time going;
“Alright, Day one…”
“It’s gripped!”
“Sorted!”
“Let’s Off Road!”)
Tim embracing Samurai tradition:
Notice the chairlift. These were everywhere all up the slopes.
Japan is hikers’ paradise:
There’s no hills, only plains and mountains.
The path to the top ran along the ridge of two smaller peaks, and for a long stretch was picturesquely rocky and wooded like this:
The snow was still around on the flatter parts of the higher areas. Here’s a photo of a little ice lake in the depression next to the main peak:
And up here, the rock was orange and there was sand on the ground, different to the dark volcanic rock down below and above:
Near the summit there were a couple of pipes sticking out of the hillside gushing springwater, with communal enamel cups placed alongside. The water was crystal cold and very good:
We ended up making it to the top. Here’s all the views.
There were some people hang gliding around the summit on the thermals coming off the mountain. It looked like great fun:
There was a little sulphurous lake to the left of the one here:
Snowier ski fields that way:
The summit. 1819 metres above sea level. There was a small shrine here, the second one we’d seen on the way up:
(I had a quick ol’ pray before we went back down again.)
Shack for hikers next to the summit:
They all had proper gear and there we were in street clothes and Action Shoes™…
We got some Japanese folks to take our picture, and half of them dashed into shot, pulling the dog along:
Gawd bless ‘em.
On the way back down, my ‘walking stick’:
Tim’s “arty” photo of a pwitty flower on the ski slopes:
Me in my yukata robe and overcoat, (supplied for every guest by the hotel, per national preference, for lazing about in) supping more green tea:
After the exertions of the day I headed off to the hotel’s Onsen communal hot spring bath to get nekkid with a bunch of strangers. More about that later.
And finally, a relief map of the area that was at the local railway station:
The high bit in the middle is Bandai-San, the mountain wot we climbed. You can see all the lakes in the photos above.
Next: Kyoto!
- Lee.
This is town of Inawashiro,. It’s a slightly run-down ski resort – not sure if the Japanese recession made people stop taking ski holidays – we were there in the off season anyway:
That’s Mount Bandai in the background.
Arrival in our hotel – a ‘Resort Ryokan’, which is a bit of a an oxymoron as Ryokans are small Japanese Inn – is an excuse to drink the complimertary o-chai (Green Tea):
Mmm. Also, there were little complimentary biscuits with poppy seeds in, and a chesnut set in sweet jelly each.
They’d stuck us in one of their ‘Western Style’ rooms – to be honest I’d rather have stayed in a Japanese room with futons and tatami wicker mats on the floor – but we had a television:
Japanese telly is to be avoided at all costs, as it seems to be formulated to either really annoy you or drive you slowly insane.
That said, there is a samurai drama (of varying quality) on at least every night.
Without further ado the next day, we went off to climb the mountain, if we could. We were gonna play it by ear and see how far we could get up, see how much snow there still was around and so on. Ended up going all the way to the top. These are the bare ski fields at the base near the hotel:
Yes, that mountain Tim’s pointing out. It was MAN VERSUS MOUNTAIN.
(We also spent the entire time going;
“Alright, Day one…”
“It’s gripped!”
“Sorted!”
“Let’s Off Road!”)
Tim embracing Samurai tradition:
Notice the chairlift. These were everywhere all up the slopes.
Japan is hikers’ paradise:
There’s no hills, only plains and mountains.
The path to the top ran along the ridge of two smaller peaks, and for a long stretch was picturesquely rocky and wooded like this:
The snow was still around on the flatter parts of the higher areas. Here’s a photo of a little ice lake in the depression next to the main peak:
And up here, the rock was orange and there was sand on the ground, different to the dark volcanic rock down below and above:
Near the summit there were a couple of pipes sticking out of the hillside gushing springwater, with communal enamel cups placed alongside. The water was crystal cold and very good:
We ended up making it to the top. Here’s all the views.
There were some people hang gliding around the summit on the thermals coming off the mountain. It looked like great fun:
There was a little sulphurous lake to the left of the one here:
Snowier ski fields that way:
The summit. 1819 metres above sea level. There was a small shrine here, the second one we’d seen on the way up:
(I had a quick ol’ pray before we went back down again.)
Shack for hikers next to the summit:
They all had proper gear and there we were in street clothes and Action Shoes™…
We got some Japanese folks to take our picture, and half of them dashed into shot, pulling the dog along:
Gawd bless ‘em.
On the way back down, my ‘walking stick’:
Tim’s “arty” photo of a pwitty flower on the ski slopes:
Me in my yukata robe and overcoat, (supplied for every guest by the hotel, per national preference, for lazing about in) supping more green tea:
After the exertions of the day I headed off to the hotel’s Onsen communal hot spring bath to get nekkid with a bunch of strangers. More about that later.
And finally, a relief map of the area that was at the local railway station:
The high bit in the middle is Bandai-San, the mountain wot we climbed. You can see all the lakes in the photos above.
Next: Kyoto!
- Lee.
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2:51 am
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