(武甲山) Mt. Bukou Hike

A two faced mountain, Mt. Bukou (Mt. Buko or Bukosan) is a stark reminder that Japan is not immune to corporate greed with their mountains. One side is your gorgeous mountain, and the other is the gravel and whatever's left of our "progression". Either way, I kinda went overboard with the planning for this mountain, and did THREE itineraries because I couldn't make up my mind. And ended up doing a different one.  

Budget: JPY1,910 (~USD18)

• JPY1,030. Train, Ikebukuro Station to Urayamaguchi Station.
• JPY880. Train, Seibu-chichibu Station to Ikebukuro Station.

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation: 1,304m / 4278ft)

• October 3, 2020
• Difficulty: 3 out of 5. Can be a 1.5 if you have a car. 
• Itinerary 1. Route from Yokoze is around 15.5 kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1441m/ ▽1438m PDF Map Link
• Itinerary 2. Route from Nagou is around 15.4 kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1766m/ ▽1842m PDF Map Link
• Itinerary 3. Route from Urayamaguchi Station (backtrail) is around 12.2 kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1542m/ ▽1542m PDF Map Link
• Itinerary 4 (done). Route from Urayamaguchi Station to Yokoze Station is around 15.5kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1438m/ ▽1441m PDF Map Link

When to Go
Anytime during the year, as it is accessible by trains.

Special Notes

• Weather check. Just so you know what to expect.
• Trains can be express or local, and the difference is about JPY400 one way (+20mins), so just look at your other options.
• Trailheads. There are quite a lot, the shortest one requires a car. So I'm going to ignore that, and enumerate the ones accessible with public transportation.
• Urayamaguchi Station. Trains are quite rare, about one or two an hour. Here’s the departure times in the afternoon:
• 12:39pm, 01:09pm, 02:00pm, 02:43pm, 03:08pm, 03:59pm, 04:58pm, 05:33pm, 06:11pm, 06:45pm
• In google maps, expect around JPY1,000 going back to Tokyo. BUT, if you end up seeing JPY1500+, breakdown the search to Seibu-chichibu first (so you get the JPY170), and then select local trains to go back to Tokyo.
• Yokoze Station. Significantly more traffic than Urayamaguchi, but you'll be going up the rough road and looking at the not-so-pretty side of Mt. Bukou. Definitely NOT recommended to use (going up nor down), as most of the way requires passing through factories which has their dust all over. Definitely a no-no. If you have asthma, you're signing a death sentence to yourself. 
• Nago (名郷) Bus Stop. If you want to pass through two more mountains and are up for a big challenge, then this is the trailhead for you. 
• Bus schedule from Han-No to Nagou Bus stop. Earliest one leaves at 7:10am.

Itinerary

• 06:13am. Train, Ikebukuro Station to Hanno Station. Platform 5. At Hanno Station, the train arrived at Platform 4. The train to Seibu-Chichibu is at platform 2 and 3. People at Platform 2 get in two seconds before platform 3 folks, so I went up the overpass to the other side haha. Otherwise just go across the platform. The train in my case was a 4 car-2 door one, so we had to line up on the blue sticker.  
• 07:19am. Train, Hanno to Seibu-chichibu Station. 
• 08:18am. Arrived at Seibu-chichibu. Upon arrival, I followed the signs to Seibu-chichibu line. DO NOT FOLLOW the directions at googlemaps, as there is an alternative "inner streets" way which is used by the signs. I was rushing as I had seven minutes before the train leaves. They do not accept IC Card at the station, so I paid JPY240 cash to buy the ticket. 
• 08:25am. Train, Ohanabatake Station to Urayamaguchi Station. 
• 08:32am. Arrived at Urayamaguchi Station. Upon exiting, turned right, and started the hike. It was about 15m down to the road, then I turned right to pass under the train tracks. Less than 5 minutes there'll be a fork, keep left. I mainly followed the path at this point, even passing through a cemetery.
• 08:45am. There's a second fork, turned right and followed the main road.
• 09:28am. Arrived at the official trailhead. Based on the map, from here on it'll be a long, steep section so I sat down and had a third of my lunch near the falls. After this is a long series of switchbacks. Nothing too steep though. After the first push was a relatively gentle ridge with high grass. 
• 10:43am. There's a four way fork, the left one is blocked, the one in front is the one going up Mt. Bukou, the right one is another way up Mt. Bukou (and the fourth one is where I came from). I decided to continue on straight. 
• 11:24am. Arrived at a fork, with a bench on  it. There should be some good views if the weather is good, but in my case it was pure white. 
• 11:27am. Arrived at the... hmmm, melting pot? It's the flat spot right below the summit where the toilet is at. I decided to continue on to the summit first, passing through the shrine. There's a loop from the flat spot where I could take the left or right path leading to the torii (arch in front of the shrine), and another loop from the shrine where I could take the left or right path leading to the summit. Imagine an 8 if you will, with the shrine at the center. 
• 11:32am. Summit! I took some photos, then went to the big flat spot for lunch. 
  
• 11:47am. Started with my descent. I came from the right, now I'm turning left. There are stone markers, and the stone marker here is 51. Number 0 is at the parking lot down the left. It was mainly soil the first part of the hike, and it could get slippery in some sections. I can just imagine how muddy this place can be if raining. 
• 12:24pm. Passed through a rest area, which has some fallen trees as benches and a  nice big flat spot. 
• 12:51pm. Passed through the falls, where you can take a liter of water (bottle provided) if you wish to utilize the restroom up the summit. 
• 01:00pm. Arrived at the cemented part of the route. It was steep, and definitely hard on the soles of my feet.  
• 01:07pm. There was a fork, and a sign has a big X mark on the path to the right. So I took the left path, which is thankfully not a cemented road. 
• 01:17pm. Arrived at the parking lot! There's an arch (torii) here too, and after passing it, I turned left to go to Yokoze Station. There are quite a lot of cars, and I could see more cars lining the road. Other than a group of three trail runners, I didn't see anyone else going by foot to Yokoze Station. 
• 01:35pm. While walking at the road, I started seeing the factories crushing the rocks of Mt. Bukou. I was hoping that it'll pass soon, but thirty minutes later I could still see sections of the factories. Even when I got to Yokoze Station, I realize that the entire town is one way or another connected to this industry. But the worst part with the white powder in the air was over in about 15 minutes. 
• 02:40pm. Arrived at Yokoze Station (横瀬駅). Went to the restroom where I didn't have to carry toilet water to, washed my hands and went in the station. 
• 02:46pm. Train, Yokoze Station to Ikebukuro, transfer at Hanno Station. Yokoze Station accepts IC cards, so that's helpful. 
• 04:40pm-ish. Home!

Yey! View of Mt. Bukou from the train right there!

Transferring to the Chichibu monorail, just cross across even if there's no pedestrian lane. Otherwise, you'll miss the train. 

The entrance to the station. Almost there! Tik-tok, time's awasting! 

Upon exiting the train at Urayamaguchi station, there's a restroom to the left, and a guide to the surrounding areas on the right, next to the exit. Upon exiting, turned right. 

Descend left, then turn right at the main road. 

At the fork, take the left one. 

And keep going straight. There's a turn to the left soon, but it's not like there's any other option but to turn left. 

There's a cemetery with these amazing flowers. 

Soon enough there's another fork that confused me. Thankfully there's another hiker behind me, and he pointed right for Mt. Bukou. 

Then it's just walking straight on the road. 

We also encountered a section where they are probably clearing some trees from a landslide, which meant cars cannot pass. Saw one car taking a U-turn due to this. 

There it is! The trailhead. On the left is a slot to write your hiking plans. I skipped it this time. 

Welcome to the mountain!

Took my lunch near here, as I need fuel before going up. 

Beautiful stream. Probably the most picturesque part of the hike for me. 

After the first steep ascent, it gets a bit flat, with the obligatory warning against bears on the left. 

The tall grasses.

Thorny plants. 

Plus more. Darn, this mountain is not so friendly. 

The four-way split. Sorry it's blurry. But the left and right ones are segues, so just ignore them. 

The turn with a bench, less than 5 minutes to the summit area. 

There it is! The big flat spot. More than a group or so were confused if they were at the summit or not. 

The summit is a five minute hike away. 

There's the shrine. I took the loop at the right. 

And followed the trail. There's only one. 

And now I see the light!

Yes, the summit was right at that light. Unfortunately, there's zero visibility. 

Back to the flat spot. 

My seat for lunch. 

The marker "51". This is where I turned left. 

The visibility of people below and above is really high - no place to quietly take a "personal break".

Root-y trail!

The falls where "toilet water" is provided, to be individually carried up the mountain. 

A bridge close to marker 17. 

Another fork, with an X mark on the path to the right. So I took the left one. 

As inviting as the right path is, the left one is the way to go. 

I got excited seeing these facilities. But the parking lot is a couple more minutes' away. 

The parking lot!

The guards of the torii to the parking lot. 

There were a lot of cars parked down the road, so I assume the parking lot was full and they just parked there. 

The start of the factory nightmare. 

I think that's the final product - crushing the mountain to produce that fine, white powder. 

They have a car cleaning the road! With the driver smiling at me smiling at him! 

These plants are... weird. There are NO leaves. 

Don't forget to look back every now and then. 

A fork on the road, follow the wooden sign to the left. 

Seems like this bird is a theme to the markers down the main town...

Either way, soon enough I was at Yokoze Station, and soon on my way home!