A rather ambitious attempt to summit the five hyakumeizan in Kyushu mainland in a week. I trained a lot (and packed painkillers) for this trip!!!
| | Budget |
| Dec | Activity | Transpo | Hostel | Total |
| 23 | Tokyo - > Kagoshima | 10,840 | 1,193 | 12,033 |
| 24 | Mt. Kaimon / Sand onsen | 4,000 | 1,193 | 5,193 |
| 25 | Mt. Kirishima | 4,000 | 1,105 | 5,105 |
| 26 | Mt. Sobo / Takachiho Gorge | 4,000 | 1,105 | 5,105 |
| 27 | Mt. Kuju / Seven hells Beppu | 4,000 | 1,105 | 5,105 |
| 28 | Mt. Aso | 4,000 | 1,829 | 5,829 |
| 29 | Kagoshima -> Tokyo | 10,450 |
| 10,450 |
This blog post is a tad long and is therefore broken into three main parts - the itinerary, the actual log, and the pictures!
Wednesday, December 23, 2020 : Flight to Kagoshima
- 09:00am. Flight, Narita to Kagoshima
- 11:15am. ETA: Kagoshima. Explore Kagoshima.
- 06:30am. Drive, Kagoshima-chuo Station to Kaimon Trailhead.
- 08:30am. ETA: Trailhead. Start hike.
- 11:00am. ETA: Summit. Lunch.
- 01:00pm. ETA: Back at trailhead. Drive to Saraku Sand Bath.
- 01:30pm. ETA: Saraku Sand Bath.
- ~02:30pm. Drive, Saraku Sand Bath to Kagoshima-chuo Station.
- 06:00am. Drive, Kagoshima-chuo Station to Ebinokogen..
- 08:00am. ETA: Ebinokogen. Start hike.
- 10:00am. ETA: Summit. One hour break. Loop around the lake.
- 01:40pm. ETA: Ebinokogen.
- 02:00pm. Drive, Ebinokogen to Beppu (4.5 hours)
- 07:00pm. ETA: Beppu Station
- 06:00am. Start driving from Beppu Station.
- 08:30am. ETA: Kitatani Trailhead. Start hike.
- 11:15am. ETA: Summit.
- 01:05pm. ETA: Back at trailhead. Start driving to Takachiho Gorge.
- 02:00pm. ETA: Takachiho Gorge.
Sunday, December 27, 2020 - Mt. Kuju
- 05:00am. Drive, Beppu Station to 牧の戸峠 (1.5 hours)
- 07:00am. ETA: 牧の戸峠. Start hike.
- 09:10pm. ETA: 久住山 Summit. One hour break.
- 01:10pm. ETA: 牧の戸峠
- 01:30pm. Drive, 牧の戸峠 to Beppu Station.
- 03:00pm. ETA: Seven Hells of Beppu (closes at 5pm).
- 05:00pm. Leave Seven Hells of Beppu.
Monday, December 28, 2020 - Mt. Aso
- 06:00am. Drive, Beppu Station to Aso trailhead (2.5 hours)
- 09:00am. Arrive at Mt. Aso Park Road. The Mt. Aso park road can only be accessed from 9am.
- 09:30am. ETA: Aso West Station. Start hike.
- 11:30am. ETA: Summit: Takadakeyama (高岳山). One hour break.
- 02:30pm. ETA: Aso West Station. Drive, Aso West Station to Kumamoto (1.5 hours)
- 04:00pm. ETA: Kumamoto.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - Flight to Tokyo
- 06:00am. Explore Kumamoto.
- 12:00pm. Drive, Kumamoto to Kagoshima Airport. (3 hours)
- 03:00pm. ETA: Kagoshima Airport.
- 05:15pm. Flight, Kagoshima to Tokyo.
Actual Log
Wednesday, December 23, 2020 : Flight to Kagoshima
- 06:10am. Train, Tokyo to Narita Terminal. I had to check in a bag so I had to be at least an hour early.
- 07:42am. Arrived at airport. Checked my bags in, and went to my gate. Pretty smooth and painless. Drinks can be taken past security - all you had to do is take a sip from it in front of them.
- 09:00am. Flight, Narita to Kagoshima
- 11:10am. Arrived at Kagoshima. We exited and there were a shuttle to pick us up from the airport to the car rental place. We took the car, waited for the other member of our group, drove to our hostel to pick up another member of our group and took the ferry to Sakurajima. We just drove into the ferry, with payments done when driving out the ferry area in the island. When returning, we paid at the same counter.
- 03:11pm. Arrived at the Yunohara viewing point (湯之平) where we mainly spent some time taking pictures.
- 03:45pm. We were hungry and found an amazing bakery - Bread Booth 8. We got some bread and continued with our drive. We simply did a loop around the island and stopped at what we found interesting. We took the ferry back and drove to Shiroyama Park for the night view.
- 07:00pm. Arrived at Shiroyama Park, walked a little bit (5 minutes?) to the observation deck, took pictures and went back to the car. We then drove to Kagoshima Furusato Food Village for dinner, went to our hostel, and slept.
- 06:12am. Drive, Kagoshima-chuo Station to Kaimon Trailhead.
- 07:57am. Arrived at trailhead. There is a stand alone restroom at the parking lot, but not at Japanese standards. There is a facility right across, and I used their restroom. There are also restrooms less than five minutes' walk behind the shop next to the parking lot.
- 08:13am. Started hiking. We backtracked on the main road to follow the signs to the trailhead (登山口), but there's actually a path behind the shop next to the parking lot. We got into the official trailhead which was Station 2 (２合目), and the summit was Station 10. The stations are not divided evenly, with stations 8-10 pretty close to each other. The one trail (just one) was surrounded by thick vegetation and was a steady ascent with benches per station marker. Starting Station 7, the trail with big rocks start, and it was a fun activity of jumping from one rock to another, but it was hell on the knees going down. It was progressively steeper the closer to the summit we went, and there were two ladder sections (nothing sketchy) next to the summit.
- 10:29am. Arrived at the summit, which has a great view of the surrounding area. We took plenty of pictures and started descending right about the time it started drizzling.
- 10:50am. We started our descent, taking the same trail.
- 12:26pm. Back at trailhead.
- 12:36pm. Back at the parking lot.
- 12:46pm. We searched for a restaurant, had lunch, then went to Saraku Sand Bath.
- 04:27pm. Arrived at Saraku Sand Bath, paid JPY1,300 for the fees and the towel required for the sand bath, got ourselves buried in the onsen-heated sand, and soaked our hike away in the onsen.
- 05:20pm. Drive, Saraku Sand Bath back to Kagoshima. On the way we decided to have the JPY3,000 unlimited yakiniku, then drove back to our hostel.
- 06:17am. Drove from Kagoshima to Ebinokogen.
- 08:00am. Arrived at Ebinokogen parking lot. There's a big restroom next to the parking lot, and we just walked towards the mountains, and soon enough the signs for the trailhead were there.
- 08:20am. Started hike, following the trail signs for Mt. Karakuni (韓国岳), the highest point . It started flat, and once the steep section started, it didn't really end until the summit. There were stations in this mountain, with station 10 as the top (10合目). The trail was cordoned off and thus well marked, with the station markers having English translations too.
- 09:35am. We've left the tree line and thus have zero cover, and I had to crouch a couple of times given the strong winds.
- 09:39am. Arrived at the summit! It was a rocky summit with strong winds! It was a struggle to stay at the top, but we did because it was also gorgeous!
- 09:59am. We've started our descent. From here on, it was all stairs until we reached the lake. With the strong winds and the extremely steep stairs, that made for a scary descent. Nothing technical, I'm just scared of heights.
- 10:40am. Arrived at the entry to the lake. We turned left - just follow the fence. It was predominantly flat with some gentle slopes. The biggest descent/ascent was at the other side of the lake.
- 12:08pm. Finished the loop of the lake. We continued on to the trailhead - Ebinokogen or Ebino Highlands (marker has English translation). Similar to the loop around the lake, the trail was very gentle.
- 12:50am. We arrived at the road, turned right, and followed the road to the parking lot.
- 12:58pm. Arrived at Ebinokogen. We had lunch, and rested for a while.
- 02:30pm. Started our drive from Ebinokogen to Beppu (4.5 hours)
- 07:30pm. Arrived at our hostel in Beppu, Oita. We walked to the nearest Yakiniku place, had dinner, and rested for the night.
- 07:07am. Start driving from Beppu to 北谷 trailhead.
- 09:22am. We got into the rough road part of the drive, but this is likely because part of the road was still under construction. But there were plenty of signs pointing to 北谷登山口.
- 09:47am. Arrived at Kitatani Trailhead (北谷登山口). Started the hike. There were plenty of signs pointing to the summit (祖母山頂).
- 09:53am. River crossing - well, it's not really we just have to skip some rocks. The path was initially flat, and then soon enough we started doing a rather steep ascent.
- 10:53am. Passed through a cave, where we took some time to peek into.
- 12:00pm. Passed through the... 5 meter (?) aluminum ladder. Around this time the path started getting icy, and soon enough we decided to put our spikes on.
- 12:38pm. Arrived at the summit! Yey! The summit was quite spacious.
- 01:10pm. Started our descent. We retraced our steps about 10, 15 meters from the summit marker, and turned right, following the directions to 国観峠, or when available, 北谷登山口. The descent was initially steep and icy/snowy, but soon flattened out and the rest of the descent was a pretty gradual one. There were a couple of turns, but the turns were well marked in Japanese (so keep track of the Japanese characters).
- 03:08pm. Back at trailhead.
- 03:10pm. Start driving to Takachiho Gorge.
- 04:00pm. Arrived at Takachiho Gorge, went straight to the boat rental. Bought the ticket, and followed the signs down to the boat boarding place.
- 04:17pm. We boarded the boat and started rowing. It took a while to navigate around the waterfall, but otherwise it was a very short distance. We took plenty of photos, and headed back.
- 04:48pm. We got back to the boat place. There's a 30 minute limit, but I don't think they monitor it closely. When we got back, they were no longer accepting passengers, so I assume they accept up until 4:30pm and close at 5:00pm.
- 05:00pm ish. We drove back to Beppu, had dinner, played bowling, and went home.
Sunday, December 27, 2020 - Mt. Kuju
- 05:05am. Drive, Beppu Station to Makinoto-touge (牧の戸峠). Part of the road was icy, but not to the extent that winter tires/spikes were needed.
- 06:53am. Arrived at 牧の戸峠 trailhead. Started the hike. The hike started with cemented stairs.
- 07:09am. We were done with the stairs and were into normal trail.
- 08:25am. Arrived at the mountain hut. From here on, it was one big push for the summit, "久住山". There were a couple of trails, and at one point I almost took a wrong trail going to 中岳. So make sure to look at the map and keep on the right going up.
- 08:51am. Arrived at 久住山 summit, took some pictures, and backtrailed. An alternative was to add 5-10 minutes to the hike and loop around to see the pond, which I did not do, but wish I did.
- 10:56am. Arrived back at the trailhead, 牧の戸峠.
- 11:10am. Drove back to Beppu. Dropped bags, and took the bus to the Seven Hells of Beppu.
- 01:40pm. Lunch, a local place that serves food steamed using onsen water, while soaking one's feet at the onsen underneath the table. They also offered to let me put the food at the steaming urn (?) so I can experience it for a bit. That was a pleasant surprise.
- 02:15pm. Started walking to the seven hells, but decided I didn't want to visit all seven so I just chose the oldest (?) one of all, the Umijigoku. Paid JPY400 after I talked to the girl in the counter explaining I don't want the JPY2,000 pass (she just assumed it and didn't even offer the single pass). Walked around inside and even saw the red pond, then headed home.
- 03:46pm. Snacked on some crispy gyoza hole-in-a-wall place near my hostel, then headed back.
- 04:10pm. Back at the hostel! Went to the onsen, and was soon enough asleep, and I slept til the next morning.
Monday, December 28, 2020 - Mt. Aso
- 08:30am. Drive, Beppu Station to Aso trailhead. It was a rather picturesque drive, so put the phones down.
- 11:25am. Arrived at Mt. Aso Park Road. For the day of our hike, the crater viewing area is restricted and the road was closed, and we had to walk an additional 20 minutes (per map time) to the other parking lot.
- 11:30am. Started our hike. There was a guy guarding the path, and he stopped a tourist wanting to go to the crater viewing area. I talked to the guy, said I'm going to Takadake, and he let me pass.
- 11:48am. Arrived at the other parking lot, close to the crater viewing area. I skipped that one and took the path to the right, following the trail to Mt. Takadake, the highest point of the mountain range. The trail has practically zero vegetation, and was either volcanic ash (soil?) or rocks. It started flat, and around 30 minutes later the ascent started. There's really one big push, and once you get to the ridge of Minami-dake, the path was relatively flat.
- 12:35pm. Arrived at Minami-dake (南岳). It is out of the way - there's a rock with 南岳 in yellow paint to the right of the trail, no marker.
- 12:51pm. Arrived at Nakadake, which is the highest point to see the smoking crater. We took some pictures, and continued on.
- 01:09pm. Arrived at the summit: Takadakeyama (高岳山). Took plenty of pictures, and started our descent.
- 02:53pm. Arrived at the crater viewing point parking lot.
- 03:08pm. Back at Aso West Station.
- 03:30pm. Drive, Aso West Station to Kagoshima.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - Flight to Tokyo
- 06:45am. Started walking from our hostel (Koko Hostel Tenmonkan) to Shiroyama.
- 07:02am. Arrived at the parking lot right below the observation deck.
- 07:06am. Arrived at the observation deck, and waited for the sunrise.
- 08:10am. Back at the hostel.
- 10:45am. Drive, Kumamoto to Kagoshima Airport. Return car, explore Kagoshima Airport.
- 05:15pm. Flight, Kagoshima to Tokyo! Done!
Picture Log
Wednesday, December 23, 2020 : Flight to Kagoshima
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| The flight crew waving bye. |
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| Our car at the ferry. It was a short ride, but some people did leave their cars to enjoy the view. |
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| The viewpoint closest to the ferry port. |
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| Delicious pastries! |
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| One of the stops was this torii buried in one of the volcanic eruptions. |
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| The viewpoint from behind the volcano - the lava park I think. |
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| Don't know why, but they leave one yen coins in the rocks at this viewpoint. |
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| Night view from Shiroyama Observation Deck - you can't see it, but Sakurajima is right there at the center. |
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| The supposedly famous Kagoshima black chicken. |
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| Our day started watching the sunrise while driving. |
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| At the parking lot. Next to the blue car on the right is the sign pointing to the trailhead (登山口), which goes to the right, behind the blue car. Look for 韓国岳登山口, pictured below. |
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| The entrance to the trailhead. |
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| Trailhead to the highest point of Kirishima. |
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| The path is clearly marked, with the path we were not allowed to take clearly marked too. |
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| Viewing area for a crater, and a rest spot if needed. |
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| Continuing the hike. This is most of the trail going up. |
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| Though some parts were covered in snow. |
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| The windy approach to the summit. |
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| Crater right next to the summit. |
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| Summit marker! I couldn't really walk around as the place was rocky with strong winds, so I mainly hunkered down for a while. |
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| A view of the other crater. I doubt that can be hiked though, as it was puffing smoke throughout the day. |
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| The rare cloud-free glimpse of the crater lake we will loop around in. The descent is next to the signs on the lower right of this picture. |
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| Stairs! And strong winds! Oh, some of the stairs were creaky and unstable. |
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| aaaand more stairs! |
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| Finally, at our loop on the lake, the trail went back to "big stones", with a really gentle slope. |
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| The blue crater lake. |
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| With Kirishima behind it. |
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| The descent to the mountain hut, halfway through the loop. |
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| aaaand Karakuni is covered in clouds. Again. |
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| Inside the mountain hut. It's not really a sleeping hut. |
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| The toilet also requires bringing your own portable toilet. I just did my business behind some bushes. |
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| Finally finished the lake loop. We followed the trail to Ebino Highlands. |
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| The path back to the trailhead. |
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| It was a nice walk. |
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| Back at the road. We turned right. |
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| Enjoyed the view of Karakuni. |
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| Back at the trailhead. There's a restaurant (just one) here, the one at the innermost stall. |
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| Soon, we were on our way to Beppu! |
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| Our day starts with the sunrise. |
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| Close to the trailhead, we had to cross the river. |
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| The rather flat start of the hike. |
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| Very winter-y. |
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| The ladder to the cave. |
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| Taking a peek at the cave. |
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| This was a steep section if I remember correctly. |
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| Just some random bone we saw. A deer's? |
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| This was not scary at all, but this was the start of the snowy section of the hike. |
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| Let's call it icy. |
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| The summit! |
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| Heading back, here's the fork. We took the right one. |
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| Snowy/icy trail down. |
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| Most of the trail is not on the gulley, but on a trail next to it. In this case, the trail was on the left. |
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| A big flat spot. |
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| The path down was relatively flat. |
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| Looks like Tokyo trails to me. Soon enough we were back down. |
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| Our ticket to the boat at Takachiho Gorge. |
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| The boating area. |
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| We're getting there! |
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| Trying to avoid the waterfall! |
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| After the waterfall, we circled back. |
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| Because this was the end. |
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| There's a guy who will, I assume, save anyone who falls. |
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| The prices. Base price of JPY3,000 plus JPY1,000 per person. So one person pays JPY4,000, two people pay JPY5,000, while three pay JPY6,000. |
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| After the boat ride, we took a walk around the gorge. This is the view at the bridge near the parking lot. |
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| The view on the viewing deck. |
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| The viewing deck. |
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| Driving back! |
Sunday, December 27, 2020 - Mt. Kuju
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| The trailhead. |
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| The cemented road up, though this pic is looking down at it. |
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| The resting point at the top of the cemented road. When we were going up, it was all foggy. |
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| Here's the view on our way down. |
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| Our trail going up - no views, frozen soil. |
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| Our trail going down - great views, mud. |
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| The mountain hut - can you even see it? |
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| The sleeping area in the mountain hut. |
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| There are seats and a table too. |
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| There is a toilet, but that is closed. The only toilet available is this - which you can only use if you have a portable toilet pack with you. |
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| The summit marker. |
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| Ice all over! |
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| On the way down, we were blessed with some decent views (not perfect, but at least not 0% visibility) |
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| Back at Beppu, this is the... urn(?) where they cook meals via onsen steam. |
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| The restaurant - tables have onsens to soak one's feet in. |
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| Here's me soaking my feet while waiting for my food. |
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| Steamed pizza! It was a great experience, though I wouldn't necessarily eat it again. |
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| My first (and only) hell. |
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| Famous for its distinctive blue, if you can even see the water behind the smoke. |
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| The red pond. |
Monday, December 28, 2020 - Mt. Aso
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| The view of the hike we're about to do while we were driving to the trailhead. |
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| Since we were not able to use the park road to the crater, we had to walk. The entrance to the road was cordoned off, but there's a path to the right of the road - next to the pole. |
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| The toll for the road, had it been accessible. There were at least a dozen people on the mountain, so people did hike despite of the volcanic warning. |
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| The highest parking spot, and the official trailhead. |
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| The hike starts with a loooong walk. |
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| And then a rather steep ascent. There's plenty of signs, in this case, there's a yellow arrow sign up on the middle left. |
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| The steep ascent is over! There's a marker to 南岳 on the rock, and the trail is on the left. Nothing there, really, not even a summit marker as far as we can see. |
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| The rather flat trail. There's a yellow arrow sign again, if you can see it. |
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| The crater! |
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| Arriving at Nakadake. |
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| On the way to the highest point, Takadake, there's a fork. The right one can be a loop, but we'd rather be done quickly. |
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| The mountain hut, as seen from the summit. |
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| The caldera surrounding the entire town - one of the largest in the world. |
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| The trail back. |
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| The trail down. Whoa, that's far. The goal is to cross that flat spot on the right. |
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| Walking on the "flat spot on the right". Soon enough we were back to our car, and driving home. |
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