Dai Setzu Zen Hike - July 3rd and 4th

With Natalie and Nadim's recommendation, we made our way towards Deisetzu-san national park. We arrived at the closest town well after dark and again after the last bus had long been parked, washed and put to rest for the night...
Again, we hitch-hiked.
When a car finnaly stopped, the driver was less surprised to see us and more surprised that he had actually stopped for us!
Infact, he was so surprised, that when he heard where we were headed, he took us all the way there, though it was obvious he was not planning to go that far (about 25km detour!!!)

We arrived at the campsite at around 21 (9PM), put up our tent and Shay cooked pasta with tomato sauce and salmon (which he had bought fresh that afternoon) - it was the best meal we have had here! Yummie!

See the sign that greeted us there:


Rain was pouring all night, but it seemed to clear a little in the morning. We moved our stuff to the youth hostel (though they wanted an absurd price), and walked to the ropeway which took us up the mountain.


I had hurt my ankle a few days back and did not feel up to the climb, so I waited at the ropeway station while Shay climbed by his lonesome. The weather was crappy - cold and rainy, and visibility was great as you can see:

Halfway to the top, it started raining so hard and the winds were blowing so cold, that without proper winter-gear it was foolish to go on.
Shay turned back and ran all the way down the mountain - making the decent in record time!
There are bears on this mountain (as in many of the woods in Japan), and people are advised to carry bear-bells to scare them away.
At places, the trail goes through marshes, and there are wooden plankes laid down to prevent accidents.


We ended up back at the youth hostel at noon, so we decided to take the next bus off the mountain instead of staying there another night.