Mt Nekodake: Azumaya's Littler Neighbour

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My friends and I finally found a day off that we shared (all of us work irregular shifts rather than having weekends or set days off) and agreed to go hiking together.

It had been a while since our first escapade together to Myogi-san in Gunma Prefecture and we were keen for more.

While not as precarious (and exciting) as the dodgy incline ridden with chains we had to cross at Myogi-san, Mt Nekodake stunned me with its wide-reaching views, especially considering we only had to climb for about an hour and a half.

I feel I’ve climbed a lot of mountains in Japan by now (though still only a fraction of the total number!) and this was among the most impressive views I’ve seen. That may be more due to weather and time-of-day factors, though, than to just location (though the location too is very unique and impressive).

When I think about it, for a large amount of the hikes I’ve done in Japan, the view often wasn’t so great. This was because it was either cloudy, or sunny but with a frustrating film of haze glazing over everything. I’d like to say it’s bad luck but probably if I got my backside out of bed earlier in the morning, I’d reach the summit before the worst of the haze hit.

But hey, sleep-ins after a week of hard work are important, wouldn’t you say?

We didn't intend to set out for our climb after 3pm in the afternoon. In fact, we didn't even intend to climb this very mountain, originally. It was all thanks to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau Nagano Branch Office, for finishing my new visa at that time. I had few days off at the time and so this day off, on which we'd planned to go hiking, was the only chance I had to get the visa which I needed asap.

So apologetically I'd asked my friends if we could meet later and at a different mountain on the road to Nagano City, instead of in Gunma where we'd originally intended to go. I would drive two hours to Nagano City in the morning, get my new visa, then meet them at the trailhead on my way back. We planned for 2pm, but I was going to be half an hour late due to the visa having taken a little longer than expected.

That half an hour turned into 1.5 hours as, in haste, I'd driven towards the shortest route without checking any information sources, only to find that the road (which, like many in Nagano, went through the mountains) was temporarily closed for repairs. At this point, being already exhausted from an early start, long drive and bureaucratical bullsh*t, plus feeling bad leaving my friends waiting for so long, I felt like just giving up and saying I won't make it. However, in the end I pushed through, re-traced my tyre tracks and took a different, slightly longer road, and finally made it to the trailhead at 3.30pm.

Earlier I'd told my friends they'd better start without me, so when I texted them about my arrival they texted back to say they were nearing the top!

My thoughts were, oh, sh*t, they're gonna try and wait for me at the top and it's gonna take me 2h to get there. Probably longer judging by the way my body feels right now. I told them they didn't have to wait and could just come back down once they were done up there.

I didn't get a reply, so assumed they were waiting, and thought I should hurry up but my legs were not cooperating quite as much as I'd have liked.

As it turned out, it only took me 1.5h to reach the summit (still a long time to be waiting, I would've thought!) and the boys hadn't even realised the time. When I found them they were chilling on rocks staring down a deep drop into a magnificent forested valley. This valley stretches between Nekodake and the larger Mt Azumaya, which if we'd included in our hike would have taken 5 hours and brought us well into post-sunset.

As it happens we stayed up there even longer admiring the scenery. We had a 360 view, including the North Japan Alps and the back of Takamine Kogen. Behind us Mt Asama, Honshu's most active volcano, was the only summit properly shrouded in cloud. The low light of late afternoon added to the charm and made for some stunning photography.

In an hour's descent via the same trail, we got back to the carpark at around 6.30pm. Being July it was still light, but as humans we had intruded on the sacred hour of nocturnal beings beginning their first hours of activity.

As we made our way back down, we were graced by the presence of one of Japan's mountain deities. And by deity, I mean the Japanese black bear.

We didn't see the bear, but heavy footsteps and loud crashing through the bamboo let us know it was a considerably heavy animal and certainly did not have the grace of a deer. I guessed it was either a wild boar or a bear and suspected that the distinctively uneven sound of running (when bears run, they do a sort of a lumber) meant it was probably not a boar. My colleague, who has been working with bears for 17 years, later confirmed my suspicions.

Thankfully, he or she heard us coming and all that crashing through the bamboo was to escape the three foolhardy humans.

To avoid dangerous bear encounters, we could have aimed to be back a wee bit earlier. But all in all, there's something to be said for being on a mountaintop at the hour of 4pm (and in our case onto the hour of 5pm).

I think I've only done a handful of mountain summits at that late of a time, but now it's inspired me to do more. Great lighting, viewing, cooler temperature...and best of all, a good excuse to avoid getting up early ;)

Access: We went by car, so were able to reach the trailhead directly. It might be helpful to rent a car if you don't own one. However you can take a train to Ueda Station and from there bus to Sugadaira Kogen (timetable: http://www.uedabus.co.jp/sugadaira/sugadaira.html). This requires an extra hour or so walk from the bus stop to the trailhead.

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