Mt Daibosatsu

Hiked Mt Daibosatsu (大菩薩嶺) in Yamanashi yesterday. Mt Daibosatsu is a one of 100 famous mountains in Japan, a list of mountains selected by the legendary alpinist Kyuuya Fukada. It is also the first 2000m-class mountain I climbed here in Japan. The hike takes one through a virgin, lush forest with diverse kinds of trees like beech (ブナ) to oak (ミズナラ) to Japanese hemlock (コメツガ), which is a new experience for me since hemlocks only grow at 1500m+ altitude around here. The diversity of the forest is just simply amazing. On a clear day at near top (大菩薩峠-1897m) , you can see a grand view of Mt Fuji above the clouds. In fact the mountain is known to be a passing place for thunder clouds, but fortunately the clouds did not not look too dark yesterd ay. The peak (大菩薩嶺-2057m) is surrounded by hemlock trees, so there isn' t much scenery. However the place feels so serene and abundant with many kinds of lifeforms, one can smell, hear, and feel the whole forest. A "strange" eery feeling indeed. Although it is a bit far from the city (around 2.5hr by train from Shinjuku), the richness of Mt Daibosatsu makes it a very enjoyable hike.



My little friend. I found another one crawling on my shirt before I had to remove it. Kind of got used to them after a while.


The mountain radio guy. "八ヶ岳, how are you doing?"


Near Daibosatsurei. がすってる.

How to get there:
Take the Chuo Line from Tachikawa (立川) to Takao (高尾), then the Chuo Line (towards 甲府) to Enzan (塩山) station. Take the Yamanashi bus leaving at 9:25 from Enzan station to the Daibosatsu-tozan-guchi (大菩薩嶺登山口バス停). After 15 min of walking up the road, the Marukawa-touge (丸川峠) trail entrance is on the left but one can also walk another 15 min to the Kamihikawa-touge (上日川峠) enntrace. The hike to the top takes about 3hr and one can stop at several huts on the way up. The shaved ice milk (ミルクかき氷) at the hut near Daibosatsu-touge is quite good. The bus from Daibosatsu-tozan-guchi bus stop to Enzan station leaves at 17:10. Bus schedule can be found here http://yamanashikotsu.co.jp/noriai/timetable03.htm