Some random observations on hiking in Japan:
- It was nice being at the mountain huts, got a chance to meet and chat with more of the locals then you usually do, which was nice.
- The things I read in my Hiking in Japan book about the crazy sleep schedule and the top notch equipment of the Japanese hikers was absolutely true. Of course on a hike with weather conditions like Yakushima I was definitely a little jealous of their custom backpack covers and various gadgets.
- Japanese women seem to really like to hike. I would say that is was about 50/50 men to women on the trail and in the huts. There were several groups of middle aged women by themselves and a few solo women as well, which I feel like you do not see that much of in the states.
- Those middle aged Japanese women are damn tough. Yakushima was a pretty demanding hike, and carrying all that equipment with the size of the average Japanese woman's body is pretty impressive.
- Japanese hikers seem to like to stick to the well established paths, and if there is a shorter or more efficient way to see the main sites they will do it. I assume this is why on Yakushima most everyone does the trip as a one nighter between the road that goes up the south side of the mountains and one of the roads on the north side. This is really what I should have done because you really see all the good stuff and just miss some tedious hours of low altitude stuff.
- Good rain gear was a life saver (thanks again Susan). Also, being meticulous with your waterproofing on a rainy hike is essential, I should have done a better job of it so I did not have to spend 2 days going commando in rain pants.
- Bringing enough calories for a multi day hike is tough, I never ran low on energy due to not having enough food, but it was close. The Cliff bars I brought from the states were key, as well as copious amounts of PB&J.
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4 comments:
Hi, I read all your hike in Yakushima, how much time (daily) did you spend to walk throught ?
And "félicitations" !
Bye
If I do recall correctly, it was something like this:
- Day 1 - Leave hostel at 9AM, arrive at hut at around 4PM.
- Day 2 - Leave hut at 5:30AM, arrive at hut at around 2PM.
- Day 3 - Leave hut at 5AM, arrive at bus stop on the coast road at 12PM.
The super early start times are because you will get woken up super early at the huts by the other campers.
This blog rocks. Thanks guys. I also have a question if you dont mind. Where did you gear up? I have a small butane canister stove (msr pocket rocket variety) and i cant fly with the fuel which presents a problem. Is there a place to gear up on the island? (All i really need is a map and the fuel). thanks again.
britt
Let's see, as for the gas, I did not bring a stove, because I was too cheap to buy one, and I was worried about getting the fuel.
I would not depend on getting fuel on the island, there is very little there (that I could find), the main town where the ferry shows up is pretty sleepy. There was a little grocery store in Onoida however.
I am sure there are camp stores in Japan, but they are probably just hard to find, since they might be somewhere other then the downtown areas that you tend to end up in, I did not see one the whole time I was there. So, I guess I would recommend that you try to find one in Tokyo or whatever big city that you are arriving in. Even Kagoshima might not have a camp store.
As I said in my report, I did not find a stove to be necessary, and honestly you would probably find that some of you Japanese hut mates would warm something up for you with theirs if you wanted.
As for maps, I used the Lonely Planet Hiking in Japan book, and I think this is the best information you are going to find, although it is about 10 years old now. It is useful to have the Kanji of the main places that you are going to go by on the hike, since a lot of the signs are in Japanese only. The map was OK, but did not completely reflect some of the changes to trails around the visitors center on the 3rd day of the hike.
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