Mt. Hakkenzan

Guess what?! He's FINALLY back in the business of weekend adventures - I have photographic evidence that Jason is in fact alive and well and still in Japan with us! He got his proposal submitted on Tuesday, freeing up his nights and weekends one again. We are so happy to finally have him back!

Of course I wasted no time planning our first family weekend outing in nearly a month. Realizing we now had a chauffeur at our disposal, I booked a car for Saturday so we could take a day trip to Mt. Hakkenzan - a really unique mountain just outside of Jozankei that Fiona and I had spotted during our day trip to the onsen town a few weeks back. You super dedicated readers may remember the beautiful ranch and orchard we visited where Fiona rode a horse and we picked cherries. These sit at the base of Mt. Hakkenzan, and while we were there we couldn't stop admiring the cool peaks of the mountain due to the stark contrast they offer to the many surrounding peaks that are all densely forested from base to summit.

At just over 1600 feet, it's not a particularly tall mountain, but it's such an interesting feature in the landscape that you can't help but be drawn to it. Originally named Mt. Kannoniwa-yama, it was eventually renamed "Hakken" meaning eight swords for the eight rocky sword like peaks that jut up from the top.

Jason had seen the picture above, but didn't know much else about where we were taking him. We picked up the rental car, which he seamlessly navigated down the left hand side of the rode from the right hand side of the car. I was so glad it was him driving and not me!

Well, when we pulled up, this is what we were looking at:

It didn't inspire much hope for enjoying views from the top, but we were there, so we soldiered on. Fion was not deterred:

We hiked about 20 minutes...

...before we hit the clouds...

When we made it to the first lookout, we were pleasantly surprised we could even see this much!

We enjoyed a little snack and the view before carrying on.

Just beyond our resting point, things started to get much more intense.

Fiona, of course, tackled it with gusto. The steeper the climb, the better in her book!

Four or five rock scrambles later,and we got our first hint that we just might be in luck...the clouds were burning off!

From this point we had the most amazing 180 degree view over the vally. We could actually see our car parked way down below.

This vantage point also made it possible to count four of the mountains eight distinct "sword" peaks.

After another little rest, we had one more push to the summit.

The pictures don't come close to doing this hike justice. From up on the highest rocky peak we could see for miles and miles in every direction. Looking one way we could see all the way back to Sapporo where we could actually pick out recognizable landmarks:

In the other direction, we could see the highway winding through the mountains on to Jozankei:

I could not stop taking pictures!

At some point Fiona declared her face hurt from smiling and she was DONE with pictures. So after enjoying one last moment of stunning views, we slowly began our decent:

And as we had hoped, by the time we got to the bottom, we could actually see where we had been!

Fiona had to stop to say hello to the horse she had ridden the last time we were here, and ended up getting to feed a new friend some carrots.

Then we finished the walk down to the orchard where we could already smell the jingisukan being grilled by other families.

We placed a double order (we'd ultimately end up ordering a third) and sat down to relax our tired legs in a gorgeous setting.

Our grill master hard at work:

After lunch, Jason and Fiona rented a fishing pole and hit the pond.

I was starting to fear disappointment, but in the end they had some success!

Next up was the Jozakei Dam. Fiona and I were excited to climb to the top and check out the views.

We followed a paved path the the bottom of a loooong staircase that led to the top. Just as we set foot on the bottom step we heard someone calling to us and saw a grounds employee running toward us giving us what we have affectionately come to call "the X."

This one took some getting used to when we first arrived. The Japanese don't shake their heads back and forth as a way of saying 'no;' instead they don't hesitate to throw up a large "X" with their arms. Not being culturally used to it, we initially thought this was a bad thing to be on the receiving end of, but we've begun to realize it's a common day-to-day way of communicating. Small children receive a slightly more gental "x" formed just using two pointer fingers. It's been a fascinating mannerism we've enjoyed watching as we try to sort it out.

In any case, we discovered that the steps to the dam were closing soon, and we would not be able to go up. Fiona and I were bummed; Jason did his best to hide his glee. I told Fiona we could drive up to see the views if she wanted to and she said, "No...if I can't say that I walked all the way up there, it's not even worth it..." So funny, she's a girl after my own heart!

In the end, we swapped another climb for a nice foot soak on an evening cool enough that it was actually really enjoyable!

Finally, on the way home we stopped at a full service gas station to fill up the rental car. Once again we were intensely impressed wth the Japanese work ethic. As we pulled up into the station, an attendant came SPRINTING toward our car using a complicated series of hand gestures and vocal sounds to direct us up to a pump. The entire time he had a huge smile on his face and was so kind. As  the car was filling, he offered Jason a towel (Jason declined because we had no idea what we were supposed to do with it) and placed this flag offer the side mirror (any ideas why?). Then once we'd finished our transaction, he bowed deeply - like to a full 90 angle - and remained there until we had pulled away. It's so shocking coming from the US. When is the last time a gas station attendant did anything more than grunt at you?!

It was a really amazing day all around. I think we wore Jason out, but we have to get him back into tip top traveling shape before we leave for our 10 day tour of the mainland. I'm already planning next weekend's "training session!"