8/12 Mt. Ishizuchi Expedition "Revenge!"

I'm sure you remember my first attempt at climbing Mt. Ishizuchi, because I wrote about it! We ended up going to the Omogo river area and finding all these newts what not. It was raining and therefore possible unsafe for us to climb up.

But not today! Because today we were back for "revenge!" But this time there were only three of us: Tokuoka-sensei, Ren Ishida, and myself.

This time, I made sure to buy a nice bento at the supermarket the day prior, so I wouldn't have to worry about food. We drove up to the same Tsuchigoya terrace as last time, and as it was not raining, we decided to proceed. The trail was very gradual, and a very slight incline, at least at the beginning. We got to a point where Tokuoka-sensei stopped us and said "this is very textbook scenery for this elevation" or something like that. Some of the trail was composed of these log bridges that were super sketchy. Ren slid off a little bit and I was on edge (literally and figuratively).

A little while up we came across this massive frog/toad, like the size of a small dog, but larger than a chihuahua. Apparently it was poisonous, so I'm glad I didn't touch it. 

We kept hiking up for a few miles and saw more scenery. Eventually we made it to the rest area which I guess was at the base of the summit shrine. There was a restroom and a winter shelter, because it snows pretty bad up there. From there they trail diverted into two paths: one was really steep and you had to climb up chains to get to the top, or take a slightly longer path with steel cliff overhang walkways (which were very sketchy).

But finally at 12:40 we had made it to the summit area. So that meant it took us a little over 3 hours to climb all the way up. But at the top it was very cool and foggy. So we went from like 85 degrees, sunny, and humid at sea level to about 60 degrees, foggy, and cool. We took some pictures and then went to eat lunch. I was very excited about my Fuji Supermarket lunch.

So because it was foggy, we weren't able to see the famous view from the summit, but it was fine. Some people still were hiking out to go to the "real" summit, which lay about a half mile in front of us, hidden in the fog. Some parts of the area were scary, cause if you looked out it was just fog, and it seemed that if you fell off of the trail you would just fall into a void.

We went into the lodge shop, because apparently you can stay the night at the Ishizuchi summit, and we bought some souvenirs. Tokuoka-sensei actually paid for us, and I am so grateful!

Our last stop was the summit shrine, and I bought like a necklace with wooden plates on it that referenced different things. We talked to the shrine priest (?) who was running the omamori office and I asked him "Do you climb the mountain every day?" to which he enthusiastically responded "Yes!" and we all let out a gasp in shock. Then he said "just kidding!" It turns out that he just stays at the lodge and works at the shrine during the day.

Then we had our hike down, and we were back in the main parking lot by 4 pm. So our entire expedition took around 6.5 hours. On the way back the three of us  went to Joyfull, a Denny's like restaurant which was the first place I ate at when I came to study abroad in Matsuyama. It was funny to start and end the study abroad experience with the same place.

When we arrived back at the university, I gave Tokuoka-sensei a little bonsai tree which I had failed to raise due to the warm climate of my room. We patted ourselves on the back for our effort and went home.