Accidentally Climbing a Mountain in Nagano
The best adventures are unplanned.
Thursday night in Nagano – I was discussing my possible plans with the hostess at my hostel, and she recommended going to a nearby national park if I woke up early enough, looking around a Buddhist temple nearby at any time of day, or exploring the city and getting food.
The next morning an hour after waking, I had lunch near the temple Zenkouji. Zenkouji is the largest Buddhist Temple in Nagano Prefecture, and despite the heat and humidity, it was absolutely gorgeous and a joy to explore around. This adventure seems normal for someone in Japan, right?
Not for much longer.
I walk to the backside of the temple grounds, and there’s this beautiful mountain nearby, and I look onto its side, and there are two more temples. I think to myself, I have dinner plans with a friend tonight, I don’t have time, but before I know it, I’m halfway to the first temple. Keep in mind, this was the hottest summer Japan has ever had ever on record. I channel my inner Forrest Gump, run along the shoulders of streets since there was no walking path, and I arrive at the first temple.
Nice. It’s pretty and Buddhist, but with a view!
I make my way to the next temple, and I’m running precariously low on water. Devastated, I run out and think I may need to call it quits since the heat was so intense. However, only two minutes later I arrive at the next temple and I have been saved! There was a vending machine there, and I purchased two waters and one Pocari Sweat (a sport drink with electrolytes akin to Gatorade in function). Reinvigorated, I explore a little bit further past the temple pretty high up on the mountain.
Did you think this is the mountain I climbed? It’s high, decently far, and I’m a bit exhausted by now.
But we’re just getting started.
I walk by a park and I see something extremely dangerous: a hiking trail. I was just about to turn back, but I check my watch… 1:30 PM… and I decide I have enough time to at least climb for a couple hours. I’m meeting my friend at 5:30, after all, so I just need to turn back no later than 3:30 to have time to shower and make it. So, I decide to hike (quickly) up the trail.
The trail started out fine, there were lots of things to see like small shrines and the like along the way, but after the second shrine all hell breaks loose. When you imagine a hiking trail, you imagine something where two people can walk side-by-side, right? At this point in the trail, the path became so narrow I had to one foot in front of the other if I didn’t want to brush up against the overgrown vegetation along the sides – not to mention the cicadas buzzing like helicopters past my ears, spiders building webs between plants across the trail like wire traps, and as I found out later the threat of bears. I was hiking entirely alone with no one else to be seen, so that made things extra paranoid for me.
There was signage along the way, so I knew I was heading somewhere, but my only hope was that there was a better way to come down. This trail was an absolute nightmare to ascend, and eventually I arrived at a clearing where the trail eventually became at least three people wide. All it took was occasionally running and screaming through the spiders up the perilous, overgrown, infested ascent. I continued on and found something that made the whole hike worth it – an amazing view.
From the top of that mountain, on a clear day, you could see the Tokyo Sky Tree and Mt. Fuji, but the weather was overcast. You could still see out for miles and miles, and never before had I felt like I accomplished so much entirely on accident. At the top, there was a map of the trails, and I realized the path I walked to go up there wasn’t on the map. There was signage that led me here, but that particular trail wasn’t listed. On one hand, that made me realize the creepy-crawly-danger-zone was an anomaly (recognized by the park rangers but terrifying nevertheless) and that I would have a much nice descent.
The map also displayed mountains I could feasibly climb if I were crazy and didn’t have plans that day, but by that point I was tired, only had one bottle of water remaining, and it was 3:00 PM. So, following the map, I take the actual trail down, which apparently was the recommended way up, and without fear of spiders I return to the trail head.
At the trail head, the first thing I noticed was a Caution! Bears! sign, which would have been very nice to know before I went hiking alone on the overgrown spider hellscape, but everything turned out okay. The next thing I noticed was that there were slides to get down faster!
I rode down a couple of them full of joy (and an itchy butt), and then made my way back to my hostel. I realized how far I had come without even realizing when I had to go so far to get back… and my FitBit read over 24,000 steps for the day. I only had four days in Nagano, so I guess my drive to explore took over my better judgment, leading to the accidental mountain climb. I eventually arrive back at my hostel (without using a GPS), shower, and go to meet my friend – only 10 minutes late.
She was 15 minutes late though, so was I really late?
We ate Katsudon – Meat cutlet on rice – and she showed me around the town for a bit. Her boyfriend is a foreigner who has lived in Japan for 5 years, and she said my Japanese was better than his, which was a major confidence booster for the rest of my trip. After saying goodbye, I continued to explore around the city by myself and in the bathroom of a 7-11, I made a new friend.
He sees I’m a white guy and tries speaking to me in English, but I switch to Japanese and he becomes visibly relieved. We talk, he introduces me to his friends, and we get 1 AM Ramen together before I head back to my hostel and knock out for the night. My energy had to be up for Pokemon GO: Zapdos community day the next day!
As long as it’s relatively safe, picking a direction and walking can be one of the most rewarding experiences in solo travel. You may even make some unexpected friends.
Andy・アンディ
My Social Media・SNSは:
Instagram・インスタグラム
Twitter・ツイッター
Twitch・ツイッチ
All photos taken by me
Andy Cormier 