Day 11

Today we decided to reattempt a hike as it’s much warmer this side of Fuji and the hike we found was slightly lower altitude so hopefully less snow and ice!

We had to take two busses and a train and then walk a mile just to get to the trail and we finally arrived at the base of Mt Mankanho which we had to walk through this tiny rural village to get to. All the houses had small allotments and were growing all their own vegetables and lots of the houses were made out of corrugated iron sheets! Quite eye opening coming from the super modern architecture of Tokyo! This village was beautifully quiet, the only noise was the river flowing from the mountain through the village and the rustle of leaves in the breeze. We found the start of the trail and quite quickly started climbing at quite an incline! Stopping regularly for water breaks and dried mango and also to pluck oranges growing alongside the trail which we quickly discovered were not ripe and a bit gross - and don’t worry these weren’t from anyone’s allotments.

After about 4K I was beginning to wonder if this hike was really worth it, but with words of encouragement from Jacob I managed to continue on. For those who don’t know, and I’m sure most of you do, I don’t hike as a general rule. But I guess new country and trying new things and all that crap meant that I found myslef huffing and puffing to the top of this mountain. Was it worth it? Absolutely. It was stunning, stretching views of Shizuoka city with Mt Fuji framing the city and the view of the velvet blue sea made me feel like I was on top of the world. It was absolutely beautiful and a really clear day so we could see for miles and got some great views throughout the whole hike!

We then headed back down the mountain along some rather narrow passageways and makeshift steps when we finally reached the village, feeling like I wanted to collapse I knew I had to just do one more mile to the bus stop and then I could relax. It was the longest mile of my life, at every corner I thought it can’t be much longer surely and yet it always was! We eventually reached the bus stop and made our way back and then grabbed some food. This was the only place open that we could find and it was a tiny glorified bar really, the lady spoke next to no English so our Japanese was put to the test! We were able to order and then the food came and it wasn’t the most tasty meal but it filled a hole if nothing else!Read more