Subashiri Trail

For out descent we chose the Subashiri Trail because as Sayaka said "it's faster so that means it's easier." Well... it wasn't too bad to begin with. It was like walking down steep sand dunes. The ground shifting with each step. I was alright with that. Neither of us wanted to go down a route that had huge steps down. Sayaka made a remark about not many people were using that trail. Now we know why. It was shifting volcanic ash pretty much the whole way down. Our legs were getting heavier, we were covered in Ash and we kept having to empty our boots of volcanic rocks every so often. We kept making jokes about who picked this trail, blaming each other.
We were alone on the trail for the most of the time, the occasional person passing us by. It felt a bit eerie on this trail with clouds passing through us set against the brown grey ash surroundings.
We were so happy when we saw a sign for the 5th station signalling the end until Sayaka read the sign "You're don't want to hear this....we have 40 minutes more 😣😥"
Well this 40 minutes took a lot longer than that. Although we were tired, we really enjoyed this part as it was travelling through a forest in what appeared to be a dried up stream. On our way, 2 old ladies passed us starting their ascent "Not long now" they said. Sayaka was cursing them later on because we still had ages to go. Sayaka made me laugh so much. It seemed like the more tired we got, the funnier everything was.
We did it! After 4 hours of sliding down ash and rocks we finally reached the 5th station. The lady at the shop there was kind enough to let us use a room to change. Both proud of ourselves, we enjoyed a nice cuppa before setting off back to Tokyo.Read more