Takayama Fudoson

It was supposed to be a group hike for Takayama Fudoson. Chinatsu, Eva, and Umi were supposed to come but two of them got sick so Chinatsu called it off.

It was such a good and sunny day though and I wanted to get some exercise in and catch some more autumn foliage so I opted to still go for it. Starting from Nishi-Agano Station making my way towards a long paved road. I had thought that this was the hike and was a bit disappointed at first but as soon as I entered the forest, I knew it was going to be a good one.

There were several spots to see around Mt. Kokuzo, the mountain where Takayama Fudoson was situated. There were three waterfalls namely: Otaki, Shirotaki, and Fudotaki. There was clear signage and the first one I encountered was Otaki Falls which I think was the most beautiful out of all three. The rocky and wavey black wall behind the white flowing waters of Otaki was something straight out of a painting, not to mention the yellow leaves floating on the pool below as well as some hanging on the walls beside it. So beautiful!

The next one was Fudotaki, I had to do a detour away from the main trail which led me to an alcove in the mountain. There were caves here and above it was Fudotaki's waters, like a blanket of raindrops, nothing too grand but quite a picturesque scenery. I went behind the caves to get a better shot and catch the sun shining off the waters and that's when I noticed the Shinto shrines across a bridge to the other side. Turns out this place was where Fudo Myou dwelled, the local kami of Takayama. Makes sense as caves were usually where kamis were believed to stay.

Making my way to the final waterfall, Shirotaki. A two-tiered waterfall. I ate my onigiri here before a lady came huffing and puffing by, asking me if this was the waterfall. To which I replied sure is, much to her vocal disappointment. I told her it was pretty y'know! But she didn't agree with me and left off to find the other two waterfalls. I kinda felt bad for poor Shirotaki, imagine doing all you can to be this beautiful only for some random hiker to come up to your face all unsatisfied. You rock Shirotaki, you'd do well to remember that!

Now I had a choice to either go for Takayama Fudoson and end the hike but the allure of good views at Kanto's Eight Provinces Lookout was tempting. I was asking my body if I should go for it, my legs were aching and fatigued from breakdancing yesterday but I didn't want to miss out. Deep down, I already knew the answer anyway so off I went towards the lookout, stopping again, hesitating as my legs started to ache once more, and pushing on. The decision was now final.

Thankfully, the mountain path turned into paved roads, there was also a mountain trail going up to the lookout but I decided to go for the paved roads for now. The views were awesome, with panoramic views of the Kanto plains on each side with a shrine in the middle. On the way down, I took the mountain path this time which was so beautiful, the autumn foliage here was still very much on fire.

This path took me to Takayama Fudoson finally. A huge temple complex, another highlight is the giant ginkgo tree that was still all yellow, its leaves covering the ground turning it into sheets of gold.

The hike back towards Agano Station was peaceful, I got lost at one point and had to do a brutal hike up back but still very manageable and easy.Read more