Hiking Amagi -- Banzaburo and Banjiro

Taking the boys for a day hike on some Izu mountain during Golden Week has become a tradition of sorts. I've no desire whatsoever to spend more than 3 minutes stuck in Golden Week traffic, and if there's one thing the Tokyo and Yokohama dwelling masses flock to during Golden Week it's the Izu Peninsula (the neck of the Japanese woods that I happen to dwell in 24/7 most every day of the year) thus I've always opted for a nearby mountain. Alas we can only climb JoYama, Numazu Alps, MoriYama or nearby DaisenZan so many times so okay, if we make it out the door by 5:00 a.m. at least we can beat the traffic on the way there.

Of course I missed the 5:00 a.m. departure goal but still traffic was next to nothing we made it to the Amagi Kogen Golf Course (only hikers) trailhead and were on the trail by 7:00. This being Japan and all the parking lot was already 2/3 full by then, though most hikers were still donning their 100,000 yen ($1,000) worth of hiking gear and doing pre-hike stretches so we got a jump on the crowd.
That's the good news. Bad news is an off duty elf started up the trail right on our heels and stayed there for the first km or so. At least I think he was an off duty elf. That was my best guess since he had sleigh bells tied to his pack, which damn near drove me crazy. We'd stop and he'd stop, we'd go and he'd go. Ring-a-ding, clang-a-cling sleigh bells all the way. What is it with people hiking with bells on their backpacks around here? I mean sure I've heard folks use them to scare the bears away bears but seriously, DUDE! There's nary a bear on the entire peninsula! If you're that scared of a deer or a cute lil wild piggy attacking then you're better off staying home or just wearing your $200 hiking trousers to the mall. Whatever. We ended up passing another 4 or five elves throughout the hike. Ah the sound of nature, birds chirping, breeze blowing through the trees, clanga-clanga-janga-langa-ding-Dong!
Filed under things in Japan that drive me bonkers. But enough with the complaints, I'll save the rest for my letter to Santa.

Anyhow so we hiked the Jyusoro Trail up to Mt. Banjiro-dake (1300m) then Mt. Banzaburo-dake (1406m) then took the yeller line trail back to the trailhead (Yellow on the hiking map. I'm sure has a name that I'm not up to searching for at this moment). If memory serves me right it's a 7.8 km hike so we likely did around 9 or 10 km (go hiking with my boys and you'll understand my hiking math). We were back at the parking lot before noon and none too soon because man I had to pee!

Not that I'll shy away from heeding the call of nature while out on the trail mind you. I did as much between the two peaks when I found a place I could easily hide myself from any passersby. The thing was doing that wasn't so easy once down closer to the trailhead. It looked like maybe I could once we got back to the little junction but no, there's an old lady sitting on the bench dang it. I said as much to the boys: "Dang guys I'm about to burst, if that old lady wasn't sitting there I'd go over there in the bushes and take a leak." only to hear the lady ask me something in fluent English immediately after saying as much.
Doh!

I've no recollection whatsoever of what she asked. I was too busy screaming "You fool!" to myself in my mind. But hey what'ya gonna do. Okay busted, she knows that I know that she knows that I know she understood me telling my boys that I'd be relieving myself if she, the "old lady" wasn't sitting there. I sure ain't gonna double check to be sure she heard me so just did the next indicated thing and sparked up a conversation with her. She was waiting there on that bench watching birds while one of her kids and her grandkids did the same hike we'd just done. Upon my telling I was from California but long time resident of these parts she told that she'd lived in California for a long time herself when she was younger. Ah-ha! So that explains the California English listening skills. Super nice lady though. I showed her a picture of some kind of tit (the bird of course) that I'd taken on the trail and after a few more minutes of conversation, part of which was her switching to Japanese to ask the boys some questions, I told "It's been a pleasure talking with you" and really meant it. It's always nice having a conversation with someone in native English here and more often than not when it happens I end up being reminded that the proverbial man on the street (read old woman on the bench here) has a fascinating story to tell.

Relieved to make it back to the Amagi Kougen Golf Course trailhead, or the final 25 meters from it to the toilets, we loaded back up in the car and as luck would have it the Golden Week traffic wasn't all that bad heading back to Kannami just after noon on a Sunday.

So there ya go, that's my Amagi hiking tale.
Photo tour follows

I pulled over quick when just a few km away from the parking lot. My oldest boy jumped out of the car to go meet a new friend but the new friend was shy, ran away only to surprise us all, especially that oldest boy, by turning around and coming back to get a second look at us. You can just see her head poking up between the two trees there. Here's a shot of her not a minute before that

Here's the first peak, Mt. Banjiro

And same place looking south down Eastern coast of Izu towards Shimoda

Between there and the next peak you go through the drunken horse vegetation "Asebi" tunnel

The kanji making up the name is horse 馬 drunk 酔 tree木, i.e. 馬酔木 because the leaves of this tree are poisonous to horses, if they eat them the effect is a drunken horse. I'd love to have been there to see the scene that led to the tree being named that!