100 Famous Mountains

12 August 2023 Mount Mizugaki 瑞牆山 Mount Mizugaki is one of the most distinctive mountain in Yamanashi prefecture. The unique formation of rocks around this area makes it a very popular site for rock climbers & boulderers. Standing 2230 metres tall, it’s another popular hyaku-meizan.

Mount Kinpu 金峰山 Mount Kinpu is located in the Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures. Standing at 2,599 meters high, it has long been revered as a sacred place for mountain worship. There is a symbol rock called ‘Gojoiwa’ on the mountain top.

Mount Daisen 大山 Daisen For my birthday weekend, my parents and I went on a road trip to a neighbouring prefecture Tottori to check out the dunes and hike up Mount Daisen. Mount Daisen is one of Japan’s hyakumeizan, a dormant volcano reaching 1729m in elevation. The top of the trail is closed off due to trail damage from an earthquake back in 2000. Mount Daisen has a rehabilitation project called “One Tree, One Stone” led by the locals. Due to an increasing number of hikers in the 60s, Mt Daisen’s alpine vegetation started to disappear. Today, hikers are asked to carry one tree and one stone to the summit to help restore the ecosystem. The stones help stabilise the slope and protect the growing saplings. So if you ever climb Mt Daisen, carry a stone up with you! Tottori Sand Dunes We started our hike at 8am on a Sunday. The hike consists of 2400 of stairs and the track started immediately with them nonstop until the top. The total elevation is 950m. The view of Japan Sea, Nihonkai 日本海 behind. A stool for you to poop in your own bag! The locals informed us the mountain is just as popular in winter after it has snowed. Somehow the trail is easier to climb on a pile of snow. Mount Daisen, done! Dad’s first Hyakumeizan. We finished the day by soaking in the onsen by Daisen town. This area is famous for Tofu, so we all had tofu dishes for lunch.

Mount Ishizuchi 石鎚山 My first mountain on Hyakumeisan! Mt. Ishizuchi is one of Japan’s seven sacred peaks. Named “the Stone Hammer” for its characteristic sharp and rocky summit, it is the highest peak in western Japan. I took a very quiet route starting from Hoino trailhead. For the whole duration of the day, I had only run into 5 hikers. I enjoyed the solitude and having the whole ridgeline to myself, knowing how busy Japanese hikes can get. The total ascent of this trail was 2000m (according to my app). The hikers that did walk past me all warned me to be careful of Mamushi. (Mamushi = venomous pit viper). Little did I know, the trailhead, Hoino is a mamushi-infested area. One hiker even said it’s not uncommon to see up to 10 around there. Luckily, the one I saw was just a striped rat snake. When my route had converged with the main trail route of Ishizuchi-san, I was immediately met with a traffic of hikers. At the top, there were about two hundred people roughly having lunch! Many looked like pilgrims as they were wearing white Oizuru. The white outfit worn by the pilgrims represents innocence and purity. I trail ran down the main route, getting picked up on the other side. I was glad to have chosen the route I hiked, not only for the peacefulness but because this popular route was mainly in the forest without any views!