Mount Tsurugi 剣山

Mount Tsurugi, translated as “Sword Mountain”, is located in the eastern part of Tokushima prefecture, on Shikoku Island. The name “Tsurugi” – “sword” was inherited from a legend that said the young emperor Antoku buried his ruling sword 800 years ago when the Heike Samurai came to Iya in order to hide. No one has found any sword on this mountain to this day.

Tsurugi-san is the second-highest mountain in Western Japan, standing at 1,955m tall. Saying that the climb to the top is an incredibly easy 20-minute hike if you decide to take the chair lift. Now I guess there can’t be any lying on my own blog, so I will admit to taking the chairlift! I wanted to hike the proper route up to the summit of course, but it was 3 pm by the time we arrived at the carpark, and I was planning on staying at a hut 10km further from the peak

The chairlift was actually a cute and fun ride.

Near the top…

The summit!

While Dad hiked back down to the car and stayed the night at a close-by Air Bnb, I continued onwards to traverse the ridgeline to Mount Miune, where I’d be meeting up with him the next day.

It was a really nice traverse on the ridgeline. I had encountered several faeces that resembled a bear’s, but I wasn’t too certain. I’ve seen photos of the sizes of bears here in Tokushima, and they didn’t look any bigger than a border collie. That made me feel better as I had a feeling if I was to fight one, I had a slight probability of winning. I’d stick my poles out like I always do in New Zealand when a cow gets too friendly.

I came across a photographer at one of the peaks. He, too, had seen those faeces and confirmed it was definitely a bear’s, and a fresh one too. He initially thought my huge pack was a predator and was ready to flee. So those furry things are around here huh.

I arrived at my emergency shelter for the night, hoping for some company but unfortunately not. It didn’t help that my emergency shelter looked like a gloomy dark dungeon in the middle of the forest.

I often heard scattering in the woods, but it was just a bunch of deer. In fact, there were about 6 of them wandering around the shelter. They knew I was here but they didn’t care. I read that they too are scared of bears and if you see deer around, it’s an indication that there are no bears around. So seeing them gave me comfort.

During dinner, a father and a young son came walking down the trail from the other side. Excited, thinking I now have company, I chatted with them briefly and the father informed me there were a lot more hikers about to come through. Thinking they were all sleeping here, I quickly cleared my scatter in the shelter. By the time I walked outside again, the father and the boy were gone. No other hikers came through for the rest of the night and I wondered, were they real? Had I become so paranoid of bears that I hallucinated that? 

Next day

I had a stunning day up to Miune. I walked half of the day with a lady, a solo hiker who had woken up early at 3 a.m. to start hiking from the Tsurugi hut. I asked if she ever gets spooked hiking in the pitch dark by herself and she said you get used to it. Here I was, nervous and scared last night of bears in a protected shelter when there was a badass woman hiking alone in the dark!

I was running a little late, Dad had summitted Miune already and I picked up my pace. The last few meters were steep!

Dad was waiting outside the hut.

Miune Hyutte

We descended down together to the carpark.

little ones vs big one