秋川渓谷・Akigawa Keikoku

September 15th

This was our very first hiking trip. Neither of us had visited this gorge before and we chose the location based solely on posts read online. We left home too late, we didn’t have good shoes or the right clothes and no idea of where we were going, so it was definitely a learning experience.

Autumn is, in my humble opinion, the best time to go hiking. The weather is good, there is no pollen (I’m allergic to the sugi pollen in spring), the insects are mostly gone and you only have to worry about the odd bear filling up before hibernation. Consequently there were HOARDS of people. We got off the train and walked straight to the bus stop where there was already a sizeable queue of people waiting. There were multiple bus stops and we didn’t know which to queue at so picked one at random. We waited and waited and waited in the scorching hot sun. Finally a bus arrived, but there were so many people waiting we couldn’t get on. We shuffled forward and set about waiting again. There were official looking guys running around saying extra buses would arrive but with nothing on the horizon and the clock ticking we decided to cut our loses and make our way to the start on foot. We were there to walk after all!

It wasn’t too bad; maybe half an hour or so to where the bus bad been going to drop us, then we walked on from there to the keikoku. It wasn’t the best of routes. There was a lot of walking next to a busy road and it wasn’t especially pretty either. We’d noticed a lot of people decked out for hiking seemed to be heading further on, past the keikoku and in hindsight this might have been the better option. If we go back I’ll post about that alternative.

When we finally reached the keikoku, soaked in sweat and desperate for yet more to drink, we were more than ready to sit down. The official keikoku area was very beautiful and there were the inevitable shops selling omiyage, and more importantly for us, drinks! The water was cold and crystal clear so we rushed to dangle our feet in the water. It was heaving with people by the water though and rowdy teenagers enjoying a day out. Whilst it was nice to get splashed with cold water, it didn’t make for a very peaceful time and once we’d cooled off, we decided to start the long walk home.

We were exhausted by the heat and the crowds so decided to walk to a bus stop to catch the bus back to the station, but predictably it was crammed with hikers and there was no way we could squeeze in. We squared our shoulders and began the long walk back. We skipped the prettier side routes so it was quicker than going, but even less appealing. The advantage was that we could see buses on the road and to our joy saw one coming up behind us heading for the station, that was almost empty. We ran to the nearest stop, blessing the traffic lights that had it held up in traffic, and made it just in time, saving our weary feet from the last half hour to the station.

We were hot and tired, but we had made it and learned a lot. Time to start thinking about equipping ourselves properly for future hikes.