Hiking – My Michinoku

Day Hike: Yamashita Station to Watari Station

I hadn’t hiked the ridge of low mountains on the trail from Yamamoto Town to Watari (Mt. Shiho, Mt. Kuromori, Mt. Kankyo etc) because the trail had closed in multiple places from typhoon damage. But by the time I decided to take another crack at the area this month, every single closure had been lifted!

The plan was to basically follow the model course on the map, except I was going to go down the escape route at Mt. Shiho and walk over to Hamayoshida Station because I didn’t think I’d have enough time to walk the whole course before it got dark. To my surprise, the times shown on the map were actually much longer than it took me. Sanroku Shonen no Mori to Mt. Shiho was supposed to have taken four hours, but only took me three. Even if the second part of the hike took as much time as the map said, I would still be out of the mountains and back in town before dark. The map lies! This is a totally doable, pleasant day hike! I don’t like to take much longer than a 20 minute break for lunch, but I’m not *that* fast, especially after taking a month off from hiking. I left Yamashita Station at 8:00 AM and arrived at Watari Station at 3:15 PM, enough time to make the 3:30 train back home.

What are some other reasons why this hike was great? The view. Going along this ridge, you get great views of the flat fields and buildings in Yamamoto Town and Watari Town and the ocean to the east, with what is apparently Oshika Peninsula (!) visible in the distance to the left. To the west is Kakuda City and a river and even taller mountains.

I loved the signage, and how well maintained the course was. There’s a whole network of trails linking these small mountains to each other and to the nearby town, with lots of maps showing where you are in this network. Even after I decided to go north past Mt. Shiho, I could have conceivably gone back down into town if I’d needed to through quite a few other paths marked with signs.

I also laughed out loud at the signage a couple times. There’s a spot with a viewpoint (or at least viewpoint is in the name) with some visibility issues, and there was a sign basically like “Yeeeeees….this is the ‘viewpoint,’ though you can’t see much right.” Also, another first: there was a mountain with two names, one from the Kakuda side and one from the Watari side.

Maybe saving the most important part for last: when I got to the top of Mt. Shinzan and went over to look at the Bell of Requiem, there was an older gentleman there who immediately started chatting with me in English. He was actually a Mr. Nagaoka, who headed the group that built the bell. According to the nearby placard, the bell is to soothe the souls of those all those who lost their lives in the tsunami, including the 635 people who died in Yamamoto Town, as well as to convey the dangers of the tsunami to future generations. Donations from 800 individual and groups made the bell possible. Mr. Nagaoka happened to be there so he could clean the area, but he was delighted to see me there, and I was certainly delighted to meet him. He gave me a stamp booklet, so I could add more stamps and fill out the date when I visited the bell again, and took my photo for his nonprofit’s blog.

I don’t know if I believe in fate per se, but meeting Mr. Nagaoka was a reminder of how lucky I am, how lucky I can be. Luck has to do with being in the right place at the right time. If there’s one thing the Michinoku Coastal Trail does, it takes you places, and then you spend a lot of time there.

Speaking of luck and spending time in places, saw some interesting birds today for good measure. A male and female Northern Shoveler (Hashibirogamo) at a little pond near Watari-jinja Shrine and a bunch of Long-Tailed Rosefinches (Benimashiko) on the gravel road past the mountain entrance on the north side, past Konosu Pass.

Day Hike: Mt. Dairokuten, Onagawa

It’s a 3 day weekend in Japan and when I suggested hiking somewhere, my husband asked me if we couldn’t both do the thing we really wanted to do: I really wanted to hike, and Futo wanted to bike. My husband, first and foremost, is a cyclist. So I hemmed and hawed about where to go and finally settled on the other mountain left in the Onagawa section, Mt. Dairokuten. This was the model course starting at Urashuku Station and ending at Onagawa Station, so Futo would drop me off at Urashuku Station, park the car at Onagawa Station, and go on his bike ride. If I made it back when he wasn’t there, I could use the other key to the car to drop off my stuff and leave a note if my phone was dead.

I’ve hiked this route before, but it was about three years ago and strictly speaking I’d only walked most of it. My friend and I got lost and refound our way several times on the course and on the last 1/4 or so north toward Onagawa Station we had gotten completely lost and made it back only by hiking up and down a series of really steep slopes. I was really tired by the end of the hike, which made the bath and food around Onagawa Station that much more amazing.

Still: this made me hesitate about choosing this course. What if I got lost again? Should I really do it alone? Was the course even accessible now post-typhoon? The Natori Trail Center page showing post-typhoon damage said that the walking path had collapsed from a landslide at both the west trail entrance, where I’d start my climb up, and at the north trail entrance, where I’d emerge to return to Onagawa Station. The key point is, it says collapsed but it doesn’t say closed, so in theory I could still hike it. (In some cases, I could even hike the bits that say they’re closed, since it seems like different places have different thresholds for closing a trail up, but I’d rather err on the side of “don’t do the thing you’re explicitly being told not to do for safety reasons”)

Well, I am back from my hike and let me tell you: I did not get lost, and I could walk the course! Not only that, but I actually made it back in five hours and change, which amazingly is about the same amount of time shown on the map for the model course! Usually it takes about an hour longer than it says on the maps because apparently they asked a superhuman to hike it and timed that. There is a lot more signage on the trail than I remember there being, lots of tape and markers. The scenery is as beautiful as I remember, maybe even more so since the leaves had all fallen, so there was nothing to block the views of lovely Mangokuura and Onagawa Bay. I didn’t see a single person on the trail, but there were deer around. Resting on the short grass under one of the steel towers, the sound of a deer shrieking nearby was so close to me that I yelled “ahh!!” back in surprise. I heard the flustered deer running off, followed by more shrieking from a more comfortable distance.

With the official GPS files to supplement my map this time, I managed to follow the portion past the deer fence, where we’d gotten lost before. There are huge trenches carved into the ground where the water from the typhoon had rushed through at both trail entrances, but the north one is worse. The large washed out bits had carried the path with them, so it was really helpful having the GPS so I could improvise another way to get down. The course toward the end near the north trail entrance will lead you right next to an abandoned house and lot of junked cars for about five minutes. (I think this must be unrelated to any natural disasters? Not sure. It’s too bad, but the rest of the hike is worth it.) The most worrying part of the typhoon damage, also around the north entrance, was what looks like a partially downed power line, fine as long as you give it a wide berth.

I was at Onagawa Station at 2:15 pm, just in time to catch Futo at the car back from his bath. There were a lot of people around today, but I just went ahead and took a bath at Yuppopo, the hot springs inside Onagawa Station. The bath itself wasn’t that crowded, just a group of older grandmas, and if you get shy you can hang out in the half-circle one marked “白湯” which should have less people in it because it’s a non-hot springs bath. The other square one in the same room is the hot spring bath.

After I’d soaked in the bath, I went and found Futo again and ate a bowl of udon with wakame seaweed on the side even though I’d already had a conbini bento during my hike (no regrets).

What are my conclusions for today? Same as last time. Onagawa is so well suited for day hikes because both mountains are doable as one day trips and that onsen/delicious food combo at the end is heaven. The hikes aren’t for complete beginners, you probably need to have both the paper map and the GPS file to not get lost, and the typhoon damage has made some spots extra interesting. Today’s hike reinforced for me, though, that various kinds of damage on a trail aren’t that big of a deal for a hiker. Everyone always talks about how much more convenient cars are, but sometimes traveling on foot is more versatile. If a path is washed out, I can just walk around it. If a tree is down, I can step over it. Let’s see a car do that.

Day hike: Mt. Ishinage

We’re in the last few days of husband’s New Year’s holiday, and he was willing to spend yesterday hiking a little bit of the trail: Mt. Ishinage in Onagawa! We hiked “just” part of the recommended Mt. Ishinage course shown on the map (large English PDF here), to the top of Mt. Ishinage and back the way we came, because we wanted to get back to Onagawa Station in time for lunch, and because the road after Okushimizu Keiryu no Mori is closed as of this writing from typhoon damage.

Mt. Ishinage: it is steep. I haven’t been hiking every day or anything recently, but I’m not *that* out of shape, and yet I was huffing and puffing a good deal of the way up. Even Futo said it was a hard hike, and he’s super fit and in forestry. The view at the top was excellent, though, and there was a little notebook that showed messages from other hikers, some of them saying they were on the MCT. Tom from Australia even reported in English that the hike up was tough (hi Tom from Australia)!

We’d worked up quite an appetite during the hike, so I flattened my delicious grilled fish meal at one of the nearby restaurants on the shopping promenade. We didn’t go into “Yupoppo,” the hot springs back at Onagawa Station, just because it seemed like it’d be a bit crowded, but it’s definitely happening my next trip to Onagawa. Onagawa is ridiculously well set up for a good day hike, with the hot springs in the train station, all of the dining options available right there along the brick shopping around, and also lodging right there with Hotel El Faro.

Anyway, Futo goes back to work tomorrow and I’ve got about two weeks to go before I take a trip to the US and Costa Rica. I should probably at least get in a couple day’s long trip to Ishinomaki in there before I go, but we’ll see. One other big goal for this month is giving this blog a more than zero chance at being discovered by people interested in the MCT, starting with asking Google to actually crawl the site (done). As it is, it looks like someone searching for info on the Michinoku Coastal Trail won’t be able to find this blog even if they clicked through every page of results available.

A fine looking fellow in hoodie and cap on the trail up Mt. Ishinage.

A non-steep part of the trail up Mt. Ishinage.

Top of Mt. Ishinage in Onagawa, Miyagi, with a tiny bit of snow.

View from top of Mt. Ishinage of nearby islands with thin layer of snow.

Ishinomaki 1 Day 3

Today I checked out from Kame House, saying goodbye to my host and the yappy dogs, and toodled over to Ishinomaki Station to take the bus to Oginohama, where I’d left off yesterday. I’d made the right choice yesterday in stopping there : the construction and definitely the trail through the woods would have been a bad idea with so little light left.

What I failed to do was use the restroom at Oginohama before walking through a section completely devoid of restrooms. Fortunately there was a general branch office (a branch of the local city hall) in Oharahama with a bathroom, and a tiny one room library with no one in it served as my shelter from the wind for lunch (I know, don’t eat in a library, but my excuse is: it was cold outside, they were wrapped onigiri and I was careful to be clean) It was a lovely little spot with cushions to sit on and lots of interesting looking comics to read.

The restaurant right next door was closed, to reopen sometime in the future, so it was a good thing I’d brought the rice balls. It looks like there’s plenty to eat during the Reborn Art Festival, but otherwise not much until Ayukawa unless you count the convenience store a little south of Kyubunhama and a ramen shop I saw maybe also in Kyubunhama?

The weather was windy, as expected. I found that what I thought was a “narrow sidewalk” (since it used the word sidewalk on the map) means, no sidewalk and almost no shoulder on the road. It was actually nice having construction in this one area because it added a little narrow area for pedestrians on the side!

Many of the construction workers were very friendly, though, which was really nice. Twice workers waved at me from their trucks, and many more traffic controllers chatted me up in Japanese or English about where I was headed and where I’d come from (what to answer? My nationality? Where I live now? Where I started my walk today?)

The last 8 or so kilometers around Ayukawa were going to take longer than I had, so I elected to take a nice hot bath and relax at Oshika Exchange Center Hottomaru, which is this combination of a pool, gym, library, and bath that most likely uses the nearby incineration center as its source of heat. It was 500 yen for a hot bath, and it just so happens I had a towel ready for sudden bath opportunities. I had enough time for a round in the free (!) massage chairs before I had to get back to the bus stop.

Oh, before I forget: I like Sun Fun Village but there’s actually no bus stop in front of here, so I got a surprise windy dark walk over of about 15 minutes or so. If that’s the case, another good option might be to just find somewhere near Ishinomaki station or close to another bus stop.

Now I’m in my small cozy room at Sun Fun Village! The San Juan Batista Museum is right next door, and they’ve decorated the ship and surrounding gardens with christmas lights. I chose a stay with breakfast and dinner included. Decent food and, I’m happy to report, buffet style. All the other guests are pretty much 100% construction workers, and some of them had brought in a can of beer for their meal (which is totally fine to do at Sun Fun Village).

What to do tomorrow? I’ve run out of viable hikes around here for the time I have available tomorrow, so I plan to check out in time to go see the San Juan Batista Museum when it opens at 9:30, and then make my way back to the station to start my train ride back home! It’s time to face the music and finish my last Xmas present and get the last MCT map translated, not to mention decorate the ice cream cone tree and pet the kitty!

Now to laze around in bed and watch silly television!

Carved owl in woods along Michinoku Coastal Trail in Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

I think somewhere between Kozumihama and Koamikurahama in Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

"Narrow sidewalk" (no sidewalk) on MIchinoku Coastal Trail in Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Sign for Ayukagawa Elementary School with wale in Ayukawa, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Sign for Sun Fun Village in North Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Christmas lights at San Juan Batista Museum in Ishinomaki.

Ishinomaki 1 Day 2

I’m really enjoying my walk down Oshika Peninsula! Today I made the train departing from Ishinomaki Station at about 8 am to Watanoha Station, along with about 15 bazillion high school students on their way to school. I’d been blissfully using my Suica card to pay for my train but Watanoha is still stuck in the past so I paid in cash and will have to get my card briefly zapped when I get back to Ishinomaki.

The start point of the model course on the other side of the bridge was a quick walk, and I even got to stock up on an emergency onigiri and eat a cup noodle for breakfast using hot water from the convenience store right there.

The recommended course from around the San Juan museum along the coastline and over to the treehouse (purple line on the map) was lovely and going very well when a policecar pulled over in front of me. Oh great, I thought, it’s “check my residence card for no reason” time. But then one of the policemen told me that they’d been patrolling to check for damage from the typhoon and had just seen the road along Kotakehama was washed out for about 30 meters, so basically very much impassable. Can we give you a ride? They said. ….Sure! I said. And so that was how I got a free ride in a policecar to the treehouse, since the younger policeman didn’t want to drop me off somewhere without sidewalks or before that long tunnel. On the way, we established various details about my trip and life in Japan in the friendly, casual and yet oddly thorough, is-this-small-talk-or-is-this-interrogation kind of policeman conversation style. “Have you ever been in the back of a police car?” inquired the older policeman. “No, I don’t think so!” I replied. “Ahahaha!” we both chortled. (In fact, I don’t think I’ve been in the back of a police car in Japan, and if I had, it would have been another nice cop giving me a ride for some reason. But I wonder if anyone’s actually said “yes” to that question. Come on, everyone know the answer is always going to be “nnnnno, ahahaha.”) And in the course of the conversation the younger policeman did inquire about my residence status, and I did just offer to let him check my residence card, and so he just went ahead and took down my information (“It’s not that I suspect you of anything,” he said, pulling a face). He was noticeably worried about far I was hiking and whether or not I’d be OK getting home, so he was relieved to hear my plans to take the bus back. We did have to pull over twice on the way: once so they could greet some local leader their station chief had asked them to, and once to give a warning (!) to a truck that had run a red light. A very exciting time.

Anyway! I took up the trail again from the delightful treehouse. I’d tell you to take a detour one road inland at Momonoura but then you’d miss the enchanting blue art installment on the way, so I think you should go see that and figure out how to get to the road from the gravel path just beyond the art piece or turn back to get on the road. I followed the GPS route thinking I was avoiding the construction but ended up on a section of gravel I definitely wasn’t supposed to be on (enter/exit point for construction vehicles).

I got further than I expected today, to Oginohana by 3 pm, though unfortunately with the detour mid-hike and cop car taxi service that’s not much of a reference for anyone else. If there’s anything I learned about the trail it’s that unpaved sections should be started in the morning, not after 3 when there’s only so much light left, and the same goes for construction zones, so I stopped at Oginohama and just hung out on the stylish benches. The gentleman from New Hotel Sakai who’d given me a ride for a very short segment of the route with too many cars and not enough space tried to give me another ride presumably back to the station, but I just thanked him and said I was fine since I was just about to get on the bus. This bus takes Suica cards, so that’s a good reference for tomorrow.

The bus got me to Watanoha Station at about 4:45 but the next train was 6:07 pm, so I went to a local izakaya for dinner. A lot of the google maps reviews said “Sakana Ryori Iino” (〒986-2111 Miyagi, Ishinomaki, Mitsuwacho, 6−20) was really good with good prices, and they were so right. I wandered in right after 5, and the owner was so nice. While I was squinting at the menu he asked me if I wanted meat or fish, and when I answered fish, he asked if I wanted a meal, and when I said yes he said he could make me a sashimi plate with rice and some soup (not on the menu). It took him less than like 30 seconds to figure out the thing that I wanted, and then he just started making the thing. I politely told him I don’t eat whale just to be safe (it’s a specialty here) and he was totally fine with that, no further questions. The meal? It was amazing. Amaaaaazing. My picture does not make it look very amazing, but it’s amazing. I made my 6:07 train with time to spare and he only charged me 1000 yen.

Back at the minpaku now. Probably while I was having dinner, my host apparently was visited by the policemen (!!!) who were worried about whether or not I’d made it back. She’s probably called them by now. I’m enjoying the warm room, a full belly, and soon a little chilled sake from Shiogama snagged on the way home. This trip has been amazing.

Other side of the bridge between Watanoha and Oshika Peninsula in Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Lovely shrine and lighthouse at Cape Osaki in north Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Think this is Bentenjima Island. Along the north Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Tree house in north Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Delightful art piece, unknown title, around Momonoura, Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi. — Go up the stairs to get the full effect!

Michinoku Coastal Trail moves inland along stream in Oginohama, Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

The best sashimi dinner in the world at "Sakana Ryoro Iino" near Watanoha Station in Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Ishinomaki 1 Day 1

There are going to be a lot of Ishinomaki trips, because Ishinomaki is huge. I saw this chart of how many kilometers of the trail are in each municipality and Ishinomaki had the most, a ridiculous amount. Over 100 kilometers! Ishinomaki is so huge and complicated and has a couple of islands on the route and a truly massive peninsula. Today was easy to plan: I just walked from where I left off from yesterday’s day trip, Rikuzen-Akai Station, to the Manga Museum/tourism center/farmers market complex area. I had a lot of trouble planning my hike from tomorrow. I’m reasonably sure trying to walk the two islands isn’t feasible unless I go to Ayukawa at the end: the suggested route on the maps going back to Ishinomaki must’ve been made with summer schedules in mind, but there are less ferries running in winter. I really want to stay in Ayukawa-so, but they were full up, so walking the island this time or walking the Oshika Peninsula from the south up isn’t feasible. Instead I’m going from the north down, using the bus to return to a station to come back to where I’m staying in Ishinomaki tomorrow, and to go to Sun Fun Village in northern Oshika the night after that. That way I can hike the islands and hike whatever’s left of the south bit later when I can stay at Ayukawa-so.

Today’s route was mostly along Kitakami Canal or along Kyu-Kitakami River (former Kitakami river, what used to be Kitakami River before its flow was redirected elsewhere). There’s a lot of traffic near Kitakami Canal, so it’s not exactly tranquil, but the route still did get prettier as I went along.

There were also a lot of interesting birds: at least 3 Common Kingfishers, some Little Grebes, and the most exciting part: A lot of little birds that weren’t Long Tailed Tits and that were very much not interested in my pishing (this is a call you can make that sounds like a bird scolding that usually attracts the curiosity of little birds like Eastern Great Tits). It’s been so long since I’ve seen one of these little guys that when I got a look at one of them, I was initially confused. What were Golden Crowned Kinglets doing in Japan? But then I remembered Goldcrests. Right in front of me was a flock of Goldcrests! Usually I get a very rare glimpse of maybe one Goldcrest. Not a whole tree of them. I guess that area has a lot of really good bugs to eat!

I don’t like Air B&B the company very much but there was an affordable place to stay near Ishinomaki Station called “Kame House” that has two resident dogs, so I booked it for two nights. It looks like it has a regular site for booking without Air B&B so I’ll use that if I stay again. Lovely relaxing house, cute yappy dogs in the host’s side of the house: a very friendly Jack Russell terrier and a shy tan colored dog of some kind. If it were up to me the dogs would sleep in my room but unless I’m lucky they won’t break through the various barriers to come up to the second floor. (If you want a dog-friendly place to stay in Ishinomaki, this is it: you can bring your pup along.)

A lady walked with me along Kyu-Kitakami River pointing out local buildings. Halfway through our walk she started telling me about the tsunami. She told me she’d just made a whole bunch of pickled daikon and other veggies but then that same day the tsunami washed it all away. It was really hard, she said. Very cold. We chatted about sake and how life in Miyagi was just right: not too hot, not too cold, good food, good sake.

I dropped by the tsunami information center on the way to my lodging. Much of what I walked today had been part of the tsunami inundation zone. The staff member talking to me said she’s lived here all her life and had heard of tsunamis before this happened but it had never occurred to her what they could do. Does that make sense, she said. It very much did. I’d never thought of a tsunami as something scary or powerful or real, before 2011. Typhoon, flood, wildfire, earthquake, tsunami. It doesn’t sound dangerous until it is. Natural disasters aren’t impotent, toothless things that can never touch us. I hope hikers coming here can understand that, and bring that knowledge home to prepare for whatever dangers are possible in their part of the world.

Trees and cars along Kitakami Canal in Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Looking a little more like a part along Kitakami Canal in Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Something or other man in Ishinomaki (one of the figures on Manga Road)

Some seriously tasty local sake from Suminoe! Picture at Robata-ya in front of Ishinomaki Station.

Kyu-Kitakami River in Ishinomaki, Miyagi.

Day Hike 9: a little Shiogama, a little Higashi-Matsushima

I have five days off from my part-time job and should have done my planning (and reservations) a lot sooner, but as usual recently I’m doing things at the last minute. I bought some time today by doing a random 5 or so kilometers left in Shiogama, followed by about 15 kilometers in Higashi-Matsushima from Nobiru Station to Rikuzen-Akai Station (every other station is called Rikuzen Something or Other and it’s a miracle I got this name right on the first try).

Maybe to add to the suspenseful seat of my pants vibe of this week’s hikes, I barely got on to every single train I had to board today, starting with the transfer at Sendai (remind me never to believe a transportation app telling me to make a less than five minute transfer between trains in Sendai. Sendai has people in it. There are too many other people milling around between train A and B.) Then I cut it almost too close at Shiogama Station because I’d spent a good 15 minutes trying to get a very last minute reservation at a minshuku highly recommended by a friend, Ayukawa-so (nope, but very nice gal on the phone, definitely staying there sometime no matter what) and then Shiogama-jinja Shrine and the Kamei residence near Shiogama Station were so amazing that I stayed there until the very last minute.

“Shiogama: it is worth a long visit,” would be the understatement of the year! I’m embarrassed to show my true colors as lazy, ahistorical and more interested in food hot springs and animals, but I’m not always super excited about shrines and temples. Japan had a lot of them, and they are all fascinating and special in their own way, but sometimes it takes more effort and fiddling around with unfamiliar vocabulary/history to figure out the interesting bits. Shiogama-jinja Shrine does not require digging or effort to be impressive. It’s this huge complex on top of this hill overlooking the city. No wonder people were always giving visiting researchers tours of Shiogama when they came to Sendai in my last job! Shiogama deserves and is going to get a lot more time than I gave it today. I wanted to spend more time at the shrine, where people are already visiting, on a weekday in mid-December, to pray for presumably the new year. After that, I wanted to spend more time at the Kamei residence to look at its amazing combination of Japanese style architecture and western style architecture from about 100 years ago. That place was free to enter (!), beautiful, and just fascinating. The volunteer guide showed me to the western style part of the house and revealed to me the drawers in the walls had two layers to them. The Kamei residence is why I had to run to catch my train.

The next section was this 15 km ish long stretch starting at Nobiru Station in Higashi-Matsushima. Honestly, it’s hard to figure out where to walk next in this section, lots of islands and an enormous peninsula. There’s also so much between Hon-Shiogama Station and Nobiru Staiton that I want to do, but haven’t decided how to fit into my trail trips: Matsushima! Walk the Oku-Matsushima Olle south of Nobiru Station! It’s complicated, so I just made today’s schedule out of low-hanging fruit in kind of the same area.

Anyway, the next 15 kilometers: first I went past the Nobico baumkuchen factory, which smells amazing of course, like butter and sugar. You are highly likely to buy something at the little direct store, like those mini baumkuchen for 100 something yen, plus need to eat your lunch on the spot. Hold your breath if you want to escape without getting hungry and buying something.

Most of the course after that was a long, straight, stretch along Kitakami Canal. I managed to walk this part a lot quicker than I anticipated, for several reasons: it’s flat, it’s straight, and also above all, I really really really needed to pee. Or more like, I started the canal portion moderately needing to pee, and of course that kind of situation never improves as time goes by, and the canal is not exactly short, and is not exactly teeming with restrooms. Anyway, I got to Yamoto Seaside Park in record time! The park had not only restrooms, but a rest area facility with several floors that included a cafe serving ramen, ice cream and more and a couple floors of observation decks. I camped out in the second floor alone for a bit recharging my phone and gazing out at the blue skies and park golf course. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the Blue Impulse acrobatic plane team practicing any fancy moves from there, but I did see some white and blue planes landing at the air base, so I think that was them.

Some nice middle schoolers who looked excited to see me helped point to the station for my train back home. “Have a great day!” one of them said to me in English. After I thanked them and hurried off to catch my last train I heard a quiet muted “I love you!” and giggling. I love you too, kids.

Tomorrow I go to Ishinomaki.

Some torii gates before the impressive stairs up to Shigama-jinja Shrine complex.

Beautiful garden and view of Shiogama from Shiogama-jinja Shrine complex.

Gorgeous fall colors at Shiogama-jinja Shrine.

Bite-sized baumkuchen from the Nobico bakery store in Higashi-Matushima.

Eating lunch on the tables outside Agurido Naruse factory/Nobico bakery store in Higashi-Matushima.

About to start my straight walk along Kitakami Canal in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi.

Yamoto Seaside Park in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi.

Day Hike 8: Yamashita Station to Shinchi Station

It was actually very tempting to do the exact same course as day hike 7, only not on a Tuesday so I could actually go to Karo no Yu hot springs, but there was still a stretch of about 17? 18? ish kilometers left south of where I live that’s walkable right now, post typhoon. (The hiking course along Mt. Shinzan to Mt. Shiho in Watari/Yamamoto has too many closures right now) Also, another section hiker had recommended this new hotel/hot springs right in front of Shinchi Station, which meant I could actually have a guaranteed bath and meal at the end of my hike. So you can definitely consider today’s hike to be mostly a transparent excuse to go to an onsen.

When my friends and colleagues at Natori Trail Center are less busy (whenever that’s going to happen) I’d really like to get more back story on how each course came to be. It can’t have been easy to decide how to connect everything up. I’m sure there was no question in putting as much of that low nearby mountain range in as possible. Considering I’d been able to hike some of that the other day, it felt like the mountains were whispering “hike us, hike ussss” the whole time. So what to do when that’s not possible? A lot of what I hiked today was a pretty busy road with a sidewalk, but that has to have been the best option at the time. Maybe those smaller roads to the east would be prettier or less busy, but aren’t feasible because there’s too much construction, or no sidewalks. Will this little section of the trail stay the same, or will it change a little, or a lot?

After the busy road section, there was finally a turn at Yamamoto Station, along with a shop devoted to local products, especially strawberries. Since my husband’s middle name would be “strawberry eater” if he had one (his other middle name would be “potato chip muncher”) I got him a cute little souvenir jar of strawberry jam.

The course down Nakahama area was a familiar combination of construction, fields, grassy areas, and newly planted trees. 137 people had died in the 2012 tsunami in this area, and the ruins of the local elementary school was in the process of being preserved as a tsunami monument and memorial park, as in other areas.

My hike ended in time for a late lunch at around 2 pm (I got a late start today and started my hike a bit past 9) at the hot spring hotel next to Shinchi Station. The lunch was a little on the miss side of hit and miss…my shirasu rice bowl was kind of weirdly bitter, so I guess those little fishies weren’t very fresh! I’d seen a review from someone else panning the more expensive sushi bowls, so that should have been my cue to go for the pizza (next time).

The rest was great, though. This was the hot spring/restaurant complex connected to Hotel Grado, just next to the station. Good variety of baths, including natural onsen baths, some carbonic? carbonated baths that claimed to (if I remember this correctly) quadruple the blood flow of the body in five minutes, which I had a fun time cackling at. Some jacuzzi baths that look suspiciously like electric baths but aren’t. Plus akasuri, that thing where people scrub at you with gloves or something, if you’re comfortable with that! I opted for food (should’ve gone for pizza) —> bath (nice) and —> massage chair (very nice) and was reduced to a kind of sleepy melted content lump. I poured myself into one of the lovely reclining chairs and really really wanted to take a nap, but had to go to the station in about 10 minutes to make my preferred train.

And that was today! I am still extremely relaxed and ready to go to bed very soon. There’s nothing like a hike and a nice hot bath.

Fields and blue skies (and low mountains saying "climb us instead") in Yamamoto, Miyagi.

Strawberry jam in front of the strawberry farmer's market next to Yamamoto Station in Yamamoto, Miyagi.

Former Nakahama Elementary School in Yamamoto.

Hotel Grado hot spring and restaurant complex, next to Shinchi Station in Fukushima.

Day Hike 7: Shinchi Station to Komagamine Station

Let me start with the most important information: you are going to have a spectacular time. I had a great time, of course, but you are going to have an amazing time, because you’re going to do this hike on a day that is not Tuesday.

If you do this hike on a day that is not Tuesday, you can start your hike at Shinchi station, walk over to the small mountain range in the distance, and take the lovely hiking course up and then down Mt. Karosan. Let’s say you arrive at the bottom around 11:30 to 12. This is totally feasible. I left Shinchi Station at about 7:30 and got off the mountain at about 11:30, without hurrying and with a 20 minute break dozing off on the sunny deck overlooking Shinchi and the ocean in the distance mid-route.

If it’s not a Tuesday, you can then take a long, warm leisurely bath at Karo no Yu hot springs, followed by the indulgent lunch of your choice at the restaurant there. And if you get tired on the hike, you can remind yourself that there’s a hot bath and meal waiting at the end of your journey.

I did this hike on a Tuesday, and while I’d been careful to look up as much as I could about Karo no Yu, I did not know it was closed on Tuesdays. Or to be precise, every other Tuesday, including the Tuesday I hiked. So, instead of the hot bath and meal, I uh sulked outside eating my emergency honey sandwich. (Always a good idea, especially when you dare to do anything on a Tuesday!)

So that is why you’ll have an even better time than I did! But I loved my hike. I could hop off the train, look into the distance at the mountains, and then just start walking toward them, knowing eventually I was just going to walk up them. That’s a thing I could do, in one day. The course I walked had three natural springs, which in retrospect I should have sampled. The trail route on Mt. Karosan looks out over Shinchi and the ocean stretching beyond it, and in some spots toward the inland Zao mountain range. In early December, there was no snow and all the leaves had fallen, so the ground was soft with leaves and the scenery was completely on display beyond the bare trees. While I only saw two people between the northern trailhead and the resting platform near Mr. Karosan’s summit, there were more than a few hikers on the top and the courses on the other side, so it was clearly a popular area for hikers.

After my sandwich, I walked the rest of the course to where I’d left off before, at the giant Gingko tree. On the way, I was greeted warmly by some local high school kids, puttered through Aguriya (Shinchi Farmer’s Market) and snagged a curry bread for a snack, and took a break at the local gymnasium.

Usually I write my blog entries on the day I hike, but when I got home and took a long bath in our tub, it felt like my batteries had been drained. According to my phone, I’d walked about 27 kilometers (almost 17 miles) including non-MCT walking to and from the station near our apartment, and this is apparently a bit muchly for me. I had a full night of some seriously high quality, dead to the world sleep and still had a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning.

What to walk next? Probably a little more Shinchi as a day trip, then it’s on to the over 100 kilometers that is Ishinomaki. I can’t wait.

Lovely pond in Shinchi, Fukushima. Blue sky, blue waters.

Hiking course toward Mt. Karosan with rich autumn colors.

Rest area and view of Shinchi on the hiking course toward Mt. Karosan

Final steep climb up Mt. Karosan with interesting handhold thing

View of the city and ocean from Mt. Karosan in Shinchi, Fukushima.

Shrine at the top of Mt. Karosan in Shinchi.

The gigantic and glorious Shirahata Ginkgo tree in Shinchi, Fukushima.

Day Hike 6: Soma Trail end/start Point to Komagamine Station

I know I’m hopping around a lot here, but it is waaaay past time I went to Soma. For so many reasons! 1. Soma is the southern trailhead for the Michinoku Coastal Trail. 2. Soma and neighboring Shinchi’s maps were already finished when I started translating the maps in 2016, so they were some of the first maps I’ve worked with. 3. It was always very clear that Soma is really excited about the trail. Lots of events and materials about it.

And so on. After the typhoon made it impractical to start the trail up in Iwate where I’d left off, my next plan had been to just start from the south in Soma, but when I did some research, they’d opened up a volunteer center there to deal with the damage and the whole city’s water was down.

Water service has been restored in Soma, and there were only two spots reported as impassable to Natori Trail Center on the Soma section, both with plenty of roads around that looked like feasible detours. I figured it was time.

After taking a bus from Soma Station to Matsukawaura Park, I started my walk. Soma has a lot of bodies of water around: ponds, lakes, lagoons. Matsukawaura Park overlooks its namesake lagoon, faced by one of several intriguing hot springs facilities on the other side. There were no swans floating around in any of these bodies of water yet, though I did see a few Northern Shovelers with their trademark ridiculously long beaks.

Anyways, more than a few hot springs around, and lots of shops listed on the map including a strawberry farm (off season) some meat shops (closed today) and sweet shops. The sweet shop on the map was open, so I popped in for cookies, a snack for my husband, and a nice free hot cup of tea.

Next was Senkyaku Banraikan, Soma’s tourist information center. I’d met some folks from Soma’s tourism association at a trail related gathering, so I was looking forward to meeting some of them again. I was also very much looking forward to the selection of cat goods. You see, Banraikan has an honorary facility head who is a cat named Miso. He was appointed because the then (now?) head of the tourism association decided, and rightly so, that it would be a good idea because everyone loves cats. And everyone does love cats. But this is beyond love, this is near worship, because you have to see this cat’s face. Here, look at the profile picture for Soma Tourism Association. It should still be cat director Miso. Does it show a black cat with a regal scowl, a white beard, and a host of splendid white whiskers bristling out of its face? That’s the one. And a local genius cartoonist has made absolutely *perfect* illustrations of this cat. And those illustrations are used in pamphlets and other materials, but also on special goods, like tshirts and magnets. This time I got a little bag for my lunch box, but I might as well have just bought the entire collection since that’s going to happen eventually no matter what.

I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of Soma Nakamura-jinja Shrine and castle remains from a Soma Tourism Association staff member! I can’t speak for the other bodies of water, but it turns out the benign looking ponds on the former castle grounds were actually a series of traps, located so that warriors rushing in on horses would accidentally fall into the ponds and lose their mounts. The famous Soma Nomaoi wild horse chase festival was also a clever excuse to get locals together every year for what essentially a military drill that enabled the community to just get in the usual formation to defend themselves. Soma’s superior castle and skills in battle, as well as their policy of exclusively defending themselves as opposed to trying to invade anybody else, made Soma one of the only places with a stable, unbroken lineage of lords all the way to the Meiji Restoration (meaning no one else successfully took over that whole time).

I left off my hike at the Shirahata Ginkgo tree, unfortunately not pictured because my phone decided to jettison the remaining 50% of its battery life in five minutes (thanks Apple).

Soma is beautiful, delicious, fun and more than ready for hikers! Maybe you’ll even meet Miso the cat (he makes a public appearance a couple times a month). And me, come to dote on Miso the cat.

Trailhead and end point for the Michinoku Coastal Trail at Matsukawaura Park in Soma, Fukushima

Totem at Matsukawaura Park in Soma, Fukushima

Senkyaku Banraikan (tourist information center) in Soma, Fukushima

Various adorable cat goods at Senkyaku Banraikan (tourist information center) in Soma, Fukushima

Appearance calendar for Miso, the handsome honorary feline head of Senkyaku Banraikan in Soma, Fukushima.

Pond and late autumn colors at Soma Nakamura-jinja Shrine

Horse statue at Soma Nakamura-jinja Shrine

Soma Nakamura-jinja Shrine in Soma, Fukushima