Mt. Kōbō

A couple of weeks ago, I went hiking Mount Kōbō (弘法山 Kōbō-yama). Mount Kōbō is an easy day trip from Tokyo or Kanagawa with good access through the Odakyu Odawara line. This time I got off at Hadano station, climbed Mount Kōbō and then went walking towards Tsurumakionsen station where I had a relaxing thermal bath (onsen).

I suggest doing this hike in Winter when the air is clean and you have greater chances to see Mt. Fuji and the surrounding areas.

Near the mountain, there is a nice farm with sheeps grazing and waiting for you to give them some food. Their hairy body is really warm.

Day trip to Karuizawa from Tokyo

Last May, I had some days off and I decided to visit Karuizawa. The only thing I knew about it was that John Lennon used to stay over with his family during the summer holidays. Karuizawa is very easy to reach from Tokyo. Using the Shinkansen, it only took me about 1h15 to get there.

Although the main roads were full of tourists and souvenir shops, there were also quiet neighborhoods composed of single houses with wide backyards that most probably only very rich people could afford. The presence of Christian churches, such as the Shaw Memorial Church above, was also notable.

I went past the Shaw Memorial Church and kept walking for a while until I ended up climbing a little mountain. The hike is really nice but make sure you bring some bells to avoid accidents with bears. I met very few people on my way up.

The views from the top are impressive and you can see the famous, and still, active volcano Mt. Asama which is near Karuizawa. By the way, Karuizawa is in Nagano prefecture but very close to the border with Gunma prefecture.

After the hike, I was a bit tired so I had some quality soba and a cup of tea nearby just before heading back to town on this colorful bus. Then, after some walking around the major road and buying some souvenirs I returned to Tokyo by Shinkansen. A really nice day trip.

Kamakura Sanzagaike: easy hiking trail

Kamakura was one of the first places I visited in Japan. Since then I have been several times in Kamakura, including last month when I walked the Nagoe kiredooshi pass.

Today I walked another nice trail that started near the Sanzagaike forest park (散在が池森林公園). Here are the details of the route. Go to Oofuna's JR station (大船駅) and take the bus towards Kamakura lake (鎌倉湖畔ゆき) at platform 5. Get off at the Imaizumi fudou (今泉不動) bus stop. Then, follow my GPS log (use Google earth to see the log in context) which will eventually lead you to an Italian restaurant not too far from JR Kamakura station (sorry, I didn't log the last segment but you can guess it from the map), the final destination.

Perhaps the main attraction of the route, especially if you travel in June, is the wide diversity of flowers you will see. Lillies (ユリ), Magnolias, and particularly Hortensias (アジサイ) are really abundant and popular.

There are also lots of harmless little animals to see such as beetles or lizards; and a wide variety of birds singing all the time. If you live in Tokyo this is a nice one-day trip for escaping from the daily routine.

The Nagoe Kiridooshi pass

A few days ago I joined a beautiful walk between the cities of Kamakura (鎌倉市) and Zushi (逗子市). The route follows ancient paths with man-made carved cliffs (大切岸 ookirigishi) and passageways (切通 kiridooshi) that used to protect the Kamakura shogunate. In particular, the route passes by the Nagoe-kiridoshi (名越切通), one of the seven major passageways that still remains close to its original form. Another interesting spot is the so-called Mandara-dou Yagura-gun (まんだら堂やぐら群), a group of cave-tombs carved into a clif.

Even if you are not interested in its historical value, the route has a lot more to offer. The beauty of its paths, the variety of trees and the smell of the Japanese wisteria flowers (beginning of May) are all worth the walk.

I have prepared a file containing the route I walked: nagoe-kiridoshi-pass.kmz. The file can be opened in Google earth or converted to your favourite GPS file format. The route starts and ends in Kamakura station. First, get on any of the following buses (you can walk instead): JR bus (platform 5) or Keihin buses no. 23, 24 and 36. Make sure your bus stops at Jōmyō-ji (浄明寺), the bus stop where you want to get off. Near the bus stop there should be a Spanish restaurant called La Casita. If you find it then you are on the good track. Then, just follow the route described in the .kmz file. There may be a few mistakes in the file, but I think it's mostly accurate. The route includes marks for the major spots, and suggestions for having lunch by the sea or for taking a break at a nice cafe (Hoa cafe) that serves delicious donuts. You can see some more pictures here and here.

Kanazawa: nicotech and tourism

I had wanted to visit Kanazawa city for more than 8 years, since my Japanese teacher in Spain (Hattori-sensei) made a reference to it during a class. After the Shinkansen to Kanazawa was finished a couple of months ago I had no choice but to visit it.

What a better excuse than the celebration of the Nicotech event in Kanazawa, which gathers DIY hackers/makers to show their new crazy inventions such as a dice that always comes up 6; or a relay-controlled melodica presented by nezumi-san. Other inventors: natok (@natok), and @mayusaki3 (check the twitter hash #NT金沢).

If anything, Kanazawa is famous for its splendorous Kenrokuen (兼六園) garden, developed by the Maeda clan and one of the 3 great gardens in Japan. If you were only going to spend a few hours in Kanazawa, the Kenrokuen garden would be the thing to see. When you are there, try to find a sign with a haiku written by Bashō that says: あかあかと日は難面もあきの風 (akaaka to hi wa tsurenaku mo aki no kaze). As many other haikus, this one also talks about the change between seasons, in particular from Summer to Autumn. My personal translation would be something like: "The sun shines red, ignoring the Autumn winds". Here are a few other translations. A decomposition of this haiku can be found here (in Japanese).

Other attractions in the city are its tea houses (Chaya). There are two famous tea house districts: Higashi (east) and Nishi (west) Chaya. However, I'd suggest you to check this non-touristic tea house called Shōkōan (旧園邸・松向庵). See the access map and pictures from inside.

Kanazawa also has a famous fish market called Ōmichō, where you can buy different types of fish and seafood. There are also a few restaurants if you want to try sushi, crab, kaisen-don (a bowl of rice with different slices of raw fish) or any other delicatessen. Here is a nice guide to the food of Kanazawa in pdf. I would also recommend the restaurant "arroz" (rice in Spanish) where you can eat a delicious "cocido" as the one in the picture above.

Kanazawa has also a Samurai district called Nagamachi (長町) though it's not as big as the other tourist attractions.

What I liked the most about Kanazawa was its relaxed atmosphere; the river that crosses the city which was very close to the place I stayed in; and the fact that you can rent a bicycle to go around the city.

Makerfaire Shenzhen 2015

Last weekend I visited Shenzhen to attend the Makerfaire. I used a low-cost airlines called Vanilla Air (20,000 yen for a return flight from Narita airport) to get to Hong Kong airport. From there I took a shared limousine car to my hotel (220 Hong Kong dollars). There are cheaper ways to go. However, this was the best choice as I would later realize that it would have been a nightmare to find my hotel otherwise.

This were the views from my hotel room (Shenzhen She & He Apartment Shenlan). The hotel was actually an apartment in a tall building. Despite its low price, the apartment was rather clean and it had a fridge and a kitchen. It's location was perfect for going to the Makerfaire on foot.

Makerfaire's location was awesomely situated among several modern buildings, and was decorated with numerous posters and maker-related objects. However, it was mostly open air so I was wondering what would happen if it started to rain. Fortunately, Shenzhen is a very sunny city and apart from a light rain on the last day we had mostly good weather.

As usual, all booths were filled with creativity and new ideas. There were booths showing hobby projects as in many other Makerfaires I've attended. Surprisingly though, there were many more booths showing already finished products. I think that that was the main difference with other Makerfaires I've been too. As a manufacturing hub, I guess that living in Shenzhen makes it easier to develop your ideas all the way to the final product. There were also big commercial booths from companies such as Seeed studio (who announced Genuino in partnership with Arduino) and Mediatek.

Once I had seen all of the booths several times, I decided to go downtown and checkout Shenzhen's electronics town. I took the subway (Shekou line) and stopped at Huaqiang North (华强北) station. Then I tried to find buildings with the name SEG or 华强电子世界 (Huaqiang electronics world) on them. There were several ones actually. Typically, the first floor is dedicated to small booths selling electronic parts, and booths on higher floors sell consumer electronics and the like.

My impressions of Shenzhen as a city were very good. It was a clean and safe city with modern buildings and department stores. There were lots of new buildings in construction so I expect Shenzhen to become one of the biggest cities on Earth in a near future. I'm sure I will be back here.

Mt. Nokogiri (鋸山), Nihon-ji (日本寺) and its huge buddha (大仏)

I made a trip to the mountain Nokogiri (鋸山) in Chiba prefecture. This mountain is renown for having the biggest statue of buddha (2nd and 3rd would be those in Nara and Kamakura) of all Japan. This statue belongs to Nihonji (lit. 'Japan temple') which is now under restoration (May 2014). Not only that, it is also a nice and easy hill to hike with all kinds of sculptures on the way to the submit. No special skills or equipment are required since the path is paved.

There are several ways you can get to Mt. Nokogiri. The map above describes the one I would suggest if you live not very far from Kawasaki. On the East exit of Kawasaki JR station there is a bus terminal. Go to the platform 22 and wait for the bus that goes to Kisarazu (timetable). The price of the bus is about 1440 yen one-way. Once you get to Kisarazu, take the JR Uchibō train line towards Hota station (Kanjis on the map). The price for the train is about 670 yen. Therefore, in total the transportation fees would rise up to the amount of 4220 yen.

Note: you can also get off one station before Hota station, at Hama-kanaya (浜金谷) station, if you prefer to take the cable car which brings you right near the top. If you live near Kurihama (久里浜), there is a ferry that goes from Kurihama to Kanaya (timetable) and costs about 720 yen one-way.

From Hota station, you turn right (towards the bank) and then walk for about 80m. Turn right again and pass under the train rails. You should start seeing some signs with the kanji 遊歩道. Follow those signs, they will take you to the entrance which is about 1.5Km away from Hota station.

The 1.5Km span from Hota station to the entrance to the mountain (see picture below) was perhaps the most enjoyable part of the whole trip. Since most tourists opt for the cable car approach, that path was mostly free from people. Perfect for portraying the beautiful scenes of the japanese countryside. Since I went in Spring flowers were specially beautiful.

At the entrance to the mountain, you must pay an entrance fee of about 600 yen (400 yen for children). In exchange, you receive a map of the mountain in English or Japanese (maps in Japanese, map in English).

The first thing I noticed when I entered the mountain was the songbirds. In particular, the penetrating sound produced by some Woodpecker birds (キツツキ) which were hammering the cortex of tree where they lied catched my attention (listen). Perhaps they were happy for having enough earthworms to eat.

Just a few minutes of steps and you'll find the famous buddha statue (daibutsu). Let's be honest, after having seen several of them I lost the ability to get surprised. However, I was really surprised when I found something that I had overview while looking up the information for the trip: the 100 shaku kannon. This is a relief sculpture carved in quarry stone and hidden near the top of the mountain. This one really made my day, and reminded me of those famous relief sculptures and monuments in Petra.

This post wouldn't be complete without pictures from the observation deck on top of Nokogiri. The first one shows the cost of the Bōsō peninsula, and the second one is Tokyo bay. On a clear day (usually in Winter) I read that Mt. Fuji can be seen from there.