Japan Trip Day 2: Mount Mitoku, Misasa, Kurayoshi, Hokuei (aka Conan Town)

The aircon-heater issue affected my sleep last night. I left my curtain open to a certain degree to ensure that some sunlight could come in in case I could not wake up with my alarm alone. That resulted in the cold air seeping through the window and I was awakened at about 4am since the room suddenly became too cold.

I still woke up on time to catch the 725am train. My guide informed me to look towards my right during the train ride for good view but I simply fell asleep on the train. Haha. Luckily I still managed to wake up at Kurayoshi. Yesterday I mentioned that IC card is not in use in Tottori yet. So to ride the train, I have to show the ticket to the staff manning the gantry during departure and at arrival, the staff manning the gantry will collect the ticket. The train ride took about an hour and my guide was driving his car again for our journey today.

Kabu-yu

On our journey to Mt Mitoku, we drove through Misasa. I only know that Misasa is famous for its onsens but it is a beautiful city. With quite a wide river flowing through the town, the whole area is very picturesque. The layout of the city reminds me of Arima Onsen which I visited before. We stopped by at Kabu-yu for my guide to fill his water bottle. There is a water spring here and people are allowed to collect the water. I had a full water bottle so I only tried to drink the water on the spot. The water is fresh and 'light' without the 'metallic' feel of processed tap water. There is free foot bath here as well.

Statue depicting the legend of the finding of Misasa Onsen

This statue at Kabu-yu depicts the legend of the finding of Misasa Onsen. A man found a wolf and decided to spare its life. The wolf turned out to be a god in disguise and as a gratitude for sparing its life, the wolf visited the man in the dream to show a location of a hot spring. At least that is what I was told by my guide.

Mt Mitoku - Sanbutsuji

We reached Mt Mitoku and the view as we walked from the carpark to the base of Sanbutsuji is already so amazing.

Aaah.. I really love nature~~

Before entering, I learnt how to do the cleaning ritual before entering a shrine: use the scoop to wash right hand, then left hand, then rinse the mouth, before finally cleaning handle of the scoop. There are 2 entrances fee to be paid: one is to enter the shrine complex and one if we want to do the climb to Nagereido. We started our climb to at about 930am. After paying the second fee, we were given a sash and had to record our name in the visitors book. It took us about 1.5 hours to climb all the way up to Nagereido (which included the time taken to take photos haha.). The hike is challenging and cannot be considered easy. It is not an exaggeration that Mt Mitoku is considered as Japan's most dangerous national heritage. The hike should be considered a pilgrimage, instead of a touristy sight-seeing. When I mention 'take photos', I actually took photos during the short breaks during the hike just to make use of time. Yes, it was tiring and I needed short breaks to catch my breath or take a sip of water. Otherwise, the terrain is not that conducive to take those touristy photos.

Those pictures in the internet are not accurate in depicting the reality whether regarding on how difficult the hike is. The pathway is rugged and natural as opposed to nice pavement meant for tourists. I would even say the pathway is dangerous and do not expect a lot of safety nets at the sides to catch us in case we fall off. Yup that means if someone falls off, they may just fall of to their death.

There are a few temples along the way. A few of the memorable ones are Monjudo, Shorodo, and of course Nagereido. Monjudo is somewhere in the middle of the hike and it provides a resting place and a nice treat for all the hardwork to make it all the way up. It will be scary for people who are afraid of height (such as my guide) as the side that opens to the mountain really has nothing at the bottom to support. Photos cannot capture the majestic view from here or how vast/high/scary it is as there is limited space to angle the camera. Not to mention the sun and shadow when I was up there so basically I had no good pictures to share here on the view from Monjudo. Shorodo is the giant bell for us to say a prayer and ring that bell. Nagereido is the 'end' or 'peak'. We can only see Nagereido but not to climb towards it. Photos cannot capture how difficult the terrain is. When you see the pictures of Nagereido, they are mostly from similar angle. It is not because that it is the best angle but because that is the only possible angle to take photos there. I am looking at my photos now and I am disappointed :( I take photos to show off and these photos simply do not show what I saw or what I experienced accurately. So at the end of the day, it is really just for my good memory and experience.

Not taken from google :p Proof that I climbed all the way up

The descent proves to be more difficult and I slipped about 2 metres downwards on my butt. I saw blood on my wrist but surprisingly after I cleaned the wound, there was no open wound and I only had a small flap of skin hanging loose. I would say that it was a miracle.

If I did not pull the 'flap' of skin, it will not have red bleeding border

Some advice for those intending to ascend all the way up to Nagereido:

1) Buy a pair of gloves at the registration area. You will need to hold to trees, roots, rocks, chains, etc during your journey. Gloves will protect your hands from dirt as well as abrasion.

Kazurazaka (Kazura Slope)
This is not trees at the surrounding area. This is actually the pathway to climb up.

2) This is not a tourist sightseeing area. You have to be physically ready to climb as it is just not about walking. I climbed to the top at Fushimi Inari and that is like a stroll in the park compared to this. At Mt Mitoku, there are sections with poor footing that I could only use my arms to pull myself up whether by holding on to rocks, roots, or chains. Wow.. those gym sessions really paid off.

Kusarizaka (Chain Slope)
These chains are not for showing off. This slope has poor hold for hands and feet so you will really have to rely on your arm strength to hold on to the chain while finding good enough footing.

3) Wear something comfortable and easy to move (and you don't mind getting dirty). I am glad that I wore a pair of pants which fit just nicely. If I wore my other pants which are rather loose, I would have to keep pulling up the waistband. Surprisingly this new pair of pants is very flexible as well so I had no problem when having to take a 'bigger' stride. Be prepared for your clothes to end up dirty as the pathway may be slippery, you may slip, you may want to take a break sitting on a random rock or bark of tree, etc.

4) Wear shoes with good grip. The pathway may be slippery especially since the air may be cool at night which results in condensation in the following morning. If the weather is wet, they will close the area and forbid climbing. I wore my new pair of sport shoes and it was still not good enough. You can purchase the straw sandals at the registration area as these sandals are what usually worn by the monks to climb. I did not personally test the grip of these sandals but I will still recommend perhaps wearing socks if you choose to wear these sandals to avoid having your feet exposed to all the natural elements. Just to be safe in case you slip.

5) Do not to bring bulky backpack. I saw weather forecast expecting temperatures 4-7 deg C. Thus I decided to standby my fleece jacket and ultra light down in my backpack. They turned out to be unnecessary since I did not feel cold with all the physical exertion. Bulky backpack will add burden and hinder movement/manouever in between the trees.

6) Come and start the hike early before it gets too crowded. The pathway is rather narrow and having other people to behind you will only make you stress. Most pathway is shared by people climbing up and down so imagine you have to think of 'traffic' to stress you more. I did not really get a nice photo with Nagereido at the background since there were already so many inconsiderate tourists who were impatient and could not share the phototaking spot. Jeez..

As we were walking back to the carpark, we met and struck conversation with the head monk. 'We' actually refers to my tour guide since I understand no Japanese. Waah.. that was easily 30 not-so-fruitful minutes for me.

Kajika Bridge
Before lunch, my guide brought me to Kajika Bridge which has an amazing view of the river as well as free open foot bath to care for our tired legs. The river banks are also beautiful with sakura trees but I was too tired to really walk and take picture around the banks. I definitely prefer the foot bath here than the indoor one at Kabu-yu.

Kurayoshi

We had lunch at Kurayoshi at a hipster café serving an interesting fusion of curry. It did not taste like Japanese curry or Indian curry but it was more creamy like European pasta. I don't know how to describe it well but it is a unique (in a good way) flavour. We walked around the Kurayoshi Old Town. I saw this place appearing quite often during my research for itinerary plan but I find it very disappointing and not worth going. Almost all the shops were closed or out of business and it felt like walking through an empty deserted town.

Hokuei Town (Conan Town)

Hokuei Town, or Conan Town, was the last stop for the day. My guide has never visited or heard Conan Town before and we sort of missed it initially. I was very worried that Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory (GAMF) would already be closed. We managed to reach at 430pm so there was still an hour before closing time.

I was emo that my guide did not want to accompany to enter GAMF which meant no one helped me to take photo. Well actually there were nothing much to take photo with. At this point I was already rather emo with all the chopped off legs from the photos so I sort of gave up about photos already. The souvenir shop at GAMF was exciting. Since there was car, I decided to buy the sand sculptures and plushie of Conan riding on a camel. There were other plushies but I held myself first as I did not know what Conan's House Beika Shopping Street would offer me.

My guide suggested that I could walk towards the Shopping Street so that I could take photos along the way while he would park his car there. After seeing the map of Conan Town, I told him we could just take the car directly to the Shopping Street. It was already almost evening so I had to prioritise statues over stone monuments of Conan manga covers along the way.

On the way to the Shopping Street, we passed by a bus stop with statue of sleeping Kogoro and Conan. Ouch... 1 thing missed. From the Shopping Street, we walked to the bridge that has mini Conan statues. The Conan House is just next to a river and the river bank is lined with sakura trees. It looks very nice and romantic. Hehe... My camera battery started acting up and I decided to throw away this particular non-original battery. From there my guide asked me to walk towards the bus stop with sleeping Kogoro while he drove his car to meet me there. I made the wrong turn and ended up having to jog to catch up with the car. Lol. I always wondered why people were still jogging in this cool weather and now I knew why. It is actually quite shiok.

From there we went to Yura Station (aka Conan Station) to take picture with the iconic Conan statue which is not as big as I imagined. Along the way from the station towards the library (where Shinichi statue is) are the coloured statues of Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ai. It is quite weird to have only the statues of the Detective Boys in colour while the rest of the statues in the town is the metallic/bronze type. On our way back, we stopped by at the town hall for me to take a photo with a coloured statue of Conan eating watermelon which is one of Tottori's specialty.

Just like the airport, I will put photos and more details of Conan Town and GAMF in a separate post as this post is already very long. I really need to come back here some day. Today coming here by car is not a good thing. Ideally I would like to walk and take pictures with all the plaques of manga covers, manhole covers, and everything that shows Conan in this town.

My guide will be staying over at his house in Tottori tonight so he drove me back to Tottori. It is about an hour drive to Tottori and the road has an amazing view towards Japan Sea with giant wind turbines. We made a quick stop at a spot to enjoy the sea view but I forgot what the place is called. Haha.. Oh well..

It was already dark as we approached Hakuto so Hakuto Shrine has to be on another day. Again my guide asked if I would like to have dinner with him although it was already past the hours I paid him. Of course I agreed. It is Saturday night and the first restaurant that he recommended had an hour wait. We were too hungry and as guys, we were not going to spend time waiting for food. We had BBQ as an alternative. I was hesitant since I worried about getting sore throat. Since I had no other suggestion on what I wanted to eat, I was okay with it. I left the ordering to my guide and aaah.. the beef here is amazing yummy yummy. It was my first time trying beef intestines and I find it good. I avoid beef tongue after my first traumatic try from ekiben during my very first trip to Japan in 2015. After tonight beef tongue, I will be willing to give it a try again in the future.

I have another amazing day today although now I am also regretting that I did not buy the Conan t-shirt. Yes it is expensive but since I am already here in Tottori and I don't know when I will come back, I should have just YOLO. Perhaps I should return to Conan Town on Monday afternoon. Now I just hope that I will be able to sleep better by opening the curtain smaller than yesterday and turning on the room heater. Hahaha...