The weekend of 16 and 17 June are reserved for hiking. On Saturday we do the boardwalk near Oguni Numa. We had been there before, but it was too early and we couldn't reach the boardwalk because of the snow. Now is clearly a better timing, hiking season is at its peak. There is a big group of Japanese (who else?) hikers, perfectly dressed with the correct shoes, hats and of course cameras.





We cannot drive the car to the top of the mountain to start the hike, you have to take the bus. Since the boardwalk is only 3 km, we decide to walk the 10+ km going down instead of taking the bus. All together a bit of a decent hike afterall.

On Sunday we join an organized walk with Mari-chan and her husband. They pick us up at 7am, we are still not much of an early risers, to that was a bit tough. When we get to the meeting area, it turns out that we will be hiking in a group of about 50 people.

First we get a few speeches, and then the bus takes us to the starting point. The bus has to make three trips to get everybody at the starting point of the hike. This is okay, because it prevents us from having to hike up the mountain in a 50 people kolonne.

The hike ends at Ouchi-juku. By now this is a well known location for us, we have been here a couple of times. The weather is nice and so it is very busy. We stroll through the street and eat ramen (what else?). Then the bus takes us back to our cars. After some more speeches, everybody goes their own way.

The four of us go the the onsen onsen, to soak our musles in the hot water. Eventhough the hike wasn't very difficult, it was nice to relax at the onsen...