Hiroshima trail running: Ushitayama and Futabayama

Looking south to Hiroshima Bay from Ushitayama

It has taken me some time and distance to be able to write about this run as we were only in Hiroshima because we were fleeing the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011. How paradoxical it was to wind up in Hiroshima, synonymous with the atom bomb and the effects of radiation; but luckily for us friends had offered us shelter for a couple of weeks. I spent most of the time trying and failing to get the authorities and institutions in the city to respond to the crisis, in particular to support the evacuation of children in areas of eastern Fukushima with high levels of radiation. Most are still there in areas that should have been evacuated. Running was a surreal but necessary antidote to the stress and fear of this time, a bubble of normality and beauty....and the gift of temporary forgetfulness.

Ushitayama behind the Ota river and its running path

Hiroshima, like most Japanese cities and towns, is surrounded by hills and mountains and some even poke their heads above the rising tide of buildings within the city itself, protected by their steepness and instability. The horseshoe ridge between Ushitayama and Futabayama is one such survivor, just two kilometers from ground zero and ranged above the Ota river, once full of the bodies of the burned, now the placid companion of joggers and dog walkers. To be in Hiroshima is to inhabit this double identity, the glib present and an inescapable history. It's in the fabric of the place, and literally still, the soil. Sometimes it is necessary to forget for a while, but it is a shame that in 2011 the administration were unable to make the link between Hiroshima's history and the immediate need of Fukushima's children.

A wild boar-proofed flower bed at the top of Ushitayama

I left our accommodation by the river, crossing the busy dual carriageway and ran up through a park with it's incongruous "English Rose Garden" and up a dusty track between signs warning of Inoshishi, wild boar. Signs of their rummaging mastery of this island in the concrete were everywhere at the path side. How quickly the air beneath the trees, their tangled roots and the need to push against gravity worked their everyday magic, the weight of what was happening falling away as my mind was forced to concentrate on balance, co-ordination and finding my way along unknown paths.

Looking east from the ridge

Looking south across downtown Hiroshima

Someone had adopted the top of the hill and made a shelter and flowerbeds. What a nice haven this must be for people living below with little space and no garden. It looks as if people people walk up here and take in the space, free for an hour or two. Over a couple of runs I realized that a ridge formed a semi-circle, with some kind of temple structure on a hill at the far end. I went back and made a circuit of it.

Futabayama crowned by the Peace Pagoda

Futayaba's cemetary and Peace Pagoda with ground zero beyond

As I reached the small area of flat ground near the top of Futayaba I was alarmed to see a big German Shepherd dog jumping up at a man. He was wearing a padded arm and was training the dog to attack. Why? Who was he? An off-duty policeman and his dog, or someone injecting some power into his life through control? A potent symbol in any case, especially next to the ethereal structure only meters away.

Futabayama Peace Pagoda which is in the form of a large Stupa

Dropping into the streets again the schools were emptying, ordinary life unaccountably continuing as if Fukushima was a different country far away with no common history. It can't be understood, but at least there is the consolation of the hills and the simplicity of good food. In Hiroshima that can mean Okonomiyaki like this small local specialist cafe that we found.

Hiroshima City were not yet providing accommodation for evacuees, so we had to move on. I returned to exhibit my collaborative portraits of Fukushima's children at the invitation of the organisers of the annual Peace exhibition and met and drew some Hibakusha  (atom bomb survivors). There I also met activists whose dedication and compassion showed another side of the city.


More on the stupa:
http://gethiroshima.com/museums-attractions/peace-pagoda/
My blog on living in Fukushima:
http://livinginaizu.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Hayama trail runs: Sengenyama-Moritogawa-Futagoyama

Hayama is a town in Kanagawa on the northern western edge of the Miura peninsular facing Sagami bay. Thanks to Russian trail runner Inna for sending these photos and a report on her local run from Sengenyama (仙元山) to  Moritogawa (森戸川) to Futagoyama (二子山). It's a good example of how there are nice trails to run in Japan even near towns, in areas that are not well known for mountains.



"The top of Sengenyama is usually busy during Sakurami (cherry blossom viewing time). The view is spectacular. The start point of this trail can be the Hayama shogakkou bus stop (coming from Zushi JR or ShinZushi on the Keikyu line). Or it can be started from the other side of Sengenyama by the French bakery called Bounjour."

Inna points to one of the hand drawn and faded signs

A sign for the Moritogawa river in the valley between the two hills

Futagoyama means twin mountains - you can see why

"The finish point is the Kawakubo (川久保) to Nagae kousaten (長柄交差点) and from there you can walk or take a bus to Zushi JR station (逗子駅) or Shin Zushi (新逗子駅) station on the Keikyu line."

The top of Futagoyama 207.8m

Running from Kamakita Lake and Kuroyama San Taki, Saitama

Taku-san by two of the waterfalls

At the western fringes of Saitama, north of Tokyo are forested hills. Tucked into corners of these otherwise modest mountains are beautiful waterfalls and hidden statues to mountain aescetics or Yamabushi, solitary monks who lived there. I only gradually discovered this run which links some together, before I had any proper maps, by struggling with a few of the unhelpful leaflets you get at railways stations. They didn't meet up or overlap, so it was fun going back until I had worked out how the complex landscape fitted together: I frequently went astray but was always glad to be in the cooler green shade and away from the baking heat of the Kanto plain. The area is well used by walkers, and crossed by small roads, but the hill-sides can be steep and loose so it is important to stick to trails.

Guardian figure by the Yama-jin statue, on a ridge SW of Kuroyama San Taki

The most extraordinary discovery I made was the cluster of statues, on a ridge beneath huge broad-leaf trees which had been spared the axe in the waves of woodland clearance and plantation which have stripped most of this region of it's native trees and replaced them with commercial crops with precious little diversity. On a little-used path pitted with holes made by wild-boar rooting for food, I came across the carvings beneath a tremendous green canopy and wondered why they weren't marked on the leaflet. But they were all the better for that.

Kamakita Lake, in Iruma district, west Saitama

My usual starting point for a run was Kamakita Ko lake, which has a car park, complete with wild cats and a toilet. The lake is a man-made one constructed in 1935, with a monstrosity of an abandoned concrete hotel at one end. Still, it is in a nice setting considering you are escaping the horrors of Tokyo. There is a youth hostel, and trails lead off in several directions, including a nice one if you go out of the top of the park area SE behind the car-par, over into the next valley, left down the road, then right up the path by the stream that leads to a beautiful small waterfall with a clear drop and a pool ideal for cooling off in hot weather, called Shukuya no Taki.

Shukuya no Taki - it feels fantastic battering down on your shoulders

 
I ran around here for years on my own before being able to discover any information about trail races or meeting any other runners, so it was nice to be able to go back later with Taku-san and Kik-san from Tama Orienteering club and show them the sights - they normally run further south.

Taku-san and Kik-san descending towards Kuroyama San Taki

Taku-san by the third of the three waterfalls

Koruyama san Taki (The black mountain with three waterfalls) is best approached from the hills above it. The closed road below it leads up through stalls and places selling the local fish, with a small temple next to the waterfalls, which have been co-opted in the usual fashion. I was swayed by the magic of hearing chanting and a drum in that special place and became quite moist-eyed until I noticed the monk's ride: a large new and white Mercedes. I guess they don't know anything we don't know after all.

Getting there: Apart from cycling or driving to Kama Kita Lake, Oyagi, Iruma-gun, you can get the train to one of the stations to the East or South of this area and find trails into it. For example this route. You can also park below Koru Yama San Taki (marked with a circle with three dots in the map below) by driving up the next valley to the north of the lake. Happy running, Geoff

Running the Yata hills, Yamatokoriyama, Nara

Japanese Cyclocross Champion 2012 Yu Takenouchi pretending to be tired, with Masaki and his boss

The Yata hills are small and easy but very pleasant for a gentle jog or some speedwork. I was introduced to them last October by Masaki-san, a trail runner and mountain biker whose local running patch they are (he has asked me to point out that they are often too crowded for MTB riding to be safe). He kindly arranged a run and family picnic and invited some friends along. As well as his boss, there was Yu Takenouchi, whose puppyish demeanour belied world-class racing ambitions on the European Pro Cyclocross and road scene. Since then he has won the Japanese national cyclocross championships in January 2012 and finished 33rd in a cyclocross world cup race - no mean feat. As I write he is preparing for the World Championships in Belgium this weekend. The boy is only 23 and he is going places. Fortunately he had come 3rd in a national MTB bike race the day before, and had never been trail running before, so me and Masaki were able to whup his ass! Probably the last time that will happen. Ever.

Yu and me (see what I did there?) and bossman. Yes I was hot.

The hills run from north to south for about 10km and there are a network of good fast running trails all over them. Seen in the photo above, a wide 'maintenance road' runs over the spine, with smaller tracks running off, and it is probably possible to string together a route with more climbing in it by using paths up the sides.

View from the Yata hills east across Nara city

A run in the Yata hills can be nicely combined with a family or group day out, as there is a pleasant park area with a big grassy area for picnics and for the children to play in - marked on some maps as the Yata Prefectural Park, but by signs on the hills as the Children's Forest Play Park. There is also Hiyoru-ji temple at the southern end, a world heritage site, and Yamatokoriyama castle on the eastern flank, which has some impressive stone walls and moats. there are small stations all round, so access is easy. (see map below).

A run followed by a nice homemade picnic - now yer talkin'

I really appreciated Masaki-san organising this, as we had recently self-evacuated from Fukushima prefecture, and it was the first time I felt able to relax or run for a long time. It was great to see children and not worry so much about them. I wish them a long and healthy life. Masaki lead us on a pleasant hour's route, waiting every now and then for the other to catch up, and then we all had a good trough in the shade of a tree. I was just feeling all mellow and had changed back into my cycling gear for the ride home, when he announced another run. Blimey, with my belly full and my under-used legs twinging and tendons pinging I wasn't so sure. But who can say no this smile?

OK, OK, another run, OK....

Masaki-san is a busy man with work and family, and doesn't get enough time to run and ride his MTB, so I guess he needs to make the most of it when he can. This time we took a few less used paths and had fun on the downhills - Yu was interested towitness the glory that is UK downhill technique on the rough stuff and said "I will beat you downhill next time!" Bring it on baby.

Looking south to Ni-jo yama and the Kongo-san range from the Yata hills

It was interesting to hear about Yu's experience on the Belgian semi-pro scene, and how a few of the other riders tried to wind up with racist jokes. I explained to him about black 'humour', and how sometimes it is used as a weapon to make you angry and weak, and sometimes it is a sign of friendship - very confusing. I told him some of the strategies that had helped my daughter survive the other girls in her English school playground, and if you can survive that, the peloton should be a doddle...

Yu Takenouchi texting his coach about why he had just risked his season on the turn of an ankle

Click for map of Yata hills

Sacred forest: aren't they all?

The Kasugayama Primeval Forest World Heritage Site, hiking course and Wakakusayama, Nara City

A venerable citizen of Kasaguyama forest

Making a circuit round the back of a 498m hill looking remarkably like any other, it takes nearly as long to say "The Kasugayama Primeval Forest World Heritage Site hiking course," as it does to run it's 12.7km length, an easy blast on unsurfaced forest roads.

It's been said that this 'sacred' forest has been untouched by human hand since 841, when cutting was forbidden. Apart from the big forestry road that has been hacked through it.... Oh, and the metalled toll road and manned booths, the path made down to the waterfall, the Buddhist rock carvings and statues, and the usual signage? Yes, but apart from that. There are few truly primeval forests in the world, a word implying those that have never been felled or significantly affected by human hands. Perhaps a more useful term is 'old growth forest,' which acknowledges the absence of accurate history and concentrates on the state that the ecosystem has reached.


In a way, being told a mountain is 'sacred' or that a forest is 'primeval' sets you up for disappointment if you are approaching it as a jaded visitor looking for something deeper or more beautiful, some meaning absent from shallow modern life. It is sacred in the minds of those who feel that way about it, not in its actual form. A Japanese friend explained too, how because of the crammed narrow streets, the Japanese have evolved a way of looking at small patches of beauty and ignoring all the crowded dross around them. So there was me, running the route and pondering the contradictions, and then there was the solitary man clapping at a small shrine, placing his hands together and staring intently at the large tree above his head. We were seeing a different forest.

It's curious, this layering of meanings in one place, and a good example of how we each change things by looking at them. It can drive you crazy trying to grasp it fully, but it's good to at least know that it is there and very interesting to try and step outside your habitual way of experiencing things and notice others. Meanwhile, I was running.

Wakakusayama looking south: and how are you experiencing it madam?

On Wakakusayama there were families who had driven up on the toll road braving the brisk cold wind and the deer trying to bully them into giving up their food. There is a nice little diversion from the course on steeper tracks down to a small waterfall at the back of the route. The viewing platform was unattended but cluttered with hi-tech gear belonging to a film crew who were at the top of the waterfall discussing the next scene. They had left a pristine laptop and hard-drives on the bench, and a wooden bow. God bless their innocent little socks, only in Japan... and possibly Singapore...and maybe anywhere they chop your hands off for theft, I wouldn't know. To stretch a point, all different people seeing different forests.

And at the end, from the sublime to the cor blimey. I had to chuckle at the masses of pink love hearts with wishes on them at Kasuga Taisha shrine. But they were no more incongruous in that ancient place than a runner gawping around in black tights  - why is it the gear feels fine until you have to walk in it amongst non-runners?

Maps of the course are available from Nara Information Centres - handily the Japanese for hiking course is 'hiking course.' It's impolite to run in temples and shrines.