Mountains: Mt. Ōtaké, Mt. Tsuruhashi, Mt. Mazukari, Mt. Komyo
Range: Okutama ~ Mitake
During my strange odyssey living in Hakone, I challenged myself to see the first sunrise of 2021 from atop Mt. Kintoki. It ended up being a spectacular adventure and incredible journey, which really set that year in a positive light. I really wanted to try it again the following year. I had my first visit back to Canada since before the pandemic, but as I returned to Japan mid-December, the Corona virus made its comeback with "the Omicron variant". This new scare brought back Japan's viral paranoia, and other issues. Despite a negative PCR test pre-flight and on arrival at Narita airport, and a third negative test after 3 days in a quarantine hotel, I was rejected for "home quarantine" with no explanation given. Hence, I was escorted to a second quarantine hotel in northern Saitama with stricter rules, and couldn't even leave my room for another two full weeks! I finally was released from "Corona Jail" on New Years Day, but I had lost my opportunity for any 2022 New Years Day hike, but a few weeks later I was able to have a different mountain adventure while watching over my friend's dog.
A year later, I was back to living in a share house in Fussa as a means to save money for my upcoming film project. Since the pandemic restrictions were finally at an end, many of my foreign friends had returned home and my Japanese friends had gone to see their families for the New Years holiday. So, since it was just myself, I decided to make something eventful for the night. I realized there was a 2:16am super express train to Mitake station, as many people were planning to do late night "Hatsumode" and others were planning to see the sunrise from the nearby Mt. Hinode. I went to bed fairly early the night before, but not as early as I had hoped. After about 4~5 hours of sleep, I forced myself to get out of my comfy warm bed, and pushed myself out the door into the cold night. I took a bit longer than expected and ended up having to dash to the station in order to catch the train. There were many more travellers than expected, you wouldn't even know it was 2:40am by the time we arrived at Mitake. After getting off the crowded platform, the choice was either a 15 minute bus ride or a 3km uphill walk to the Takimoto cable car station. However, the line for the bus was incredibly long, and it didn't look like they'd be coming that frequently. I was already on the clock to reach the summit before sunrise, and didn't want to wait in cold for over an hour, so I decided to jog all the way to the cable car. I ended up making it in really good time, and had reached the Red Tori Gate on Mitake by 3:30am.
Mount Mitake is very unique as it hosts a tiny village filled with ancient religious sites nestled atop the mountain. That night, the village roads were lit up by various street lights and lanterns to guide the many travellers to Mitake Shrine for their New Year's prayers. Just below the shrine stairs the pathway splits off into two hiking roads - a lit trail towards the nearby Mt Hinode, literally translated as "sunrise mountain", which is a perfect setting for a New Years sunrise. But just like Mt. Takao, it was expected to be very crowded, and there would be no view of Mt. Fuji. I was up for a greater challenge, and so my path was towards Mt. Ōtaké. It was easy to tell which path was mine, as the road to Ōtaké was shrouded in total blackness. I took out my bear bell, turned on my headlamp, and headed into the dark void.
Mt Ōdake is one of my favourite day-hike mountains near Tokyo. There are so many different trails to the summit, you could climb it several times and have completely different experiences depending on the route traversed. The path can take anywhere between 2 to 10 hours depending where you start. I had climbed it twice up the steep ridge via Tengu Falls, another time I hiked it all the way from my apartment via Mt. Hinode, and most recently I had experienced a full day misty mountain journey starting from Oku-Tama station, up through Mount Nokogiri, and down through Otake Falls and Yozawa shrine. However, the shortest and most common trail was the one I was currently taking from Mt. Mitake, which normally takes roughly 2 hours at a steady pace. Its nothing too challenging, but still a good workout. However, climbing that course alone in the middle of night in winter was a very different experience.
After I passed a teahouse that was surprisingly open at 4:00am (or they were ghosts), I didn't see another soul for about another hour. I thought I saw some headlamps of hikers far above me through the treeline, but then I realized those were stars. Eventually I did meet a couple other crazy climbers like myself, slowly and carefully making their way towards the summit. Despite it being in the cold hours of the winter night, my body temperature from the steep climb warmed me up to the point where I had to take off my red down jacket for most of the climb. I passed by a few more Torii and up a steep rocky scramble, and finally arrived at the summit just as the first rays of sunlight started to peer over the horizon. Since I'd be waiting up here for a while, I threw my winter jacket back on, set up my camera and waited until the sky burst into a golden hue. Despite being much further away than Mt Kintoki, I had an incredibly clear view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. Luckily, I had brought my DSLR camera and giant zoom lens, so I was able to get several great photos. Despite being so remote, there was still a small gathering of around 20 hikers who had all made the journey to see the fresh sunrise.
By 7:15am, I had taken all the New Year Sunrise photos I needed and it was time to climb down Mt Odake and continue along my journey. About 30 minutes later, I reached a trail fork. Despite being up since before 2am, I was still energized and filled with a sense of accomplishment from my second successful "golden new years sunrise", and so, I decided to continue along the trail towards Mt. Mazukari, one of the few peaks in the West Tokyo range I had yet to venture. I was treated to several more amazing views of Mt. Fuji along the route. The new course began just beyond Tsuzura Rock, which is a popular training area for rock climbers. However, being New Years day, I realized there wasn't a single soul other than myself on this trail as all the other hikers had returned via Mt. Mitake. After passing up a smaller peak, I reached Mt. Mazukari, where I was able to see Mt Ōdake far off in the distance. On the way down, deep in the woods I encountered the Mt. Komyo shrine and torii.
Eventually, I got closer to society, and passed over a tiny suspension bridge above a paved country road, but surprisingly the mountain trail still carried on for a while. There was another tiny shrine followed by a very steep but short ridgeline "the Nagadake ridge", just before the end of the trail, which leads directly into the parking lot of Seoto Hot Springs & the Akigawa Valley. The trail took about 6 hours from the summit, and I arrived just before 1pm. Thankfully, the hot spring was open for the day. I had a refreshing dip, changed out of my sweaty clothes, and enjoyed some traditional New Years amazake, before taking the bus back home and crashing for the next 15 hours.
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