TNT Day 26 - well trodden trails
15 Oct
Maps 18 & 19: (hotel) Nagoya //train to Jokoji station -> Tamanomitake Shrine -> hinoke pass -> miroku-yama -> Inuyama and Hasso Natural Recreation Forest heli pad (tent)
Overcast, mid 20s
After finally heaving myself out of bed and to the train station, I arrived, in the light of day this time, at jokoji station - which doesn't have much going on. Below the station are a row of houses and an old apartment block, I think only one or two of the houses are still occupied, the apartment block is boarded up and is now just used for station parking.
After dilly dallying at the station and eating some breakfast I started up the first section of the day at 9:30.
A short uphill section and I came to a picnic shelter which appeared to have a table set for a meal. On closer inspection it turned out to be plates of cat food, there were also some cat beds setup. Shortly after putting my pack down, the cats started to slink out of the forest and investigate me, there were 5 or 6 cats total. I personally found this a bit weird but shrugged my shoulders and carried on,
Only to be met with even more cats and cat food, beds, figurines and drawings at the Tamanomitake Shrine building, it was all just a little bit strange. (There is a picnic shelter and toilet block here that you could camp at, however, the cats may mark their territory on your gear during the night.)
After the strange catty-ness of the shrine I was met with a very well worn trail - surely the cats aren't responsible for this? Turns out it is actually trail runners and hikers. This section, which contains three peaks, is very close to suburbs of kasugi and obviously a very popular route as I saw ~20 people along the route even though it was mid morning/noon on a Tuesday.
At the peak of miroku-yama there are a number of benches and a sheltered observation platform. There was a group of 10 60/70 yr olds having lunch when I arrived. After some greetings, they proceeded to give me some peanuts, dried apple and biscuits. They were also feeding peanuts to the birds, so I'm not sure I was meant to eat those.
Two of the group were very interested in my pack and after testing out the weight, (they thought 15kg which is spot on), they concluded that I must have a tent which led me to explaining (or trying to as I don't speak Japanese and they didn't speak English) what I was doing and ended with me taking selfies with them and the Tokai nature trail summit sign.
Bridge crossings,
Industrial investigations,
And renewable energy inspections,
Before hitting more well worn trail which I would be on for the remainder of the day. Most of this trail appeared to be a mountain bike/motor bike hotspot, despite the multiple signs saying they are banned from the trail.
Upon reaching the toilet block at the edge of the Inuyama and Hasso Natural Recreation Forest, I decided to veer off the Tokai nature trail. Instead of walking on forest roads around the outside of it for 8km, I was going to walk 3km through it and see what it had to offer.
It's first offering was my lovely camp spot for the night, a helicopter pad and adjacent picnic shelter/observation deck. Apparently this landing pad is used for mountain rescue training, hopefully noone needs to use it tonight or my tent might just end up flying into the forest.
(Notes on this camp site: there is no water here, I filled up my bottles from the stream at the toilet block. this site is quite exposed and on a windy night may not be ideal. A 1 person tent can fit inside the picnic shelter, there is ample flat ground around for bigger setups.)
18.2km, highest point: 420m, elevation: +991m -828m
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