7:00 am — TSH, day 11

Shizuoka (静岡市)

The day started with cloudy but nice weather. Part of the trail was closed due to a rockslide, thus I took a detour by paved road. And in an hour or two the road turned into a stair directly up into the clouds.

Btw, on my way I met several archleeches of lvl way higher than 80. I even have some pictures though I won’t put them here to save your sleep. Can send privately on request.

Rural village with traditional houses and misty mountains
Cafe signs in front of traditional village buildings
Mountain road with rice paddies and low clouds
Traditional water wheel mill house in valley
Copper-winged damselfly perched on a black post in front of bamboo

8:30 am — Mountain shrine

My first point of interest on the trail today (aside from the detour sign) was a shrine hidden in the mountains.

Cloudy mountain valley through forest trees
Stone torii gate at mountain shrine in fog
Shinto shrine building in misty forest

11:00 am — Silent hill

From the shrine the trail went vertically up (joke, just a stair) until I got into the middle of a cloud on the ridge top. The next several hours I spent in thick fog with visibility varying from a hundred meters to mere 12-15 meters.

Some parts of the trail were simply fantastic. Thick fog in mountain forest, without even a gust of wind the air was absolutely still and birds and surroundings were completely silent.

Forest trail with tall cedar trees in mist
Trail winding through foggy forest
Dense fog with silhouetted tree trunks

1:00 pm — Back to Earth

At the end of the ridge I was met by a fantastic view of the tea plants and a town below. The forecast showed funny data: temperature 24C, feels like 33C. And I may say it was true.

Valley view with tea fields and town below mountains
Weather app showing 24 degrees feels like 33

8:30 pm — Wrapping the day

After getting down to the town I decided to reevaluate my plans. The planned accommodation for the day is an expensive ryokan, one of the most expensive of my accommodations. I am almost out of food and the closest shop is 1.5km off trail. Most likely I won’t be able to make it to the next spot even though it is quite close on the map (wow! Unexpected of me) because of several mountain summits on the way.

Thus I booked a hotel room near Shizuoka station (three stars, twice cheaper than the ryokan), went to the shop to eat a lunch and then started to wait for a bus to Shizuoka.

Unlucky of me, I missed a bus while I was going from the shop to the bus stop and the next one should have been in more than two hours…

In about an hour and a half a local guy stopped his car near the stop I was waiting at and offered a lift to the city. He was seeing me waiting all that time and he was going to the city anyway. Lucky me.

Thus, I’ve got to a hotel, then caught myself some food and now going to sleep. It is really hard to stay awake after 20.00 when you are waking up like at 4am every day for a week, I feel like a real early bird.

Breakfast is included in my stay and it opens at 6.45, so I’m targeting this time to be ready to go.

Backpack waiting at Japanese bus stop sign