When planning our journey in Japan, we wanted to go on a "proper" hike. This hike was to Tsurugi San (Mount Tsurugi). To get there, we had to drive for about 2 hours (the distance was not far, about 40 km but the roads are windy and speed limits are low). On our way there, we stopped several times to have a look at local landmarks and marvel at the nature surrounding us.

Check out an interactive Map of the places we visited here. I will update this map as we continue our Journey. This post is about Day 17.

Iya Valley is a very pretty location. There is even something like horseshoe bend in Iya Valley, though they call it ひ valley (Hi Valley), because it looks like the Hiragana Letter Hi (ひ). These wooden suspension bridges are what Iya valley is famous for. They used to be constructed from just wood but are now rebuilt and reinforced with steel ropes. From a distance, they don't look like much at all. When we saw the first bridge our first impulse was to skip them (also because the toll to pass one of those bridges is 3.50€ per person.). The second pair of bridges you couldn't see from afar tho and so we decided to splurge on this toll and each got a ticket to walk across the bridge. Stepping foot on the bridge was quite an experience! Just look how far the individual wooden beams are from each other! You can fit a foot in between two beams if you are not careful. We also passed through Scarecrow Village. Since the Island of Shikoku has a problem with depopulation (older people dying and younger people leaving the rural areas for more prosperous regions), a local artist got the idea to "rebuilt" the co-villagers that either left or passed away. There are also some scarecrows that are modeled after reporters like this one from german public broadcast service "NDR". All in all it was quite a creepy village and we decided not to stick around for too long.

After 2 hours of driving, we finally reached our destination: The bottom of mount Tsurugi! Sadly, the weather shifted for the worst and we got a lot of rain and mist, so we decided to cut the planned hike to the top of the mountain short and took the chairlift which took us to the approximate halfway point of the hike. From there, it was just about 40 minutes of hiking to the top. Even though it was not a hard hike we were still quite happy to reach the destination and skip the rain for once. The image above is the hiking trail as seen from the mountain hut that we hiked to.

We had booked a room in the hut for an overnight stay and luckily, we could check in early. We got into our (tiny) room, turned on the Kotatsu (table with a heating element below it and a blanket that you can stick your feet under) and immediately fell into a deep sleep. We slept about 2.5 hours. After waking up, it was already time for dinner!
It was a simple meal but we enjoyed it a lot. After dinner, it luckily cleared up a bit and we could see some of the surrounding mountains, covered in clouds. The view was very beautiful. Moments like these are why I love hiking so much. The calm and quiet of the mountain plus this wonderful view are just so healing for the soul.

In the hut it was "lights out" at 9 PM. We decided to sleep at 9 PM and watch the sunrise on the next morning which is at 4:49 AM. We woke up at 4:15 AM when the staff of the hut got to work and ran around. We got out of bed and were greeted by a dim red and yellow glow at the horizon with a thick layer of clouds underneath it. This view was already breathtaking (it was still a good half hour until the real sunrise). Gradually, it got brighter and brighter and we were joined by our fellow co hut-dwellers. The picture above doesn't do the beauty of this sunris justice but I think you get the picture. The rays of early mountain sun illuminated the paths on top of the mountain. It didn't look like a moon-base anymore. After having breakfast at 6 AM in the eating area of the hut (thanks for the photo idea, Esther), we made our way down the mountain again. Sadly, our old friends, the clouds were back too! The whole path looked like a mistery-forest. Luckily, it also cleared up once we reached the halfway point, so we had some nice scenic views.