While in Niigata I was surprised at the speed and effort that had been put in in recovery from last years earthquake.

This was an earthquake big enough that it was felt all over Japan, I remember the late evening when the aftershocks were felt.Earthquakes in Japan are measured on a different scale; 1-2 being minor tremors, 3-4 being very shaky,6 major damage and 7 being complete "ground opens up and swallows everything"

It was surprising to see that the effects of the 6.9 earthquake and flooding were almost gone.

Or so I thought...

As myself and my partner were in the countryside, I was immediately in a, "Lets go for a hill climb!" mood. Tokyo is a flat, flat area, and I do miss the mountains and forests of Scotland sometimes.

So what started innocently enough as a "25 minute forest stroll" as the sign at the start of the route stated, turned into a full scale mountain climb.Due to last years large earthquake there were many landslides, loose shale, and complete changing of the terrain in some areas.
If only the people who maintained the "25 minute forest stroll" had thought to bear this in mind !
After 10minutes we could see the massive crevasses that had basically split the terrain in two, some of the path still remained but it was just part 1 was 100m to the left and part 2 was 500m down the side of a riverbank.

Me adopting some foolhardy Scottified Chris Bonnigton type frame of mind said "Och Nae bother ! Nae mountain can tame me !", so as we ventured forward, there was river crossing, crevasse jumping and then...snow.
Even though the weather was a sunny 28 degrees, the winter ice and snow hadn't fully melted yet.

30 minutes on and the "path" seemed to taper off completely, there was a vague "this way" and we passed other walkers coming down the hill,so we thought we were doing ok. It was the further we went we noticed the other walkers were kitted out in proper climbing gear, crampons, walking poles, waterproofs that we started thinking our trainers, and t shirts might not be up to the job.
 We pushed on until it was beginning to get too difficult for my partner. She was not used to this at all and quite terrified at some of the drops. I encouraged her as much as I could as it was beyond "turning back". Then there was the oddest thing, after the most difficult bit of climbing (almost like rock climbing) we came across a set of stairs.

Yes.Stairs.



Forest - check
Hill - check
Rocks - check
Snow - check
Stairs - HUH !?!

As you see from the picture the temptation to climb them and see what was atop was too much. So we stopped for a rest, then raced up the stairs to a large flat wooded plateau and amidst the trees a extraordinarily old looking Shinto shrine.

What was most fascinating was the sword and shield above the shrine doors. The shield made from a tortoise shell emblazoned with kanji (神 - god  being only readable) and the sword almost rusted away completely, it was the size that was most surprising. Look at the 2 doors beneath the sword and shield, its a double slide door, each door is one man width and height !

We spent hours just enjoying the sound of the forest and this marvellously surreal location.Although many trees round the shrine had fallen due to earthquake, the shrine (entirely made of wood) stood looking almost new (even though construction date was set as far back as 300 years !)

I have to admit I was flying off into fantasy world thinking I could take the sword and shield and be surrounded by some massive energy field and developing "ha-do-ken" Soul Calibur like powers, but my girlfriend soon brought me back down to reality with the question "how to we get back down now !?"


All together ascent and descent took us 5 hours, not 25 minutes, but really worth it. If mankind needs saving I'm headed off up that mountain again for that shield and sword !