November’s prefecture was Chiba! After the Bandai hike, this one seemed like a doozy! We drove down to Shimosakuma, which is located in the Awa district in the south of Chiba prefecture. It was my first time going this far south in Chiba! We took the motorway and surprisingly it only took an hour to arrive. We wanted to do a through hike, but it was difficult to find a good series of trails that had a campsite between them. So, we camped out of my car and hiked the following day.
After having taken in some of the scenery from this more mountainous area of Chiba, we bought some lunch at a convenience store nearby. When getting back to my car, we met a friendly couple who spoke English. They wanted to tell us about their lodgings which accommodates foreigners called The House33 Iwai. They gave us their business card and we checked out their site. It looks really nice, but for this trip we be campin’! We picked up some wood for the firepit and made our way to the campsite; 15 minutes to the east.
The Empty Campground
We arrived at about 2pm, and met the nice campground host. She told us that there was nobody currently at the campsite, so we could choose our tent pitching location. We also noticed that they had campfire wood for sale. In hindsight, buying it here would have been more convenient. It was basically the same price for the same amount of wood. They also had toilets, a variety of tools for pitching tents etc, and showers if you needed them.
We tested out our new NatureHike tents. I used the NatureHike Cloud Up 2, and Corrine used the NatureHike Mongar 2 person tent. We also had new sleeping mats, and Corrine brought a new sleeping bag. We set up the tents facing the wind, which also aligned with the sunrise. Then, we began setting up the firepit to relax and prepare dinner. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stake our tents down properly. The ground seemed to hide a layer of cement or something underneath (adamantium?), and we almost bent a couple of pegs.
Cooking Time!
We got to food. I made some marinated chicken in the morning which we kept in a cooler box, and we had probably a bit too much booze! We made some skewers with mushrooms, onions, peppers and the chicken. We also had mochi and sweet potatoes to cook in preparation for breakfast.
Things felt a little awkward because the host had her family and friends there for an outdoor party. They were seated in a way that forced us to squeeze past them to reach the toilets.
The toilets also had an outdoor lock, which created a very embarrassing situation for me! By this point, I had drunk a fair few beers. I went to the toilet, but the door wouldn’t open. I tried the lock, but it still wouldn’t budge. My beer-filled brain took a moment to process, and then it hit me—someone must be inside! So I waited, and about 10 seconds later, the door started to move, but in my confusion at the door not opening, I had forgotten to reset the lock. I had locked the guy in there by accident! Oops!
He saw the funny side of it though! As did Corrine when I told her what happened! 😀
Not so Sweet Potatoes
Unfortunately, our sweet breakfast potatoes ended up not being too sweet, because in the fun campfire chatter, we totally forgot they were in the firepit. They more closely resembled turds when we finally remembered them. We had a really fun time chatting though, and probably both hadn’t laughed that much in a while. I even made a Japanese language joke when we were cooking the mochi! A little out of my depth, because my Japanese is so bad, but I said “Mochiron desu!”.
In the morning, we headed to the convenience store to fill up on some calories and get some caffeine into our bloodstream. Sadly, they only had the drinkable coffee, and I was unable to just hook it up to my bloodstream with an IV. We kept the cups from the coffee for a drink of coffee during the hike. Then we drove to the trailhead which was near the campsite. Our plan was to hike Iyogatake, and then another trail. This one would have taken us up a further three more mountains in an area to the south.
Trail Start
We began the hike. The trail was gradual, and quite pleasant! There were a couple of spots where we needed to climb a bit, but for the most part it was a straightforward hike. We saw a few other people on the trail, but it was pretty quiet. It was reasonably maintained too. I don’t recall any steps, and that is always a bonus!
The mountain isn’t that high, and so we were almost at the summit after 45 minutes or so. There was a slight clearing, and then we could see the last stretch which was a lot steeper than the previous part. We knew there was a section with ropes, so we imagined it was this part. We saw an old couple heading that direction, and then we saw them going up, and they looked to be struggling, so we decided to get moving to make sure they were okay!
The Climb of Climbs
When we arrived at the start of this section of the hike, we were greeted by a sign which said that someone had perished here in 2023, and to be careful. The climb was about a 75° incline with chains to hoist ourselves up. The chains were very new, and so we imagined that they must have installed them after the incident in 2023.
I felt a bit more comfortable with this challenge, so we agreed that Corrine would go first while I guided her movements until she passed a section of chains. Then, I would climb that section myself.
This was probably the better decision. I could see the climb clearly from below and could help Corrine make her way up each section. Toward the end, we had to walk horizontally across a cliff face at a 75° angle. This part proved the most challenging because we had to step over one chain to reach the next one.
In total, we climbed about 60 meters. When we reached the top, a lovely view of the area greeted us! We sat down for a break, and while I was buzzing from how fun it was, Corrine was just relieved we made it up alive!
The Summit and Descent
After about 15 minutes, an elderly gentleman also appeared, he was sweating buckets but looked like he had really enjoyed the climb! He spoke to us in English and told us he had been to the US. He was a friendly chap, but we had to move on! We began our descent – this hike was a loop, so we didn’t have to venture back down the cliff face!
This section of the hike was nice! The trail was narrow, but it had beautiful tree coverage. There were ropes on various steep sections, and it did get a little steeper towards where it met up with the trail we’d ascended from.
As we were hiking down, we were having second thoughts about the second part of the hike. We had no idea how accessible it was, as it was an unreviewed trail I found online. On our way up the hike, we’d passed a signposted trail for Tomi mountain, so we changed our plans and took that trail instead.
The Second Trail
The first section of this hike took us down to a road. This is not something I find appealing on a hike! The next hour or so was hiking along a couple of different roads. The area was beautiful, with many orange groves, all fenced off to keep the wild boars away, but road hiking is boring and a little grueling.
Eventually, we made it to the trailhead for Tomi mountain! I was excited to get started! We began walking up a steep old road up the mountain, and kept hiking up the road, and before we knew it, we were at the summit! I can’t say I was happy… However, we did get some nice views at the top. We met a few Japanese people who were eager to test their English on us, and we went to sit down to eat our convenience store grub.
Lunch on Tomi
Corrine brought her stove and made some coffee for us both. We used our morning convenience store coffee cups, and warmed ourselves up. One hiker across from us was cooking up some ramen, and I can’t say I wasn’t jealous whilst I munched on my squashed sandwich!
We finished up, and decided to do a small loop on the summit. There was a temple at the top of the mountain which we thought we’d see. We came across a large group of young kids with a guide and parents. This really set in how simple this trail was! We got to the temple which was old and needing a little TLC. There was even graffiti on it which we were both shocked at! It was at this point we were trying to decide how we were going to get back to my car.
We could backtrack the way we came, or we could go back half way and just walk along a road to the car park. I was fed up with roads, so I suggested that we don’t take the road, so we agreed to backtrack.
Nothing really happened on the way back. The sun was starting to set, and we were already thinking about dinner.
The End
We made it back to the car, and feeling a little exhausted put our bags in and took a toilet break at the facilities! There is a place near this area; an old elementary school that due to the dwindling population, they turned into a tourist spot called Roadside Station Hota Elementary School. They sell souviniers, or omiage as they call it in Japan. They also have several food places, some of which serve school style lunches. We decided to give one a try! Corrine never has school lunches at work, she always brings her own lunch, but I always do, so she went with a school style lunch, whilst I took a Korean style chicken rice bowl. Really delicious!
After looking at the goats, getting some wild boar jerky and a couple of local beers, we got back to the car and began the drive back. It took about 2 hours to get back due to the time I guess. We chatted about the hike and began wondering where we’d go next! Overall though, we thoroughly enjoyed our Chiba adventure, and even discussed hiking Iyogatake again!
It took a little while to get this post up, due to just having a busy couple of months! I’ll be working on December and January’s posts as time permits too! Feel free to leave a comment, or follow us on Facebook or Instagram! We love to chat, so if you have a question or just want to interact, we’ll be sure to get a reply back to you quick! 🙂
