Tim's visit: Nokogiriyama

On Tim's last day in Japan we went on a great hike at Nokogiriyama in Chiba prefecture.  This is a place I have been wanting to go for a while now, but I haven't had the chance!

We took the train to Kurihama at the end of the Yokosuka line, and then took a taxi to the ferry terminal.  The ferry crossed the bay to Chiba in about 40 minutes.  It was a nice ride, and when the ferry turned around to dock, we saw Fuji-san!

Tim got a good view of Fuji-san from out walk to the base of the mountain.  It was much clearer than the day before!

 There was a ropeway that went up the mountain, but we were in the mood to hike up.  Once we found the start of the path it was a nice hike, but steep!  We didn't go up these stairs, but took the route to the left in this photo - it was more of a hiking trail through the woods.  But we got plenty of stairs in eventually!

 Nokogiriyama was once a mining operation, and it is filled with strangely angular cut rocks.  It was quite the sight to see cubes cut out of giant sheer rock faces.

 Tim climbed down this hill and explored a little in the mine caves.  I wasn't so brave, that hill was very steep!

 The views from along the hike were amazing!

 More cut away cliff, so bizarre!

 Here are some more stairs!  This day involved a lot of up and downs!

 There were plants growing where the rocks were cut!

 At one point we came across some old mining equipment that had been left there to rust and rot.

Eventually we came to a shrine area.  This was a large Buddha carved into the rock face.

 More life eeking out an existence.

 This vantage point was called "peering into hell".  We both took a turn standing on it and having our picture taken from across the way.

 This tree had an interesting way of growing.

 We finally reached the daibutsu!  This is huge!  I think it might actually be the largest in Japan, and it is certainly the largest made out of stone!

 I think this area is probably beautiful with blossoms now - it has been two weeks since we were there.

 These rock formations kind of look like waves, they were cool.

 After our long hike we were pooped!  We took the ropeway back down the mountain, then the ferry and train back to Yokohama, and had some tonkatsu for dinner.  Then Tim spent a long time taking picture of Minato Mirai from our hotel room!

That's it for the updates on Tim's visit!  I can't believe we managed to do so much while he was here!  It was so nice to have him to travel with, even if he did tend to overestimate my Japanese speaking ability!