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The trail starts out as a mix of rock and dirt and
gets steadily steeper as it climbs, passing
Jizo
statues at various intervals - including the
ana-jizo, a small Jizo in a cave.
After an hour or so you come to a small clearing,
which also serves as an emergency helicopter
landing area, at the Go-gou-me or 5th Stage.
There are some logs to sit on, and you can
already see down the valley down to Hiroshima-city
and the Seto Sea beyond. Ahead you can see the
peak of Shiraki-yama rising above you, and the
ridge that runs from the peak left towards
Oni-ga-jyo peak.
The trail now dips slightly before climbing steeply
again to a another clearing where you can fill up with
water that is piped down from a spring further up the
trail. The peak is now about 20 minutes away. We
however, lost the trail and ended up scrambling up a
very steep section leaping from tree to tree to stop
ourselves from taking two steps back for every one
forward - a bit of adventure, though I wouldn't like
to do it in wet conditions. We emerged from the - much
to the amusement of a group of hikers coming down from
the top - to rejoin the trail, and less than 10 minutes
later we were at the top.
It was a beautiful day, and the peak which has been cleared of trees is a great place to stretch out on the grass, under the autumn sun and give your legs a well earned rest. There were several groups of hikers enjoying their lunch and a few old geezers sleeping off the beer they'd lugged up with them. There should be a 360 degree view from up here, but for some inexplicable reason the outstanding view over the city delta and the islands of the Inland Sea is almost completely obscured by a monstrous NTT transmission tower. As if to rub it in, NTT also kindly donated some binoculars with which to truly appreciate the view of this marvel of telecommunications equipment!
None the less, it is a wonderful place to hang out for an hour or so, stuff yourself full of food in readiness for the hike down, and have your picture taken in front of the stainless steel shrine.
As I wrote earlier, you can retrace your steps back
down to Shiraki-yama Station, which I always find
disatisfying, or you can continue along the ridge
to Oni-ga-jyo and then descend to either
Kami-fukawa or Kami-fukawa station. I have to
confess that the reason for this ambiguity is that
I had planned to return to Kami-fukawa Station
where you can pick up the trail over Kinomune Yama
to Naka-fukawa Station, but actually ended up
coming down at Naka-fukawa. While this is no big
deal - you actually end up nearer to central
Hiroshima and save yourself a few yen on the
train fare - and the descent is not technically
difficult, it is a longer walk (about 10km from
Shiraki-yama peak rather than 7km), and as the
trail can be confusing you should make sure that you
have plenty of daylight left when heading this
way.
The ridge trail starts from behind the NTT tower, it's
easy on the legs and runs through a lovely pine forest
for about 45 minutes until you meet a gravel road where
you'll see a sign saying 40 minutes to Oni-ga-jyo.
Follow the road to the left through a gate, and you
will soon reach an asphalt road passing another tower.
The next left takes you up to another tower from which
there is a nice view - unobscured this time. You have
to return to the road and go left down the rough gravel
road.
Yet another tower comes into view and the road
heads downhill switching back on itself, and to
the bottom of some steep steps up to the tower.
If you haven't had enough exercise by now, try
running up these steps!
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The trailhead
The ana-jizo
5th Stage
Nice view, shame about the tower
40min to oni-ga-jyo
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