Aki-no-Kofuji

The tiny "town" has streets that can barely accomodate two people walking side by side, bicycles and doors remain unlocked and one feelss that within 5 minutes everyone on the island knows of your presence. The 278m Aki-no-Kofuji is is located on the north end of the island and the pleasant climb gives you some great views over the surrounding islands and the city of Hiroshima.

Take the ferry bound for Ninoshima from pier #4 at Hiroshima Port in Ujina (¥620 return fare which you can pay the ticket collector as you board the ferry, who will also give you a tourist map of the island in English and Japanese). You can see Aki-no Kofuji directly ahead, and you can appreciate how it got its name meaning Aki's (the old name for the Hiroshima area) mini Mt Fuji. It's possible to make out the narrow road - now closed to traffic - that skirts the base of the mountain and runs along the coast dotted with small sand beaches, and get an idea of the distance should you decide to take this road back to the ferry. Once getting off the ferry at Ninoshima Sanbashigo left at the funky looking old Coffee House DRY (bicycles are available for rent here for ¥500 a day), turn right at a tiny little kids playground and up through a lane barely wide enough for one person. Look out for a blue sign on the left hand side (shown in the pictures on the left) where the lane opens up a little. Take this left, and when you see a police box on your left take the higher concrete path (there is another blue sign here) up along a fence. The concrete path winds its way up quite steeply. After passing some mikan trees the path narrows as you walk through thick bamboo - you will see a small sign indicating that the path to the left is closed and directing you to the right. The path steepens once more climbing up a narrow rain eroded gully, until it levels out and the path goes left. (This is about a 20 min walk from the ferry port) The now sandy path, flanked by pine trees and ferns, continues fairly level for a while offering glimpses of the surrounding sea, islands and the gravel boats to the left. You feel like you are now leaving the small town behind and birdsong starts. I spotted a couple of pheasants along this stretch. The pine trees give way to deciduous trees and the path undulates, allowing you a look at the peak up ahead, until you hit a 3 way intersection. (This is 30-35min from the ferry port). The peak is to the left and the path now follows the ridge towards the summit. Emerging from the woods the path follows a gully that winds between huge rocks, and then up step-like rocks from where the view back over the island opens up - these are the best views of the Seto Inland and the islands to the south on the hike (you can catch them on the way down too). A further short scramble takes you to the top, where there is a small open space with a large rock to sit on, and an aircraft beacon attached with placards showing the names of various school and hiking groups that have made the climb. There are good views over the city and the coast to Kure, but as mentioned before not back over the island to the south. Heading down, there are a couple of trails down to Ninoshima Gakkuen school, but they are pretty tricky and not for the faint-hearted. A more relaxing descent is to retrace your steps back down to the 3-way intersection. From here if you are pushed for time you can go back to the ferry port the way you came, or more pleasant and interesting is to follow third path down through the woods to the Shizen no ie.

Just before you reach the bottom there are some steps up to a grassy observation point which also has big slide which'll wing you down the last few meters. At a steady pace this takes around 30min, although in my case, desperate to stay ahead of a huge group of elementary school students I was down in about 20min. From the Shizen no ie, which has a big water park, adventure playground and campground, there are two routes back to the ferry. The quickest and most direct route is to cut back across the island. To do this go right when you come off the mountain trail, and follow the road around the back of the facility, take the next right fork (at a blue shed), and then a left trail that takes you to a steep asphalt path past vegetable plots and up to a large graveyard. Once out of the graveyard go right and this road will lead you back through the narrow streets to the ferry port.

Ferry Schedule From Hiroshima From Ninoshima 06:30 06:00 07:30 07:00 08:30 08:00 09:30 09:00 11:30 10:15 12:30 011:30 14:00 13:00 15:30 14:30 16:30 16:00 17:30 17:00 18:30 18:00 19:30 19:00 20:30 20:00

The other option for those with time and the energy is to go left at the end of the mountain trail and follow the road to the north that skirts the base of the mountain. Once you hit Ninoshima Gakkuen, the road is closed to traffic and it a very quiet and pleasant stroll past small beaches and with views over the water to the fishing boats and city beyond. It does take between an hour and an hour and a half though.