Goodbye Hike on Mount Miune

What?
Mount Miune (三嶺山) is the fifth highest peak of Shikoku (四国), topping 1894 meters. It is located in the Iya Valley (祖谷渓), famed for its vine bridges and to a much lesser degree its Nagoro “scarecrow village” (名頃村). The mountain is smaller and lesser known than next door Mount Tsurugi (剣山), but it makes the experience all the more authentic.
Where?
The top of Mount Miune is located on the border of Tokushima (徳島県) and Kochi (高知県) prefectures. We climbed the mountain from the Miyoshi (三好市) side in Tokushima. The easiest way to get to the Nagoro trailhead (名頃登山口) is by car. Alternatively you can take the bus from Awa-Ikeda Station (阿波池田駅) (nearly 2 hours), change at Kubo (久保) and proceed to Nagoro. That being said, bus schedules change per season and are very infrequent.
URL
Miyoshi Tourism Japan Travel

After our first completely failed hike at Yatsubuchi-no-Taki, enjoying a day in nature and concluding with board games, card games and a lot of beer became kind of a tradition for me and my two Belgian friends. In the meanwhile one of them returned to Europe and the other one just announced his departure. As if it was meant to be, my Europe based buddy was by coincidence in Japan - perfect for a goodbye hike.

We chose to climb Mount Miune, staying in some lovely restored farm house nearby. Nobody among us had experience with snow hiking, but this year the weather has been unusually mild so we didn’t bother to really prepare for snowy conditions. Until two days before the hike that wouldn’t have been necessary anyway, but one day before departure the gods had clothed Mount Miune with a soft white blanket. Luckily for us though the conditions on d-day were marvelous so the snow didn’t turn to ice and we didn’t have any problems going to the top and back.

Going towards the Nagoro trail head we passed the Nagoro scarecrow village. A lady made (and still makes) life sized dolls for all persons that have left the village. And as the result isn’t always of the same quality, the town scares more humans than it will ever instill fear in birds. We just hoped none of these scarecrows would steal our car while we were plunging our way to the top of the mountain.

The start of the hike was rather difficult with tricky tracks and unstable rocks. Already early on I had to take a breather, but luckily this didn’t last long. The path continued through the forest, and while we made good time it seemed to last forever as the scenery was always more of the same. Did we choose a bad mountain for our goodbye hike?
No. Definitely no. Once we left the forest we had difficulties to push on as we were admiring the surrounding scenery with every step we took. Climbing the mountain side was really the opposite of our time in the forest, with sweeping views over the nearby mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Once on top, the famous view on a small mountain lake with hut did not disappoint.

Not really lifelike but very scary anyway.

The snow made the forest scenery definitely more interesting.

Coming out of the forest things immediately got better.

Amazing.

As the weather was absolutely perfect we sat ourselves down at the peak to have lunch. Despite the snowy landscape around us the temperature was mild and a short after-lunch nap wouldn't have been impossible nor unwelcome. We forfeited on the nap though, enjoyed the scenery for a while longer and started our descent again. Truth to be told, the path through the forest was again quite monotonous. But that couldn't spoil the good feeling we got at the top of Mount Miune. Definitely worth the hike up. Or maybe a multi-day hike, as the mountain ridges looked amazingly appealing.

When we got down we hurried to a nearby onsen which would close for winter time from the next day. We soaked in the nearly abandoned bath, headed to our "own private house", popped open some sake bottles and beer cans and ended the day trying to figure out how to play some incredibly complicated board game. A fantastic goodbye hike. But I'm sure we'll meet again in Japan and do it all over again.