Rainy Mount Nijo

What?
Mount Nijo (二上山) is a small mountain with two peaks, Odake (雄岳 – 517m) and Medake (雌岳 – 474m). The mountain was mentioned in the Man’yoshu, Japan’s oldest existing collection of poems, for its flowers. The mountain also serves as the starting point of the approximately 50km Diamond Trail spanning the Kongo Mountain Range. At its base many temples and shrines can be found, as well as ancient burial mounds. Mount Nijo is one of the Kansai Hyakumeizan (関西百名山) – the Kansai 100 famous mountains.
Where?
Mount Nijo straddles the border with Osaka (大阪府) and Nara Prefectures (奈良県). I took the Kintetsu Minami Osaka Line (近鉄南大阪線) and got off at Nijozan Station (二上山駅). The trail towards Mount Nijo is easy to spot, and I looped around ending the hike at Nijojinjaguchi Station (二上神社口駅) on the same line. The mountain has many trails though and can be accessed from various points at the base.
URL
Osaka Info

It had been itching. Itching to go on another hike. I had made plans for my second attempt to reach the summit of Bunagatake, and this time I had prepared thoroughly!
Only, I didn’t account for a whole day of rain. As watching the weather is an equally big part of hiking I decided to postpone for a day.
But it’s crazy how much a mood can change overnight. When I woke up this morning, it just didn’t feel right. My gut told me to get back in my bed and leave the outdoors for another day. But internally I struggled. Yes, climbing when you don’t feel 100% is not a good idea, but on the other hand… what a waste of a two day vacation!

So I decided to only partially listen to my instinct, to repack my well prepared sack into a smaller one for a short hike on one of the lowest peaks of the Kansai 100; Mount Nijo.
Surely my instinct wouldn’t have any problems with that!

But ominous signs already appeared from the moment I stepped out the door. For starters I forgot my glasses.
I quickly backtracked to pick them up and ignored the light drizzle for the time being. I packed a rain jacket, I would start to wear it if it would rain harder.

Getting off at Nijozan Station, the rain had increased a little bit in intensity. I thought this was annoying as the weather forecast predicted cloudy with occasional sunshine, but it wasn’t more than that, no need yet for the rain jacket.
I started meandering through the picturesque streets leading up to the trail head, and I grabbed my camera to take a few shots.
Again an ominous sign. For some reason a memory card error showed and it took me multiple tries to get rid of it. At the end though all my camera settings were erased. It was again not more than annoying, but I was really dreading the rest of the day. And sure enough, it would only take another 20 minutes before I regretted only listening partially to my gut.

After the picturesque streets, the trail head starts and immediately leads you into a freshly smelling forest. At this point the rain started pouring down. Time for my rain jacket I thought, and I opened my backpack to fish it out… Only to notice that I forgot to repack it from the big sack meant for Bunagatake.

Well, returning now really wouldn’t give me any satisfaction, so I just trotted on in a haste in the hope the rain would let down, or that a shelter would appear to pass the time until the weather gods got rid of their morning temper.
There was no shelter though. And I went too fast… I blew up my engine.
The thing is, with these small mountains you tend to underestimate the climb. Yes, the climb won’t take long , and with a bit of stubborn resilience you can climb on untill the top, but there is no gentle slope at the start for warming up and there are no switchbacks or flats to start recuperating: the trail just goes up and up.

So I struggled and struggled until I reached the top of the Odake peak, only to be let down again because there was absolutely nothing to see. Even the signpost was a hideous monstrosity.

The best view I had all day.

Wet, wet, wet.

The horrible sign indicating the summit.

Catching my breath.

By then the rain had started to abide a little bit, and with the trail going down I finally caught my breath and started to look around me.
After a short way down the path went up again for the smaller of Mount Nijo’s peak. But this time I paced correctly, and as what seemed as a reward, the top of Medake had a little bit more to offer than Odake. There were still no views though, the small mountain was still wrapped up in clouds.

From that point the route I chose took me all the way down again, but it lead me through thick forests along a small stream that in normal circumstances would be no more than a trickle.
Despite being soaked because of rain and sweat I finally started to enjoy the hike, looking around, noticing snakes, frogs and other small creatures that thrive in wet weather. At the border of the forest and civilization, temples and shrines were lining up and they kept appearing until I reached the station. It was a highly enjoyable end of what seemed at first to become a huge drag of a day.
Next time I have to listen to my instinct though, cut the hike and just stay home or go for an Asuka-like countryside-walk.