Nihondaira Hikefest

The Nihondaira is a huge wooded hill in southeastern Shizuoka City. It encompasses about 25 square kilometers and includes not only forest and tea fields, but also a zoo, a shrine/history museum, the prefectural art museum, a university, a sports stadium, and more.

Armed with a simple map with a dotted line representing a hiking trail across the Nihondaira to the Pacific coast, I figured it would be easy enough to follow the trail and walk all the way from near my apartment (somewhat close to the northern edge of the hill) to the summit of the Nihondaira, then take the ropeway from the summit to the coast, then catch a bus back home from there. On Saturday of Golden Week (a five-day holiday weekend, May 2-6), Davin and I set off around noon and discovered fairly early that the map was crap. Oriented by the distant vision of our goal—the radio towers at the summit, where the ropeway begins—we hiked through the university (shown above) and art museum areas at the north border, then consulted a couple of locals as to the whereabouts of our dotted line trail. On the right path, we walked on as the distance between houses grew greater and the rows of tea bushes longer and more prevalent. Through tea fields and bamboo forest we walked uphill, and eventually arrived at a grouping of gray buildings that resembled a retreat center. After we saw some signs and a man came out of a building and gave us a flier for upcoming shows, we realized we’d found the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center, very secluded. (There were several small theaters, including an outdoor one, like at American Players in Spring Green!)

When we questioned the flier man about the dotted line, however, he showed us a bus schedule. We said we wanted to walk, but he was very discouraging of this. Due to our sad Japanese skills, we couldn’t understand his reasoning, so we found where the trail continued…but did not get far when his scare tactics set in a bit. Looking again at the still-distant radio towers, a debate ensued: How far away do those towers look? How many switchbacks do you think there are? When does it get dark? What time do the busses stop running? and If he’s a local, wouldn’t he know?

We ended up taking a bus from the theater back to our neighborhood, to recover with a sushi dinner and try to conquer the Nihondaira another day.
P.S. One of the day's highlights was seeing everyone out to picnic and play on the huge field in front of the university. These little boys were pretty excited to be trying out their makeshift sleds on the hill.