Mt. Akagi Hike!

Woke up early at 7:30am today since we were going to hike Mt. Akagi! Another ALT had made a hiking event for today, so we decided to join. Drove to Akagi and it didn’t take too long (1 hour and 20 minutes but it felt faster) and the drive up the mountain was really fun. To our surprise there was snow on the roads already! I had to be extremely careful and drove super slow since I didn't have my winter tires yet, and had completely not expected there to be snow at all. It was super cold on the mountain (-4 degrees!!!!!) but once we started hiking, we did warm up. The hike was super fun since it was mostly stairs, and the views with the snow were just incredible – it was just like stepping into Narnia. The snow covered tree branches were the most beautiful, and paired with the cool blue skies, it was just absolutely gorgeous scenery. We reached the top of the first mountain in just under an hour, and took photos up there before heading back down. The other 3 ALTs headed over to the 2nd mountain which was another 45 minutes away, but we decided to head back down first to save energy. Had a nice lunch at a hand-pulled soba restaurant down at the parking lot, and then went to have a look at Akagi shrine as well before leaving.

We drove down the mountain to an onsen to relax, and it was great. Going onsen after a hike just really helps to relax the muscles instantly, and the water in today’s onsen was special and made your skin feel really smooth. We made a stop at a cake shop on the way home to buy some afternoon tea, and then had the cake at home. Headed back out at 17:45 to a Pastor’s house for an evening home service (more like fellowship and gathering/casual Bible study rather than an actual service) where I met some lovely people. Then we called it an early night and headed home at 20:00.