Ibaraki Nantai-san and Wagakuni-san

Nantai-san and Wagakuni-san (Ibaraki ken), Sunday July 24th.

The hike is from Iwama station to Fukuhara station, passing by Atago-san → Dango Rock → Byoubu Crag → Nantai-san → Dourokushin Pass → Wagakuni-san → Fukuhara station.
From Fukuhara station we will take a train back to Iwama station.

It's not a difficult walk, but there is one big slope descent which can be slippery after rain.
There will be excellent views across Ibaraki Prefecture of the Kanto Plain and Kasumigaura (if the weather is cooperative), beautiful native forest and the Atago shrine.

Walking time: about 5 hours 25 minutes, but the first section (about 40 minutes) along a bitumen read could be eliminated by taking a taxi to Atago shrine.

The departure time will be at around 8 am (the exact hour depends on car or train based trip).

Costs

• club fee 300 yen
• if car based: share of costs in gasoline etc. except for drivers
• train from Fukuhara - Iwama 410 yen

if train/taxi based:

• bus to Arakawaoki 500 yen (estimate), you can also cycle to Arakawaoki
• train Arakawaoki - Iwama 580 yen
• taxi shared - 500 yen (estimate)
• train Fukuhara - Arakawaoki 970 yen
• bus from Arakawaoki 500 yen (estimate)

What to bring

• raingear
• hiking shoes
• lunch and water
• snacks to share

The weather was perfect for hiking on Sunday July 24th, not too hot, not too sunny, but clear enough to enjoy the views over the Kanto plain up to the Pacific coast.

We met at the parking lot of the Tsukuba bus terminal at 8 a.m. We left with 13 people in three cars about 20 minutes later because we waited for two people who in the end didn’t turn up. The route to Iwama station should have been very easy, but two cars still managed to get a bit lost.
While waiting for the last car to arrive, the first two proceeded to the parking lot of the Atago shrine. One car returned to Iwama station to pick up the people of the third car. This car stayed at Iwama station. (Parking fee for the day was expensive: 1.500 yen. Perhaps, there could have been cheaper options).

Finally, at around 10:15 a.m., everybody was at the parking lot and we climbed up the stairs to the shrine, which had good views.
We headed back to the parking lot, at the far end of which the hiking trail starts. It is a nice trail, with many ups and downs, some are a bit steep, but they are never very long. After rain it can be quite slippery, though the steeper parts have ropes.
After some interesting rocks and boulders and beautiful views of the Kanto plain, we had lunch on the summit of Nantai san (553 m) at 1 p.m.

Two people had decided to go down to a waterfall, which was indicated along the way. It was longer than expected, because they also climbed the waterfall, but they were still able to catch up with the rest of the group after lunch.

Before the climb to Wagakuni san, three people decided to head back to the cars by taxi. This was convenient for all of us as they were able to fetch the cars from the Atago shrine parking lot and bring them to Iwama station.

The climb to Wagakuni san (518 m) is not too hard. There is a little stone shrine on the peak, and then it goes all the way down, the last part on a road between the fields and through the streets of Fukuhara. We had to speed up a bit to get the 5:17 p.m. train from Fukuhara station back to Iwama. Even after a 6.5 hour hike everyone was able to get into a higher speed and catch the train. The train arrived at 5:54 p.m. at Iwama station where the others with the cars were waiting.
I guess all cars must have been back in Tsukuba between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m.

Reminder for the next nantai-Wagakuni hike: Bring enough water. There are no vending machines or other water sources along the way!