Kasama Wagakuni-Atago Hike

This hike is walking the Kasama Wagakuni-Atago traverse hiking trail between Fukuhara and Iwama station a bit north-east to Tsukuba. This is a 17-18 km trail, generally well maintained and technically not so difficult. However, there will be frequent ups and downs with occasional steep parts, so I only recommend it for fit people, who can walk all day.

The hike starts at Fukuhara station and ends at Iwama station. The first and last section of trail (appr. 2-2 kms) will be on paved surface, while the middle part will be a ridge hike under the trees, passing four smaller peaks along the way and enjoying the view. At the final section of the hike, we can visit Atago shrine and also relax over the view of Iwama city from the cafe nearby (closes at 5pm).
A Japanese map of the route can be found at the information section below.

This is primarily planned as a public transportation based hike, but if people with cars join, it is possible to carpool following the club's normal rules.

Please find below the information regarding transportation and meeting points, and if you would like to join, please let the organizer know:

-Your name
-Phone number
-Transportation option, boarding point for train
-If you are interested to join a car at Tsukuba center if there is a possibility
-If you plan to come by car, let me know if you are ready to carry other hikers (provide number) following the club normal rules (meeting place: Tsukuba center)

Information:
Date of Hike: May 30 (goes ahead in case of light rain, final weather confirmation on May 29)

Location: Kasama Wagakuni-Atago traverse hike, between Fukuhara and Iwama station
Course maps:
https://www.city.kasama.lg.jp/page/page014600.html (click on pdf links)

Distance: 17-18 km.

Difficulty: 3 or 4 out of 5, only for fit hikers. This is a whole day hike from 9am to 5-6pm. While maximum elevation is not so high, there will be frequent up and downs along the path.

Equipment: good hiking shoes, food and water (prepare for no convini or drink automata at Fukuhara station), rain gear depending on weather, headlamp or torch.

Transportation:
This hike will start at Fukuhara sation and will end at Iwama station. If you plan to come by car, I recommend leaving the car at Iwama, otherwise this is planned as a public transportation aided hike.

Bus+train:
Option 1:
From Tsukuba, take the bus to Hitachino-Ushiku at 7.20, will arrive at 7.47, final station, Hitachino-Ushiku. (This bus goes on the Nishi-odori, so people can get on at Ninomiya, Doho koen, Inarimae, etc)
Board the train leaving at 7.57 towards Mito.

Option 2:
From Tsukuba, take the bus to Arakawaoki at 7.00, will arrive at 7.30, final station. This bus goes through Higashi-odori, so people can get on at Sengen, Namiki, etc)
Board the train leaving at 8.00 towards Mito.

Other options:
By car or bicycle to any train stations on the train routes.

!Attention!
We have to change trains once in morning on the way to Fukuhara. If you miss the train specified above, you won't make the connection (and the next train comes only after 1 hour).

Return journey:

We aim to reach the train at 18.20 from Iwama (There are couple of trains before and after as well). The train reaches Hitachino-Ushiku at 18.57, and there is a bus back to Tsukuba center at 19.20.

Meeting point:
Meeting point is the second car of the train (counting from the front) going towards Mito at 7.57 (Hitachino Ushiku), 8.00 (Arakawaoki), 8.43 (Iwama).
Most likely I will board the train at Arakawaoki, while Matt, an other TWMC member, will meet people at Tsukuba center and coordinate travel from there.

Normal TWMC rules apply for participation (300 yen/person).

Disclaimer: There are risks associated with all outdoor activities. All risks are accepted by individuals participating in the activity; TWMC and the organisers accept no responsibility for these risks: https://www.twmc.club/about-twmc/disclaimer

I look forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,
Lea

The weather was perfect for our hike on May 30, sunny with a refreshing breeze. One person had to cancel in the last minute, so there were five of us undertaking the challenge. Everybody boarded the bus at their respective bus-stop without problem, Matt being in charge of putting everybody on the train at Hitachino-ushiku while I went by bike until Arakawaoki and joined there.
Fukuhara station, our starting point for the hike is not exactly a large station, but we found that it had undergone some developments, such as having a food-and a drink vending machine installed. There was a faded map of our planned hiking route in front of the station, and a trail of helpful signposts guiding us through the winding village roads until the entrance of the mountain path.
From then on, we started our ascend to the first peak, Mount Wagakuni, enjoying the shady forest and entertaining ourselves of guessing the names of the trees or learning about whimsical games, such as racing downhill head over heel to win some cheese. Upon reaching the top, we took a short break and enjoyed the view spotted with hang gliders. From then on, the trail went down then up again, to go down and turn upward over and over again. We refreshed ourselves at the Senshinkan campsite in one of the valleys, and some of us took a short a nap at our tallest peak, Mount Nandai (552 m), at the halfway point of the walk. While we met some hikers along the way, we mostly had the trail just for ourselves. The route was well-marked all along, even though the number of signposts decreased significantly inside the forest.
In the second half of the hike, we met some peculiar rock formations and had fun trying to take some magical pictures playing with the sunshine. In spite of the many ups and downs along the road, we reached Minamiyama around half-past three, and had a panorama view of our final destination, Iwama, just a few kilometres away. After sharing a short rest with some giant ants, we pressed on, passing one of the lowest lookout towers we have ever seen. As planned, we reached the Forest house cafe at the foot of Atago-shrine half past four and enjoyed some cold drinks along with the view of Iwama. To conserve energy, we decided to skip Atago shrine and instead utilised the giant slide of the local playground to return to our hiking trail. This last section of the trail was the least maintained. But we braced the hidden spiderweb-traps and reached paved surface shortly after.
After a leisurely walk through Iwama, we arrived at the train station around 5.40 pm, and boarded the train leaving at 5.55 (Scandal in Japan: it was 6 minutes late!). Three of the group said good bye at Tsuchiura to catch a bus to Tsukuba center, then I bade farewell at Arakawaoki to ride my bike, and the last member got off at Hitachino-ushiku and changed to a bus passing Ninomiya. I can say we used out the public transportation offered advantages to the most.