On Sunday, I hiked Kumayama with a group of NEO students. It was my first time to go to that mountain, it is near Osafune, about 40 minutes by car from NEO.

We started at 10am and hiked for about 4.5 hours up and down the mountain with about 30 minutes of break time for snacks and lunch. We covered 8.6 km and went up 700 meters in elevation. The views along the way and from the top were spectacular, even though it was cloudy, we could see all the way to the Seto Inland Sea.

When we were at the top and ready to eat lunch, suddenly S-san pulled her homemade bread and sausage sandwiches and poundcake from her bag. They were delicious but they must have been really heavy to carry all the way up the mountain.

On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at Rakuda Iwa, which was a big rock that kind of looked like a camel (a little bit…). From there we could see the Kirin Beer brewery in the valley below.