Soni Kogen

This past weekend I went hiking in an area near Nara called Soni Kogen. The selling point of this area is the tall pampas grass covering the hills.
We left the International House a little before 7 to catch the train. We took several trains and also a bus ride to get there, so needless to say it was a long journey. It was at least an hour and a half to get to our destination.
Some of us were quite sleepy.

The hike itself was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. Most of us had brought bento for lunch, but our Japanese friends had not; we got off the bus at a small eatery that was part of the hiking area so they could get food. Unfortunately, that meant we had to do some extra hiking to reach our actual start point, so we walked for quite a while up some steep paths through a forest. By the time we reached the base of the hills, we were quite winded!

There's really no way for me to properly describe all of the sights. Not only was Soni Kogen one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, but it was very...un-Japanlike. It felt as if we were in a place that was a mixture of the Alps and Peru. The way the pampas grass seemed to glow in the sun was almost surreal, and there were gorgeous mountains everywhere we looked.

Since we were already tired from our trek through the woods, it was a pretty tiring hike. However, the views were worth it! The only truly crazy part of our hike was having to climb right beside an open fire! Apparently workers burn away at the grass on parts of the path to prevent overgrowth and prevent an obstruction of people's views, and for some reason they decided to do the burning on a busy weekend. We had to walk beside the fire and through the smoke to go over the top of the mountain and get back down. It was insane, but kind of cool.

After we reached the bottom (at this point we were all exhausted and ready to collapse) we went to an Onsen. For those who don't know what an onsen is, it's a bath that receives its water from a hot volcanic spring. They're known for their healing properties. The onsen was wonderful. It was a little jarring to walk into a changing room and bath area filled with strange naked women of all ages, but you get used to it. We stored our clothes in a locker, stripped down, and went to a shower area to clean ourselves. Once you're all clean, you go into the onsen. There were two indoor baths, and an outdoor bath, which we chose. It is wonderfully relaxing, and all of the minerals make your skin baby soft.

After the onsen, we got dressed and headed back home. On our way back my friend Emily (who is in graduate school and is on her third trip to Japan) took us to a train station that had a lot of eateries and shops inside it. We ate at a delicious curry place, and then checked out this grocery store that had quite a bit of imported food. I bought toblerone, some gouda cheese, and found pie filling! Huzzah!

By the end of it we were all exhausted, but it was a great experience.