If I had to choose between the seasons, I would choose autumn. The colors, the air, the cool after a long hot summer, nabe (Japanese hot pot), and most of all the mountains. When we were living in Tokyo I always took the train to go and enjoy the mountains outside of Tokyo in autumn. Here we don’t have to go far, the mountains are just a stone’s throw away. Not having climbed any real mountains since spring, when there was a day off from kindergarten, my son and I took the chance to do a little hiking.
A short bike ride from home, a trail starts leading up to a mountain top shrine, then continuing to connected mountain tops encircling our little town. Once when our son was still little, riding on my back, we made the whole loop and I look forward to doing it again when he gets older. Until then, we normally climb up to the shrine, have picnic and then go back down. Although it is not that far, it is steep and takes a good hour to get to the top. Challenging for a five year old, but with his strong will he managed all by himself, no carrying at all.
From the top there is a great view of Fukuoka. Since we are climbing from the opposite side of the mountain, coming to the top, being met by this view, is quite special. As was the weather – it was supposed to be a nice autumn day but when it was tine for our picnic the rain was pouring down. We put on our rain clothes, and made the stop short before heading back down. We got wet, but were both in high spirit all the way home, laughing in the rain, singing in the rain. The Swedish saying “det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder” (there is no bad weather, only bad clothes), felt very true. Especially so being on a mountain hike in autumn Japan with my son.
It is actually a good thing that weather forecasts are so often wrong. If you had predicted it would rain, you probably would have planned to do something else. Then there would have been no strengthening walk in the mountains, no singing in the rain, and no beautiful pictures to share on the blog.