Last Saturday Chris and I headed out on a hike to Three Peaks.  (photo found on internet)

It’s a 45 minute drive north and east of here on Mount Mikus at

Justin, I thought you’d appreciate this interesting climbing wall at the far end of the parking lot.

The only things we knew about this hike were from someone’s blog and from word-of-mouth.  No maps.  Mainly,  go up the B course and come back on the A course.  So off we go.  Not many people.  No park employees.  As we got started we passed many pristine campsites.

Lucky for us it was a bit overcast and perfect weather for hiking.

Very quiet and peaceful.  And very steep.  Often steep steps,

granite walls

where we came upon this couple preparing for their ascent.

As we hiked along we kept seeing these signs attached to the trees.  They looked fairly new and maybe important.  Oh well, we’ll just hope for the best.

We continue climbing and come to this sign.  Here’s Chris trying to use Google Translate to figure out what it says since it doesn’t look like A or B.  No luck.

We went right and climbed to the top of Peak No. 1

and got this wonderful view of the village below.

From here we climbed the short distance down and then up a very steep climb

(did I mention steep?)

to the top of Peak No. 2

with stunning views

Then down No. 2

and up again climbing straight up a dry (damp) waterfall

to the top of Peak No. 3!

The hike down Coarse A was mostly very steep steps through the woods and along creeks.  Very pretty.  A great day for hiking in Japan.  And, speaking of rocks and stones. . . . . .

We just made an amazing discovery.  Just a short walk from our house is a tiny restaurant

that happens to carry

The proprietor even drew the Stone icon on his chalkboard.

So, all in all, it was a mighty fine weekend here in Japan.