Hiking
The Kujū Mountain Range
九重連山
Route Information
One of my favourite things about hiking the Kujū mountain range is that the layout of the mountains meant that this hike could be done in so many ways, depending on what peaks you wanted to hit or desired views. This also makes it hard to offer a specific route that hits everything, so I’ll just add my own below.
My Personal hike of the Kujū mountain range:
- Distance: 21kms return
- Elevation: 1342m
- Time: 9.5 hours
- Difficulty: 5/10
- Date: December 9, 2023
I’d reccommend saving a copy of the hiking trail map below before beginning the hike, as there are a few dead zones along the way. I also relied on Strava a lot as it has heatmaps, but they only work for paid subscibers.
Prehike Jitters
The lead up into this hike was definitely one of my roughest so far. I’d spent the last few weeks crawling towards the Kujū mountain range on my bike, and wasn’t even completely sure I was going to be able to do it at all. I met another cyclist just a couple of days before, and traveling together had thrown me thrown me off completely. I had even forgotten to properly meal prep for what I knew was going to be a big hike, and had pushed my boundaries to try wild camping, and felt nervous about my things.
When I woke up that day I couldn’t help but feel excited anyways, as I had been longing to do this hike since I had arrived in Kyushu nearly 6 weeks early, and here was my chance to do it. What little food I had was packed into my hiking bag, though only a couple of snacks and some fruit, and I got to packing my tent down. I’d never tried wildcamping in the same place for more than a night, so I decided the best thing to do was bundle it all up in some plants by the river. Based on the track marks in the dirt I didn’t think many people came through here, so I’d only have to worry about curious deer.
Still a little nervous about food for the day, I went to the only restaurant open this early in town, but was told that breakfast was reservation only. I did manage to get some drinks from a vending machine in town before I locked my bike next to the Chobaru Visitor Centre and got going.
The Way Up
As a novice hiker it definitely felt a bit funny with my new hiking poles, but I also have terrible knees so I knew that the help would be needed on such a long day. The beginning of the trail was a little bit confusing, but I let my Strava heat map guide the way. Pretty quickly the view was breathtaking, and I got some wonderful shots of a couple up ahead of me. I ended up catching up with them so I could add them online. They even sent me a couple of photos of myself hiking up the mountain, a woman on a mission.
My first goal was the peak of Mount Mimata (三俣山), an up and back that took me off the main trail, but was one of my favourite views of the day. From the right spot Mount Aso, that I’d hiked two days before, was poking through the mist between the peaks. It was still too early in the day to take a proper break if I wanted to keep reaching peaks, so I had a quick snack up the top and headed back down, onto the next one.
Despite this being an out of season hike for the Kujū mountain range, there were lots of people out enjoying the trail and there was a fun, relaxed feeling as I pushed myself along. The first half of the trail heading into the heart of the Kujū mountain range was a well trodden track, but the that was soon traded for steps. All the peaks were close enough to see, but just far enough apart that a descent of 100 vertical meters or so was needed for each one.
Nakadake, Inaboshi and Kujū
I decided to drop by the lake, then go up the tallest of the peaks, Mount Nakadake (中岳), followed by Mount Inaboshi (稲干山) and lastly Mount Kujū (久住山). The lake had began to freeze over in sections, but when I arrived there was a man and his husky walking along it, which meant I had to give it a go. I had some fun with some other hikers trying to find a good spot to get onto the ice, and got disctracted for probably too long sliding around.
From here I went up Mount Nakadake (中岳) and the climbs got a lot steeper. I was definitely glad to have my poles for the descents, I have a tendency to fall over my own feet. Mount Inaboshi (稲干山) was a pretty simple up and down and I gave myself a few moments to have a snack on the peak. Mount Kuju (久住山) was by far the hardest, with my up route on a side of the mountain that doesn’t get much sun. The proper route was very slippery with a lot of mud and ice, so I went off to the side a bit and walked along the rocks. I saw a few other hikers covered in mud in this section, so I knew I’d have to be careful if I didn’t want a repeat of my Mount Yotei (羊蹄山) hike.
The way down was sun facing, but so steep that they had ropes set up in sections. Trying to take a shortcut to get to a bathroom I took a B route that possibly didn’t really exist. According to my Strava Heatmap I wasn’t the first person to give it a go though. Unfortunately for me the bathrooms up the top were closed for the winter, most likely to prevent the pipes from freezing.
The Way Back Down
At this point I’d been hiking for around 6 hours with minimal breaks at this point, with the idea of continuing in the dark not appealing to me at all with the sharp temperature drops. While much flatter, The trail between the bathrooms and the Makinoto Trailhead was the most trodden part of my route, and was completely bogged out with mud. I got to the trailhead after an hour, and was so excited to get to a shop I bought two of their pork buns and ate them immediately.
Already after 4pm, and with the sunset just after 5pm, I made the choice to take the faster way back to the Chobaru Visitor Centre. My feet were definitely mad at me, but the last section was a nice change of pace. A paved forest path that weaved through the onsens, and eventually back into town. Luckily my bike was still waiting for me where I left it, and with all the restaurants in town already closed, I hurried back to my gear to get my tent back up and to prep in for another cold night.
My things were all where I’d left them, and I pitched quickly before trying one last ditch attempt to get food at the restaurant that I had eaten at the night before. While they couldn’t seat me, the waitress suggested going up the road to the hotel. The small reception building sold instant noodles and other bits, which meant I could buy some water and other bits so I could cook the noodles I had in my tent. None of the open public bathrooms had running water this time of year, so I needed to buy it. I also got a can of hot red bean soup and a jelly drink that I had been curious to try.
While it was definitely a bit of an undercooked day planning wise, I’m proud of myself for getting through the 21km hike and for still being in a good mood by the time I went to sleep in my tent.