Last Sunday Chen and I set off at 5:30 to head off towards the base of Mt. Hakusan. Chen is the Chinese ALT at my school and has the same job I have with the only difference that he teaches Chinese. Hakusan is one of the three sacred mountains of Japan and with 2702 metres it's also the third highest mountain in Japan.

We reached the car park of the mountain at around 7:30 where we caught a bus to the last station (1260m). It was a stunning day for climbing. We started the ascent at 8:00.

On our way up we met several hikers who were already on their way down. Which means they had either slept at the top or, like a group of University students from Kyoto, had set off somewhere between 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning - crazy.

When we met these hikers who were on their way down I realised that I'd forgotten my Sunscreen. At the time I thought that it wasn't going to be that bad, but later I'd be proven wrong...

The view was stunning.

As time went by the valley started filling with mist and clouds.

At one point we got above the clouds and were surrounded by a sea of clouds.
And occasionally we were able to see the neighbouring mountain tops in the distance peaking through the clouds - stunning.

There was even snow from the previous winter.

Picture from a plateau just below the top of the mountain.

At around 11:30 we reached the shrine at the foot of the peak.

We reached the summit at noon. We had lunch,

rested,

rested and...

enjoyed the view.

We ran into some mist on our way down.

We got back to the car at 16:00 and got to back Kanazawa at 18:00 with tired limbs and a sunburn. But all in all a day well spent :)