Kanpo, thoughts on tourisms

When I climbed Kanpo, even though it was a weekday there were 3 other groups of 3 to 4 people each.  All of them have either been there before, or were led by someone who has been there before.  Which seem to confirm my belief that to develop tourism in Iya, mountains are the vital resources.  At least, I do not know much other places in Iya that I would want to visit repeatedly.  Well, I did repeat Chiiori visit before.

But there are problems.  These mountain climbers do not leave any cash behind when they leave Iya.  There are no mechanisms or systems in place for these visitors to pay money to Iya community.  They come with their own cars, and they leave the same day.  Perhaps they stop by at Onsen, but that is about it.  On Sundays, when I would expect most number of visitors come to Iya, even the gas stations are closed (if you plan on visiting Iya on weekends with your own car, make sure your tanks are full).  They don't even leave behind gas money.  Residents in Iya are completely unconcerned about such "trivial" matters.  There is no way tourism can be developed here at this rate. And if it does not lead to monetary profit, protection of rare and threatened species, such as the Fukujuso flowers, would be lacking in motivation and unlikely to happen.

But there are opportunities as well.  As I said, I wanted to walk from the summit of Kanpo to the Ochiai pass, but I had to get back to my car.  There is something very dull about walking back the same way I came.  If there was a business in Iya that would take me to the start of the trekking route of Kanpo, and pick me up later at the Ochiai pass, it would make the whole experience much more enjoyable.  There are at least 3 other courses in Iya that I would want such business.  Plus it would make me feel safer knowing that someone is waiting for me at the end of the walk, because if I do not show up at the pick-up spot in time, they would know something has happened to me and likely to call for help.  If there was a souvenir shop by this, let's say, "taxi service" selling postcards, I'm sure some people would pay for such souvenirs.

The fact that there were only those who has been there before or led by people who has been there suggest that there are demands for guide business, and also indicates that to get new visitors to those mountains guides are important.  Let's say for the Kanpo, a guide can make story for each floral community as he/she climbs the mountain, starting from old-growth trees around shrine, to well kept cedar plantations, abandoned cedar plantations, natural woods in secondary growth, old-growth natural forests, young woods that used to be grasslands, and the field of dwarf bamboos.  Because the main selling point of the Kanpo was the rare flower that grows in certain floral communities, those stories become more meaningful.

But current Iya would rather make concrete walls and roads.  One of the visitors I met was complaining that that concrete road that crosses the trekking route were not there before, and how terrible and ugly it is.  If you consider mountains as Iya's wealth, for attracting tourists for example, then Iya is practically throwing away their own wealth.  How can we change this whole situation?

Kanpo

Wednesday is a weekly day-off for Chiiori.  Now that it has gotten warmer I've decided to go trekking to a nearby mountain.  I heard that a flower called Fukujuso (Adonis amurensis) is in full bloom along the route to the summit of a mountain called Kanpo, so there I went.  I hear the name Kanpo (寒峰), written as cold summit, comes from the summit being open grassland and the wind is blowing through constantly.

The trekking route starts at a shrine.

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Going through the gate and walking past the shrine, I enter into a cedar plantation.  After walking for a while, I encounter a wall.  Concrete wall.

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A road was built there newly, and on the side of this road was a following sign,

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The sign says "starting point for the Kanpo trail."  Although my mountain guide book says the trail starts at the shrine, apparently with this new road the trail starts here.  I saw few cars parked nearby.  I'm guessing almost everybody felt rather disappointed when they saw this "entrance."

Walking on.  I encounter a field of yellow flowers.  It is the main selling-point of this trail, the Fukujuso.

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These flowers are on the "threatened" status.  Apparently one of the problem for their survival is  that people take these flowers home.  So there is a concern for me to put their information on the internet, but since they are already on the mountain guide books I guess it is more important for me to spread information about their problems.  Even if you think taking one flower is not going to affect the species survival, if 50 other people think like that then it is a significant threat to their survival.

Another reason for their decline is due to the environmental factors.  The reason they flower at this time of the year is because leaves have not formed on the trees yet.  They photosynthesize and flower in the short period of snow melt to leaves forming on the trees.  Which means they cannot grow on the forest of evergreen trees.  With most forest converted to cedar plantations, their habitat is definitely on the decline.

Walking some more, and I start seeing lots of snows still.  Especially on the northward slope.

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Almost at the summit,

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As I heard, it is an open grassland.  Of a dwarf bamboo.  In the past, I hear there used to be thatch fields along the ridges of this mountain.  Near summit there were many places where trees were still young and many thatch and bamboos growing underneath, where it must have been a grass field in the past.  Near the summit, the bamboos still dominates probably due to constant winds.

Looking toward the Ochiai pass from the summit.  These mountains form the Iya valley's northern boundary.

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Lunch at the summit.  I went American style with lunch, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.  Even though the name says it is a "cold summit," With cloudless sky and nothing to block the sunlight, it was very warm.  I laid down and it felt extremely good, I could take very good nap there.  But with nothing to block the sunlight, if I take the nap there I would have to deal with very painful sunburn.

Getting ready to head down, I look down and felt peculiar sensation.  Something was out of place. A very bright red maple leaf was on the ground.  In April, on a bamboo field, it should not be there.  I look closely, and it was made of plastic.  Must be from someone's lunch box.  sigh.... I picked it up and took it home as a trash.

With breaks here and there, the whole walk from shrine to the summit was about 2 hours and 10 minutes.  The slope was steep here and there, but distance-wise it was an easy walk.  I could walk along the ridge toward the Ochiai pass, but according to the map that would take more than 3 hours one-way.  I have to get back to the car, so I walk back the way I come from.  Maybe next time I would park the car at the Ochiai pass.

It has been a while since I have climbed a mountain last time.  At the summit it was almost a totally different world from the messy, crummy world of below.  From Iya, going to anywhere feels like it is a long way, but at least there are many good mountains to walk on nearby.  I better start taking advantage of that.