Noisy Helleborine Street in a Quiet Forest: hiking to the peak of Mt. Mikuni of Hakone 箱根三国山 1

Pararge aegeria near Fukara Watergate.
It’s ubiquitous in Europe,
but does not appear in the list of native animal
by the Ministry of Environment of Japan.
So … where does it come from?

On the ridge of the crater the western side of Lake Ashinoko 芦ノ湖 has a nice toll road named Lake Ashinoko Skyline 芦ノ湖スカイライン. It would indicate the steepness of the crater slope: no space for paved automobile way to be built. Anyway, not only motor vehicles, but also hikers can enjoy the ridgeway of Lake Ashinoko. There is a trekking route along the toll road. Let’s do hiking today! It’s about 6 hours walk between Togendai Port 桃源台 and Hakone Port 箱根港 for Pirate’s Ship on the Lake. The peak of our today’s itinerary is Mt. Mikuni (ASL 1101.8m) 三国山. It’s a quiet walk with buzzing engine from Shizuoka side 静岡県 to the west ... The beginning for the itinerary is the same as we took for the Around Lake Ashinoko Walk in my post on June 9th. We come to Fukara Watergate 深良水門 where a true mountain road begins. Oh, important info: please use the toilet at Togendai. For today, the toilet points are only 3: one is at the Togendai Port, second one is at the Café near Yamabushi Pass 山伏峠, and the third was the end of the hiking road crossing Route 1. 6 hours and 3 toilets. You know what I mean.

Togendai Port now has an “entrance” to
Nerv for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Secluded Tokyo-3 is supposed to be here ...
For today’s purpose,
Eva-inspired mineral water bottle sold
in the souvenir shop of the Port was really handy!

To Kojiri Watergate, then

To Fukara Watergate.

Signposts and a map for hiking course at Fukara Watergate.
We take a road on our right of the photo.

On our left is Fukara Watergate, and on our right there is a road going up. It is a stone-paved old mountainous road. The ancient aqueduct must have needed many people came and went between two communities bordering each other at the ridge of the crater. A paved road for commuters in the 17th century meant, I guess, stone road. We walked such old Tokaido 東海道 in my post on March 5, 2021.Do you remember at that time our itinerary went very slippery due to stone-paved highway? Welcome back! We meet it again for today's hike here … Later I chatted with a local lady about the stone-pavement of yesteryears in Hakone. She said “Yuck!” Of course. Maybe when people used the route so frequently the pavement could not have time for mosses all over ... About an hour later from Togendai Port, after conquering the stone paved steps, we arrive at Kojiri Pass 湖尻峠 (ASL 850m) where we meet the toll road for automobiles. Between Fukara Watergate and Kojiri Pass, it took about 20 minutes for me. The ASL for Lake Ashinoko is 724m. So, I gained about 125m in 20 minutes. Please guess the steepness of the stone-paved road, but not bad. Just persevere …

… yeah, it looks neat.

A warning in English. Do you see it!?

The end of stone pavement.

We go up this hiking road a bit, then,

meet Lake Ashinoko Skyline.
Please do not go over the fence
between the car road and our hiking course.
There’s high possibility of traffic accident.
The toll road is for drivers who want to
step on the accelerator in a winding mountain route.
Oh, rain or shine, we cannot view Mt. Fuji from here.

Signs for Kojiri Pass

We turn left at the Pass to the south.

From here, we walk the ridgeway that is a hiking road running more or less along the tool road. The route goes ups and downs in the forest. The toll road is hidden beyond the mass of sasa-bamboos or the like. Here and there, we’ve met warning signs which says “Beyond the bush is a toll road for motored vehicles only. Pedestrians are strictly forbidden to enter here.” Strangely, it’s a sort of security words: if something happens for us hikers, at least ambulances can come very near to us, can’t them? Good. The hiking road is often wide enough and fairly well maintained. It’s the course in the National Park! From Kojiri Pass, we soon enter the forest of large Japanese beech (Fagus Crenata) sometimes perhaps more than a meter in diameter. For the climate of Kanagawa Prefecture, we can meet such large beech trees between ASL 800m and 1600m. For a beech to reach 80cm in diameter it takes about 300 years in Kanagawa. We enjoy more than 300 years old forest here. Thanks to the bushes of bamboos, no smell of gasoline can reach to us. It’s a relaxing hiking road.

It begins like this,

then turns to this,

with sometimes steep climbs.

Beautiful old beech forest …

After about half an hour walk from Kojiri Pass, we’ll begin to meet successive large colonies of False Helleborine (Veratrum oxysepalum var. oxysepalum). In the middle of June they were more than 1m tall with lots of white flowers around the stem shoot up straight from wide oblong leaves. It’s, I would say, a strange scenery. I wished if they had sweet aroma, a psychedelic decoration along our hiking course would have been perfect. Alas, their flowers smelled horrible, like garbage. Perhaps it would appeal to the families of forest flies which hovering frantically around the False Helleborine. I recommend you guard your body with good insect repellent before reaching here.

Helleborine Street.
I tell you it’s not the only colony we met for today’s course.

In a photo, they look so elegant …

Wild Tall Stewartia we can meet often in the course.
The Tall Stewartia in Hakone Shrine is very famous,
but they are taken care of by priests there.
Here in the western ridge of the Ashinoko Crator,
they are really WILD and LARGE.
And still, their elegant red barks are outstanding …

Speaking of insects, today’s course in June had, at least for me, two great bonuses. One is a butterfly, Great Purple Emperor (Sasakia charonda), which is designated as Japanese National Butterfly. Before, the elegant lepidopteran was ubiquitous in mixed forests near human settlements in Tokyo and large cities. For its survival, it needs a substantial volume of forest. i.e. these days their presence in cities is none. But still in the westside of Lake Ashinoko, we can meet them in the area less than 1000m ASL. To tell you the truth, it was my first time meeting them in wild. I was so excited! Another brownie was a huge chorus of Euterpnosia chibensis, a cicada, around the peak of Mt. Mikuni, ASL1000m +. The Euterpnosia chibensis lives in large forest of broad-leaved trees. They cannot fly for long distances. With urbanization, inevitably, these days its habitat is very limited and they are extinct here and there. We rarely hear them sing, but once one adult imago starts to intone, the rest of the crowd begins competing each other at once. They also stop singing almost simultaneously at sunset. It is said when we enter a forest when the chorus of Euterpnosia chibensis goes on, it’s like the entire forest is singing … I met that around the peak of Mt. Mikuni in one weekend of June. Their voice was not singing, but shouting, I tell you. It was a deafening experience, seriously. In today’s course I did not bother the noise of car exhaust … Come to think of it, it might be because of theses cicadas … I uploaded my video with voices of Euterpnosia chibensis here. My microphone was not strong enough to catch their voice nicely … sorry … Hmmmmm, the first penguin or the first cicada. Why did the first one begin anyway?

A screen shot from my video capturing
flying Great Purple Emperor in Hakone!

The peak of Mt. Mikuni has this signpost,
surrounded by another colony of Helleborines,
with, at that time, deafening voices of cicada.

Actually, the entire route in June was adorned
by white petit flowers of Clinopodium multicaule.

Next week, I tell you my adventure descending from the peak of Mt. Mikuni. I found the atmosphere of the forest from the peak is slightly different from that of the forest we’ve come from Togendai. Please stay tuned!

The condition of the Hakone National Park is watched by Hakone Visitor Center of the Ministry of Environment. Their contact info is

Hakone Visitor Center of the Ministry of Environment 環境省箱根ビジターセンター
164 Motohakone, Hakonemachi, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa, 250-0522

〒250-0522 神奈川県足柄下郡箱根町元箱根164
TEL：0460-84-9981
FAX：0460-84-5721 http://hakonevc.sunnyday.jp/english-info/