堂山

Thomas and Julia came from Germany and stay here a couple of months. We are in the same floor in office and I wanted to show them a bit of Japan's mountain and nature. It was very hot day, and watching TV, it says the fear of heat stroke. When walking along river, we see people swimming, fishing, and just relaxing. It is popular place for family and friends gathering and enjoy outdoor life. After crossing river, it is start for mountaneering. We climbed up stream. It seems a little challenging for Julia. It was slippery due to her shoes. After the end of stream, the amazing view appeared. There was open space with sandy. This is my favourite place. Thomas and Julia looks very tough. From here, we climbed up with normal hiking trail. However, the ridgeline is another dangerous spot. It is again very slippery and there is a couple of rock climbing. We moved very carefully. We passed through a couple of peaks and reached top finally and saw the beautiful lake Biwa. I am exhausted due to this hot weather. I felt dizzy. We stayed here around 15min and tried to recover our energy back. It was not easy to climb down due to slippery. Again, we have to be nervous. We watched out not to slide down. As moving down, the slippery dangerous place looks finally over and and fortunately the stream came up and we stayed a bit in the middle of steam and felt very good. Julia said "I feel like staying here long" We returned to the river where we started.I hope that they enjyoed this hiking!!