On my recent visit to Japan (researching my new website Rugby Guide Japan for the Rugby World Cup) I spent a day in Kyoto doing a couple of hikes so I could update the crappy photography on those pages (namely, the Shogunzuka and Kami Daigo hikes).
This was just a couple of months after Typhoon Jebi slammed the Kansai Region, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan for 25 years. I knew some parts of the Kyoto Isshu Trail had been closed off for a few weeks, so was also interested to see the situation. The damage was actually quite incredible, with whole patches of forest having been flattened and fallen trees still lying around waiting to be cleared:
They’d done an excellent job getting the Shogunzuka hiking trails fully open again in such a short time, even cutting a little doorway in the side of a wall of earth clumped around the base of an uprooted tree:
A whole section of the Daigo-ji temple precinct was still closed off, as was the hiking trail up to Kami Daigo so unfortunately I wasn’t actually able to do the hike that day:
That was three months ago already, so if you go to these areas now the trees should all be cleared and the Kami Daigo trail should be open again.
Check out my Kyoto hiking guide here
For more Kyoto posts see here, and check out my quick guide to Kyoto
For more Japan posts see here, and check out my Japan travel guide
Leave a Reply