Challenging Seven Kuju Peaks

route: mt. Kutsukake, mt. Hossho, mt. Tengugajo, Mt. Nakadake, mt. Shirakuchi, mt. Inaboshi and finally mt. Kuju. ルート:沓掛山・星生山・天狗ヶ城・中岳・白口岳・稲星山・久住山 Arriving in the area the day before, after buying some supplies, I drove my car to the Makinoto Pass. To make sure I would have a spot the next morning I decided to park there in the evening so I could start early. Several hikers had the same plan and there was a campsite atmosphere at the parking lot. After a beautiful sunset and the temperature quickly falling to about 11 degrees everyone took refuge in their vehicles pretty early. When I woke up the next morning at around 4:45 I was surprised to see the parking lot had pretty much filled up during the night. After packing my backpack and putting on my hiking gear I started today's challenge at 5am. The whole day was filled with beautiful views and plenty of ups and downs. The hike to the plateau that is surrounded by the mountains I planned to climb, is quite far from the startpoint. On the way there the first peak you will have to conquer to even get to the plateau is mt. Kutsukake, after this peak you can choose to go straight towards the plateau or take a detour over mt. Hossho. After climbing down from this peak there is a kind of a big square with a toilet and a mountain hut for breaks and emergencies. From there the mountains around the plateau can be challenged. With several routes over the plateau and around a beautiful blue pond there is always the option to skip a certain mountain or cut the planned course short. I started on the left and worked my way around (see route above) finishing at mt. Kuju, the namesake of this national park and probably the most popular mountain in this part of the national park, together with Nakadake, the highest peak there. So many people were here on this day, that on the way back to the top of Kutsukake, there was a real traffic jam of hikers trying to get back to the parking lot. The Miyama Kirishima were beautiful, but not in full bloom yet. But that doesn't matter in my opinion because everywhere you look it's so beatiful, with or without flowers. Definitely have to come back to climb a different area of this National Park next time.