Tsuchiyu-Yama

Tsuchiyu-Yama (Mt. Tsuchiyu) is a former ski field in the middle of reforestation. The trail is gravel essentially the whole way, only the last 5 or 10 minutes is through a beech forest. It’s pretty cool checking out the old ski lifts and the abandoned lodges, plus the views over the Mogami river and up to the surrounding mountains were quite spectacular, but there’s not that much going for this mountain. Unless you include the nearby Genso-no-mori, the forest of illusions, that is. Formed of 1000-year-old cedars in their natural mangled state, Genso-no-mori is truly out of this world. Take one step into the deep and dark forest and you’ll see exactly what I mean, the place is straight out of Ghibli. It’s probably one of my favourite spots for forest bathing, and in Yamagata prefecture that is saying quite a lot. My recommendation would be to get to Genso-no-mori early in the morning so you can have it to yourself. Then climb up Tsuchiyu-yama. However, I would avoid either snowshoeing due to the sheer effort it would take to get up there, or hiking in the middle of summer due to being extremely exposed to the elements for most of the hike. I climbed in early June and the heat was already getting to me. That could be due to the fact that the hike is extremely steep in places though, so be warned about that too. In all, I’d say this is a good mountain to get some exercise in. It’s a tough climb, but is rewarded with good views and some pretty fun places to explore. But not much else.