(妙高山) Mt. Myoko Hike

Onsens everywhere! You start at an onsen town, pass through a couple on the way, and end back with the same onsen town haha. 

Budget: JPY3,700 (~USD35)

• JPY850. Train, Nagano Station to Myokokogen Station.
• JPY1,000. Bus, Myokokogen Station to Sasagamine Bus Stop.
• JPY1,000. Bus, Sasagamine Bus Stop to  Myokokogen Station .
• JPY850. Train, Myokokogen Station to Nagano Station .
• +JPY4,820. Two days' worth allocated with Seishun 18 ticket. (if from Tokyo)

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation 2,454m/8,051ft)

• Not yet done. 
• Difficulty: 3 out of 5 
• Route below is around 11.8kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1,829m/ ▽1,822m
• PDF Map Link
• Highly recommended to be done with another hyakumeizan (100 Famous Mountain), Mt. Hiuchi (火打山). 

When to Go

Bus only runs from around July to October, so that is a limitation. Further, based on this blog, winter ascent is not recommended due to avalanches. 

Special Notes

• I am putting the start at Nagano Station, as I plan to either take the overnight bus or take the train to Nagano the day before, and spend the night in Nagano. 
• Trailhead: Tsubame Onsen (燕温泉) Bus Stop.  To get here, you have to take a bus from Sekiyama Station. A new pdf and link is created every year, so just go to this link and click the one with this text:"関・燕温泉線".
• Train, Nagano Station to Sekiyama Station (関山駅), JPY1,090, 58 minutes. 
• Bus, Myokokogen to Sasagamine Bus Stop., 50mins. Here's the bus schedule. Highlighted in green is the Sekiyama Station to Tsubame Bus Stop schedule, and in yellow the Tsubame Bus stop to Sekiyama Station. The 6:14 train is only available on weekends.

• Mountain huts. You are not really spoiled for choice here, and they also sell out fast. 
• Paid mountain huts. There are two, and both of them have camping spots too. 
• Kurosawa-ike Hut (黒沢池ヒュッテ(. No websites really, but I found information here, where it says they are closed for 2020 due to covid19. 
• Koya-ike Hut (高谷池ヒュッテ), which is closer to Mt. Hiuchi but is only an additional 1:15 walk from Kurosawa-ike Hut. There's an English version, so just click the Koya Pond English Page. Take a look at the Japanese page though, as the vacancy status is shown there. If you see the green "個室満室", it means it's full.
• It's JPY6,000 a night with no meals for a stay, or JPY900 if you're camping. 
• Reservations are not needed if you are camping, but necessary otherwise. As of July 2020, I could only see one more day that's open for the next three months. 

Itinerary

• 06:14am. Bus, Sekiyama Station to Tsubame Bus Stop.
• 06:35am. ETA: Tsubame Bus Stop. Start hike. 
• 11:30pm. ETA: Mt. Myoko (妙高山)
• 03:30pm. ETA: Tsubame Onsen Bus Stop.
• 04:20pm. Bus, Tsubame Onsen to Sekiyama Station.