Hiking Mt. Rishiri in September｜Japan Mountain Note#02

There are some mountains that stay with you long after the hike is over.
For me, Mt. Rishiri is one of them.

I climbed it on September 19, 2021, during a trip to Rishiri Island. The day started before sunrise and ended with a hot spring and sunset.
When I think back on Mt. Rishiri, I don’t remember only the summit. I remember the whole day.

I know there are a lot of photos in this post. I tried to choose, but in the end, there were just too many I loved.

Trail Info

Trail Note

Practical Info

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On the Trail

01 | The Night Before the Hike

The night before, I stayed at Rishiri Island Family Campground “Yuni.”

I chose the campground partly because the trailhead was only about a three-minute drive away, and there was also a hot spring within walking distance.

I woke up at 4:00 a.m. the next morning and started getting ready.
Before 5:00, we arrived at Rishiri Hokuroku Campground. There were already quite a few cars there.
I ate an onigiri for breakfast, and at 5:30, I started walking.

02 | Into the Forest

Soon after starting the hike, I reached Kanro Sensui, a spring along the trail.
Some hikers filled their water bottles here before heading farther up the mountain.

The trail begins around the third station, so the fourth station came quite quickly.
There was a bench there, and I saw some people eating breakfast in the forest.

As I continued through the fifth and sixth stations, the views gradually started to open up.
Both areas also had places where hikers could stop and rest.

From 7th station, the trail becomes noticeably steeper. This section is called Munatsuki Hatcho (胸突八丁) — a traditional Japanese expression for a painfully steep climb, as if your chest might almost touch the slope.

03 | 7:30 a.m. — Mt. Rishiri Appears

One of the moments I remember most clearly happened at the eighth station, Chokanyama.
Until then, Mt. Rishiri itself had been hidden from view.
Then suddenly, there it was in front of me.

I remember thinking: This is the real peak.

From Chokanyama, the trail continued toward Mt. Rishiri through autumn colors.

In my old hiking note, I described this section as a “road in the sky through autumn leaves.”

The mountain gradually became bigger as I walked toward it.
That part of the hike felt especially good.

04 | The Final Climb

After climbing some steps, I reached the ninth station.
There was another fairly open area where hikers could stop and take a break.

Looking back, Rebun Island now seemed even farther away.
What a small island! It was so tiny and cute. As I climbed higher, it slowly became smaller behind me.

The sea and sky almost seemed to blend into one.

From here, there was one last push to the summit.
My legs were starting to feel heavy, so I just kept moving one step at a time.

That final section always feels a little strange to me — you know the summit is close, but you still can’t quite see when you’ll reach it.

05 | 9:00 a.m. — Mt. Rishiri Summit

I reached the summit at 9:00 a.m., three and a half hours after leaving the trailhead.

At the top, I looked out toward Rosoku-iwa, or Candle Rock.
I also found the triangulation point, a small marker used for land surveying.

I stopped for a while and made some tea.
By then, the mountain was already showing the colors of autumn.

The autumn scenery I saw on Mt. Rishiri that September is still one of the things I remember most clearly from the hike.

06 | Back Down the Mountain

After spending some time at the summit, I returned along the same trail.
Even though it was the same route, the scenery felt different when I was walking back down.

Near Yachou-no-Mori, around the fourth station, I heard a sound that seemed to be coming from a tree.
When I looked up, there was a black woodpecker.
My hiking partner, Ma-taro, had noticed it first. It was an unexpected little moment near the end of the hike.

Before finishing, I stopped again at Kanro Sensui, drank some water and washed my face.
Oh my… that felt so good.

At 1:00 p.m., I arrived back at Rishiri Hokuroku Campground.
About seven hours after starting, the hike was over. But the day wasn’t.

The Day Continued After the Hike

After descending, I returned to the campground where I had left my tent.

I was tired from the hike, so I spent some time relaxing there.
Later, I walked to Rishiri Fuji Onsen, which was close to the campground.

It has a natural hot spring and an outdoor bath. A hot spring after a long day in the mountains felt especially good.

Rishiri Fuji Onsen | Rishiri Island Tourism

Sunset After the Summit

After the hot spring, we drove about five minutes from the campground to Yuhigaoka Observatory.

From there, I could see Mt. Rishiri again.
That morning I had been standing somewhere up on the mountain.
Now I was looking back at it from below.

As the sun went down, the sky gradually turned red.

In the distance, I could also see Rebun Island, where we planned to go the following day.

気づけば暗くなってきました。あ！お月様もみえます。

We stayed until it became dark, then stopped at Seicomart to buy dinner before returning to the campground.
That was the end of a very long day.

Rui’s Note

When I reread my old hiking notes, the thing I wanted to keep wasn’t the hiking time or the route information.

It was the memory of the whole day.

The moment Mt. Rishiri suddenly appeared at Chokanyama.
Walking toward it through the autumn colors.
Seeing Rebun Island in the distance.
Finding a black woodpecker on the way down.
Taking a hot spring bath after the hike.
And then, in the evening, looking back at the mountain I had climbed that morning.

I have climbed many mountains, but not all of them stay with me in the same way.

Mt. Rishiri did.

I crossed to an island, slept near the mountain, started walking early in the morning, climbed to the summit, soaked in a hot spring, and finished the day watching the sunset.

When I remember Mt. Rishiri, all of those moments come back together.
That is what made this mountain trip special to me.