English Translation:

Introduction

When it comes to hiking in Japan and whenever my friends invite me, I always say "yes" no matter how difficult and challenging it is. I mostly go for the journey and not the place, but the one I will be sharing to you now is different. The mountain that we hiked was truly beautiful and I never felt the tiredness because of it. Today, I will tell you the story of how we hiked a beginner friendly mountain called Hodo.

^{Shot using my mobile phone}

Mount Hodo of Saitama

After more than two hours of travel via train, we stopped at the Nogami station around nine in the morning. The weather was perfectly fine, and the station already greeted us with blooming flowers. After taking pictures of the area, I observed other people and only few people got off the train. I wonder why only few of us were there, but I just quickly moved on and directed my attention on the beautiful trees.

^{We stopped at Nogami Station}

We didn't even start our hike yet and we were already filled with smiles because of these Sakura trees. Of course, I took a lot of photos and then something happened. A brown-eared bulbul went directly on a branch to possibly take a rest. The bird was quite shy and was hiding behind the flowers, but I was patient enough to be able to take a whole picture of it.

^{Cherry Blossoms}

^{A bird called hiyodori in Japanese}

After appreciating the cherry blossoms, we started our hike from the from the station. The beginning of the course was quite steep, but it was manageable even for someone who never hiked a mountain. There were a lot of like dead trees but there were some trees that were blooming flowers. I did not hold back on taking pictures as I was not a hindrance since there were only few people there.

^{My friends that also like hiking}

^{Some of the flowers that were blooming}

As we progressed our hike trail, the place got greener as I now see a lot of lively trees. This lively feeling got cut off after I saw the stairs. I got zero motivations when it comes to stairs. I really hated it, but we had no choice but to start climbing it.

We reached our destination at the top of the mountain, and I was not even tired at all. I took photo of the wooden board that says "Mount Hodo" along with its height which is not even taller than the Tokyo tower. From the top of Mount Hodo, you can also see towns within the Chichibu district. After observing the view, we noticed that it was lunch time, so we looked for a place to sit and grabbed our food from our bags.

^{Mount Hodo: 497.1 meter high}

Afterword

Sorry but I have to end it there. I am deciding to split it into three parts as there were more places that we visited at that time. If you have reached this part, thank you so much for reading and I hoped you liked the pictures I provided. That is all for now and see you next time! See ya~

日本語翻訳（主にチャットジーピーティーによる翻訳):

はじめに

日本でのハイキングと言えば、友達から誘われたら、どんなに大変でも「行く！」と答えてしまいます。普段は場所よりも旅そのものを楽しむタイプですが、今回シェアしたいのは特別です。私たちが登った山はとても美しくて、その美しさのおかげで疲れを感じることはありませんでした。今日は、初心者でも登れる「宝登山」の話をお届けします！

^{桜が咲いている風景}

埼玉県の宝登山

電車で2時間以上かけて、朝9時頃に野上駅に到着しました。天気は最高で、駅の周りにはすでに美しい花が咲いていました。写真を撮りながら周りを見てみると、降りる人が少なかったです。なぜこんなに少ないのか不思議でしたが、すぐにその考えを忘れ、きれいな木々に目を向けました。

^{野上駅に到着}

^{駅前の風景}

まだハイキングを始めていないのに、満開の桜に心を奪われてしまいました。もちろんたくさん写真を撮りました。そしてその時、ヒヨドリが枝に止まって一休みしているのを発見！花の後ろに隠れている鳥をじっくり観察して、やっと全体の姿を撮影することができました。

^満開の桜

^ヒヨドリ

桜を堪能した後、駅からハイキングを開始しました。コースの最初は少し急な坂でしたが、初心者でも問題なく登れる感じでした。枯れた木々が多かったですが、花が咲いている木もありました。人が少なかったので写真を撮るのに最適でした！

^{ハイキング仲間たち}

^{咲いていた花々}

コースを進むにつれて、緑がどんどん増えてきました。生き生きとした木々に癒されていたのですが、突然階段が現れました。正直言って階段は大嫌いですが、登らないわけにはいきません…。

^{階段を登る途中の景色}

そして、とうとう山頂に到着！全然疲れを感じませんでした。山頂には「宝登山」と書かれた木の看板があり、その高さは東京タワーよりも低かったです(笑)。山頂からは秩父地区の町並みが見渡せました。景色を楽しんだ後、お腹が空いたので座れる場所を探し、持参したお弁当を広げました。

^{宝登山：高さ497.1メートル}

^{山頂からの景色}

あとがき

ここまで読んでいただきありがとうございます！今回はここまでにしますが、実はこの旅にはまだ続きがあります。次回のブログで残りの場所について書く予定ですので、ぜひお楽しみに！今回の写真も気に入っていただけたら嬉しいです。それではまた次回！さようなら～！

Walking