As soon as you step inside, you will be greeted by a ”moss forest” that covers everything from the ground to the roots of the primeval forest. This scenery has been used in various TV commercials, so you may have seen it somewhere at least once. It is said that 485 types of moss live there, so I went in with a magnifying glass, but I couldn’t really observe each one individually.
Anyway, as I climbed up to the Takami-ishi Hut enjoying the scenery I had never seen before, I suddenly saw a mountain piled up with large rocks that looked like they had been piled up by giants. If you drop something into a crevice between rocks, you will never be able to get it out, so be careful when climbing. When you reach the top of the rocky mountain, you can see the round Shirakoma Pond floating just below, and beyond that you can see a vast panoramic view of the Saku and Karuizawa basins, and even Mt. Asama with its volcanic smoke behind them.
We crawled down the rocky mountain, passed the mirror-like shores of Shirakoma Pond, and returned to the parking lot through ”Mononoke Forest”, which is also reminiscent of the world of Ghibli. It’s a different world for three hours above the clouds, but it’s a beauty that no amount of words can express.
The largest lake above the clouds, “Shirakoma Pond”
Detour (View Point)
Midway through the winding descent on the way back, at a point where my fellow passengers were beginning to feel uncomfortable, we came to the Hinata-Koba Observation Deck. A resting place, not a detour. You can see the Yatsugatake Mountains to the east, the Southern Alps and Kiso Mountains to the south, the Northern Alps to the west, and Mt. Tateshina at the northern tip of Yatsugatake. I have never seen so many mountains in Japan in one direction. The weather was so nice that day that I could see the summit of Mt. Yarigatake and was very impressed.
(source: https://www.higashiyama-kaii.or.jp/)
