Tomboyama (Juboyama) 十坊山 Itoshima Hiking 2018.9.17

Tomboyama (Juboyama) 十坊山 Itoshima Hiking 2018.9.17

Tomboyama (Juboyama on Google maps) is in in the southern area of Itoshima and offers wonderful view of the coastline but also the forested interior area. This route takes you to the border of Saga prefecture and ends with the wonderful Mamushi onsen. 

Access: Take the Fukuoka city subway Kuko line to Meinohama use the JR Chikuhi line to get to JR Fukuyoshi station 福吉駅

After getting off the train head away from the coast up the main road towards the Mamushi onsen. Before you get there you will see this map on the side of the road and signs directing you to the start of the Juboyama climb.

The walk to the mountain is almost very nice

Some wonderful views in this area

The signpost to look out for

From here it was pretty straightforward to follow the road up. A fair amount of the trail at the start was tarmacked or old road. There were also very few steps on this climb.

Fruit trees lined the path

I can only imagine that this is to catch wild boar sniffing around the fruit

I think this is for harvesting the fruit

From this point on the road stops and you start the hike proper. There are some fairly steep sections and no stairs which I actually much prefer.

Just before reaching this point I saw a wild boar disappear into the woods.

Lots of tree roots

The one set of stairs, or what once were steps

The summit sign post. Some fantastic views

Finally I reached the top of the mountain. There is very large boulder on the tops with some chains on to help you climb. It is well worth it to get the best views. Check out the video below.

The video was taken from the top of he boulder. I tried to get a good panoramic view.

The boulder. It looks bigger when you are there!

Looks out to the ocean

Looking inland

A small black snake hiking under a tree root

Time to climb down. The good thing about this hike is that instead of going back the way you came you can continue on a descent by using a different route. The first part heads to the entrance of a golf course and was very steep in places.

The gold course and start of Saga prefecture. Turn the opposite direction to start the hike back to the Onsen

There seems to be a lot more features on a extended hike.

Walking back down away from the golf course lead me to a roadside car park. Just before the car park was a old road with looks like it would not now be suitable for cars. This route is the way back down to Mamushi onsen. It is a very gentle route back down through forests and it was enough to stick to the road.

Back at the Onsen for another tip in the green tea bath and freshen up. I got a nice bottle of Itoshima locally produced milk as a treat for a successful hike.  This hiked lacked some of the variety of the nearby Nijodake. However it still had wonderful views and some good hiking. Having the Onsen right at the end gives in the complete package.