Kusenbuyama 九千部山 hike from Nakagawa to Saga 2019.7.7

Kusenbuyama 九千部山 hike from Nakagawa to Saga 2019.7.7

Kusenbuyama is a 847m mountain in Tosu. The streams from the mountain run down into the large Nakagawa reservoir. The mountain runs along the same ridgeline as near by Sefuriyama which means you could chain this hike to many others if you wanted to. 

Access: For this hike we started at the Nakagawa side in Fukuoka from this car park 九千部山登山口（桜谷、うるしが谷ルート)  The hike starts directly from the car park and follows the mountains streams for most of the way up until coming to the summit. 

We found this sign which directs you to the trail in the car park.  The trail is well signposted (In Japanese). However there are a few points where due to damage and minor landslides the trail is a little harder to see. Thankfully there is also pink and red tape around to help as well.

The first part of the hike is fairly straightforward taking you to this area which has been damaged by the rain. Then it leads to a long staircase with rushing water to the side.

After the long stairs pictured above we came to a clearing with an old toilet at the end. The toilet works find but is pretty badly kept. Just behind this was some overgrown steps which leads to a road. At the top we turned left and rejoined the hiking trail.

The signposting from here on out is very clear and lets you know how much further you have to go.  There are numerous streams to cross and even a roped section. Hiking shoes are recommended as they provide better grip on those surfaces.

Eventually the streams stop and the hiking gets a lot easier.  Eventually we came to a road which lead to a large Saga TV antenna. We walked around this and followed the signs which means to the view point tower and the mountain summit.

The top of Kusenbuyama is treeless and the elevated viewpoint gives at good view of the area.  There were a view shrines in the area and even a Ganesh statue (??) pictured above.

The return hike was largely uneventful. We did stop a strange crab in a stream which seemed t have a large parasite attached to it. After a little research it seems that it may be a Zombie crab which has been taken over by a parasitic barnacle. Very strange to find in a mountain stream!  The rocks were slippy on the way down so we had to work together. Eventually we came to the end and all decided to visit an onsen in Nakagawa 源泉野天風呂 那珂川清滝 together to sooth our muscles and relax. You can find the link here

Part of the Nakagawa reservoir. This is the view from near the car park.