28-Mar-2004 -- The second day of my confluence weekend started with biking down from Hiwa-cho back to Bingo Shobara station to catch a morning train. It took me less than one hour to reach the station leaving me ample time to fold my bike and take photos there. I took me three trains to reach Iwata station on JR Sanyo line. I was successful to log GPS data all the way there because I could have seat window side.

Arriving Iwata station at about half past thirteen, I again built my bike to reach the nearest point. Thought the confluence point is only about 2 Km away from the station, I wanted to save time going there and back. As I did desk study before the trip, the area around the confluence was small hill with forest. The forest was mixture of bamboo, cedar and natural woods. Those woods looked very tick and seemed difficult to enter. I parked my bike at the nearest point on the road from the confluence. Fortunately in a short while I could find a trail up toward the hill beside small farmhouse. From that point I started walking with GPSr. I passed a small col on the trail and walked into bamboo forest where trail disappeared. I bushwhacked for a while toward the confluence. Eventually I came across a good trail which leads to the top of the summit. Later I noticed that the trail was a branch of the trail I was walking. I saw stone buddhas placed along this nice trail with certain interval. GPSr reading while walking was about 100 m from the confluence. But the direction was different from the trail's direction. As I climbed up the hill I reached small level plateau, where is 110 m from the confluence. I discovered an abandoned trail with growing bush whose direction is towards the confluence. I could reach 50 m point to the confluence as I traced the abandoned trail. From there I needed to enter the unmaintained cedar forest, which means that there are thick trees and overgrown braches everywhere. The ground was also steep slope. Knowing that I made the confluence according to the rule, I tried to reach as close as possible to the confluence. I had to descend the slope with traverse in tick forest. GPSr reception was not very good. I lost radio sometimes in the forest. Finally I gave up at the point about 20 m away from the confluence. Like yesterday I had no view around there at all. It was dark even in daytime because of trees. I logged and took photos with self-congratulations. I left for the starting point. Returning to 50 m point was again difficult uphill climbing. From that point it was easy walk back to the place where my bike was parked. On the way back when I almost returned to the starting point I realized that I left my sunglass at the confluence! As I had ample time I decided to make the second confluence attempt! Never mind the extra hassle. Yes my 2000-yen sunglass was there. I retrieved it and returned to the starting point with sigh of relief.

Then I made home with three train at half past 19 hours.

Those who want to reach the exact confluence should have guts to bushwhack in the tick forest. Be careful that the slope around the confluence is fairly steep.

You will have good panorama view of the area from the trail where stone buddhas are placed. You could walk further along this trail that seems to lead to another peak of the hill. This exploration may be fun walking.