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Today I climbed a mountain south of Fukuoka with a mate. It was a planned round trip to the top (597 metres) of the mountain and a planned duration of 3.5 hours. But then the planned walk turned into a short but beautiful day adventure.

We set off at 9am, then travelled 1 hour by bus until we arrived in a suburb of Fukuoka. From there it took us another 30 minutes - through beautiful streets - to reach the start of our hiking trail. And then the ascent began. The cherry blossoms became sparser with every 10th metre of altitude. But we had plenty of energy. It was an ascent in the forest, no, the whole hiking trail was in the forest, with individual viewing benches. There were quite a few steep sections, which were made easier by steps made of wood and roots. It took us a little over two hours to reach the summit. Neither of us were in our best shape (I still have a slight cold), but we really made the most of every moment we could. We climbed amazing trees that could have come from other worlds and I couldn't resist collecting the red fallen flowers from one type of tree and then stuffing them into a hollow in the most beautiful tree on the path to decorate it. The next hikers would certainly see it and smile.

We saw Japanese people of all ages every 20 minutes. For example, we met an almost 80-year-old Japanese man on the ascent who chatted to us in English for a while until we overtook him. But less than half an hour later, after taking a small diversions for lunch (combination snacks such as onigiri, melonpan and muesli bars) and returning to the path, we saw him again, leaning against the fence and greeting us. He explained the kanji for ‘mountain top’ so we could just keep following the signs and we said goodbye again. After a little over two hours and a few families with impressively young children (at that age, my sisters and I would definitely have been grumbling constantly on such a climb), we arrived at the top of the mountain. We savoured the moment and prepared to finish the loop, pleased with ourselves that we had made it. We were rewarded with a little view over the entire city of Fukuoka. It was truly marvellous.

On the way back, however, we didn't stick to the path so strictly and only walked roughly in the same direction. At some point we found a sign with waterfalls and followed them. With a bit of skill and a good ear, we found the right forest paths and followed the little streams. I couldn't resist and tried the fresh water at the small waterfalls. Only then did I realise how chlorinated the tap water in Japan is. The fresh water tasted like snow and when I poured it into my empty bottle, I realised how clear it was. But I only took two cautious sips, as you never know how clean the water actually is. But as I had drunk half a litre of the chlorinated water beforehand, I knew that everything would be okay. Before we set off, my mate shared his two butter biscuits with me. We followed the stream and the child in me decided to stop walking on the parallel path and instead jump from stone to stone in the stream. This was also a lot of fun and my buddy caught my ‘adventurous spirit’. We climbed along the big rocks, jumping from stone to stone until we couldn't go any further.

Our whole trip took just over four hours and we ended up somewhere completely different than planned, but another 30 minutes of walking through the more rural Japan, filled with small fields of vegetables and rice, orange and lemon trees, was more than worth it. It was a wonderful day filled with fresh air, burning thighs and exploring the secrets of the mountain.

If my words couldn't explain the feeling of the day, maybe a few pictures will: