Hiking Old Logging Roads in Tosayamada

Tosayamada doesn't have too much to offer in terms of maintained hiking trails but there are a few places where you can go for a walk in the woods. One of the most common 'trail' types for this is abandoned logging roads.

Although the roads are overgrown to varying degrees and could be challenging for a car they could in some places be alright for a bike and definitely great for a walk and sometimes you stumble upon interesting things like old shrines that may or may not still be used by a few locals.

 The birding along the lowland areas is loud with Brown-eared Bulbuls, Oriental Turtledoves, Japanese White-eye, Pale Thrush, Oriental Greenfinch, Japanese Wagtail and Eurasian Tree Sparrows.

 Higher in the woodlands there are Japanese Woodpeckers, Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers, Japanese Tits, Green Pigeons, Meadow Bunting, Black-eared Kites and still many of the noisy Brown-eared Bulbuls.

On one of the trails I encountered an area of landslide where it had cleared a nice view for me to see the valley below. Most of the time all you can see is the surrounding forest and towering trees above you.

Despite only being at 311m elevation the topography of the valley below is at around 100m and still makes for a picturesque view.

Snakes are pretty common in the evenings as it cools down and most likely in the mornings as the sun warms spots along the old pavement. The most common ones are ratsnakes and keelbacks.

Tiger Keelback - yamakagashi (Rhabdophis tigrinus)

 One of the prettiest is the Tiger Keelback with yellow and red colouring on its sides. These little guys are as fast and wiry as gartersnakes back home but have a neurotoxic venom.  They primarily eat frogs and are abundant n rice fields and lowland forest areas along rivers.

Tiger Keelback - yamakagashi (Rhabdophis tigrinus)

Tiger Keelback - yamakagashi (Rhabdophis tigrinus)

Tiger Keelback - yamakagashi (Rhabdophis tigrinus)

Despite the cold weather I was lucky enough to find a migrating (I assume heading for its wintering grounds) Japanese Fire Belly Newt.

Japanese Fire Belly Newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster)

Trying to navigate logging roads that don't appear on maps can be a bit challenging and sometimes you walk them and arrive at a complete dead end or have to bushwalk to get through to another section of road that doesn't actually link up with pavement or gravel. I try to use a combination of maps.ma and google earth to find these places to hike but it still can end up in a bit of a failure.