While visiting Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) with an entomology field trip we stayed at Tsuchigoya Lodge (国民宿舎石鎚). The lodge is a traditional style Japanese Inn with tatami mats and futons in the rooms. The ones facing the parking lot have a nice view of the mountains and despite the rain and fog it was nice to sit with a tea and relax with the view. Some rooms actually have western style chairs in a small tea area facing the view, but I wasn't in one of those.
The weather was quite bad with an approaching typhoon causing waves of rain that worsened throughout the day but we still went for a short hike up the trail towards the peak. We only made it about half way (up to the top of Tsurunokonokashira (鶴ノ子ノ頭)) before the rain got worse because we were stopping to collect insects (with a permit) along the way. The focus was wasps but we still got to see some interesting beetles, moths, leaf hoppers and tree hoppers.
There weren't many flowers out but some mints, rubus and Trichosanthes wallichiana were in bloom along the trail.
The habitat was all quite similar but did change from a deciduous woodland to a coniferous more open woodland as we got higher to the more rocky areas.
With threats of the typhoon causing landslides and road closures we left the mountain early to got down to Kokuminshukusha old Iwaya Zhuang (国民宿舎古岩屋荘).
That is a much fancier spa/inn with wifi, nice rooms that pretty much
all have a view of the rock faces on the other side of the river. The food here was very very good and we had a huge authentic Japanese meal with very diverse dishes.
The
weather was rainy but as a group we went on a short hike around one of
the loops that takes you to both of the shrines and back along the road.
The rain made collecting insects impossible but the trail was alive
with amphibians and the reptiles that eat them. We also found a huge
purple-blue worm that is apparently unusual to see.
 |
| Tsuchigoya Lodge (国民宿舎石鎚) |
 |
| Butragulus flavipes (Tree Hopper) |
 |
| Trichosanthes wallichiana |
 |
| Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) / Tsurunokonokashira (鶴ノ子ノ頭) |
 |
| Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) / Tsurunokonokashira (鶴ノ子ノ頭) |
 |
| Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) / Tsurunokonokashira (鶴ノ子ノ頭) |
 |
| Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) / Tsurunokonokashira (鶴ノ子ノ頭) |
 |
| Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) / Tsurunokonokashira (鶴ノ子ノ頭) |
 |
| Kokuminshukusha old Iwaya Zhuang (国民宿舎古岩屋荘) |
 |
| Kokuminshukusha old Iwaya Zhuang (国民宿舎古岩屋荘) |
 |
| Kokuminshukusha old Iwaya Zhuang (国民宿舎古岩屋荘) |
 |
| Kokuminshukusha old Iwaya Zhuang (国民宿舎古岩屋荘) |
There
are small hiking trails nearby the hotel that go up to two shrines
along the river. They are small simple shrines but one of them lies in
front of a small statue in a hollowed out are of the rock face. 
 |
| Me showing everyone a Japanese Ratsnake |
 |
| Pheretima sieboldi |
In between the waves of rain the insects came out briefly. It was surprising how many of them we could see even though it was so wet.
 |
| Young Planthoppers |
 |
| Oriental Beetle (Exomala orientalis) |
 |
| Snail-eating Beetle (Carabus blaptoides) |
 |
| Little Stag Beetle (Dorcus rectus) |
 |
| Sipalinus gigas |
 |
| Noctuid Moth |
 |
| Kajika Frog (Buergeria buergeri) |
 |
| Kajika Frog (Buergeria buergeri) |
 |
| Kajika Frog (Buergeria buergeri) |
We set up a light trap again for insects and saw more than we had in the rainy weather higher on the mountain. I expect having some shelter from the wind helped a lot.
 |
| Polythlipta liquidalis |
 |
| Free-living Hemipterans Suborder Auchenorrhyncha |
. I believe it is that species and not a Grey Burrowing Snake (Achalinus spinalis) because of it's bright yellow underbelly compared to the grey underbelly I have seen on google photos of Grey Burrowing Snakes. It is not the best way to ID but since my field guide to herps of Japan is in Japanese all I have is pictures and badly translated script.
 |
Peters' Odd-scaled Snake
(Achalinus spinalis)
|
 |
| Achalinus werneri (Amami Takachiho Snake) |
 |
| Chinese Mantis |
 |
| Shioya-Abu (Promachus yesonicus) |
