Uncovering Old Trails – Kamiyama Town, Tokushima, Japan 神山町｜徳島県 (4K)

Uncovering Old Trails – Kamiyama Town, Tokushima, Japan 神山町｜徳島県 (4K)

[Music] Uh today we’re in um Kamyama, Kamyama town in Tokima and we are going to explore the A1 trail. The A1 trail which is uh exceedingly boring name. Yes. But it’s uh a great trail. It goes all the way to Kamikatu. Oh yeah. Yeah. The next village. That’s right. Town. So originally this was one of the main routes from Kamyama to Kamikatu. There’s a couple that go uh right over the ridge line which is the super indoor and then um all all of them are major routes. So there’s been a lot of building work in the past to make them uh functional practical. So the public rights away and I think the town or uh the people who are around the trail head they have a um public duty to maintain them keep them open accessible but it’s it’s minimal people there’s really no point anymore. Yeah. But uh hopefully we’re bringing it Yeah. bringing them back bringing back the old paths the old trails. Let’s uh network. Yes, network. Let’s see where this takes us. Not social network though. No, of course not. No, that Zuckerberg business. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not that. It’s not that. Jimmy, my friend who lives in Okyama, he comes to Kamyama and together we’ve been clearing this slowly section by section. Mhm. And we haven’t actually cleared this bit. Mhm. As you can tell. Mhm. So maybe we can do a little bit as we go today. That’s Yeah, that’d be great. Shifting logs, stones off. Yeah, it’s going to be it’s going to be very hot. Anyway, let’s see where this goes. Oh, this is awesome. You’ve actually you actually did all this yourselves? I mean, any big big tree uh branches here and anything sticking out. A little bit hairy. Hairy. Nice. Like a nice hairy spider. This is all man-made, right? If if this didn’t have heavy traffic on it, you couldn’t distinguish it between a wild animal track and erosion. But this this is dug out by hand. That’s incredible. A lot of these old trails are marked by old growth trees. Yeah. So, you can see down here a lot of this on this side. Yeah. They’re they’re uh this is a type of maple or oak I think. And then down there, same. There’s three big old trees. Okay. And also on this side, some of the oldest trees. You’ll see more of that as we go. But these are natural boundary markers for land. I see. That’s why these old paths have such big trees either side. I see. And I think also the trail builders being Japanese, I think they were a little bit sensitive to the the look of the tree, right? So for me that’s very aesthetically pleasing. Ah, okay. The way that’s growing there. It’s like how they trim the trees back and almost like the bonsai tree influence the aesthetic. Yeah. Yeah. A tad humid. This is like walking up a a log. Walking up a water slide. Yeah. So those roots sticking out, they were already there. Yeah. Obviously you weren’t like, “Let’s dig away these roots.” Look, they’re about to fall over, aren’t they? Yeah. The aesthetic qualities. It’s amazing. Spent six years. Really? did it. God’s sake. So gullible. So it didn’t take you six years to do this, did it? A spoon. You came up here so just every day with a spoon. You and your you and your friend. The brush just to keep the um aesthetic. Oh, this is quite wild, isn’t it? So you’ve done you’ve cleared this part before? No, we haven’t. Oh, okay. That’s why. Oh. Snake. Can’t see it. Right there with the stripe. Nope. Right at the end of my stick. Oh, I see it. Yeah. Over there. We found a snake. Let’s see if how close we can get to it. Oh, no. Stay. See, they’re always timid. I don’t know why people get afraid of snakes. They never No, they never do anything. They never do anything. This is true adventure. These these two days have been a a true adventure. I don’t think it’s something you can do in Kagawa really cuz everything’s very well marked. Um, fantastic. Yeah. I mean, this would be absolute glorious weather in autumn. I mean, last year September was still hot, but usually midepptember Oh, really? starts to cool off pretty quick. Oh, that’s good. Yeah. After there’s a there’s a big storm usually at the end of Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love the storms. The air clears and you get those sunsets. Yeah. So beautiful. Nice. The old pink tape. So the pink tape we understand is used to mark the survey surveillance points. Yeah. These ones. But they’re supposed to take them back down after, aren’t they? Yeah. They they mark them first on the trees. Love the trees. Right. And they plant the red. Yeah. So this stakes in Tamyama. We’ve got a nickname for these trails. We call them the Akasen. Oh, that’s it. Red line, right? Yeah. Red line trail. Yeah. And um I was I was very interested to know whether the red line was actually the negative space between two owned pieces of land. Yeah. Uh, and I asked I asked Quesan, one of the town office people, and he actually said that the trails uh were first. Okay. So, the trails aren’t just the gap between two pieces of land. Yeah. They’re actually uh their own Oh, like independent independent things. Right. Right. All right. So, that was interesting to find. Yeah, that’s very interesting. But yeah, if you find a red red trail marker like that, that’s that’s good because it means it’s public. Okay. It’s public land. You’re allowed to walk here. Tammy Amateur. Lovely breeze now. Rain. Nice. Hope it pours down on us. Soaks us to the bone when we’re in the river. Oh yeah. Wow. Water. What the? Just water here. Puddles. That’s uh that’s a rare thing in summer. This is the river, right? The waterfall. Yeah. Lovely rock garden. Nice the way fruit trees trees are growing in between. Yeah. Yeah. What are they growing? What what uh sudachi looks like? Sudachi could be slightly larger. Uh maybe uh or Oh, yeah. Yeah. They’re quite small, aren’t they? These are This is for rice, isn’t it? Yes. Yes. Right. Exactly. So that that would have been a channel for the rice. Yeah. You can do a 33 km hike from here. Wow. This hike, if anybody out there enjoys wearing high heels, Yeah. It’s actually possible for me in high heels, right? High heels. Welcome. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s uh let’s sit down and have a drink. Thank you for the chocolate. This is Willy Wonker’s chocolate, right? Is that right? Similar similar one. They’re too short though, aren’t they? They’re not meant for tall people. I think this is for um cottonwood. Yeah, please. Start them early. Let’s go up to the water forest. Nice light. Look at that. Yeah. So, yeah. Shortest one ever. And then summer started and and then rainy season came back again. Ah, this is amazing. The air is so cool here. The temperature 30° 30° C. Oh, wow. Woohoo. We deserve this. We have a canopy raccoon dog. Wow. Awesome. I’ve been up here many, many times. The very first time I noticed it was another trail that goes that way. Okay. Which people don’t use. Yeah. There you go. Another adventure awaits. Why is the plastic in the water? Maybe they catch crabs or fish. It could be controlling the water supply here. Yeah. Leave a comment. What do you think this is for? Someone put that tree there. Yeah. What are they doing? Terrible. 1800 OG stand. break my leg. Here we are the waterfall. Come back down this way. Are you sure? Well done. Again, you’re alive. I’m just kidding. How did that feel? Yeah. Wasn’t scary. I’m not even sliding. No. What’s What’s it like up there? the pool. I really want to go. I’m just a bit scared of heights. So, I know I could do it. I be scared to come back down again. Going up, I’d be all right. Comes the rain. Check this out. Yeah. Yeah, I saw that on the way out. One part of me said it’s it’s horrible, but then you got this moss growing. That’s the thing. I don’t know. Nature works in mysterious ways. You know, it would be really nice if you found this special spray that you could just spray on plastic or metal or anything man-made that would make moss grow on it. And then if they were covered in moss, that would be a hell of a lot better. Okay. So, I’ve seen I don’t know which country it was, but they have these bricks that are um that grow moss on them and they’ve been building I mean houses that have moss covered bricks and it insulates. Good for the for the urban environment. Yeah, I guess you’d have to water them. Water them. There’s got to be a rainbow. It’s starting to rain as we left the the area. There’s got to be a rainbow. Where would it be? The sun’s there. Okay, we’re probably right underneath it. If you see a rainbow, leave a comment. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Where’s the rainbow? The humidity is it’s just I’m speechless. I just can’t I can’t breathe. sweating like a nicile in a graveyard. Look at the rice. It’s beautiful. Should I do a rice shot? You can smell it. Yes, I can. As well as the humidity. See the kamakili? Huh? Right here. Oh, yeah. Nice. It’s a praying praying mantis. Hello, buddy. Are you joining us for the ride? Hello. He’s just chilling. Look, he’s dancing to the music. Popping to the beat. Going to go to Oh, yeah. [Music] [Music]

In this video, Ru guides me up one of the trails he and his friend have been restoring in the stunning town of Kamiyama in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. We walk through deep forest, talk about trail making, boundaries, and nature, before heading further up the mountain to one of the most magnificent series of waterfalls in Shikoku… Amagoi Falls.

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Video recorded August 4th, 2025

Filmed and shot on a Sony A7III, GoPro 9, iPhone 11. Unfortunately, I forgot my decent mic, so the audio in the voices is a bit crap.

Music:
Alon Peretz – East From the City
Adi Goldstein – Falling in Between

#kamiyama #神山町 #oldtrail #tokushima #amagoifalls #雨乞の滝 #mountainscenery #dreamingofmountains