I have long had a habit of getting lost in the hills around Yugawara.

On occasion, this can be partly my fault. I have a tendency to just blast on through using my natural sense of direction and not fully double checking where I actually am.

On the other hand, the trails tend to be poorly maintained around Yugawara even as the local council promotes the place to tourists as a hiking destination.

This particular adventure started in Atami as a storm rolled in from the west. A plan to walk from the top of Jukkotoge down into Yugawara was formed before the weather began to work against me; I went ahead anyway. I continued with this plan even when the trail that the map insisted existed turned out to not.

But I made it to Yugawara and my onsen destination in one piece and got a lovely view the next morning of the hills that had nearly swallowed me up the day previous.