駒の小屋

Small mountain lodge beside Koma-no-Oike, just below the summit of Aizu-Komagatake, one of Japan's hundred famous mountains, in Hinoemata Village, Minamiaizu District, Fukushima Prefecture. The summit is about 20 minutes and 700m further on. The hut takes guests without meals but provides bedding, and because there are only two rooms men and women may share, though the keepers promise one futon per person however busy it gets. There is no mains electricity, so evenings pass by lamplight; the shop sells natural mineral water, beer, retort meals and the hut's own badges, straps, T-shirts and hand towels, and a gas stove can be hired. The building and its surroundings are non-smoking, with smoking allowed only near Koma-no-Oike. Aizu-Komagatake lies in a special protection zone of Oze National Park and its summit is the highest first-order triangulation point in Fukushima Prefecture. There is no campsite and camping is prohibited. On foot it is about four hours from the Takizawa trailhead by way of the spring, about five hours from Kirinte over Otsumata Pass, and about six hours from Oze Miike by way of Osugidake and Otsumata Pass. The grassland walk from the hut to Nakamondake takes two hours there and back, and the keeper's own favourite is the beauty of its pools at dawn and dusk.