Why going down the stairs last Sunday was again making me squirm with the pain coming from my quads

Nekko peak from somewhere near Mt. Azumaya's summit, originally uploaded by jemione.

They always hit the quads the hardest! Anyway, it was because I climbed Mt. Azumaya (Azumayasan) and Mt. Nekko (Nekkotake) last Saturday with Souma-san and friends. The mountains were located at the border of Gunma and Nagano prefectures, around three hours away by super fast (average 130kph) Toyota rental car from Tokyo. The climb was hard work, of course, taking us around six hours climbing and going down the two neighboring peaks, but it was very rewarding because of the spectacular scenery. Mt. Azumaya had a trail which was mostly open and grassy, so even from the base, looking at its big yellowish-green triangle shaped form sitting against a perfectly blue sky, the view was quite stunning already. And there were so many flowers! For Mt. Azumaya especially, it felt like climbing a huge garden.

Mt. Nekko was a little more difficult to climb because some parts were almost impassable with heavy mud, but the way down was different, so it was OK. Downwards was also very pretty. The vibrant greenery made the trail really interesting, adorning the path with different shades of green, and dotting the way with lots of orange, thanks to the flowers!

The peaks were mostly rock. And that's good because they offered unencumbered 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains and the clear sky. A famous active volcano, Mt. Aza-something, can be seen from Mt. Nekko's top.

After the climb, we had dinner at a Chinese resto and then after that was the unavoidable onsen trip. But I'm beginning to love the onsen now, so i stuck around. The place was a bit crowded, and I may have even seen a person I knew from church (weird!), but it was a huge facility, so it was fine. Aside from the hot baths, there were also different kinds of spas, the normal super hot one with the glowing rocks in the middle of the room type, and the mist spa. What was really cool was San-san was kind enough to show me around them, as I haven't tried any of them before. I went home refreshed. The pains will hit the quads the next day but I can't complain because this was one super enjoyable Saturday.

P.S. more pics to follow!