Soga Hills Hiking

To meet my quota of one mountain per month, I went hiking in the Soga Hills this time. Since the previous hike at Mt. Nokogiri was too hard, I chose this location because I wanted to lower the difficulty level and just enjoy a pleasant walk in nature. I had never gotten off at Kozu Station, which is sometimes the terminus for the Tokaido Line, so I decided to go there.

Kozu Station itself certainly doesn't have any particular commercial facilities and is a station surrounded by nature, but perhaps because of its long history, there were commemorative monuments for the 150th anniversary of the railway on display. As I walked along the concrete road, I immediately found a chill space that must have been created by the local residents.

It's really great that hiking along the Tokaido Line allows you to see the ocean right from the start.
Next time, I want to go even further to Yugawara.

I had heard that a feature of the Soga Hills is walking through many mandarin orange orchards, so I assumed there would definitely be unmanned roadside stands...! I didn't bring any food at all, but it turned out they were quite hard to find.

However, such an open landscape stretched out the whole time, and the warm spring sunshine poured down, so I felt like I could get nourishment just from sunbathing.

After walking for nearly an hour, finally...

There it was!!
I hadn't eaten much in the morning, so I desperately peeled the hard skin of a mandarin orange to eat it.
Delicious!
I saw groups of hikers eating mandarin oranges while looking at the scenery in other places, and I thought it was a lovely tour.

There was also scenery like this forest along the way.

It was mid-February and still chilly, but spring was peeking through here and there.

I could feel the scent of spring and gained an incredible healing effect. I had bought spring flower scents and forest bathing aromas in the city, but they don't compare at all; I felt that going to the mountains once is many times more effective.

As I descended toward Shimo-Soga, I found an ice cream shop on Google Maps, so I stopped by.

It seemed to be a popular ice cream shop and was crowded. There were several local flavors, so I chose Odawara blueberry and Ashigara tea flavors. The Ashigara tea ice cream was more delicious than I imagined.
While eating this ice cream, I wandered around the plum blossom festival venue that was happening at the time.

I was so absorbed in eating the ice cream and looking around myself that I didn't take any pictures, but white and pink plum blossoms were spread out everywhere, and seeing so many people walking around happily while looking at them also made me feel happy.

On the way to Shimo-Soga Station, there was another unmanned stand, so I bought some kiwis there.

Near the charming Shimo-Soga Station, there was also a Japanese confectionery shop, where I bought some souvenirs. It was very delicious...
I also bought some pickled plums while I was at it.

I felt that it was a more wonderful place than I expected, where you can enjoy not only hiking but also delicious food. I would love to go again during the plum blossom festival season in February to feel the arrival of spring.