Hi

I would potentialy like to hike the odai ga hara trail detailed in the lonely planet japan hiking guide. but from a post on another website dated a couple of years back i have read this trail was destroyed by a typhoon. is this trail still unhikeable? also at this time of the year is it possible to travel to odai ga hara on public transport starting from osaka. according to the lonely planet guide i could travel to kawai and hike to odai ga hara but it is out of season time for this trail. having just failed to conquer mount aso because of the impossibility of the weather conditions and heavy snowfall i dont particulary want to make the same mistakes. also how easy is it to get back to osaka from the finish point at osugi.

any advice is appreciated

thanks

gav

gav

there's no bus service to Odai ga Hara in the winter. you'll have to wait until Golden Week.
the trail was washed out in a typhoon but I'm not sure if they've repaired it completely. i did this hike 6 years ago and it was beautiful, but Odai ga Hara is a bit of a letdown. you can practically drive to the top! tons of people wearing high heels and taking pics of scared deer. winter would be awesome because there would be no people up there. i'm not sure if they even plow the road in the winter, though.