Manaitagura-yama is situated on the upper of the Kazi River at Akatani in Shibata City. It is 857 meters in height. It is well known as a good place of one day hike from Niigata City.

  The mountain is covered with the mixed forest including natural cedar trees up to the high ridge. The summit consists of two peaks, south and north. The south peak is higher and true summit. The north peak is an exposed rocky peak with a great view it is a bit less high though.

  There is only one trail to go up to this mountain and it takes about 2 and a half hour to get to the two peaks.

  I tried to climb this mountain on May 8 in 2007. There was the entrance of the trail for Manaitagura-yama on the way to Kazigawa-dam. I found a gate and a signboard at the right side of the paved road. I parked my car by the roadside. The trail goes along a small river to the crossing point of the river through a cedar forest about ten minutes.

  The trail crosses over stones in the valley and follows the valley, traversing the left side with an exposed rocky slope.

  After crossing a small stream, the trail leaves the valley and climbs a ridge steeply for a while. Soon the trail becomes gentle and leads to another stream. After crossing it, soon I got to an open space called "Katue-no-Hiroba" by where there is a small stream and fresh water is available. Now that here is a half point of this climbing, it's a good place to take a break.

  A little further on, the trail soon becomes steep and goes around the edge of the ridge.The trail takes the level way along a small valley, traversing the right side on the slippery rocky slope with a fixing rope.

  The trail goes down to the bottom, cross it and climbs steeply through a natural forest to the main ridge where there is a good view beyond the valley.

  Following the left ridge through short bushes, a few minute gentle climb brought me to the south peak of Manaitagura-yama where there was a triangular stone structure.

  I headed for the next peak called "Tengu-no-niwa", means "the place the goblin with long nose plays". It was an open rocky peak with a 360 degree panoramic view, especially the view of Iide range was impressive. A ridge stretching to the north was very thin like a knife, dropping off precipitously into the valley at both sides.

  After taking lunch, enjoying the wonderful view, I came back the same route to the original point.