The Eizan Electric Railway serves a sparsely traveled route — or so I infer from the dinky two-carriage train we board shortly before it lurches out of the terminus at Demachiyanagi Station in Kyoto heading for the mountains on the city's northeastern outskirts.

Certainly, there are a fair number of travelers packed into the few seats, but considering the cloudless autumn day it is when my friend Andria and I hop aboard, the number of folk is surprisingly — and refreshingly — few.

Prior to that, we had spent several days touring the usual circuit of Kyoto hotspots, but the multitude of visitors swarming the shrines and temples and museums was beginning to grate. So a trip to the mountains to stretch our legs seems the perfect antidote and, on the advice of some locals, we aim to tackle a popular hiking route between the tiny rural hamlets of Kurama and Kibune, a quick half-hour railroad ride from Demachiyanagi.