Since I've enthused about the bouldering in Ogawayama, both on my regular blog and on ukclimbing.com , I might have to describe the bouldering in the neighbouring valley, Mizugaki (瑞牆), as well.
The boulders in Mizugaki are very much akin to the boulders in Ogawayama. Huge high-friction granite boulders with a lot of natural pockets! In fact I would say that Mizugaki has even more heavily pocketed rock then the granite boulders in Ogawayama. The day I went there I pulled on maybe one crimp, other than that it was just pockets and slopers, so you might want to train that open-hand strength before you go.
The boulders rests in a beautiful pine-forest. Because of the elevation, it should be possible to climb in Mizugaki during the summer as well.
As far as I can see there are two main drawbacks. Firstly, the boulders are spread out on a wide area and are quite far apart, so you have to walk a bit between the problems. Secondly, that most problems are quite hard, from 1-dan and up, or very high.
The Mizugaki bouldering area is 40 min from Ogawayama by car, and is a very good complement to the bouldering in Ogawayama.
Photos I have a
slideshow from our visit last Saturday on my flickr-account. Apparently there is a segment from Mizugaki on »Frequent Flyers« but I haven't seen that video.
More info on
http://thousand-cranes.blogspot.com/
