Hike #21 in Day Walks Near Tokyo is called Myojo Peak (明星ヶ岳). Rainy season had just begun and after several days of rain there was a break in the action so I headed to Hakone. The day was incredibly hot and humid. I haven’t sweat so much in a single outing, ever. I brought twice my usual amount of water but could have used much more. More on the hike in a later entry.

Today’s pic is from near the start, just a little way past Miyaginobashi (宮城野橋) bus stop. Those are green tea fields in the foreground and Sounzan (早雲山) and Hakoneyama (箱根山) in the background.

Posted on July 12th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: hakone, hiking. Comments: 2

Today’s title is a bit misleading as I wasn’t actually able to partake of the best view of Mt. Fuji from the east. But I did get to imagine it while standing in the correct location.

Let me back up a bit and explain. There are some great views of Mt. Fuji from Shizuoka and Yamanashi. Unfortunately, getting there from the Tokyo area can take hours and cost thousands of yen. The best views of Mt. Fuji from Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and even most parts of Shizuoka and Yamanashi are usually obstructed, if not by buildings then by wires or most often by a mountain range that only allows for a partial, cap view.

I have found, however, a nearly complete view of Mt. Fuji a mere 90 minutes and 940 yen from Shinjuku (80 minutes and 850 yen from Yokohama). There are also some added bonuses of this location like rice paddies,

mountain-side tea fields,

bamboo,

a river,

the ocean, a lake, and even cows at the top of the mountain!

So where is this place? Mt. Ono or Onoyama (大野山). To get there, follow the signs from Yaga Station (谷峨駅). For best results, check this site first. If the forecast is for 晴れのち曇 (as it frequently is) then you want to be sure to be on the first Express out of Shinjuku in the morning. The view of Mt. Fuji is best in the morning, the earlier the better for photography purposes. The hike from the station to the top of the mountain takes between 1.5 and 2 hours. Don’t stop for pictures on the way up. Hightail it up the mountain and try to get to the views of Mt. Fuji before 9 a.m. You can take pictures of the rice paddies, tea fields, bamboo, river, etc. on your way down.

This is a great hike with the above forecast if you are jet lagged in Tokyo and waking up before 5 a.m. anyway. I chuckle when I go through Shinjuku in the morning and see foreign tourists waiting hours for the stores to open at 10 a.m. Don’t be one of them. If you did Tsukiji to pass your wide-awake, early-morning hours on day one of your trip (or if you simply want to do something in the morning and don’t want to be part of a tourist crowd) then, weather permitting, this could be on your agenda for morning two (Odakyu Line train out of Shinjuku leaves at 5:31 a.m.).

If the forecast is for 曇りのち晴れ then time your arrival at the top to be an hour or so before sunset. Don’t forget to bring a headlamp for the way down. The trail is well marked so there is little worry about getting lost. Follow signs pointing to 大野山 on the way up and to 谷峨駅 on the way down. Here are some examples:

大野山ハイキングコース入口 = Onoyama Hiking Course Entrance

Above is a very poorly reconstructed scene of what it would look like were Mt. Fuji not covered in clouds. My camera was on wide angle and the sun was high overhead. A little zoom, a lower sun, and fewer clouds and this has to be one fantastic scene to behold. The entire left outline of Fuji San is visible and the right side reveals more from here than most Fuji views from the east. The scene in front of Mt. Fuji is also very nice, although the above photo doesn’t do it justice. Onoyama is covered not in trees but in grass. The name 大野山 literally means the mountain with a giant field on top, and that is what you will find. Hence the cows enjoying the view in the most unlikely of places.

I actually did see Mt. Fuji on this day. When I arrived at Shinmatsuda Station, I took the above pic from the station.

Posted on June 14th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: bamboo, directions, guidebooks, guides, hiking, mt. fuji, rice paddy, signs. Comments: 5

Do you live in Tokyo, Saitama Ken, or Yamanashi Ken? Do you like moss covered stones? The sound of a downhill stream?

A view of Mt. Fuji?

And need a little exercise (about 700 meters of elevation gain)?

Then Mt. Kuratake is the hike for you. I followed the guidelines in Day Walks Near Tokyo which was surprisingly accurate for once. One error is the view of Mt. Fuji. Weather permitting, you’ll get to see Fuji San from the top of the mountain, not from the ridge.

Regarding the Day Walks Near Tokyo guidebook, if you are coming from Shinjuku and want to save a few hundred yen, each way, take the Keio Line to Takao Station insead of the Chuo Line on JR as suggested.

The hiking course begins at Torisawa Station (鳥沢駅). There are few services nearby. I didn’t see any restaurants or any of the typical tourist shops that can usually be found next to hiking routes this close to Tokyo. There are two konbinis near the Torisawa Station (7-Eleven and Daily Yamazaki). These will be your last chance to get a bento. There are a few vending machines before you hit the real trail. I brought my usual one bottle of water and ran out so you may want more than one.

Above is a picture of Otsuki City down below from the top of Mt. Kuratake. Even though it was a clear day, the sun was so bright many things in the distance got washed out a bit in photos. To increase your odds of a good Fuji scene start your hike early, very early if possible. If you don’t get an early start, consider arriving at the top about a half hour or so before sunset. Don’t forget your headlamp for the way home though. Also, Mt. Fuji is usually easier to see in winter. However, the trails won’t be nearly as green and enjoyable after the leaves fall (in November) and before they return again (in April). I wouldn’t really recommend this hike in the winter unless you know the skies will be clear on top and your main objective is to see Fuji San.

Near the end of your hike you will cross the Katsura River (桂川), pictured above, for the second time. This river is called Sagamigawa (相模川) once it enters Tokyo.

Your journey on foot ends at Yanagawa Station (梁川駅). Again, there are no restaurants or places to get a bite to eat in this area as far as I could tell. Otsuki is spread over a large piece of territory and has a population of only 29,000 and shrinking every day.

I’ll post more details and pictures in the future. In the meantime, here is a map you’ll want to bring with you.

And here is a short video I took of 月屋根沢 (Tsukiyanesawa?), an amazing stream you will walk along on your homestretch. You’ll cross this little river about a dozen times on the trail. I didn’t see a single person from the time I reached the top of Mt. Kuratake until I got on the train, more than two hours later. Crank it up for the sound of the water and wildlife in the area.

Posted on May 19th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: hiking, mt. fuji, video. Comments: None

I once again set off for another suggested walk in Day Walks Near Tokyo. Initially, I was going to try the Mt. Futago hike, but after reading stories on the internet about people getting lost and parts of the referenced trail no longer being there, I decided to go with hiking course #7, instead, Omote Tanzawa Forest.

Like my previous walks in Day Walks Near Tokyo, this one is out of date and will leave you quite frustrated and lost if you attempt to follow the author’s directions. Rather than correct all of the book’s mistakes, I’ll just tell you what I did.

From Shibusawa station (渋沢駅) take the number 2 bus from bus stop #2 for Ookura (大倉 or Okura). Many buses go to Ookura Iriguchi (大倉入口). Do not take these as Okura Iriguchi is a different place. Make sure to get on the bus marked 2. Bus #2 runs about twice an hour (the other buses run more frequently) from about 7 in the morning until about 9 at night. The bus takes about 15 minutes and costs 200 yen each way. You can purchase food and/or drink at the Okura Bus Stop on the other end. This will be your last chance at grabbing food or water so make sure you have enough.

From this location the round trip course took me five hours. I ate lunch and took almost 200 photos. You can probably do it in four and a half hours if you don’t rest much. Total time from Shinjuku back to Shinjuku (on express trains) was about nine hours.

At the Okura Bus Stop you will find a park and a bridge. Both look new. I believe the bridge, pictured above, is called Kaze no Tsuribashi (風の吊り橋). If you have time you may want to explore this area before or after the rest of your hiking. I noticed a large field of tulips just a couple minutes down the hill from this location, but it was too late to explore as I was already on the moving bus heading back to Shibusawa Station at the end of the day.

From here you want to cross the street and follow the signs to Kenmin no Mori (県民の森). You’ll be walking away from the bridge and river, not along it. Others, who were on my bus, walked along the street that runs parallel to the river. I have no idea where they were going–a different course in any event.

You’ll walk by several fields and a dozen or so homes along a sometimes curvy road for about 10 minutes. Make a left at the sign and follow that road and any signs in the opposite direction as the ones pointing to Okura (大倉). You may have to go around a fence blocking part of the trail. Follow signs towards 表丹沢県民の森.

On your left you will pass the above sign. I can understand people calling a place a quasi-national park, but to put Quasi on the sign seemed a bit funny to me.

You’ll hear a river down to you left after passing this sign. Keep going for about a half hour until you see another sign with a map on it. At the map go down the steps to the right. There is a sign that probably says 黒龍の滝 or 黒竜の滝 on it pointing down. Follow it.

The trail splits a bit at the bottom. Follow it to the left for the above view of the Kokuryu Falls. I ate my lunch next to the waterfall. No one else was there. In fact, I only saw about 10 other hikers the entire day. This is very different than what you will experience on, say, Mt. Takao. Realize that there are tens of millions of people within an hour and half of this location and you’ll more fully appreciate what seeing only 10 people in 5 hours while moving outdoors can be like. This was on a Monday. If you go on a Saturday, or worse yet a Sunday, you’ll likely encounter more hikers.

Turn around at the waterfall and this is your view. Walk in this direction.

Cross a bridge over the above river for the above scene. You’ll have a hard time believing you were in Tokyo just a couple hours before. I felt like I was back home in Oregon.

You’ll see this map three or four times, at least, during the day. I took a picture of the map so I could always refer to it should I get lost. You’ll also see signs pointing you in different directions at most trail junctions. From this part of your journey (the red spot on the map marked 現在地 next to a car parking lot) always follow the paths which point to Kunugiyama (櫟山).

From the waterfall (the circled kanji in the bottom center of the above photo) you are basically doing a big clockwise loop. 櫟山 is circled on top. According to the map it is a little over an hour from the waterfall to the top of Kunugiyama. If you aren’t in decent shape, and need to rest frequently, it will take longer. You will gain hundreds of meters in elevation as you climb.

This is the toughest part of the hike. It is all uphill. However, the views are sometimes good and the trail is generally very good. For much of the time you are walking up “stairs” in the forest.

If you see this sign, a smile will cross your face as you will think your climbing is done for the day. Yeah! I made it up to the top of Mt. Kunugi, 810 meters! The views are beautiful. I can see the ocean! It’s all downhill from here, right? It has to be; I’m at the top of a mountain, right? You should then follow the sign to the right for 鍋割山方面　栗ノ木洞. At first you’ll walk down a bit. Then it is more up, up, and up. At this point I pulled up the above map on my camera. It turns out that 栗ノ木洞 (which is some kind of cave according the kanji) is actually 98 meters higher than the top of Mount Kunugi. What?!?! I always pictured mountain tops being up and caves being down. Not so here. My body wasn’t mentally prepared for this last 98 meter climb.

But I made it. This is the sign at the cave (an invisible cave apparently as I never saw it). At this point I followed the direction for 大倉方面. This trail split and then disappeared altogether. I sort of stuck to the left. Once there was no more trail I drifted to the left until I ended up on the trail for 鍋割山. I would recommend just going with the 鍋割山 trail to begin with. The views are fantastic. You don’t need to go all the way to 鍋割山 (another mountain top). After a while the trail will split with the left fork pointing to 鍋割山 and the right fork pointing to 大倉. At this point I took the 大倉 trail and had no further problems. The forest was frequently surreal. The views were often fabulous, and there are many small streams to cross and waterfalls to view on the last hour or so before you end up where you began.

I’ll post some more photos later. Today’s entry is to give you directions more than anything else.

Posted on April 21st, 2010 under Japan. Tags: hiking, signs, waterfalls. Comments: 1

Last week I made my fourth excursion to Kamakura. I have taken a completely different route each time and still feel like I have much to explore and discover in this ancient capital of Japan.

We followed Yamaonna’s Kamakura Daibutsu Hiking Course 大仏ハイキングコース during the morning. I won’t repeat everything she said. Click the link for details.

We skipped Engakuji as I was just there at the end of November. Tokeiji (東慶寺), our first stop, was incredible. I’ll have more pictures from Tokeiji in future entries. The top picture in today’s entry is from there.

The trail itself was very cool and nearly empty. The second picture is of an “ordinary” house, and its fence, on the first part of the trail.

There are a few things I would add or change to Yamaonna’s write up of the Giant Buddha Hiking Course.

One is Jochiji’s admission fee, which has increase by 50 yen in the past few months to 200 yen. Strangely, the 200 yen sign looked very old. Maybe they change the price based on the season?

One item about the Daibutsu Hiking Course I would add is that there are views on this hike when you are near the top. The views to the right are of Mt. Fuji and those to the left are of the bay and the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the morning was overcast and a bit hazy so we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji and could barely see the ocean when we sat down on the above, empty bench next to these four Japanese ladies.

If you aren’t tired after your walk and after visiting the Daibutsu, make sure to visit Hasedera if you haven’t before or if you aren’t planning on doing so on a future trip. From there you can jump on the train and go to Enoshima or you can walk the beach back most of the way to the Kamakura station, saving 250 yen and seeing much more than you can see from the train.

Also, a cheaper way to get to Kamakura is from Shibuya through Yokohama. Instead of the 780 or 890 yen quoted on Yamaonna’s blog, it is only 550 yen (although it takes a bit longer).

One final note, this hike can be very muddy if it has rained recently. It hadn’t rained in almost 48 hours but it was still muddy for us in places. I wouldn’t recommend this hike if it has rained in the past 24 hours.

Posted on March 11th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, hiking, kamakura, people, tokeiji. Comments: 1