My first hike in Tokyo: Takao-san guchi to Sagami Lake

I'm lost in this big city, but I had the chance to explore some mountains for the day, and since I didn't want to go hiking all by my lonesome, I was lucky enough to convince 9 nice folks from the local hiking club to come with me. The superb railway system here makes it so easy to get from place to place, even out in the countryside, that it's easy to get off at one station, hike over a mountain, and get back on a train from another station on the other side of the mountain. My companions and I did just that, starting at Takao-san guchi station, and ending up at Sagami Lake station.


The Takao side of the hike was extremely crowded, as it's popular for local hikers and runners from Tokyo, especially on a sunny day like yesterday, which was the first sunny day in a week. Tokyo was hot, but the weather on the mountain was relatively cool and pleasant, due both to the forests of cedar and cypress blanketing the mountain, and to the cool rivers running through the canyons cutting across it. The relatively easy climb to the top of Takao (about 600 m altitude) took about an hour and a half.

From there on we traversed the ridge to Shiro-yama, which means Castle Mountain. Despite the name, there was no castle on top, though maybe there had been one in feudal times? The top of Shiroyama now is dominated by NHK antennas and an outdoor restaurant. Descending from Shiryama to Sagami Lake took us through some very quiet and peaceful cedar forest. My group and I weren't quiet enough for the forest, however, leading one local hiker to complain that we were being too loud as we were walking along the trail.

The trail descended to the Sagami river, which it crossed via a very nice pedestrian bridge of suspension type (BenTen Bridge). It then ran through some rice fields and vegetable gardens before re-crossing the river at the Sagami Lake Dam. Just upstream of the dam, a large boil marked the lake surface, as this is the location of the lake's aeration system, where air is pumped into the bottom of the lake, to spur overturning of the lake water and to prevent stratification and depletion of the oxygen on the lake bottom.


After about 4 1/2 hours of walking from Takaosan guchi station, we reached Sagami Lake station, and returned to Tokyo.