(大山) Oyama Hike

Oyama is part of Japan's 300 Famous Mountains, if that matters. 

Budget: JPY2,420 (~USD23)
  • JPY1,680. Train, Tokyo to Isehara Station (JPY840 one way)
  • JPY640. Bus, Isehara Station to Oyama Cable Car. (JPY320 one way) 
  • JPY100 Hiking fee.

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation: 1,252m / 4,108ft)
  • February 21, 2021
  • Difficulty: 3 out of 5.
  • Route below is around 8.3kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲1,367m/ ▽1,363m  (4h30m)


When to Go
Anytime during the year, though depending on the weather, prepare for a lot of snow in winter. 
Depends on when you visit of course, but one guy visited January 2021 and saw a LOT of snow (pictures here). 

Special Notes
  • Weather forecast: English / Japanese. English more detailed, Japanese more accurate. 
  • The summit has one restaurant, plenty of tables, and a rather smelly restroom. 
  • Trailheads. Quite a lot of options to mix and match, but here's what I have for now. 
    • Yabitsu-touge (ヤビツ峠) . Google maps pin. This place sees a lot of snow in winter, and for January 2021, they even stopped the first bus from going to Yabitsu-touge, and instead stops at Bodai because of the snow. Access as follows:
      • Train, Tokyo to Hadano Station. About 2 hours, JPY1,000 one way.
      • Bus, Hadano Station (秦野駅) to Yabitsu-touge (ヤビツ峠). JPY280, 48 minutes one way. Earliest trains are 7:44am, 8:24am and 9:04am. There are seven buses on weekends, two on weekdays. 
      • Yabitsu-touge to Hadano Station bus schedule here. Last bus at 3:15pm. 
    • Bodai (菩提). Haven't tried this trail, but a pretty good option. 
      • Train, Tokyo to Hadano Station. About 2 hours, JPY1,000 one way.
      • Bus, Hadano Station (秦野駅) to Bodai (菩提). JPY250, 14 minutes one way. It's one of the stops before Yabitsu-touge. 
    • Oyama Cable Car (大山ケーブル). Google maps pin. Cable car runs from 9am til around 4:30pm, website here.
      • Train, Tokyo to Isehara Station. 
      • Bus, Isehara Station to Roubendaki (良弁滝). North Exit, Bus stop 4. Look for "伊10 (or 9 or 11) 系統「大山ケーブル」".
        • There's a restroom right next the bus stop at Isehara Station, and another restroom right at the drop off at Oyama cable. 
        • Google maps would say stop at Roubendaki - ignore that and get off at the last stop, Oyama cable. 
      • If you are skipping the Cable Car, I'd recommend going up the male trail given that it's steeper. The woman trail is definitely much more picturesque and enjoyable though. 
      • Roundtrip from Oyama Cable Car trailhead map below:
    • Koutakuji Onsen (広沢寺温泉). Google maps pin. 
      • Train, Tokyo to Atsugi Station. 
      • Bus, Atsugi Station to Koutakuji Onsen. JPY390, 42mins one way. 
        • There are two buses on weekdays, four on weekends. Take note that there are two bus stops too: 広沢寺温泉 and 広沢寺温泉入口. Be careful to take the one without "入口". 
        • Atsugi Station -> Koutakuji Onsen schedule: 8:55am, 12:55pm, 3:10pm and 7:05pm. Check this link for updated schedule. 
        • Koutakuji Onsen -> Atsugi Station schedule: 8:00am, 12:00pm, 2:00pm and 6:10pm. Check this link for updated schedule. 
  • Mountain huts. 
    • Paid. None.
    • Free.  None. 
    • Camping. None.
Itinerary
  • 07:14am. Tokyo to Isehara Station.
  • 08:53am. ETA: Isehara Station. Exit via North Exit (北口). 
  • 09:05am. Bus, Isehara Station to Oyama Cable Car.  (Bus伊10大山ケーブル行)
  • 09:29am. ETA: Oyama Cable Car. 
  • 09:30am. Start hike
  • 12:40pm. ETA: Summit of Oyama 大山. One hour lunch. 
  • 03:35pm. ETA: Oyama Cable Car Bus Stop. There's about three buses an hour. 
Actual Log
  • 07:14am. Tokyo to Isehara Station.
  • 08:53am. Arrived at Isehara Station. Exited via North Exit (北口), which was well marked. The bus arrived at 8:57am but left on time. 
  • 09:05am. Bus, Isehara Station to Oyama Cable Car.  (Bus伊10大山ケーブル行)
  • 09:29am. Arrived Oyama Cable Car, had some restroom break and got ready to hike. 
  • 09:40am. Started hike. We first passed through a shopping street which sells fresh veggies and food (the cheap veggies were gone when we went down).
  • 09:54am. Got to the split between woman and man trail. Woman trail had the shrine on the trail, and relatively shorter stairs as opposed to the man trail. I wold say go up the man trail, and down the woman trail. 
  • 10:30am. Arrived at the big flat spot with the restaurants, where we bought ice cream and had some ice cold water (free!)
  • 10:59am. Arrived at the shrine where we took plenty of pictures. Turned left to continue the hike on, and paid the JPY100 fee. 
  • 12:22pm. Arrived at the summit of Oyama 大山, which has a restaurant for those without meals. We sat in one of the tables near the summit and had lunch.  
  • 01:38pm. Started our descent. 
  • 03:05pm. Arrived at the split betwee the man/woman trail, close to the cable car stop. We decided to take the man trail this time, which was nothing but a long, nonstop sets of stairs. 
  • 03:40pm. Arrived at the Oyama Cable Car Bus Stop. Got into the bus that goes straight to Isehara Station, no stops. 
  • 04:11pm. Arrived at Isehara Station and headed back home!
Plenty of guides at the train. 

Right outside is the loooong line for the bus. 

The rather full bus. 

Just followed the crowd going up this road. 

Again, followed the crowd and kept left. 

For the shopping street, they had plenty of these tiles. 

The loooooong shopping street. 

The path splits for the woman trail (女坂) and man (男坂) trail.  

We were immediately greeted by stairs. 

Buddhas(?) also mark the trail. 

The shrine that we passed at the woman trail. We decided to skip going up these stairs. 

The merge of the woman - man trails has a big flat spot and these big blocks of wood that  

The split on whether to do the hike counterclockwise or clockwise. 

A store right in the middle of the hike. They offer quite a selection too. Even pizza.  

JPY400 for TWO scoops of gelato! Good gelato! Definitely a deal!

On our way to the shrine after a nice ice cream break. 

Shrine in the middle of the mountain. 

The JPY100 donation. 

Going up the trail. 

The crowded trail. 

Some very nice planks reminiscent of my Mt. Tanzawa hike. 

Big rocks this time. 

Soon enough was the torii marking the summit. 

The table where we sat down for lunch. Pretty muddy ground though. 

Oyama's summit marker. 

Plenty of tables to sit down at. 

the restroom. Oh, this is an awful one. They have toilet paper, sure, but... it smells awful. 

The nice view is actually next to the toilet. 

If you are going on a hike, please DO NOT SIT BEHIND THE MARKER.

The trail down. We took the trail to the left. 

Nice hike down. Beautiful views. 

An unlimited STAIRS. 

A gorgeous viewing point, which is a better place to lunch at. 

Looking back at the top of Oyama. 

The rest of the hike back to the shrines. 

This was a lot more picturesque than this picture shows. 

Back at the fork of the man-woman trail. This time we took the man trail at the left. 

It was NONSTOP STAIRS.

Aaaaand here's the end of it! The last leg!

Comments

  1. Itinerary - Yabitsu-touge -> Koutakuji Onsen Route

    08:24am. Bus, Hadano Station to Yabitsu-touge.
    09:12am. ETA: Yabitsu-touge.
    09:30am. Start hike.
    10:40am. Summit of Oyama 大山.
    01:30pm. ETA: Koutakuji Onsen.

    ReplyDelete

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