One of the most famous mountains in West Tokyo (other than the over-crowded Mt. Takao), would be Mount Mitake and it's neighbouring Mt. Odake. The standard hike to the summit of Odake begins just below Mitake Shrine, which usually takes about 2 hours. It is a standard climbing course with a few boulders to climb up and a few steep trail parts, but nothing out of the ordinary. I wanted to try something more adventurous.
My first time to Mount Odake, my friend Sneha & I took the trail from the other side of the mountain. Its about a 25 minute bus from Musashi-Itsukaichi station until Hinohara-Sho-Mae bus stop. This lesser known path starts steep, leading by the Tengu Waterfall and up to Tsuzura Rock, a popular training area to practice rock climbing for the more serious alps - definitely a spot to keep in mind when preparing for more challenging hikes! From there, we moved along the Sarugi Ridge, until we reached the final section for the summit. The last 20 minutes is another steep stairway and a few rocks until the final summit.
My next climb was on Mount Hinode, I started the trail from Sawai station, but after my friend Melissa and I got horribly lost using a very out of date map, we walked along the highway towards Mitake station, and found a proper entrance to the mountain - hilariously called the "run & beer trail". It was an extremely steep but short trail which I would absolutely not recommend running on after drinking beer. After about an hour or so of struggling to catch my breath, we quickly made it to the summit of the mountain. As we were taking in the sights of the surrounding area, a woman cheered and then approached us with a delightful expression on her face. "My boyfriend just proposed to me! Can you take a photo?" And so, I took them to the best spot on the mountain and snapped several proposal shots. It was a lovely moment. From there, we carried onwards to Mt. Mitake and returned.
Fast forward about half a year. One day, I got curious to see how far I could walk from my sharehouse (all the way from here), which was based near the Tama River by Fussa station. The plan was to try to make it to the top of Mount Hinode. After searching on several hiking maps, I found a secret trail entrance behind a shrine along the Tama River past Hinatawada station. So, I got up early in the morning and walked along the river and local roads for about 2.5 hours until I reached the entrance. There is a family mart nearby, so I was able to pack up some water and other snacks. I immediately made a mistake by accidentally climbing the wrong trail, leading me up a steep stairway to a hidden local shrine, but with no connecting trail. I backtracked and then began the real trail. From here it takes about 2.5 hours at a standard pace to reach Mt. Hinode, although I've seen plenty of trail runners and even mountain bikers speed through on this path. The last section is a bit steep, but overall its a very simple path. It was a hot summer day and I started late, and after reaching Mt. Mittake an hour later, I decided to retire again.
At the end of January 2022, I decided to finally make another attempt at Odake from the sharehouse. I left my house at 5:50am, and followed the same river path, and met my friend Nadia at the Family Mart near Hinatawada just after 8am. From there, we blazed along the same path, and were able to witness a rare, wild kamoshika. Because we started early and were travelling at quite a steady pace without a break, the two of us were able to reach Mitake very early in the day. But we both were a bit hungry, so we took a half hour break at one of the local restaurants, where I grabbed some delicious oyako-don. It was around 1:30pm, so we would be cutting it fairly close if we tried to make it to Odake, but we decided to press onward. As I had already been walking for almost 7 hours at that point, the incline felt much more steep than it should have been. Eventually, we reached the summit of Odake, and were able to see Mt. Fuji in the distance. There was one other foreign hiker who kindly cautioned us about the daylight, as we were clearly the last hikers of the day. After snapping a few photos we turned back and made it to the cable car just as the sun set. It was a long journey, but realizing I was able to climb 3 mountains in one day, just by walking out my front door, was a great feeling of accomplishment.
The Okutama mountain range is full of lovely day hikes and interesting challenges. Because all of the mountains are connected and regularly travelled, there are multiple courses and variations to take, giving the hiker a fresh experience each time.
On a Misty autumn morning in 2022, I took another trail from Oku-tama to the summit of Mt Odake, and then down another road passing through rivers and waterfalls. Only about 5% of the trail overlapped, making it feel like an entirely different mountain!
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