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Heading to Japan for a long holiday in November. Unbelievably excited, as not been to Asia since 2009 and not been outside UK/Ireland since 2018. Always wanted to go.
Mostly will be spending the time touring around various places and sightseeing / eating through the towns and cities and visiting some well known beauty spots. Usual tourists stuff. But I would like to do one day's "strenuous" activity - like climb a big hill or mountain and take in a view that I may never see again.
Does anyone have any recommendations for anything near Tokyo / Kyoto / along the south part of Honshu sort of area?
I don't mind taking proper hiking gear with me, but I don't wanna take any winter mountaineering gear - so something that is well within the "longish easy walk but with a wild feeling" category would be ideal. I did look at the Mt Fuji trails as originally we would be going in summer, but apparently it's not really that great, and in November would be a much bigger proposition as it is officially closed.
Something equivalent to going up a Munro in effort if that makes sense?
My guide book says:
Nikko and Izu-Shoto near Tokyo.
If there’s any chance of you making it an overnight stay then a night in a mountain hut (and dawn the next day) would be a memorable experience. Several options for
If there’s any chance of you making it an overnight stay then a night in a mountain hut (and dawn the next day) would be a memorable experience. Several options for this.
The Japanese Alps are stunning. Might be a bit difficult to use public transport for a day. We went last year and stayed in Takayama. The road from Matsumoto is one of the best roads I've ever driven. We had a hire car (easy driving). And spent time exploring. We didn't do any big mountain walking routes ( though there are many) but spent the time looking here and there. If you can find the time then definitely worth a visit.
The Japanese Alps are stunning. Might be a bit difficult to use public transport for a day. We went last year and stayed in Takayama. The road from Matsumoto is one of the best roads I've ever driven. We had a hire car (easy driving). And spent time exploring. We didn't do any big mountain walking routes ( though there are many) but spent the time looking here and there. If you can find the time then definitely worth a visit.
Thank you! There is actually a possibility of an overnight stay by myself at some point which might give me a bit more time. My wife really wants to stay in one of those capsule hotels and I'm not super keen on the idea (and tbh we wouldn't be together anyway in that case so wouldn't cause any dramas...) so I was thinking I could go there for a night and do something. Perhaps with some kind of mountain hut involved like @thecaptain says.
I will take a look at this idea a little further.
From Kyoto you could get the train to Kurama and do the walk to kibune. Not a full day by any means but I think there's some other trails there. No idea what it's like in November.
Or if in Matsumoto, there is a direct bus to Kamikochi (though Matsumoto itself is a slowish train from Tokyo to start with)
Which end of November will make a difference to the mountain weather probably everywhere.
A classic one-nighter would be Yatsugatake which should be comfortably reachable from Tokyo area. It could be a bit parky on the top, you need a bit of flexibility and common sense about the weather, we did it mid-Oct one year and it was pretty good.
Kumotoriyama is actually in Tokyo (border with two neighbouring prefectures). 2017m. That's another obvious overnighter.
Proper alps is probably a bit ambitious at that time of the year, I've just looked up and the huts there seem to mostly/all close on 3 Nov for the winter.
However I've just checked for you and the Kumotori hut is open all year (reservations required).
Lived in Japan for 13 years and spent most of our holidays walking in the mountains.
Oh look my long defunct webpages can still be found via the time machine:
Just a few ideas and obviously wildly out of date but the mountains mostly don't change that much!
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/alternative/index.htm l"> https://web.archive.org/web/20120907192609if_/http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/alternative/index.html
and
https://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home /"> https://web.archive.org/web/20140215094203/https://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
Don't know what is up with the posting of links on this shonky forum. Was it supposed to be an upgrade?