going up and down ridges, behind subdivisions and cutting through forests

As I head out to hike this old road, I wonder if I will get caught in a storm

or get lost in the forest where I'll get stuck in the dark.

One thing is for sure, you would never guess to find something like this here.

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

OK, after some searching, I think I found the way to the entrance of this path

It's called the Tama Yokoyama no Michi

And it's a 10 km path that I've been wanting to do since I discovered it.

It this hike—this climb—is any sign of things to come, we're going to be up in the hills.

OK this right here is a very good sign.

Right here the path goes up...

And it's right here that my phone says we should be going this way.

I don't know what too terribly what much to expect,

And it's about 3 o'clock

So starting this late, I sure hope I can make the whole trail before it gets too dark.

OK it's 3:05 PM, I found the head of the trail here

Here we go, it's going off in this direction

And we're going to go 10 km

Hopefully I have enough time to the end, to the Karakida station

This is going to be an adventure, here we go. I've been looking forward to this.

Here we go, very good sign.

This means I have found it and look, here we are

We're all the way at the top of this map here

And going to follow this puppy all the way down here to the end at Karakida.

So here we go.

This is just crazy, I don't know how many times I've driven on that road

and had no idea that this is up here.

Ten kilometers before it gets dark should not be a problem

The problem is you have to watch out for the signs to know which way to go

And there's some places on the trail that are a little tricky to know where the turns go

And not to get off.

And so I really hope that I get those right.

That will determine whether I can make this all in time or not.

The train line where I started is all the way down there—

There's the train I came on

And I had to hike all the way up here, so that gives a little bit of perspective.

What a gorgeous day.

If you talk about things that get my excited, let me tell you what...

Hidden trails that go along ridges through the middle of the suburbs,

Through the mountains and up back through different places,

That gets me excited.

That charges my battery

Even though I use a lot of energy to walk something like this.

There's lots of little turn offs like that and that way.

Which way do you go?

Well in this case I'm going to go the way that looks like the main route if there's no other marking.

And hope I stay on.

Finding this trail was a happy accident.

'Cause I took Ruth to go shopping at BookOff

And I went to a nearby park

And as I was walking there I came across a big sign

And discovered that I had stumbled upon this huge trail

That then I got really excited to do.

And I've wanted to do it since.

I just discovered something I had no idea was here.

This map I came across, and look at this huge trail that goes through Tama.

And it looks really cool. I really want to try this sometime.

I went and looked it up later at home

And found a guy who had done it and posted pictures of it.

And I was like "Yes! I've gotta do that the next chance I get."

These are the plaques along the way.

I wish my Japanese were a little better.

I understand a number of these kanjis but there's a bunch I don't.

But there— that's the good sign right there.

Tama Yokoyama no Michi. We are in the right place.

I read that this route follows and old trading route that used to be the road through the Tama Hills

It connected several areas.

And people and the traders would go and use this road to get around.

Now there some main roads right down into the valley next to this which have become the main roads

But this path exists as a reminder of the ways that people used to get around.

Pretty cool.

My phone says I've walked 2 km so far

So we're doing good, making good time.

I think we got this. I hope we got this.

This has been going up for awhile, I bet there's a view coming up.

I bet there's a view.

And sure enough... what a view!

You can see the trail continuing along that ridge in the distance.

Oh boy, that's where we're going!

This was not a sunny day

But now as I get out here the sun's coming out some

But the clouds are still beautiful.

It's one of those beautiful Spring days that isn't too hot

And it's not chilly either

It feels like rain might be coming here.

There are a lot of different places where it veers off

But if you look for these plaques and especially these signs

I've seen a lot of these signs here, they're very helpful.

They have distances and they show you which way the trail goes

And you can know "OK, here we go, we're going across the road here."

Now not all of this trail is an actual trail.

Some of it follows along the road or pass the backs of businesses.

And different things—some schools are along the way.

There's lots of different interesting things that you find along this trail.

Well it appears to cut through a university here

There's all kinds of ballfields, it looks like a nice place.

And then look at that— there you go!

Yokoyama no Michi

This way

I must say it's a little disconcerting to see me walking on a road here.

Hopefully that doesn't last long.

OK, good sign, good sign here. There's another one.

Alright, here we go. We are right here.

We started up here

And it looks like maybe roughly a third of the way.

Making decent time.

Alright, I found the sign, we will not be on the road anymore.

That's the road, and here comes our path.

Alright! [laughing]

Here we go!

You can tell you're walking a ridge, because there's a lot of ups and downs.

There's a nice little butterfly or a moth.

Here's a joke for you.

What do you tell a Japanese butterfly who you want to stay still and not move?

"Chyo chyo matte kudasai"

You see it sounds like "Shyo shyo matte kudasai"

Which is like "Wait a moment"

But the word for butterfly is chyo chyo

So it's a play on words in Japanese

Hey, if you don't like it, then just let me know in the comments. I don't know.

Every once in a while you can kind of get a sense that you're up on this ridge

You can see down the valley that way,

And this definitely goes down over here too.

Very interesting.

And then the ridge just keeps going.

Like my feet walking this ridge, here we go.

Just when you think you've been walking on the street a long time

Then comes another sign that lets you know it's time to veer off.

There it is.

And we'll be going up this way, here we go.

Oh wow! I know exactly where we are.

We just happened to come across the park where I stumbled across this trail for the first time.

And now this part of the trail, the next 2 km or so, I've walked already.

I know it.

I tell you what, it sure does look like it could rain.

I hope not yet.

Oh! Here's the sign I originally stumbled across.

And I was like "What? What a huge trail!"

And look at this, a proper bathroom.

I'm going to have to use it.

Well my app says I've been walking for an hour and 18 minutes

A distance of over 5 km

I'm doing pretty good, I've burned 360 calories so far.

Now not all of those kilometers are on this trail

Because I had to walk at least a kilometer I would say, maybe more to get to the trail head

So what's my snack today?

It would be cheese, fruits and nuts

180 calories in this one pack, it's perfect.

Like I said, this used to be an old trade route

But what's really interesting is that at the end of this trade route, do you know what there is?

A Costco. There you go.

It's amazing how dark it gets under these woods here.

You can tell it's getting later in the day.

And the sun's hidden, so...

Here we go, back out onto a road.

"Go this way please" it says. Well OK, I will.

This parking lot over here

Is where I came and I parked when I left Ruth at BookOff.

A good shopping trip really recharges Ruth's batteries.

And it can for me sometimes but not always.

There's just all kinds of vending machines along the way

I brought water with me but I really didn't need to.

Because look at all these vending machines.

I can count 5 right now.

Right here.

This is one of the parts that surprised me last time

Because all of a sudden you're walking on this trail

And it goes up next to this road

It's a drop-off on one side and the other side is a big drop-off down to all kinds of sports fields.

And then you look out and you have an awesome view of the city.

It's just like "Man, what is this place? What is this trail?"

There was no rain in the forecast

But I'm going to check my weather app because it sure looks dark over there.

I would not want to get stuck in the rain.

It doesn't look like it's supposed to rain just yet. Let's hope it stays that way.

Now this part really messed me up last time

Because the trail actually continues up there.

But in order to get up there you have to cross here, go over there, and then go up.

But according to this sign, I thought "Oh 3.2 km that way?"

Oh man. At least they have this one right here to make it much more clear what you're supposed to do.

So I learned something watching some of the hikers that I like to watch on YouTube.

It's called "Cameling up"

And basically what you do is instead of carrying your water on your back

You drink a lot of it and carry it in your stomach.

And then it's lighter on your shoulders, and it's easier to carry.

Cheers.

This part right here would be absolutely beautiful during the Sakura.

All of these are Sakura trees here.

And right up here is where I saw the snake when I first came up this trail.

That was... that was pretty exciting.

Sarah would absolutely freak out! I came up on a snake.

Yes, a snake!

Look at that. He's slowly moving away.

Oh my goodness, that's right. Move away snake!

In these bushes here, amazing.

I guess you just never know what you're going to find on the trail.

That's the first time I've seen a snake I think in Japan just out in the wild

It's not even the wild.

This part right here feels a little strange because it's like you're walking up somebody's driveway.

There's their garage and you're like "Oh hey! What's up?"

I was like "Did I get lost, am I still in the right place?"

Yes, I was still on the right place, it just happens to be his house is built right on the path.

This little section right here might win the award for the pretty flowers that were along the trail.

At least it does so far.

Here's as far as I came last time.

And now from here on out I have to really pay attention to signs

Because I'm not quite sure where to go.

But I think I know where my first stop will be.

A little stop at the 7-11 for an onigiri and a drink

And look at this!

I don't know how many times I've driven on this road right here and had no idea that this was here.

This is quite the castle-looking complex.

Boy that would be fun — the kids would love that!

A recreation hall

Well here we go, we're going to cross over and continue that way.