which is said to be one of the easiest mountain hikes near Tokyo,

but will this easy hike be more than we expected

will it all be worth it in the end?

Find out in this episode of Life in Japan.

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

This is fun, but you better be there and get on.

This year we've been more intentional with getting out and exploring more of the world around us,

and today even though it's cloudy, we're going to conquer a small mountain.

To get there, we've chosen to ride the Romance Car down to Hadano

where we will get off an ascend the nearby Mount Koubou.

It is pretty glorious, huh? A lot of space.

Riding on these trains is really relaxing

Big windows, lots of space, it's the way to travel.

Normally you can see those mountains over there no problem, but today? A little bit cloudy.

Ah, the Japanese countryside. So pretty.

I want to plant rice. If somebody knows how I can do the rice-field thing...

I really want to try a rice-field with my kids.

So if any of you know how I can do that, please let me know.

There's the ridge we're going to be walking.

Here comes Hadano!

We will soon arrive at Hadano.

Ok, shall we go? Let's go.

Off in Hadano, here we go!

Well, there you go.

So it's about a 15 minute walk from the station to the trailhead.

And you can even see where we're going up here on the ridge.

And the ridge is supposed to take a couple of hours to hike.

OK good sign, we found it!

It's the entrance and a bunch of signs.

It looks like we're going to be walking a little ways.

And the girlfriend's getting ready to hike. Taking the jacket off.

Oh cool. OK, here we go.

Up that way.

This is supposed to be one of the easiest hikes for beginners.

Praise the Lord!

Yes, it gradually goes up and then gradually comes back down.

And very beautiful, especially in Sakura.

Well, it's not Sakura now, but maybe we'll want to come back during that time.

Or the Fall maybe... With the kids.

With the kids.

Good morning!

Welcome to the trail.

Does this feel easy?

Nope.

Ruth says she's burning her donut off

And it does feel like that

Because this first part just goes up, up, up

And that makes sense, you're walking up the the peak.

But helpfully, from what I've heard, the rest of it is nice and level and then goes back down.

So pay the price right up here, up front.

Whew! Getting towards the end of the stairs!

Which feels really nice.

Oh, I think this is it, I think we made it to the first part of the top.

Way to go.

The easiest of all easy trails they say.

OK here we go, a sign.

There's a toilet in 0.2 km. Nice.

One of the mountains that we're going up is not only one of the easiest hikes that you can do in the Tokyo area,

It also has one of the best views of Mt Fuji

Well, one of the 100 best views from the Kanto area.

I don't know who decides that or what,

I don't think we're seeing Mt Fuji today,

But it would be fun to come back and see what that looks like.

Look at these bathrooms, they look like little hobbit holes. How cute.

OK, here's what we're doing.

We started way down here, climbed up,

And now we're right here.

And it looks like we still have a good point of the climb to do

And then most of it's up on this ridge.

Nate's bring me hiking on a trail in the Tokyo area that I have to watch for bears.

What in the world?!

Yes look— watch for bears! OK...

The last big up, here it comes.

Yes, send Ruth up in front to scare them away!

Mama Bear will take care of them.

OK

It might be considered easy but it's not that easy.

Here comes the last little bit because I can see the observation tower up there.

That means we're at the top! The rest of it should be downhill from there, yea!

Ah! Yes, yes!

Yes! We did it!

Let's go see what it looks like on top of this lookout tower. That looks interesting to me.

Ruth's like "I don't need a lookout tower, that's alright."

I'll just look from there.

You can actually see Mt Fuji.

Can you see it? Very faint, the outline of it.

Well no doubt about it, it's beautiful up here. It's not even a clear day, and it's beautiful.

Ok now it's time... For a road.

For a road.

4.6 km it says still.

Oh, that's not bad.

That's not bad at all.

This part right here is famous during Sakura because these are Sakura trees.

It would be really pretty. Help the climb not feel so bad.

There's lot's of Hydrangeas.

Lot's a Hydrangeas

And a vending machine with Wilkinson Lemon and Fruit Water!

There's some good choices there.

You can imagine that on a clear day, this looks awesome here.

Today you can barely tell that there's anything out there.

Oh, this is the bird sanctuary.

A bird sanctuary here, huh?

Tag Silvia, she's a birder, isn't she? She is a birder.

She would love this.

Alright! OK Dokey.

Down we go.

Down we go.

All signs lead that way.

Well trail etiquette in Japan is really cool.

You say "Konichiwa" to everyone who goes by

In the city, it's definitely not that way.

You just go about your business and do your thing.

But on the trail, everyone says "Konichiwa"

If you stop, taking a break, it's fun to meet people and talk with them and see where they're from

That's one of the things I really love about hiking trails in Japan, is that trail etiquette.

Goodness, this right here is mud fest.

Yikes!

Mud fest? Mud.

And oh yes. I got a little drink,

And we just saw that we're about halfway on this trail.

Half About half.

Let's go.

These are some pretty pine trees here.

There's our sign.

We go into the caves.

Go into the darkness.

Don't worry girlfriend, I'm with you.

[laughs]

We've gone 3.83 km since we turned this on.

Who? We have!

3.83 km

Here we go girlfriend, 2.8 km 2.8 km.

We got this.

You come across all kinds of people on a trail like this

And it's fun, you get to chat a little bit

Try your Japanese out, and a lot of people will try their English out with us.

Which is really fun.

Then you just try to guess what the other person's saying.

OK, some decisions to make here.

We want to keep going towards that station though, don't we?

Yea, I think so. I think this is the way we want to go right here.

Well Ruth was just saying how much she wished she would have brought a hard candy,

And wouldn't you know it... Someone gave us one!

We met someone and started talking with him

And he's like "Oh here, try some of these, they're really good while you're hiking."

It was a hard candy and it's awesome.

Well, we're getting close now.

Which way do we want to go?

We want to go that way—oh!

Not that way,

That way

[stumbles]

Whatever you do, don't drop the camera! That's right.

Well you can see where you're at.

Yes you can, look at this.

Big view here, that's cool.

We could go sit right down here.

Wow. That just like goes off into Netherland.

So going down this side is much more gradually

You still have some of these stairs and different things,

but not nearly as much as going up that other side.

Nice. And look at this! Sunlight!

Yea.

Right there.

Down that way.

Ruth with her straddle walk.

Whoa, look at that! Whoa!

Watch your step here!

Will he make it?

There's the Tomei [Expressway]

Hitchhike back home.

Ruth's making sure her Instagram followers have something to watch.

This trail going up is just like a little hole in the woods.

Alright, we finished the main part of the trail and now just walk back to the station

And grab the Odakyu line back home.

That was faster than I expected.

That was fast. It wasn't bad.

It wasn't bad. It's 11:45 is all.

An easy hike, see.

There's a famous Japanese bath right here that we don't have time to check out today

But oh my goodness! Totally want to try that sometime.

Apparently it's not just an onsen, Ruth has mentioned more than once, what have you said?

It's an [Japanese] inn. It's a ryokan.

You can stay there.

Fun fun fun

All in all, we enjoyed our hike

and if we do it again, we will probably go the other way, climbing slowly and descending quickly.

Or we might leave enough time to do an onsen at the end.

What did you think? There's a lot of great hikes around Tokyo, do you have a favorite?

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and until next time, we'll see you on Life in Japan. Bye bye.