Top Kanagawa Prefecture Hiking Tours

Customize your private tour of Hakone, a popular destination in Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park known for its hot springs resorts. Visit area attractions with your own professional guide, including Hakone Shrine, the crafts village of Hakone Yosegi Zaiku, and a traditional Japanese ‘kominka’ house. Tea is provided at one of Hakone’s age-old teahouses. Opt for a ride on the Hakone Ropeway cable car with views of Lake Ashi and Mt Fuji, and/or enjoy a riverside soak in a local ‘onsen’ (open-air hot spring).

Hakone is surrounded by steep mountains. A popular tour is hiking in one of the mountains. However, what guests would probably do is to watch their steps most of the time not to fall down or off the trails. Instead, the tour I'm offering is to walk around relatively flat areas so the guests can spend more time to look around to appreciate the nature in Hakone with proper introduction by the guide. As Hakone is in the national park, there are areas where guests are not allowed to approach for the protection of the nature. We will use compact binoculars from time to time during the tour to get clearer views of wild birds or far off spots. Guests will meet wild flowers, insects, or wild birds, some of which are unique in Hakone or Japan, and, if lucky, we may spot wild mammals such as deer, wild boars, raccoon dogs. Hakone never ceases to make me wonder. Let's enjoy the nature in Hakone together!

You will hike around 8km in this trip and visit Lake Ashi, the Hachiri heritage path, Yamanaka Castle Ruins, Genbe River. The transportation between the sites is either on foot or by local bus. The guide will give you background of this historical part of Japan. You will traverse the Hakone Mountain like Edo period travellers and see Mt Fuji from different angles while you walk if weather permits. Hakone Hachiri is a Japan Heritage where you can experience how people traveled during Edo period (17th century). It is a part of the Old Tokaido Highway including the steep slope of Hakone mountains. Our Hakone Hachiri tour starts from Hakone Yumoto. We hike and take the bus to visit Amasake Tea House and walk on the cobble stone path to Lake Ashi where we will see the lake, Mt Fuji and the Torii gate of Hakone Shrine. After lunch near the Hakone Checkpoint, we take a bus to skip the temporally closed part and then resume the walk towards Mishima. Mishima Station is our ending point.

This tour involves 4-5 hour hiking in Hakone (about 8-9km) and you need to be fit to complete it. You will traverse the outer rim of Hakone caldera and enjoy lunch and onsen in this experience. The 90-min ascent up to the mountain top has an elevation gain of 500 meter. Then the 2.5 hour ridge walk gives you a panoramic view of Hakone area (. As you walk through the bamboo field, you will hear the birds singing and see sakura in spring, red leaves in autumn and step on the powdered snow in deep winter. After the ridge walk, you will go down the mountain in 30 minutes and reach Sengokuhara. Then lunch at local Japanese restaurant. Onsen follows for relaxation. If the weather is good, you can see Mt Fuji most of the time while you are on the ridge walk. Even when Mt Fuji is hiding behind the clouds, you still have a view of Miyagino and Sengokuhara in this traverse mountain hike. We go by chartered taxi to the trailhead. Transportation cost is not included in the tour price.

In this tour, you will start from my hometown, Minamiashigara 神奈川県南足柄市. 1) pick up at Odawara Station at 9am 2) go to the temple with 600 years old history by train and bus 3) forest bath in the path up the temple with the centuries old cedar and cypress trees along the way 4) visit the temple with the folklores being told 5) lunch at the nearby temple cafe 6) onsen (hot spring) near the temple, the facility is famous for healing your body and soul 湯冶温泉. 7) finish at Odawara station. Please note that the tour price doesn’t include lunch, (around 2000 yen), transportation fee or onsen fee (around 2000yen). Lunch could be at a Japanese tea house within the temple or in the onsen facility. Please bring comfortable walking shoes and warm clothes for walking in the forest. There’s luggage storage in Odawara station which you can use. Meeting point: Beck’s Coffee, 3Fl of Odawara station Ending point of this tour: Odawara station

Hike a section of the ancient forest-clad Tokaido Highway that links Tokyo with former capitals Kyoto and Osaka. Experience Amazake Chaya, one of the few remaining of hundreds of teahouses that lined the old Tokaido, Cedar Avenue with towering 400 year-old Japanese cedar patrolling both sides of the trail, and stunning views of Mt Fuji (weather permitting) from Yamanaka Castle Ruins, and more. Hakone Hachiri has been declared a Japan Heritage Area. Allow our guide to immerse you in the history, culture, and natural heritage of this ancient route.