Hiking in Japan with a rail pass

thechanger

Hello all,

I'm looking for some places of interest, tips or advice for using the Japanese Rail Pass. I've been to Japan a number of times, but mostly around the Tokyo basin and a little in Hokkaido for skiing.

This time, I'm hoping to get a 7 day rail pass to explore a little further. My main pursuits of interest are hiking, climbing, nature and natural onsens. It's not my main purpose to visit strictly tourist destinations, and all Japanese cities look roughly the same to me.

So I'd love to hear your recommendations of stunning nature, trails and places that are ideally accessible by rail, maybe around Chugoku region (Is Hiroshima worth visiting?), Shikoku, Japanese Alps or even as far south as Kyushu (Worth it?) – so mostly the west of the country.

I look forward to your suggestions.

Thanks

Edit:
While researching on Wiki travel, I've come across quite an interesting place - Iya_Valley. However it doesn't look quite accessible without a car.

I plan to do some research this week and over the weekend, and will report back with good findings. It'd be nice to include a list of good hikes in this thread.

osarusan

My experiences of hiking here are limited to the Minami-Alps in Nagano, the Tannzawa mountains in Kanagawa, and just 3 days ago, a 17km hike from the base of Mt. Jinba to the summit (at 599metres!) of Mt. Takao, which is only an hour away from Tokyo central.

Hiroshima is worth visiting for the A-Bomb dome and museum - you can also take a boat to Miyajima and there's a mountain to climb there. Don't know about any other hiking though.

Places like Nagano would have some of the best hiking in Japan.

There's a blog by some guy - seems to be dormant now as he's left japan - but it has some info on hikes he'd done in Japan.

http://www.mikesblender.com/escapes_fuji5lakesdec.php

thechanger

Mt. Takao is a good day out for sure.
Also worthy of a mention and is a day trip from Tokyo is Oyama, Kanagawa, which can be reached via Isehara station (1 hour from Shinjuku). However you would need transport (About 10 km) to get to the base, unlike Takao.

The main reason for my post is to find places reachable from a station. However it seem tricky.

WikiTravel has descent list of off-the-beaten-track to get one started.

And for the weird that still possess a children's sense of adventure and exploration, my research has led me to Haikyo.

Cravez

If you're looking for natural onsens then Beppu in the Ōita Prefecture on Kyushu is good. The area is famous for natural onsen and you can go hiking in the surrounding areas.

thechanger

For reference on day hiking trips from Tokyo. I did several of these recently.