I found my new favorite hiking trail in Tokyo, the Toke Trail. Recently I went for a day trip hoping to get into the Nippara Limestone Caves in Okutama, but due to the COVID state of emergency they were closed. Hiking in Okutama was fine though.
Okutama is a very old town in far west Tokyo dating back to the Yayoi Jidai, or Bronze Age. Despite it's population decline it's experiencing a slight revival due to young Japanese and foreigners' renewed interest in outdoors activities.
(Okutama Station, last stop on the Ome Line.)
The Toke trail is a 1.3 kilometer trail one way. It is also known as a "forest therapy" trail which is a type of natural, outdoor therapy gaining popularity in Japan.
The trail head starts a bit up the mountain just past residences and a large sports park.
Signs direct you to the trail head.
If for some reason you get lost any passerby will be kind enough to point you in the right direction. A simple, "Sumimasen, Toke Trail doko desu ka?"(Excuse me, where is the Toke Trail?) will help too.
Let's begin!
At the base of the trail there is a small community center with a tram that takes frail people halfway up the mountain to a viewing area of the trail.
The switchbacks start just past the community center. This portion of the trail is lined with younger trees that create a canopy over the path.
After a few switch backs you reach the first rest area. It offers nice views of the surrounding mountains and valley.
There are interesting benches here that are reclining. I think they may be for star gazing. Have you seen anything like this on a trail before?
This is also where you will see the first of these bird watching boxes. Notice the variety of chairs as at each location as we get further up the trail.
From here the trail turns into the forest.
The cedar trees take you into a whole different world, quiet, peaceful, back to nature. I can definitely understand the therapy effect it has.
A few more switchbacks and you feel like you are deep in a forest.
Then you reach another viewing area.
It looks out into the forest over a tributary.
This viewing area is where the tram from the community center below takes you to. A nice place to sit and enjoy the forest & wildlife.
A larger viewing area is just beyond this one around corner.
I noticed there were poles protruding from some of the support walls of the trail. Then at the larger viewing area I discovered why.
Very typical of Japanese to take these details into consideration. People leave tools on the trail for volunteers or passer by's to maintain it.
Upon closer inspection of this area I noticed another cool detail, a cedar tree was fashioned into a chair with the decking built around it.
This was a great pace to take a break and enjoy a can of coffee. Other than the birds & the wind there were no other sounds. It was very comforting.
After my coffee I continued down the trail to another community center type building. There is a bathroom here too, but because of COVID it was closed.
I noticed inside this building there were quite a few yoga mats. It seems there are yoga classes up here as well.
From this point you cross the tributary that the viewing areas over look and start up a long switchback.
Looking back at the building we just passed.
Along this long switchback there are a few of these cut outs in the trail wall with chairs. I thought these were interesting.
Looking back down the trail I came from and the path up. A gorgeous view.
Suddenly there is a viewing/resting area, but this one is off the trail and down in the woods about 100 feet.
As I continued I came across the most awesome walking stick!
I used it until the end of the trail before leaving it behind for the next person. I would have liked to have kept it and finished it with some lacquer, but it seems someone else had left it for me to find, so I did the same for the next person.
Shortly after finding my walking stick I reached the end of the trail, or the beginning depending on how you walk it. There is another community building here with a viewing area too.
From this point the trail meets a road that will either take you further up the mountain or down the mountain and back to town. I did the latter as I wanted to visit Shiro Maru damn down the road.
The views walking down the road were quite nice as well.
Here is a great video showing the trail and some of it's interesting features.
I ended up walking over 5km that day. After this trail I walked down to Shiro Maru damn and then to Cafe Gallery Poppo, part of which you can read about here: @rt395/a-river-runs-through-it-cafe-gallery-poppo
There is still so much to explore and do up around Okutama. I look forward to going back this fall when it cools off a bit.
Okutama is located about 2hours west of Shinjuku station. One way there by train is $11.
Here is a map of how to get to the trail from the station.
I started this post just to the left of the "P", bottom, center of the map. There is a lower portion to the trail that I will cover in a later post about Okutama.
