イタリア産天然溶岩石を使った溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ「オンザショア」

イタリア産天然溶岩石を使った溶岩ホットヨガスタジオ「オンザショア」

Mount Takao Day Trip from Tachikawa: Hiking Guide, History and Forest

Where the warm forest meets the cool forest: the wildlife of Mount Takao

Step off the cable car and onto the trail and you notice the trees changing. According to Takao Tozan Railway, on either side of the ridge followed by Trail No. 1, the south-facing slopes are covered by warm-temperate forest dominated by evergreen oaks, and the north-facing slopes by cool-temperate forest of deciduous trees such as Japanese blue beech (inubuna). Yakuo-in, too, gives as the first reason for the mountain’s rich nature that it sits on the boundary between warm-temperate evergreen broadleaf forest and cool-temperate deciduous broadleaf forest. A southern forest and a northern forest stand back to back, divided by a single ridge.

That is why the number of plants is in a different league. Takao Tozan Railway writes that higher plants on and around the mountain number 1,300 species in 153 families. Of these, 65 wild plants were first described from Mount Takao and published to the scientific community. Violets alone account for about 40 species in the area. The ones you commonly see number only about 15, which means the other 25 reveal themselves only to people with very sharp eyes.

The beech story is a good one. According to the company, beech in the Kanto region grows wild only deep in the mountains; you have to go to the low mountains of the Tohoku region in the far north before it becomes common. On Mount Takao you can see it easily. From the north side of the plaza at the cable car’s top station to around the suspension bridge on Trail No. 4 there is a natural forest of Japanese blue beech, found only here on Mount Takao and on none of the surrounding mountains. A tree of the north quietly survives on the north face of a Tokyo mountain. Which means that, with no change of trains from Tachikawa, you can take a walk in a little northern forest.

There are plenty of animals too. Takao Tozan Railway’s list includes raccoon dogs (tanuki), giant flying squirrels, squirrels, weasels and owls. Spring birds include the blue-and-white flycatcher, the narcissus flycatcher and the ashy minivet; summer brings the ruddy kingfisher, the lesser cuckoo and the grey nightjar; winter, the red-flanked bluetail and the wren. Among the butterflies is the chestnut tiger, asagi-madara, known for journeys of hundreds of kilometres. The list of cicadas runs to eight species, from the ezo-zemi to the min-min-zemi. If you can tell their songs apart in summer on Mount Takao, you are a true connoisseur. At present I can distinguish two kinds: min-min-zemi, and everything else.

The star of Mount Takao is the Japanese giant flying squirrel, the musasabi. According to Hachioji City’s Japan Heritage materials, the flying squirrels of Mount Takao already appear in Musashi Meisho Zue, a gazetteer compiled in the Edo period by a group leader of the Hachioji Sennin Doshin, a corps of samurai-farmers stationed in Hachioji. Observation events are still held today, and after sunset or before dawn, around Yakuo-in and elsewhere, you may see them poking their heads out of their nest holes or gliding between the trees. You can meet, in the same forest, an animal drawn in a gazetteer two hundred years ago. The forest that was guarded on pain of death has faithfully guarded its residents in turn.

Needless to say, you may not pick plants or catch animals. Mount Takao is a quasi-national park, and Takao Tozan Railway reminds visitors that fires are banned on the entire mountain. Look, and nothing more. Take home photographs and sore muscles, and that is all.

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You can see Tachikawa from the observation deck: the ties between Mount Takao and Tachikawa

There is an observation deck near Takaosan Station at the top of the cable car. Reading Takao Tozan Railway’s description of it, I did a double take. To the north, the Okuchichibu and Nikko mountains; to the north-east, beyond the Kanto Plain, Mount Tsukuba. And it says you can see the urban areas of Hachioji and Tachikawa, the high-rise districts, Yokohama Landmark Tower and even Tokyo Tower.

Dusk over Hachioji seen from Kompira-dai on Mount Takao, with distant high-rises of central Tokyo.
Dusk over Hachioji seen from Kompira-dai on Mount Takao, with distant high-rises of central Tokyo.
Photo: Tobihino1977 / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons

Tachikawa gets a mention by name. To look down from halfway up a 599-metre mountain on the town whose streets you normally walk between office blocks is, for a Tachikawa person, not a bad feeling at all. On summer evenings, the company says, you can enjoy the night view from here. The town you picked out in daylight turns into grains of light after dark and dissolves into the plain.

The ties between Mount Takao and Tachikawa are not only a matter of the view. First, there is the same railway. According to Tachikawa City’s chronology, in April 1889 the Kobu Railway, today’s JR Chuo Line, opened between Shinjuku and Tachikawa, and in August of the same year it was extended from Tachikawa to Hachioji. As the line pushed on past Tachikawa, Hachioji and then the Takao hills became places you could reach by train. Even today, take a westbound Chuo Line train from Tachikawa and you cross the Tama River and arrive at Takao Station without changing.

Second, the same lord. Hojo Ujiteru, who protected Mount Takao so fiercely, was the lord of Hachioji Castle. A guide published by the Tachikawa City Museum of History and Folklore, “The Medieval Tachikawa Clan and the Tachikawa Documents,” writes that at the end of the age of civil war, the Tachikawa clan, the samurai family that ruled the Tachikawa area, were “under Hojo Ujiteru of Hachioji.” In 1590, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s attack on the Kanto destroyed their overlords, the Tachikawa clan shared their fate. The lord who ordered that not even the undergrowth on Mount Takao be cut was also the master of Tachikawa’s samurai. The Tachikawa clan and the town’s old temple and shrine are the subject of another walk in this series, “Fusai-ji Temple and Suwa Shrine.”

The third tie is silk. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Japan Heritage page, in the Edo period the silk industry centred on Hachioji was closely bound up with faith in Yakuo-in, and silkworm-raising families came to the temple for kaiko-mamori charms to protect their precious silkworms from rats. The boards and stone markers for cedar-sapling offerings along the approach carry the names of people closely connected with the silk trade, from places such as Gunma and Saitama. Tachikawa was a silkworm village too. According to Tachikawa City, Kokage Shrine, dedicated to the god of silkworms, was founded in the Sunagawa district in 1860, and silkworm-raising remained the heart of farming there until around the beginning of the Showa era. The records do not say whether anyone from a Tachikawa village was among those who came for the rat-proof charms. But it is certain that villages with the same worry were scattered across the plain that looks up at the Takao hills.

The Japan Heritage story “Reiki Manzan: Mount Takao, the Tale of the Mulberry Capital Woven by People’s Prayers” was recognised in 2020. Hachioji City’s materials say it was the first, and is still the only, Japan Heritage story in Tokyo. (Hachioji was known as Soto, “the mulberry capital,” for its silk.) Look out over the Kanto Plain from the summit, the Agency for Cultural Affairs page concludes, and you see three things overlapping: the lands of the Hojo clan, the silk economy centred on Hachioji, and the sphere of faith of Takaosan Yakuo-in. Somewhere near the eastern edge of that overlap is Tachikawa.

Mount Takao through the seasons: a day trip from Tachikawa

Mount Takao is a mountain you can climb again and again as the seasons change. Takao Tozan Railway writes that from near the summit you can see the Tanzawa mountains to the south, Mount Fuji clearly on a fine day, and in the clear air of winter the Southern Alps in the distance. Every season has its views, the company says, but the autumn leaves are something special.

Winter has a showpiece of its own. In December, around the winter solstice, the setting sun seen from the summit of Mount Takao goes down directly over the peak of Mount Fuji. This is “Diamond Fuji.” According to Takao Tozan Railway’s guide, sunset is at about 16:15, and the best time to watch is from 16:00 to about 16:15. The viewing spots are the summit or Momiji-dai, about a five-minute walk from the summit. It takes about 40 minutes on foot from the cable car’s Takaosan Station to the summit. The trails are dark after sunset, so the company urges you to carry a torch and to come down by Trail No. 1 and take the cable car. The cable car runs extended hours during the period, but this is cancelled in bad weather. Check the current year’s dates in the official announcement.

Takao Tozan Railway’s “Climbing Guide” is so solicitous that it is a pleasure to read. Eat a proper dinner the night before, about ninety per cent full. If you try too hard to get to sleep early, you won’t be able to, and you may even run a temperature as a result, which it calls “excursion fever.” Go to bed at your usual time, it says, and get up a little earlier than usual. I never expected to be tucked into bed by a railway company. It goes on in the same detailed vein: rainwear is absolutely essential in the mountains, and old-fashioned sweets that are more or less lumps of sugar are better than ones with restrained sweetness.

You can choose a path to suit your stamina. According to Takao Tozan Railway, there are three routes to the summit on foot, each taking about an hour and a half. The six nature trails are fitted with information boards about the mountain’s particular animals, plants, insects and wild birds, turning the whole mountain into an “outdoor museum of nature.” Take the cable car halfway up, pay your respects at Yakuo-in, walk on to the summit, then come down by a different path. For someone like me, who walks in constant negotiation with his knees, that is about right.

Spring brings one of Yakuo-in’s major events. According to Hachioji City’s Japan Heritage materials, the Hiwatari-sai, or fire-walking festival, is held every March: after burning goma prayer sticks, participants walk barefoot over the embers to pray for protection from misfortune and good luck. Ordinary visitors can try the fire walk after the ascetics. People who suffer from cold feet may find this tempting, but it is a rather different experience from a foot bath.

And the pleasures of Mount Takao continue after you come down. Yakuo-in writes that among the Fuji-ko, the Edo-period confraternities of Mount Fuji pilgrims, there was a belief that Mount Takao was the “front guardian” of Fuji. One of the main routes ran from Edo (old Tokyo) out to Hachioji, to Mount Takao to pray, then over Kobotoke Pass towards Fuji. For the people of Edo, Mount Takao was the first step of a great journey. For people in Tachikawa, it is the perfect first step too. If you feel like going, you can go tomorrow morning.

Eat a rice ball on the summit and look for Tachikawa in the haze to the east. When you find it, follow the line you came in on and take the same train home. The forest of Mount Takao was guarded at the cost of men’s heads and built up with layer upon layer of prayers. Fill your lungs with its air, and then go home without changing trains.

The quiz answer

The answer is (B), beheading. The decree of the second month of 1590, as published by Yakuo-in, declared that anyone who cut not only bamboo and trees but even the undergrowth would be beheaded along with his whole household, and ordered that firewood be gathered out in Musashino instead. It is one of the reasons the forest of Mount Takao is still deep today.

Before you go

  • From Tachikawa Station: take a westbound JR Chuo Line train to Takao Station with no change of trains (after Hino, Toyoda, Hachioji and Nishi-Hachioji). At Takao, change to the Keio Takao Line and get off at the next station, Takaosanguchi. Kiyotaki Station (cable car) and the lower station of the chairlift are about a five-minute walk from Takaosanguchi Station (according to Takao Tozan Railway). Journey times vary by train, so check a timetable before you set off. You can also take the Tama Monorail to Takahata-Fudo and change to the Keio Line there.
  • From Shinjuku: the JR Chuo Line runs west from Shinjuku through Tachikawa. Check whether your train continues to Takao or whether you need to change at Tachikawa.
  • Carry an IC card such as Suica or PASMO; it saves buying tickets at every change.
  • Cable car and chairlift: Takao Tozan Railway https://www.takaotozan.co.jp/ (check fares, operating hours and the extended Diamond Fuji service on the official site)
  • Yakuo-in Temple: Takaosan Yakuo-in https://www.takaosan.or.jp/ (check event dates and fire-ritual prayers on the official site)
  • Trail and nature information: Tokyo Metropolitan Takao Visitor Center https://takaovc.ces-net.jp/
  • Sightseeing information: Hachioji Convention and Visitors Association https://www.hkc.or.jp/takaosan/
  • The Japan Heritage story: Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan Heritage portal https://japan-heritage.bunka.go.jp/ja/stories/story088/
  • On the trail: about an hour and a half on foot to the summit (according to Takao Tozan Railway). Fires are banned on the entire mountain; take your rubbish home. Bring rain gear and water, and wear shoes you are used to. Picking plants and catching animals is not allowed in the quasi-national park. Temples are places of worship; be quiet and respectful around the halls.
  • To combine: Hachioji Castle ruins can be reached by Nishi Tokyo Bus from Takao Station (see this series’ “Hachioji Castle Ruins and Soto, the Mulberry Capital”), so you can walk Hojo Ujiteru’s mountain and his castle in a single day.

On the way home: Tachikawa Station North Exit

By the time you get back to Tachikawa from Mount Takao, with no change of trains, your legs may still be carrying the climb, and your shoulders a little of the mountain chill.

A one-minute walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, on the 3rd floor of the Etoile Building at 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo, is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店), a hot yoga studio where classes are held on heated lava stone. There is also room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons alone.

The studio is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30. Whether you catch the first train to Takao and come down after lunch, or stay on the mountain until evening, there is plenty of time to stop in once you are back in Tachikawa.

A trial yoga lesson costs ¥1,980 (tax included), including rental of two bath towels, one face towel and a mat, so you can drop in straight off the mountain with nothing but your backpack. Pregnant guests cannot join the lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available. Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita, who holds Japan’s top English qualification (Eiken Grade 1) and a perfect TOEIC score and once worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and who lived in Alaska for three years, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself (visitors from abroad have even left Google reviews about the care they received in English); if you would like an English-friendly lesson, just say so when you book.

Studio information: https://ontheshore.jp/ ; trial booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

You spotted the town from the mountain’s observation deck. In the evening, you walk back into it on your own two feet. A day in Tachikawa can end like that, too.

Cover photo: The open summit of Mount Takao, with the blue ridges of the Tanzawa mountains beyond the railing. (Photo: Koda6029 / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

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