29 October 2026
It finally paid for itself
Koishiyama from Iwafune to Ohirashita stations
After 3 days of riding trains, my Tokyo wide 3 day pass has finally paid off. I need never speak of it again unless I buy one at the back end of this trip when I am back in Tokyo.
Today I went in a similar direction to 2 days ago, I took the bullet train to Oyama and went west. 2 days ago I came back via Oyama from the east, can you picture it in your head?
As for today, after getting off the bullet train I transferred to the Ryomo line and went 4 stations west to Iwafune. There is no convenience store so get your supplies at Oyama.
Now for the stats -
28,300 steps
14.70km
4 hours 48 minutes - longer than I thought
875m vertical ascent
1,056 calories burned
Iwafune station, as you can see, it has a vending machine, but there are no convenience stores nearby.
I had choices at the start, go via the shrines which is a bit of a detour, or go straight to the main small mountains. I chose shrines.
There were a lot of cliffs and flat picnic areas. I am a bit suspicious it is a very old quarry on this side.
Still a bit of blue sky, but it soon became grey for the rest of the day, and cooler at only 13c.
More cliffs, hard to tell if natural or not.
I thought this was the shrine, it was not.
Iwafune down there.
More of Iwafune. As you can see this is the first of any kind of mountain in this direction.
One of three large shrines at the top of this mini mountain / quarry. You can drive up from the back side. There was no one around. I did not take photos of all three shrines, I already took enough photos of boring paths through the woods today.
Descending over the back of the first mini mountain, strangely enough named Iwafuneyama. Possibly photo of the day.
After walking down a road and across a valley, it was time to go up to the main peaks of the day. Stairs at first.
However it soon became a real hiking trail. Pretty lonely along this section, I saw two little old guys coming the other way.
This bit was very steep, although does not look to be.
I think this peak was called Umafuyuyama. No view at the peak.
Half way down again and here is a bit of a view.
That is definitely a quarry over there. Nice picnic table.
Roots.
Scary mailbox?
It got darker as the day went on.
I am not entirely sure what this peak is, there were at least 5 peaks today. A lot of up and down today.
This one is Koishiyama, the highest of the day, but not very high.
One of two paragliding / hang gliding launch points today. From this point on the path became more developed too.
Nice valley below.
I sat here and appreciated the flowers and my Pocari Sweat (drink).
Roots AND rocks. Ankle destroying opportunities intensify.
Yet another shrine. It wont be the last. I saw a lot more people after this point, maybe 10 other people!
A red gate in the forest. The ancient priests used these to teleport between shrines, stargate style.
A shrine that is enjoyed by trucks.
It is a road down from this point if you want it to be. This is actually a cafe, that was open, on a Thursday.
Cafe view. I did not buy anything of course.
On the way down I crossed the road a few times. So many shrines.
And then much like the hike from 2 days ago, I exited the small mountain range into some farms.
It was about a 2km walk along some lonely roads to get back to Ohirashita station.
I had 15 minutes to spare, so, time for the stance!
Because of the late start I am back late, so probably will not go very far this evening, but you never know.