Walking routes歩く道
Walk one of these level routes end to end.
Walk one of these level routes end to end.
Some of the best walking in Japan involves no climbing at all. Old highways between post towns, gorge paths beside water, pilgrim routes through cedar forest and level valley floors — all walkable in ordinary shoes, in a day or an afternoon, with a train or bus at each end.
The routes below are chosen for that: each can be done in a day, none needs equipment, and every one has a way to stop halfway and take transport back.
What you do need is water and a look at the weather. Paths here are often stone, mossy and wet, and stone is slippery long after the rain stops.
Ask locally on the morning, tell your inn where you are going, and turn back earlier than you want to rather than in the dark.
Each links to its prefecture.
Fourteen kilometres of level path beside moss and small waterfalls. Do any part of it.
Eight kilometres of old highway between two preserved post towns, over one wooded pass.
Pilgrim paths between three shrines, walkable in day sections without equipment.
A flat valley of clear river and birch, closed to private cars. April to November.
1,015 stone steps up a cliff through cedar forest. About an hour, and worth every one.
An old silver mine and its town, walked or cycled through quiet hills.