May 27-28, 2023, Mount Amagi to Mount Daruma
The Izusanryosen Trail is a nature trail with a total distance of approximately 43 km. Starting from Shuzenji Niji-no-sato in Izu City, it connects to Amagi Pass made famous by Izu Dancer via Mt. Daruma. It is a fascinating trail for hikers due to its bright and open mountain pass views of Mt. Fuji and Suruga Bay, a trail deep into the forest and diverse natural landscape. There are many features that can be enjoyed by everyone from families to experienced hikers. It is a long trail, so make sure that you plan accordingly in order to have an enjoyable hike.
There is a popular area called “Kazahara Pass” because strong winds blow all year round, and the entire area is covered with Kumazasa fields. A 30-minute walk along the trail to the left leads to Nishina Pass, and another 30 minutes to Amagi Pass, the start/end point of the Izusanryosen Trail. If you take the trail to the right and pass through the Kumazasa, you will reach “Ugusu Pass” (933m), and “Funabara Pass”.
Izu Peninsula is mountainous but not very popular like Mt. Fuji for hiking, because most of the mountains are only about 1000m altitude. However, unlike many other mountains full of stones and rocks, Izu highland is full of trees, grass, and beautiful plants. In fact, there are farms for cows and deers there. The view almost looks like Europe.
This time, we took train to Shuzenji, and then took a bus to enter from Nihonsugi Pass (Old Amagi Pass). Most of the people would enter from Old Amagi Tunnel and Furu Pass, because Old Amagi Tunnel is a popular sightseeing spot, but since we have already been there before, we skipped Furu Pass.
Nihonsugi Pass has less visitors than Furu Pass, but it is a beautiful trail next to a river hidden in the woods. There are lots of green mosses on the rocks, look like a natural Japanese garden. Some wooden bridges are quite old and torn, some routes may have soil running off, but the trail is generally okay and has clear directions. Nihonsugi Trail was where we exited the trail last time, so we entered from same place, and visited the same rest area.
We moved on to Nekko Pass and Nishina Pass, the trail was easy and fun. I enjoyed the different bridges and stairs, beautiful landscape & plants very much. The ancient trees along the stairs were my favourite. They look like elders of the woods, who might suddenly start moving and talking…
The main problem hiking in Izu is lack of water sources and toilet. There is absolutely no toilets, water sources, shops or guesthouses on the way! Therefore, if you hike more than one day, the only way is carrying all the water and foods that you need, bring your own tent and sleeping bag, ready to sleep in the wild, do your business in the wild! There is also no mobile signals most of the time when we hike…
However, there are plenty of good places to camp in the woods. It was actually quite pleasant to be surrounded by trees, hearing only the birds, and quite few hikers.
Actually, hiking in Izu was full of surprises. For instance, we found a hidden pond at Mt. Nekkodake, which was found by crater of volcano 6 thousand to 1 million years ago!
Then, we found an Obervatory which was perfect for camping! It was on top of hill next to a farm, so quiet and had 360 degree view surrounded by beautiful grassland. We could see some boars from far away.
We enjoyed the sunset from there, and started cooking dinner & building our tent. We could see the road under us, but it was a paid roads so at night almost no cars. It was absolutely quiet & safe, we slept so well.
Middle of the night, I woke up to pee, and saw a sky full of stars, huge and clear milky way just behind my tent. I was overwhelmed by the amazing view. It was surreal. Too bad I didn’t have camera good enough to capture the night sky, and a short while later we were already inside the fog…
Next morning our tent was quite wet because we were inside the fog all night, but as soon as the sun came out, the fog were done, and we had blue sky and green grass again.
The trail was fun, with ever-changing scenery, very few people. The dense trees sheltered us from the strong sun, and spring was perfect for hiking at low mountains. We continued to pass many peaks and trails. There were plenty of resting areas with benches and tables, just no toilets.
Another thing is, there are quite few bus stops and buses around there. We had to walk on the road for 20-30min to reach the nearest bus stop, for a bus to take us back to town/train station, so again, you must prepare enough water & foods!
All in all, I love hiking in Izu area than other popular places in Tokyo/Kanagawa prefectures, because the scenery was really super! It was also quite easy to camp there.
Please enjoy~
