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Mt. Bukkasan and Mt. Takatoriyama Day Hike | Lake Miyagase and the Tokyo Skyline from Two Observation Towers, and a Day Spent Thinking About Expiry Dates

2025.12.19

We spent a day on Mt. Bukkasan (747 m) and Mt. Takatoriyama (705.7 m) in the eastern Tanzawa range, Kanagawa Prefecture. Both summits have tall observation towers, and from the top of them you look down on Lake Miyagase and across the Tanzawa mountains, all the way to the towers of Tokyo hazy in the distance. It's a bigger view than you'd expect from mountains this size.

Your phone signal drops out, and with it the urge to compare yourself to anyone or hurry. In that quiet I ended up thinking about all sorts of things that day, including an unexpected knee problem on the descent and a book I'd read recently. Here's an honest report: the route, the views from the towers, and what to do when your knee starts complaining.

Route overview

• Mountains: Bukkasan (747 m) and Takatoriyama (705.7 m), eastern Tanzawa, Kanagawa Prefecture
• Route: Bukkasan Tozanguchi bus stop — Bukkasan — Takatoriyama — back the way we came — Bessho Onsen
• Distance and time: About 5 km in total, roughly 600 m of elevation gain, around 4 hours as a guide
• Character: Both summits have tower-like observation platforms with views over Lake Miyagase, Tanzawa and toward Tokyo. A good option for a lighter hike, with a hot spring at the end

Up Bukkasan | A slightly nerve-racking tower above Lake Miyagase

We started from the Bukkasan Tozanguchi bus stop. It was 13°C that morning, cold enough to notice, but the cold made the air clear and Lake Miyagase was already visible behind us. We worked up the zigzag trail, adding and removing layers as we went. One of the nice things about this mountain is how few people are on it.

About an hour and a half brought us to the summit of Bukkasan (747 m). There's a tall observation tower right beside the summit, so up we went. A tall artificial structure in the middle of nature is, honestly, a little frightening — but at the top the whole panorama of Lake Miyagase and the Tanzawa mountains opens up. "That is beautiful" came out of me involuntarily.

Takatoriyama, a view as far as Tokyo, and a sore knee

After eating we headed for Takatoriyama, only about 500 m from Bukkasan. Partway along, though, my left knee started to hurt. I nursed it along, and the tower on Takatoriyama (705.7 m) turned out to be worth it: you can see the high-rise towers of Tokyo from up there. We picked out what looked like Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Tower, and I got rather carried away.

What saved the descent was a new piece of gear I'd brought along: Montbell's U.L. Folding Poles (120 cm). They took a lot of load off the knee and let me get down safely while managing the pain. This is the kind of knee trouble where flat ground is fine but descending is punishing. If descents worry you, carry a pole. For strong sun, I'd also recommend a stick-type sunscreen you can apply without taking your gloves off (I use Biore UV Athlizm, sold in Japan).

What I thought about while walking: things have expiry dates

We spent some of the walk talking about *Die With Zero*, a book I'd read recently. Its argument is that life runs on three pillars — money, time and health — and the balance between them shifts as you move from youth to middle age to old age. When you're young you have time and health but not money; later you have money and time while your health slowly erodes.

The line that stayed with me was that the things you want to do have expiry dates too. It's genuinely true that something you longed to do in your twenties can stop appealing later. So when you want something, be conscious of that expiry date and get to it sooner rather than later. Walking along, I found myself running through my own list: next year I'd really like to see Kappa Bridge in Kamikochi, Murodo on Mt. Tateyama, and the Kurobe Dam. The quiet hours of a hike are good for that kind of stock-taking.

Final thoughts

Bukkasan and Takatoriyama give you a light day of walking and a first-class view, which makes this an unusually good-value traverse in eastern Tanzawa. It's quiet, you can see from Lake Miyagase to the Tokyo skyline, and you can finish at Bessho Onsen. A generous day out.

To summarise:

• Highlights: The observation towers on both summits. They're high, so don't push it if heights aren't for you
• Knees: The descent is where knees complain, so a trekking pole is reassuring
• Clothing: The wind on the ridge is cold, so layers you can adjust plus sun protection

A good mountain for looking at both the view and yourself in some quiet. Go, and take your own list of things you can only do now.

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