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Oyama Day Hike, Tanzawa | From Yabitsu Pass to a Sacred Peak in Early Summer, and Down the Otoko-zaka

2024.06.23

We went up Oyama (1,252 m) for the day, from Yabitsu Pass. It's the sacred mountain of the Tanzawa range in Kanagawa Prefecture, home to the long-revered Afuri Shrine, and on a clear day the summit looks out over the whole Kanto plain and Sagami Bay. Being easy to reach from central Tokyo, it's deservedly popular.

It's the right mountain for a weekend when you want to reset in the outdoors quickly — but how much work it is depends entirely on the route you pick. We went in early June, when the new green is at its best, climbing from Yabitsu Pass over Harutakeyama to the summit and descending via Miharashidai and the Otoko-zaka. Here's the access, how the route goes, and the lesson the Otoko-zaka taught me on the way down.

The route at a glance

• Mountain: Oyama (1,252 m), Tanzawa — one of the 100 Famous Mountains of Kanto, and a mountain of worship for centuries
• Area: the eastern end of the Tanzawa range, Kanagawa Prefecture
• Route: Yabitsu Pass (761 m) — Harutakeyama — Oyama summit — Miharashidai — Otoko-zaka — Oyama Cable bus stop
• Distance and time: about 6.5 km, roughly 4 hours 30 minutes of walking excluding breaks
• Ascent: about 491 m from Yabitsu Pass to the summit
• Notes: the Yabitsu Pass side is quiet, with few hikers. The Otoko-zaka descent is steep with big drops between steps, and it's hard on the legs

Yabitsu Pass is about 40 minutes by bus from Hadano Station. Green mountains fill the windows on the way up, which starts the day well.

Yabitsu Pass to Harutakeyama — new green, and a quiet forest

We started from Yabitsu Pass at 761 m. I live in Kanagawa, and I'll admit that when I hear "Yabitsu Pass" I still think of the road, and the drivers who gather on it — so standing there as a trailhead felt new.

Within minutes you're in pleasant forest, mossy rock and fresh green. That said, the first ten minutes of any climb is where I always think I might not manage it today, so I kept my steps small and frequent, and breathed deliberately. There are cairns along the way — stacked stones used as waymarkers, which earn their keep when visibility drops — and about an hour in we reached Harutakeyama. The marker there is easy to miss, and we nearly walked past it, so this is a stretch where checking your position on a map app pays off.

To the summit — a sacred mountain, and a plant I'd never heard of

From Harutakeyama it's another hour or so of climbing. Oyama has a habit of offering you "the last steep bit" and then producing another one, several times over. Hiking is mostly in the head: the more you think "nearly there," the further away it gets, and if you brace yourself for a long one you tend to arrive sooner. I thought about that a fair amount on the way up.

The nice thing on that stretch was another hiker stopping to show me a tsuchi-akebi, an unusual plant I'd never seen. It looks like white asparagus, flowers yellow in summer, and in autumn hangs clusters of fruit that look startlingly like bright red sausages. I'd have walked straight past it. Meeting people who know things is one of the pleasures of this.

The summit itself is a place of worship — the main shrine of Oyama Afuri Shrine stands there. At 1,252 m it should command the Kanto plain and Sagami Bay, but the cloud was moving fast that day and the view came and went. Even so, I felt full enough of having got there to say that on a day that hot, I didn't mind sitting inside a cloud.

Miharashidai and the Otoko-zaka — a lesson about legs

We descended toward Miharashidai. A quick note on what I was wearing: black throughout, with a Montbell reversible hat, a base layer, a Beams-style tank top and North Face ankle pants. It handled both the sun and the sweat comfortably. There's also a way of tying your laces so they don't come undone demonstrated in the video (from 23:41), if that's a problem you have.

Miharashidai lives up to its name — the view is excellent and it's a good place to stop. The problem was what came next: the Otoko-zaka, literally "the men's slope." It is genuinely steep, with large drops between steps, and I was concentrating so hard that at some point I noticed I'd been holding my breath. So much for all that deliberate breathing on the way up.

Honestly, my legs were shaking by the bottom. My shoulders hurt too, from a pack of around 7 kg, and any assumption that descending is the easy part was comprehensively dismantled. The cause was simple: I'd used my legs up on the climb. If descents worry you, take trekking poles, and build some leg strength in advance — it makes a large difference to how confident you feel. Last time I came down the Onna-zaka, the gentler of the two, so the Otoko-zaka was a useful thing to have done.

What I concluded

Oyama is a mountain with real range, whose character changes completely with the route you choose. The Yabitsu Pass side has few people on it, and walking quietly through that early-summer forest was the best part of the day. As relative beginners, we got up and down without trouble.

To sum up:

• Access: about 40 minutes by bus from Hadano Station to Yabitsu Pass. By car, check the parking situation at the pass in advance
• If you want quiet: the Yabitsu Pass side is the one. Check your map where the waymarkers are unclear
• The Otoko-zaka descent: steep, with big steps, and hard on the legs. Poles plus some conditioning make it much easier

Centuries of worship, forest at its greenest, and a descent that put me in my place — a full day. Choose the route to match your own fitness, and go and feel what Oyama has about it.

🛒 See the gear from the video as a list → A packing list for your first low-mountain hike

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