Mount Hodo (Hodosan): Hodosan Shrine, Seasonal Blossoms, and Views over Nagatoro
Mount Hodo is the flower mountain above Nagatoro — a standalone peak in Saitama's Chichibu district with an ornate shrine at its foot, a modest ropeway up its…
Best Season
Spring
4 quiet, car-free day trips that are a good fit for Spring.
Nagatoro River Cruise: Wooden Boats, the Iwadatami Rock Terrace, and a Quiet Day on the Arakawa
Nagatoro is the closest place to Tokyo where you can drift down a real gorge in a wooden boat poled by a boatman — a river cruise that has been running since…
Okutama, West Tokyo: Deep Gorges, a Limestone Cave, and the Quiet End of the Ome Line
Okutama is the deep end of Tokyo.
Yoro Valley (Yoro Keikoku): Waterfalls, a Slow Country Railway, and Kanto's Last Autumn Colors
Yoro Valley — Yōrō Keikoku in Japanese — hides in the middle of Chiba's Boso Peninsula, at the end of a one-track country railway where trains come once an…