(岩殿山) Mt. Iwadono Hike

At 634meters, this mountain packs a pretty solid punch. I was pleasantly surprised, mainly by two legit chain sections. I also had an encounter with more than a dozen monkeys and a thousand spiders - all these with the sound of Yamanashi traffic in the background competing with the crickets.

Mt. Iwadono is a good viewpoint for those who wish to see a panoramic view of Otsuki City, and if you're lucky, Mt. Fuji too (I wasn't).

Budget: JPY3,200 (~USD30)

• JPY3,200. Train, Tokyo to Otsuki Station. JPY1,600ish one way.

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation: 634m / 2,080ft)

• September 13, 2020
• Difficulty: 2 out of 5 (+1 for the chain sections)
• Route below is around 7.8kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲953m/ ▽952m
• PDF Map Link

When to Go
Anytime during the year.

Special Notes

• Weather check: Japanese
• Trailheads. 
• Otsuki Station. From the station, there are a couple of trailheads normally. However, as of 2020, there is only ONE available trail. And either you do the full loop above, or you backtrail. The shortest route to the summit is the one furthest from Otsuki Station, which entails a 30-40 minute walk on the road. Here's the google maps pin.

• The loop can be done clockwise or counterclockwise. However, I would recommend doing it counterclockwise as the short trail to Mt. Iwadono is pretty steep, and thus better for the knees to be done going up. Another thing is the (optional) technical chain section, which would be a lot more technical if done going down.
• Chains. There are plenty of them all over, but only two that, for me, are necessary. One is a technical one over a big rock, where falling down means an injury or two. The other chain section is a very steep rock, where falling down means mainly a bruised butt. Ok, I don't think I described them well, so just look at the pictures. The first pic is the optional one. (Gloves recommended particularly during winter (cold chains) and rainy season (wet and slippery). 
• Chain 1.

• Chain 2.

Itinerary

• 06:16am. Train, Nakano Station to Otsuki Station. I got on at platform 6.
• 07:42am. Arrived Otsuki Station. Start hike. There's only one exit at the station. Turned left, and start walking. I just put this in my google maps, and followed the direction.
• 08:28am. Trailhead. There's a little counter at the entrance, so I just hit it once (I was hiking solo).
• 09:08am. Arrived at 峰火台, which I honestly thought was the summit as my yamap map says it was.
• 09:15am. Arrived at the official Mt. Iwadono Summit, which I think is not really the summit, but they've declared it so as it has the panoramic views of the city. I took my breakfast/lunch, then continued on.
• 09:58am. I had to make a choice between left - "クサリ場" (chain section) or right - 林間コース (forest road). I decided to take the left path.
• 10:00am. Done with the chain section. It was just a quick, but I wouldn't say beginner friendly, ascent.
• 10:29am. Summit, Mt. Tenjin (天神山)
• 10:46am. I had to make a choice between left - rocky route or right - forest route. I took the left route.
• 10:47am. Done with the rocky route.
• 10:52am. Arrived at 稚児落し, which with all the signs pointing to it, you'd think they'll have a big marker for. There's none.
• 11:20am. I was almost done, but there was an off-map unexpected fork - to the left was Otsuki Station, and to the right was Otsuki Station. To be fair, in permanent marker, it said "近道" on the left one, which means short route. So I turned left.
• 11:24am. I was back at the main road.
• 11:53am. Back at Otsuki Station. Plenty of time to get on the local train to Tokyo, which left a little past 12pm.

 

I turned left upon exiting Otsuki Station. 

Part of the path is crossing the train tracks, with Mt. Iwadono as the background. 

Crossing the bridge. In hindsight, go to the right side if you can. 

The left sidewalk ends, so I had to go to the right side. 

The view was pretty nice though. Very relaxing. 

I went back to the left side of the road. Soon enough, I encountered these vending machines, and across is the trailhead. 

The trailhead is the little thing on the left. 

Here's the entrance!

One person = One push.

I'm number 281! I honestly thought I was the 281st person for the day, but I only saw three other people in the entire hike. I know I'm slow, but I don't think I'm that slow. 

Soon enough I arrived at a fork, which is one of the oh so many forks. So rest assured, there'll be plenty of signs. 

The hike up was a pretty gentle ascent. 

There are numerous unnecessary chain sections, some of which I had to step over, which I think can be quite a tripping risk if you have other people hiking too.

Summit! At least at that time I thought it was. 

Plus I had to start going down. 

But I guess I was wrong. This is the viewing point which had benches, a cottage, and the official marker on it. 

The official marker. 

The panoramic view. 

The summit was fenced off for whatever reason. 

After leaving the summit, there's another area with a table and seats. 

The shortest path to the summit from Otsuki Station is mainly stairs it seems. But the rest of the path is blocked off, and the trail cannot be used. So I had to take the only other path, which had a warning that said "this path has chains" (in Japanese)

And I was able to see the chains about a meter or so away. Looking at these chains, I felt the warning was overkill. Apparently it was not. 

Here's the fork. To the left is the path with chains. To the right (with blue paint), is the forest route. 

The chains. It was done pretty quickly, but I was a bit nervous considering I have only seen three guys hiking together at the start of the hike, and no one else. 

There's another sketchy section, but that section is closed. 

Had it been open, it's a pretty scary walk at the side of the rock. See this? If you drop, you die. 

So everyone had to loop around this HUGE rock. 

And a part of that loop is a rather steep way down. This is the pic after I've gone down. 

Just some cute mushrooms I saw. 

It was nice to look back and see Mt. Iwadono behind me. 

And then I had to start going up again. 

Summited Mt. Tenjin. Nothing else to see but this marker. 

Now I'm at a fork again. Do I want the rocky route, which has warnings, or the forest route. It took me a while because I just did two chain sections, and maybe I had enough for a day. But, I still decided to take the rocky route. 

...and here's the rocky route. It's less than 10 meters of a wide path over a rock. Haha. 

But it had a nice view of the 稚児落し.

Parts of the hikes are these rubber made stairs, which I feel is wrong to put in a mountain....

Ended up at a fork again. To the right is an additional mountain, but I decided to follow my original itinerary and turned left. 

Here's the view of the "Rocky Route" from 稚児落し

It was a pretty nice trail going down. Nothing too steep.

There's another fork, both of which goes to Otsuki Station. My map says turn right, but this sign says the short route is left. I turned left. 

And immediately wondered if I made the wrong decision. 

Soon enough I saw a house, and ok, maybe it was a shortcut. 

I had to pass by one or two houses to get to the main road. 

Here's the next "trail". Good old road. 

I had to cross the bridge, and there were people fishing. I see them a lot in the area, so maybe for those who want to fish, that's a good afternoon activity after the hike? :)