Hiking Mt. Jinba

After my amazing experience reaching Mt. Fuji summit, I thought that my fascination with mountains and hiking will died down and I will be back to my ordinary weekends of roaming around the beaten streets of Tokyo. But the effect is quite the opposite; I am now officially a mountain and hiking junkie.

Almost completing the best day hikes away from the city, there is only one mountain left on my list- Mt. Jinba. Though most people will suggest doing the hike in combination with Mt. Takao, I purposely plan my start-finish at Mt. Jinba only to avoid the overwhelming crowd at Takao-san, after all the greatest reward of hiking is the peace and quite, a time to have nature by yourself.

To reach the start of Mt. Jinba trail, head to the north exit of Takao Station and look for bus stop no.1, for approximately 30 minutes journey it will bring you to Jinba Kogen Shita. Since the bus departs on one per hour basis, I took note of the return journey to plan my hiking time.

From here you need to pass by a small community and an elevated paved road leading to a parking lot which I assume is a closer walk towards the peak of Mt. Jinba. I was doubtful if I was taking the correct path but after 30 minutes, I saw the signage that leads to the actual start of the trail.

Located between Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture, hiking Jinba-san is by far the easiest that I’ve done. With an elevation of only 857 meters, you don’t need hiking shoes to conquer the trail, though I often find myself out of breath. I guess after a few weeks of rest, my hiking ability was getting rusty.

True to my initial prediction, there were only a handful of people I came across along the trail. For most part, I often find myself alone and surrounded by my favorite rows of trees.

After an hour, I saw the 3 meter high statue of white horse representing the meaning of the word “Jin-ba” (military camp horse), which means I reached the peak.

With no shrine or temples to visit, I settled on doing what others are doing, eat or have a drink on the several huts at the summit while admiring the view.

This is my official hiking food- bowl of hot udon, a bar of snickers, and coke.

After a few minutes, I started my descend taking the same route. Most of the hikers will continue their journey most probably traversing other smaller mountains nearby.

Hiking Mt. Jinba is not hike for a temple visit or to locate a waterfalls, it is purely an activity and alternative for those like me who cannot resist the urge to spend a Saturday on top of mountains.