Otama Trail Autumn Hike, Okutama

Announcement of the Otama trail walking trip on Saturday, 25th November 2017.

Lets enjoy the late autumn colours around Okutama area next weekend. The weather forecast for Saturday so far seems nice.

The trail is around 10km (3-4 hours for a leisurely pace) walking along Tama river from Kori to Okutama station. This is a train based hike. For a picture journey of the trail here is the link
https://gvlt.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/otama-walking-trail-hike-from-kori-to-okutama/
and the details in (Japanese) http://www.tachikawaonline.jp/walk/hatonosu.htm

Before heading to Okutama station , at the final leg of the trip we could have a onsen break as well at
Meogi Onsen http://www.okutamas.co.jp/moegi/.

Train schedule: (Meet at Tsukuba Station 6:40 a.m)
Tsukuba to Kori
6:54 Tsukuba ------> Kori (10:06)

Okutama to Tsukuba
16: 23 Okutama -----> Tsukuba (19:09)

Cost:
-Club fee : 300 yen
-Train: 4500 yen ( I will buy TX weekend tickets if the group size is more than 10)
-Onsen: 780 yen

What to bring:
-Hiking shoes
-Lunch + water
-Snacks
-Rain gear

• Onsen kit
• Warm layers

If you would like to join the hike please email me with your name and phone number.
Meeting point: Outside TX ticket gate Saturday 25 November 6:40 a.m

I shall send the final update on Thursday evening (23rd Nov).
See you on next Saturday

Autumn hike on November 25th Saturday, Otama Trail from Kori JR Station to JR Okutama Station.

We were 9 participants in all. 7 of us met at Tsukuba TX station and boarded the 6:54 Rapid to Akhihabara. The train journey was a long 3 hours with a half hour conbini break at Ome JR Station. We caught with the rest of the group as we boarded the train from Ome towards Kori Station. We were at Kori station at 10:10 and started on with the hike.

The weather was extremely good and the mood was great with the sun shining. The hike route was as per this map : http://www.okutama.gr.jp/okutama-map/pdf-img/ohtama.pdf. We strolled on till Hatonosu where we took some time off at the Tama river. Two of the members decided to stop for a coffee break at Gallery Poppo cafe (http://www.gallerypoppo.com ), a cute little cafe hanging alongside the cliff while the rest of the members went ahead with the hike. As we went towards Shiromaru, we came across a cute "healthy" shikha having its lunch on the cliffside. It was a papparazi moment for the hikers. Strangely it also took us a while to accept the fact that the animal was not a wild boar but cute healthy shikha. We went on to Shiromaru Dam, enjoyed watching people fishing canoeing, paddling as we walked towards Meogi onsen (http://www.okutamas.co.jp/moegi/ ). We caught the 16:54 train back to Akihabara and the group officially dispersed at Akihabara at around 19:00.

The autumn colors were great and walking alongside Tama river was a relaxing experience. Hope all of enjoyed the hike. Thanks everyone for your company.