Hatonosu Canyon

What?
Hatonosu Canyon (鳩ノ巣渓谷) is a valley created by the Tama River (多摩川) in the surrounding landscape, an hour and a half outside the center of Tokyo (東京). The walk starts at Kori Station (古里駅) and follows the river all the way to Okutama Station (奥多摩駅). There are a few waterfalls, a hill to climb, the longest fish ladder of Japan and a lot of beautiful scenery.
Where?
From Shinjuku (新宿駅) it takes an hour and a half to Kori Station on the Ome Line (青梅線). A transfer in Ome Station (青梅駅) is necessary, but that takes not even a minute. The walk takes your from Kori Station all the way to Okutama Station, the end of the trainline. From there you can track straight back to Shinjuku.
URL
Go To Tokyo Ridgeline Images Liliki (JP)

Hurting every Lost in Translation fan, I must truthfully say that I have never felt comfortable in Tokyo. I live in Osaka, and while that’s hardly a small city, Tokyo is just way too gigantic for me. There’s people around you all the time, any train line at any time of the day seems ridiculously crowded, and I just can’t seem to create a “wow” feeling that lasts longer than 10 minutes. Nevertheless, it is a place where I need to be multiple times a year for work. I usually try to get back as soon as I can, but this time I had a day off in between 2 working days. So I decided to try and get a taste of some nature that lies just outside the capital, but still in the Metropolitan area.

I chose very randomly Hatonosu Canyon. I once came across a nice review online, bookmarked it and that was that. Eventually I didn’t even know what was actually to see or to do over there until a few stations before Hatonosu. It was only at that moment that I looked up “Hatonosu walk” and that I realized that I should get off at an earlier station and that you can easily walk 3 stations further to Okutama Station. So talk about last minute planning…

Getting off at Kori Station, passing the 7 Eleven and crossing bridge, you turn right and immediately enter a forested area. It’s still a walk on asphalt but it was ok. To be honest, I thought the whole hike would be like this. It’s Tokyo after all. But after only 10 minutes or so there is a very small path with a sign that clearly mentions this as the start of the course. Not only was the road not paved, it was rather overgrown and in lush forest with the beautiful Tama River to the right. I was immediately charmed by the fishermen on the rocky shores, and when I crossed a waterfall I was mentally already lightyears away from the overcrowded capital. This part of the hike between Kori Station and Hatonosu Station seems to be right in the middle of nowhere. To get back to civilization and the actual Hatonosu Canyon one needs to climb a rather small but quite steep hill. After taking a breather I headed straight for the canyon which is breathtaking. After reading more about the place, a lot of people mention that “ it is unbelievable that there is a place like this in a train ride of only an hour and a half from Tokyo!”. Unfortunately, there used to be people who believed this, and they also believed in building shops, souvenir stalls, cafes and ugly storehouses next, on top or under the canyon. They were all proven wrong because only some ugly reminders remain. The ugly bridge and buildings above the quaint waterfall must be one of the worst nature blasphemies that exist. Luckily most of this is all at the start of the canyon. So walking a few hundred meters further you can already fully enjoy the beauty of the place. And guess what? I was completely alone for 90% of the time. This might be different in the weekend though, but in the meanwhile I felt myself very lucky. The walk to Shiromaru Dam is short – too short – but really worth it.

Don't ask me which flower this is...

People relaxing with a gorgeous backdrop.

Picnic with a view.

Fukuoka on the other side of the water.

By now I walked from Kori Station, passed Hatonosu Station and arrived by the Shiromaru Dam close to the Shiromaru Station. The dam is nothing special if you’ve seen your bit of the Japanese countryside. Japanese tend to place seemingly meaningless, gigantic dams everywhere around the place. It does seem to house the largest fish ladder of Japan. I didn’t know it, but it can apparently be freely accessed (https://ridgelineimages.com/sightseeing/shiromaru-dam-fish-ladder/), so I kind of feel stupid for not stopping by longer. In hindsight, I really should have done so.

Because the part between Shiromaru Station and Okutama Station is not too interesting. The walk runs along the now artificially widened Tama River and just follows this “dam-river”. It is not unpleasant, it’s even very pretty if you sometimes go off course to take in the views from one of the big rocks in the river. And it’s also not that it can’t be combined with the fish ladder. Eventually the walk only takes around 3 hours. But all in all this last part doesn’t have much to offer.
But that’s only a small minor point to this hike. For my first outing in the Tokyo suburbs or Tokyo getaways, this place was very nice and convincing enough.