Oku-Tama Hiking

I'd like to have gone somewhere outside Japan for Golden Week but they hike the prices up so much it doesn't seem worth it. I thought we'd be staying home but today we got off our asses and went to Okutama.

It's about a two hour ride on the Chuo and Ome lines from Shinjuku. From Oku-Tama it's necessary to catch a 500 yen bus to the lake.

From the floating bridge, we did a 2.5km walk around the lake which took about an hour. At the end there's this nice place to chill and have a picnic. It would be a fantastic camping spot if there wasn't that "No Camping" sign.

We wanted to do the 12km walk around the lake but by the time we would have arrived back to the bus it would've finished for the day so we just went back the way we came.

The bus back was packed with people. It was like a peak hour Yamanote on a bus. They still let more and more people on. My wrist was sore from holding tightly to keep my balance.

Usually we'd go to Takao, but I think this was a nice deviation. The nearby Mt Mitake might be a nice place to go next time.