Quiet Life with WILL: Rokkokuken’zan Forest Park of Kamakura 六国見山森林公園

 

These days, City of Kamakura is inundated with tourists, domestic and international. When I first told you about my adventure in Miura Alps existing from somewhere in Kamakura (my post for April 29, 2016), the end of our mini-through hiking was calm and sleepy towns. No more. JR Kamakura Station is always crowded with visitors. Downtown Kamakura has now lots of fashionable cafes catering to the tourists. My favorite Japanese sweet shop was taken over by a café. Sad. My feeling for losing a confectionary store would be shared with long-time Kamakura residents. In 2026, once a slow and old suburb of Tokyo is full of vivacious tourists. Maybe it’s a good thing for new local business. Though, if you prefer quiet life near centuries old religious establishments …

A sweet shop has gone.
Though, new shops of my interest also sprout.
 This one in Kamakura is for mini-bonsai.
All bonsai there looked so attractive …

When now-homeowners in Kamakura bought their property decades ago, housing areas of Kamakura were just an ordinary residential section that happened to be near sea or old temples. In 2026, the entire city may be becoming a derivative of Disney Land. But. This being Kamakura where the first-ever Japanese National Trust was established for conservations of greeneries, people of the City is quietly resisting to a part of theme park. How? They care for their neighborhood forests that may be near the old tourists’ attraction. It seems to me, they intentionally omit providing parking spaces and toilets for their forests. Today I visit one of such secret camps for guerrillas of anti-overtourism. Well, posting my adventure in their forest could undermine their effort to protect the place … My excuse: it’s really “not easy” to visit there, and their forest is attractive. Anyway, one volunteer I know for the forest said “Heck, I don’t care!” about reporting their forest in this blog. OK. Let’s go to Rokkokuken’zan Forest Park 六国見山森林公園. Here is the web-page introducing the Forest, but do not expect the detail of it, as we can find for HP of Niiharu Citizen Forest. I know it’s intentional!

A sign installed at the observation point of
Rokkokuken’zan Park.

The only transportation to near the Forest is commuter bus service N7 by Enoden from the East Exit of JR Ofuna Station. Its final stop is our destination, Takanodai 高野台(; the time table is here). Please get off the bus at this final stop standing next to Ofuna High School, one of the best public high schools in Kanagawa. When you get off the bus, you are now in a well-designed residential area. There is no sign for “Rokkokuken’zan Park. This Way.” However, when there is a will, there is a way. The terminal stop is a roundabout. You get off the bus and walk Clockwise for the circle. In no time, we’ll see small steps go up on our left. The steps will take us to a residential road deadened just at the beginning of the steps for the bus stop. The only destination we are allowed is to the right. Along the way on our left is a hill on whose slope detached houses are built. Along the ridge of the hill behind the houses there spread a forest. It is Rokkokuken’zan Forest Park. Strolling 5-6 minute from the bus stop, we encounter steep steps going into the forest. Welcome!

Takanodai Bus Stop

Please take these steps.

Just walk the road along the hill.

Here. Welcome to the Forest Park!

Rokkokuken’zan itself is a small “mountain” whose peak, ASL 147m, is at the southeast of the Park. You can visit the park, walk to the peak, and go down to the valley of Meigetsuin Temple 明月院. Though the peak of Rokkokuken’zan does not have a view as we can enjoy the observation point in the Park. From this point, weather permitting of course, we can enjoy the vista of Kanto Plane, Sagami and Tokyo Bays, and Mt. Fuji. The vegetation of the forest is typical for Miura Alps. It has a mixture of evergreen broad-leaved trees, such as Machilus thunbergii, and deciduous trees such as maples and cherries. The mix of them provides just the right amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor. Thanks to the sunshine, the foot of trees has enough variety of grasses, such as sasa bamboos, chameleon plants, Asiatic dayflower, etc. The trekking road within the Park is well taken care of. I had an impression the locals have looked after the place fairly well. There is a local volunteer group, North-Kamakura Spring-water Network 北鎌倉湧水ネットワーク, tend to the vegetations of the forest. Weekly, they mow the grass along the strolling path, thin the crowded trees and branches, and plant cherries, maples, and mountain hydrangea, aka tea of heaven.

From the observation point.
We can see Oshima Island.

After going up the steps, the road is like this to

Ofuna Takano Water Distribution Reservoir
for the City of Kamakura.

After the reservoir,
the route becomes standard trekking road.

Fairly well-managed

I think this route will have beautiful autumn scenery.

Volunteers are at work.

Tea of heaven, or Hydrangea serrata var. serrata is native of Japan. Kamakura has lots of temples where they are proud of their beautiful hydrangea, such as Meigetsuin 明月院. With this atmosphere of the city, they have a Hydrangea Lovers’s Club which is famous nation-wide. They walk mountainous areas of Japan to find a new variety of Hydrangea serrata, collect cuttings, and propagate them with cutting. The volunteers of Rokkokuken’zan Forest collaborated with the Club and planted 500 cuttings of Hydrangea serrata, especially around their symbol tree, an old Cerasus jamasakura. Hydrangeas are still young. But volunteers for the Forest hope in decades the place is beautiful with cherries blossoms in spring, hydrangeas in early summer, and autumn leaves of maples et al.

A baby

It is amazing all the hydrangeas below
were originally found wild somewhere in Japan,
 then propagated from the cutting in Kamakura.

“We scraped lots of grants from many sources to procure the seedlings. It’s a fortune, I tell you. But the Forest will give us beautiful colors from the windows of our home and JR trains in future.” One of the volunteers told me. He continued, “I don’t think I can survive to see such scenery of 30 years later. But don’t you think it is full of dreams imagining our work now could present such result after our life?” Kamakura is an old city 1000 years ago Samurai worriers established. Rome was not built in a day. And so are the flowering forests in Kamakura. Maybe it is inevitable for the city to attract such a crowd of tourists. We could feel safe from touching the evidence of LOOOOONG and continuous endeavor from our ancestors. They are steady and do not care much for the fashion of the day. Especially in this day and age it could be a precious attitude.

Kamakura City Parks Association

1667 Yamazaki, Kamakura City
Kanagawa 247-0066, Japan

Phone: 0467-45-2750
Fax: 0467-45-2760

Email: info@kamakura-park.com

Wild Garden for Healthy Living: Fujisawa Garden for Calanthe discolor and Golden-rayed Lily 藤沢えびね・やまゆり園

 

From the main entrance to Endosasaogikuboyato Park 遠藤笹窪谷公園 to Keio University Bus Stop, we walk a well-paved road running in front of the medicalservice faculty and Keiiku Hospital. Before reaching the faculty building, on our left, there is a small, paved road going up into a forest. Please take this. Within 5 or so minutes, on our left there appears a gate made of logs. It is too big for a private garden, but too small for public park. Welcome. This is the entryway for Fujisawa Garden for Calanthe discolor and Golden-rayed Lily (Fujisawa Ebine Yamayuri En 藤沢えびね・やまゆり園).

Please take this road.

The banner is over there, showing the entrance.

The gate

The place is taken care of by volunteers of Fujisawa City who organize themselves as NPO Project to Revitalize Landscape and Agriculture in Endo Countryside 里地里山景観と農業の再生プロジェクト. The Garden is open to the public between April 1 and the second Sunday of August every year. To enter this Garden, please pay admission fee of 500 yen. It is in effect your donation to the Garden maintenance. The expanse of 8500m2 of private land continuing from Fujisawa Forest for Healthy Living is maintained only by the local volunteers with fairly limited help from the city. In addition, their main endeavor for the place is rather costly. They plant and try to propagate Japanese wild orchid and lilies there.

The seedlings are waiting for their turn to be planted.

Long before, the area was a vibrant rice cultivating rural village. At that time villagers grew rice in the wetland which is now Endosasaogikuboyato Park. The forest we’ve been was to supply logs = fuels of pre-petrol age, and materials for crafting tools of daily life, e.g. bamboo baskets. The forests received nutrients from fallen leaves of deciduous trees. The vegetation also gave shades during scorching summer, and shield against direct cold winter winds. Such environments loved by Japanese native orchids and lilies. Many lilies are edible, and so when their environment was neglected, as in Endo district, these plants were the subject for looting. Beautiful orchids were also the target for robbery. Once a forest with rich biodiversity suffered continuing extinctions of many species. Volunteers said NO to this. Local landlords bought in the idea of revitalization of the forest. Together, they started planting orchids and lilies. Mind you. Seeds and seedlings for lilies and orchids are not cheap. Donation is welcome.

The noticeboard at the entrance

During the season when the garden is open, one of the volunteers stations in the ticket booth at the entrance. Please pay 500 yen and receive a pamphlet-cum-map of the garden. In the Garden, there are arrows at each point of walkway. Follow these and you will return to the entry gate after walking around the Garden. The place spreading over a mild slope of a hill. Many of the paths are narrow mountain trekking roads developed by volunteers by hand. Unfortunately, the place does not have universal access for wheelchair users, but sure enough, they have many kinds of native wild lilies and orchids along the strolling paths. It is amazing.

Near the entrance the road is flat.
This point may be capable for wheelchairs …

There are benches here and there.

I had a rare encounter with slime mold in the Garden.
This is false puffball.

Volunteers planted daylilies there.
In wild, this flower can be found in
so-so wet sunny plane of ASL 1000m.

Japanese Snowball

Especially, considering the characteristics of orchids as myco-heterotrophic plant, having orchids concentrated in one area is almost miracle. When we walked through the Forest of Healthy Living to the Park, we sometimes encountered orchids, such as Cymbidium goeringii, and Cephalanthera falcata. But they did not exist en masse. Fungi for orchids are not so ubiquitous in this area. Yeah, unless fungus live in the soil, orchids will be starved to death (; my post for August 5, 2022). Still, the volunteers in the Garden have managed to maintain the variety. One of the volunteers told me they have been engaging in continuous trials and errors since 2015 when the place was opened. If one seedling dies, they plant another with the soil attached to the root. Maybe, by repeating such endeavor for more than 10 years, the fungi in the imported soil spread to their area in the hill and provided meals for orchids. More than 10 years from the beginning, patient attempts may start to yield the result.

Calanthe discolor stands together.

From their homepage, we can check which flowers are open now in the garden. When I’ve been there in spring, there were lots of spring ephemeral flowers, especially calanthe orchids. As of June 14, the homepage says the place has lots of beautiful hydrangeas. Lilies begin developing their large buds. During the Garden opening, many different kinds of flowers take centre stage in turn waiting for visitors to come. The place is a secret garden tacked in the corner of the Forest of Healthy Living. Last week, Mr. Kai Tomita, who engaged in the management of Endosasakuboyato Park and helped the orchids and lilies of Fujisawa Garden for Calanthe discolor and Golden-rayed Lily, passed away of old age. My hands in prayer. He left wild-flower legacy to the people of Fujisawa, and beyond.

Fujisawa Garden for Calanthe discolor and Golden-rayed Lily
藤沢えびね・やまゆり園

Open April 1 – the second Sunday of August,
9:00-16:00

4580 Endo, Fujisawa City
藤沢市遠藤　4580

NPO Project to Revitalize Landscape and Agriculture in Endo Countryside
NPO法人　里地里山景観と農業の再生プロジェクト

3627-9 Endo, Fujisawa City, 252-0816
〒 252-0816 藤沢市遠藤3627番地の9

☎　0466-48-8711
endousatosato@gmail.com 

https://satochi-satoyama.jimdofree.com/

Healthy for Everybody: Endosasakuboyato Park in the Forest for Healthy Living, Fujisawa City 藤沢市遠藤笹窪谷公園

 

When we enter the Forest for Healthy Living from entrance 6, the first impressions are the sudden changes of everything. So far from the Bus Stop we walked along a wide prefectural road whose opposite side is the college campus and business offices. We strolled in the row of new residential houses and small patches of veggie fields in between. But, suddenly, when we enter the Forest, it is a closed world of densely populated trees. The entrance area is occupied mainly by planted tall cedars. They are probably more than 40 years old. Forest floor was cool and dark where Lethe butterflies suddenly flied over before us. The atmosphere is calm. It’s a different world from cars buzzing away on a wide road.

Trekking road in the forest of cedars

Calm

Some gap areas appear occasionally.

Galium niewerthii Franch. & Sav.
It’s nationally defined endangered species,
Category II (VU).
It is found in Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa.
Actually we can find some colony of it
in Niiharu Citizen Forest
where it is one of the best hot spots of Tama Hills.
This one in the City of Fujisawa is VERY VERY rare.

Acropteris iphiata

Proceeding the trekking road to the northeast direction, we will meet a drying wetland where it was once rice paddies. Its geographical feature is Yato valley, a common rice cultivation area in the small hills of Kanto Region. I had an impression the surrounding hills here are far milder than Yato in Yokohama, like in Niiharu. Maybe, it’s a difference between Sagamihara Terrace and Tama Hills. Now the former rice paddies are covered by common reed. There is one foot path connecting both sides for Yato. Please cross the valley here and reach the other side. Follow the trekking road starting from the crossed foot path. Soon we will meet a relatively wide unpaved road running along the field of reeds. Take the direction of southeast. Before long we will be in more landscaped expanse of drying wetland. This is Endosasakuboyato Park 遠藤笹窪谷公園.

Common Reeds are entering our sight.

The foot path

To the upstream

To the downstream

Streams are snaking between the reeds.

The other side

The area is mixture of afforested cedars and
probably naturally coming broad-leaved trees.

We reach here from the back of this photo.
The trekking road comes out to this graveyard point
(on our left in this photo, but when we come here it is on our right).
 This means the forest was
once a part of the agricultural village.

The entrance to the Park is on our right.

Endosasakuboyato Park is 2.5ha of flat land in the Forest for Healthy Living. The place was once rice paddies. Now small streams and ponds run between the former paddies with Japanese Iris and sweet flags. The pathways are well-maintained and wide, which are completely capable of wheelchairs and stretchers entering. (How to come here for wheelchair users has a trick. Please read on.) The entire park area makes us feel safe, i.e. very suitable for the Forest of Healthy Living. The water system provides home for aquatic creatures, frogs et al. The forest we’ve been provides layers of protection for the living things in the Park. Volunteers for the Forest, with the help of professional landscapers, help maintain the water stream in the Park. They also research the ecosystem of the area and report their results to the public. People of Fujisawa are proud of having here as the most biodiverse area in Fujisawa City.

Wheelchair capable road

Volunteers resurrected rice cultivation here.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

Benches are here and there.
The admin office is over there.

The end of today’s itinerary is an admin office for the Park. They have a mini-museum of the Forest, toilets, a seminar room, and an observation deck. People station there can give you the latest information about the Forest of Healthy Living. The other side of the admin office has a fashionable fence and beyond there is a stylish building. It is a campus for the Faculty of Nursingand Medical Care of Keio University. When we leave the admin office and take a well-maintained paved road, we find parking space for the Park, then a large car maneuvering space for the University. Go forward further. We will meet at the front entrance for Keiiku Hospital and the traffic light at the corner of commuter bus terminal of Keio University Stop. When wheelchair users plan to visit the Forest of Healthy Living, please take this route turning at the corner of the Hospital and find a parking space on your right. Yup. This is Forest of Healthy Living gatewayed by a large hospital and education institute for health services. Very apt. 😊 Before leaving the Forest, there is one more place to visit here. Unfortunately, it would be difficult for wheelchairs to visit. Otherwise, it was a curious and beautiful spot. Let’s go there next week.

The latest findings in the Forest

There are picnic benches.

A scene from the observation deck.

The main gate for Endosasakuboyato Park

The Faculty Building along the road

The Parking for the Park, and

the other side is the Faculty Building.

The hospital is on our right.

We’ve returned to the bus stop.

Endosasakuboyato Park 遠藤笹窪谷公園

4840 Endo, Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, 252-0816
Japan

Phone: 0466-47-7760
https://endosasakuboyatokouen.jp/
Instagram: @endosasakuboyatokouen