In
October 1974, a year after OPEC sent the Oil Shock throughout the world, or at the
end of high growth era of post-World War II Japan, 12.9 ha Mine (pronounced Me-nee) Citizen Forest debuted as the 6th
member of Yokohama Citizen Forest with 2800 m trekking roads. It is situated
right next to the Enkaisan 円海山 Nature Sanctuary Area,
separated by Yokohama-Yokosuka 横浜横須賀 (Yoko-Yoko 横横) Road. The Forest was established about the same
time as the first forest of the Nature Sanctuary (Kamariya Citizen Forest 釜利谷市民の森,
we’ll visit there in December). Once a forest in Yokohama becomes Citizen
Forest, the development of the area is to some extent controlled. And to open
gate as a Citizen Forest, people need time for preparation. So, the present-day
Mine town with the Forest is a kind of indicator for a traditional Japanese
Satoyama community at the very end of “Japanese miracle economic development.”
… Having lunch in the Mine Forest, I imagined how the towns around Beijing will
look like in 2050 …
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At one
entrance to the Forest
from Yokodai Station 洋光台駅,
there was this handsome cat,
very friendly to me.
Could be a warden for the Forest … yes. |
The
access to Mine Citizen Forest is the easiest on foot from JR Yokodai Station 洋光台駅 of Keihin-Tohoku
Line 京浜東北線. It takes just 15 minutes or so from the station.
But, if you really prefer economizing your foot-mileage, you can take bus from
JR Isogo Station 磯子駅, two stations before Yokodai Station. Ride City Bus #10 to Mine Town 峯の郷, one
service per an hour by microbus (; time table, here), and get off at Sakashita 坂下, or
next Kohshinbashi 更新橋 Bus Stop. They are in the middle of Mine Town, and in front of us we see
the turnpike of Yoko-Yoko Road, and the Nature Sanctuary beyond.
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| Sakashita
Stop |
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| A bus
at Kohshinbashi Stop from Isogo Station |
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| Mine
Town and Yoko-Yoko Road |
From
Yokodai Station, leave the bus terminal in front of the Station to the south
along the 4-lane street, passing the Bank of Yokohama Yokodai Branch on the
right. The road is slowly climbing up to the crossing of Yokodai 6-chome
Traffic Light 洋光台6丁目信号. Along the way, there are supermarkets,
restaurants, and a convenience store so that you can procure your foods and
drinks there. If you go left from the Traffic Light, you directly enter the
gate of Isogo Country Club Golf Course 磯子カンツリークラブ, which is located next to the
Mine Forest. Instead, we cross the road and go straight into a residential
area. In front of us is odd-shaped Yokodai 6-chome Koen (garden) 洋光台6丁目公園. Go
to the other side of the garden and walk into the road which is the nearest to
the eastern edge of the garden. Soon we will meet a T-crossing: take the way to
the right, then there is a crossing whose two roads lead us to Mine Forest. If
you choose to turn left here, in about 20 m on the right, there is an allotment
with a sign board saying “Citizen vegetable patch with the help of Lovers of
Mine Citizen Forest.” A trekking road begins from there, running along the northeastern
edge of the Mine Forest, and ends at Sakashita Bus Stop. (Map of the Forest,
here. It is the map of entire Enkaisan area, and Mine Forest is a kind of an orphaned
forest on the right.)
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| JR
Yokodai Station |
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| The
road goes up to … |
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| Yokodai
6-chome Traffic Light |
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| Yokodai
6-chome Koen |
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This
way from Koen;
in front of us is already the Mine Citizen Forest. |
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| The allotment
at the mouth of Route #1 |
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| The
road to Sakashita Bus Stop … |
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| goes
like this … and |
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we can
see a large part of Mine Forest ahead
from this road. |
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The
road brings us to this entry way
to the Forest at Sakashita Bus Stop. |
On the
other hand, if you choose to go 10 m or so more ahead from the crossing, and
turn left, you will see another entrance to the Forest (where I met the regal
cat). This route of the Forest is called Yamano-kami 山の神 (God of the Mountain) Street.
Sure enough, almost next to the entrance there is a small shrine and a huge
machilus, which is a recorded tree at the City registry. It means the forest
around the shrine is a Shasoh-rin
社叢林, or a forest village shrine 鎮守の森 preserving the biota. It is a one-way
street along the northwestern edge of the Forest going through broad-leaved evergreen
forests (biota) and bamboo forests (man-planted) appearing alternately. On the
right beyond the forest, we can see the several roofs of houses in Mine Town.
They are not many, and maintain traditional village housing design: large independent houses with a wide front
yard each for agricultural works. The other side of the houses is another hill
with a broad-leaved forest, and Yoko-Yoko Road ... Yamano-kami Street ends at
Kohshinbashi Bus Stop.
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| Route #2:
turn left here, and |
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| Another
entrance to the Forest |
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| Shrine |
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| Machilus |
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| Broad-leaved, |
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| and
bamboos. |
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| …
telling … |
The Mine
Forest is divided into two by this bus route. We have just gone through the
smaller part of the Forest. The other side is a larger chunk of Mine Forest. Along
the bus road is, I guess, the original Mine Town, which would have been an agricultural
village, but now a kind of small industrial zone. Majority of the business
around here looks like for construction … painting, construction-car lease,
materials storage, construction waste site …, and one large industrial laundry
where trucks unloading lots of towels and sheets. The construction for
Yoko-Yoko Road was started in May 1970, at the height of Japanese miracle. They
first started to build the road between (now) Kariba Junction (狩場JC) and
Asahina Interchange (朝比奈IC) that is the south of Nature Sanctuary, i.e. very near to Mine Forest.
Surmising from the topology of Mine Town, and the opening dates of the Forest
and Yoko-Yoko Road Construction, the traditional Satoyama community of Mine
could have had a turmoil around 1970. It may have transformed the agricultural
village into a mini-industrial town with noise of industrial machineries,
sandwiched by the silent Forests. In 2015, the scenery has remained as such,
almost in a schizophrenic way. I could see the agony of the village people in
the 1960s … the ancestral land or economic development?
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| A
large traditional house along the bus route |
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| A yard
for a construction company |
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| Industrial
laundry |
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| The
bus route |
Along
the bus route, there are 3 entrances to the larger part of Mine Forest. All
lead us to the ridge way whose other side is Isogo Country Club. The northern
most entry way is at Sakashita Bus Stop. This route gradually goes up and leads
us to Zenshoh-yama Rest Place 善正山休憩所 with picnic benches surrounded
by huge wild cherry trees. The place must be patronized by locals for cherry
blossom party. The ridge way start here to the south to Amanuma Rest Place 甘沼休憩所 where
the road meets with the way from the second entrance to the Forest. The toilet
for Mine Forest is at this second entrance (behind a construction company). In
November 2015, I found the road for these places have been taken care of by the
volunteers. Coniferous trees, which, I guess from the size of the stumps, were planted
decades ago, were thinned and undergrowth of bamboo grass was mowed. From
Amanuma Rest Place, the way goes down to Amanuma Open Space 甘沼広場. From
Amanuma Open Space, Koshinbashi Bus Stop is just 50 m down. Along the ridge
way, we can hear the voices of golfers. To the east between the trees, we can
see immaculate green of a golf course … Just beyond the Sakashita Bus Stop is
already an ordinary residential area of Yokohama. Mine Town is … besieged.
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Entrance
from Sakashita Bus Stop
first goes along the material storage
of the
construction company. |
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At the
end are a small wooden bridge
and the Forest. The route is one way. |
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| Zenshoh-yama
Rest Place |
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| Many
of the trees at the bottom are cherries. |
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| The
remnants of volunteer works, |
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And an
art work,
aka a creative collaboration of nature and volunteers! |
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| Amanuma
Rest Place |
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Next
to the Amanuma Rest Place
there is another place called Viewing Platform 展望台 with sitting “chairs” where we
cannot see the vista,
but trees surrounding the space. |
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From
the 2nd entrance to the Amanuma Rest Place:
Volunteers mowed the bamboo
grass here. |
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| Behind
of this site is … |
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| The
second entrance to the Forest and … |
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| The
toilet. |
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| The
road from Amanuma Rest Place goes down … |
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| down … |
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| to … |
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| Amanuma
Open Space … |
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| and … |
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| Entrance
to the Forest from Kohshinbashi Bus Stop. |
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Seen
from the allotment
in the smaller part of the Forest.
Could you figure out
skyscrapers in downtown? |
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| Trichosanthes cucumeroides |
If you find a problem in the Park,
please make a contact with
Office for the Park Greeneries in the
South 南部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative
Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-831-8484 (I guess in
Japanese only)
FAX: 045-831-9389 (I hope there is somebody who can
read English …)
