Adventure in Yokohama Citizen Forest: Suspended motion: Mine Citizen Forest 峯市民の森

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 6^th 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 …

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.

Sakashita Stop

A bus at Kohshinbashi Stop from Isogo Station

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.)

JR Yokodai Station

The road goes up to …

Yokodai 6-chome Traffic Light

Yokodai 6-chome Koen

This way from Koen;
in front of us is already the Mine Citizen Forest.

The allotment at the mouth of Route #1

The road to Sakashita Bus Stop …

goes like this … and

we can see a large part of Mine Forest ahead
from this road.

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.

Route #2: turn left here, and

Another entrance to the Forest

Shrine

Machilus

Broad-leaved,

and bamboos.

… 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?

A large traditional house along the bus route

A yard for a construction company

Industrial laundry

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.

Entrance from Sakashita Bus Stop
first goes along the material storage
of the construction company.

At the end are a small wooden bridge
and the Forest. The route is one way.

Zenshoh-yama Rest Place

Many of the trees at the bottom are cherries.

The remnants of volunteer works,

And an art work,
aka a creative collaboration of nature and volunteers!

Amanuma Rest Place

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.