Far from Madding Crowd: Sengokubara Nature Trail 仙石原自然探勝道

 

Walking past the memorial for Kobokusha, the strolling path becomes wider. We’re going through Dai-Hakone Country Club where sometimes PGA tournaments are held. Over the course on our left, there is a peculiar rock exposed on the slope of Mt. Marudake (丸岳 ASL 1156m). It has name, Daruma Rock. Long long before beyond human memory, it was supposed to be on the outer rim of Hakone Crater. Time made the rim fragile and slope failure occurred. That rock tumbled down from the ridge and situated itself there. On our right from the path is still smoke-billowing Owakudani. Hakone is actually an active volcano. We walk over a small bridge on a stream. In no time there comes a sign on our right saying “Sengokubara Shizen Tansho-do (Sengokubara Nature Trail 仙石原自然探勝道), This way.” Please depart from the cycling road and dive in it.

Daruma Rock beyond the golf course

A robot golf cart can come out.

A small stream down from our left

Adelante, por favor.

On our right it appears the signpost.

First 20m or so of this way is along the country club. Utility entrance for the golf course runs along the trail, but on our left, there is an ancient stone paved way which is typical of Hakone (; my posts for February 5 to March 5, 2021). This time, the terrain is FLAT! If you try this ancient civil engineering with your toddler, this section could be an ideal beginner’s entrance. I just wonder why such elaboration must have been done for mountain road 400 years ago … Probably, the route was a part of highway coming from Gotemba City 御殿場 on the slope of Mt. Fuji, via Nagao Pass 長尾峠 (ASL 911m), and reaching to Sengokubara Town. The community of Sengokubara still holds such traditional connections with Gotemba. I’ll tell you about it by the end of this month. 😉

Ancient and new roads

The flat paved way

This route is, for the first time for today’s itinerary, really a narrow trekking road in a forest. Yet, there are not many ups and downs. The paved ancient road eventually goes through a high wall of sasa-bamboos. They are Hakone-dake, Pleioblastus chino f. vaginatus, a very close relative for Azuma-nezasa, Pleioblastus chino (Franch. et Savat.) Makino var. viridis (Makino) Sad.Suzuki. Azuma-nezasa is ubiquitous in east Japan. Hakone-dake is found mainly in Hakone. Some say the plant is Hakone endemic, but genetic analysis seems to me does not endorse this claim. Still, the overall look of Hakone-dake is definitely slimer. The leaves of Hakone-dake are slenderer than their relatives in Yokohama. Once Botanist Mr. Teruo Katsuyama told me about any plants with name “Hakone” is slimmer or smaller than their relative in the world below. His guess was, due to colder climate in Hakone despite its latitude plants evolutionary adjusted their characteristics to their environment. For a kind of evidence of his conjecture, Hakone-dake can be found only in the forest where human afforestation took minimum even in Hakone. They have been there for centuries.

A small stream flows
in the field of Hakone-dake.

An ancient road goes through
an old field of Hakone-dake.

We soon find ourselves on a way running along Hayakawa River. Hello again! By this point, the River has enough water that would be difficult to be dried up. Basically, Hakone is a place where it rains a lot. Although the size of the river is not large enough to sustain population of Odawara, Hayakawa River keeps on going as river. We go ahead and cross Hayakawa River. After departing the field of Hakone-dake, I noticed there are lots of deciduous trees, like Maples and Bridal wreath, that will turn colors when autumn comes. During early summer with fresh verdure, it is an attractive enough strolling path. And the course will be impressive in fall. After crossing Hayakawa River, the route has a bit of going up with stone pavement. Then it becomes a comfortable stroll in beautiful forest. The exit of this trail is called Tsutsuji (Azalea) Street where in May many homes compete for flowering shrubs in their garden. After the housing area we find ourselves the road Shitsugen (Wetland) Street running in front of Hakone Botanical Garden of Wetlands (; my post for May 5, 2023). From the start of Kojiri Watergate, it is a leisurely walk of less than 3 hours. If you do not intend to go mountaineering, or want to avoid crowds of tourists in Hakone, this is a relaxing itinerary, especially with kids. Please try.

Hayakawa River again

We cross the bridge.

Beautiful early summer stroll

Ancient trekking path

The exit for the trail

Azalea Street in May 2026

Hakone Town Hall 箱根町役場

256 Yumoto, Hakonemachi, Ashigarashimo-gun,
Kanagawa 250-0398
〒250-0398 神奈川県足柄下郡箱根町湯本256

Phone: 0460-85-7111
https://www.hakone.or.jp/

Got Milk? Peaceful Stroll in Hakone Sengokubara 箱根仙石原

Having visited a forest trying to escape from tsunami of tourists, today I will tell you about my adventure with a forest with 180°different approaches for the issue. It’s in Hakone. Yep. The town is fed by tourism. The way of thinking for the matter should be different from that of the suburbs of Tokyo. Still, probably due to a certain level of remoteness, the forest we will visit today does not have an atmosphere of crowdedness. In the first place these days, that should be a reason to take our time for going there. In addition, if we hike Hakone in honest, the place requires us serious mountaineering with proper gears, well-thought of itinerary, enough trail mix, water, etc … For today’s course, we stroll well-managed roads. Half of the course is paved for cyclists. Families of preschool kids could enjoy a day without serious concern for safety. (Of course, high-heeled shoes are NO-NO.) It’s Hakone Sengokubara Cycling Course. Let’s go there now!

The entry point for the course is Hakone Pirate Ship Togendai Port. Looking Lake Ashi on our left, there is a strolling path from the Port which goes through Ashinoko Camp Mura Lakeside Villa. Please dive in the path and reach to the end of the Villa, which is Kojiri Watergate 湖尻水門 (; my post for June 23, 2023). The road on our right is for Ashinoko Skyline whose toll gate is over there to the west. Please cross the road to the opposite side. This side is Hakone Kohan Golf Course, and from there one so-so wide paved road goes north. This is Sengokubara Cycling Course. As its main customer is bikers, there are occasional passing of cyclists on the course. Local utility cars also come in. But these are not frequent occurring and we can walk a well-maintained road with ease.

The path in the Villa. It’s a comfortable route.

Kojiri Watergate

Crossing Ashinoko Skyline,
the road ahead of us is today’s itinerary.
Carts for the golf course are coming out
 from the club house.

The route soon becomes a leisurely way.

On our right is Hayakawa River. At the Watergate, the flow was almost none, but now on our right, just 5 minutes or so walk, there is a reasonably smooth stream. Moreover, the water level of the river goes up as we walk to the north. The river collects water from the mountains north of Lake Ashi, of course. It’s interesting. The lake and river beds are one, and even if humans build a concrete gate, waters are coming whateva. Hmmmmmm. Around the point where we depart from the Kohan Golf Course, we say a small goodbye to Hayakawa River (we’ll meet again within one hour). On our left are now forests of afforested cedars, and on our right is a mixture of deciduous trees and cedars. Beyond the deciduous trees are Hakone Country Club, one of the best golf courses in Japan. When we meet a wide expanse of the golf courses on right, we can also observe volcanic steams of Owakudani beyond the country club ... This peaceful course provides you the representative views of Hakone, such as Lake Ashi and Owakudani. 😊 Please take a deep breath and enjoy the smell of forest.

Hayakawa River on our right.

After departing from the river side …

On our left is afforested cedar forest
which is the water source for Hakone Town.
In general, afforested areas in Hakone are
 well-taken care of, I think.

Hakone Country Club and Owakudani over there.

About 3K from the end of the Kohan Golf Course, on our left there is a monument commemorating Hakone Kobokusha 耕牧舎. The Kobokusha is the first Japanese ranch established in 1880 by Shibusawa Eiichi and his business partners in Tokyo. Shibusawa who? You may say. Please check Japanese 10000 yen bill. He’s there. Some say he is the father of modern Japanese economy. During his lifetime, he started more than 500 business, such as Mizuho Bank et al., Kobokusha is one of them. When Tokugawa Shogunate governed Hakone for the defense of Edo = Tokyo, the area we are walking today was for nurturing war horses for Shogun. When Shogunate was gone, Kanagawa Prefecture bought the land, then Shibusawa obtained the place from the prefecture. By that time, Hakone became popular among expats living in Yokohama to have summer society. Shibusawa thought there was a business chance for milk, western style. Shibusawa and his pal invested funds to develop ranch there and introduced milk cows.

Here, there was a ranch.

The manager of the ranch was Sunaga Denzo 須永伝蔵 who dedicated his life for the project. The soil of the area is volcanic, and had/has water problem of Hayakawa River. The project faced numerous technical difficulties and legal matter for the water. Sunaga and ranch lost the water lawsuit against the farmers in Shizuoka, became the important precedent about the Lake Ashi issue between Shizuoka and Kanagawa. Moreover, the market for the milk in Hakone was not big, and in the 19th century there was no adequate refrigeration technology to transport milk outside Hakone. The ranch focused on nurturing milk cows for exporting to the later coming ranches in Japan, but after Sunaga died of an illness the business was closed. Shibusawa thanked Sunaga a lot, and built commemorative stones for him at Sunaga’s birth place in Gun’ma 群馬 and here in Hakone.

The road running in front of the memorial stone

Now the former ranch is a forest and Hakone Country Club. The point where the stone exists has a peaceful picnic bench within the forest. In Japan these days, demand for milk is in flux and ranches all over Japan is searching for the next stage for their business, such as producing gourmet cheese. But the beginning was not so easy. Probably it is as always for such matter. We keep walking from the stone, thinking the history of the place AND want to have soft serve! We’ll meet Hayakawa River before reaching our ice creams. Please stay tuned. 😉

We walk through a part of Hakone Country Club.
It is understandable
once there was ranch for milk cows.

Hakone Town Hall 箱根町役場

256 Yumoto, Hakonemachi, Ashigarashimo-gun,
Kanagawa 250-0398
〒250-0398 神奈川県足柄下郡箱根町湯本256

Phone: 0460-85-7111
https://www.hakone.or.jp/