BBQ? Or Quiet Lunch? Nanasawa Forest Park 神奈川県立七沢森林公園

Now we are in November, and finally air gets chilly in Yokohama. Though, Meteorological Agency says compared with the annual average it’s still about a week late for having this temperature … As I posted on 11 October 2019, in Yokohama and Kanagawa we have time for prep to enjoy the climax of autumn colors till early December. This week, I tell you one of the picnic spots for autumn leaves in Kanagawa’s forest, i.e., Kanagawa Prefectural Nanasawa Forest Park 神奈川県立七沢森林公園 in Atsugi City 厚木市.

Pertya scandens

The park locates itself at the entrance to Nanasawa Spa village (Nanasawa Onsen 七沢温泉), and so, it has 3 ample parking spaces for tourists (; map of the Park is here). If you go there by car, please set your navigation system to Nanasawa Onsen, and done. The Park has three car-accessible entrances. One, Central Parking Lot, is at the main gate from Nanasawa community 七沢, and another two, Third Parking Lot, and North Parking Lot, are from residential Morinosato community 森の里. From the Third Parking Lot, the entry to the Park is Morinosato Entrance. From the North Parking Lot, the entrance is from North Entrance, obviously. The Main Gate area has park’s admin office and a multipurpose hall named Mori-no-Minwa-kan (Folk Tale House of the Forest 森の民話館). North Entrance area has Mori-no-Atelier 森のアトリエ where artists and crafts people come and create their work using the material mainly harvested from the forest. Both places have maps and the other information about the park, but inevitably the amount of info available is larger in the main entrance area. Please choose your gate.

The Central Parking of Nanasawa Forest Park

Approach to the Main Gate is recognizable
 from Nanasawa side with this bridge
 which connects north and south of the forest.
 The car road goes through a tunnel
 after this bridge to Morinosato side.

Admin Office of Nanasawa Forest Park

Inside of Mori-no-Minwa-kan

When you enter from Morinosato Entrance,
 you’ll find this wooden chair comfortably situated
 at the view point named Yamayuri (Golden-rayed lily)
 which is the official flower of Kanagawa Prefecture.

Mori-no-Atelier

If you use public transportation, please take Kanachu bus services from Odakyu Hon’atsugi, Aiko-Ishida, or Isehara Stations. (From Hon’atsugi, we have to go Atsugi Bus Center, 5 minutes, walk from the station.) To the main entrance of the Park, catch Atsu 厚-33, 34, or 39 services from Atsugi Bus Center (; time table is here), Ai 愛-11 service from Aiko-Ishida Station (; time table), or I 伊-31, 34, 36 from Isehara Station (; time table). The nearest stop to the main entrance of Nanasawa Park is Nanasawa On’sen Iriguchi 七沢温泉入口 that is a 30-45 minutes’ bus ride. To Morinosato entrances, please take Atsu-43, 44, 45 from Atsugi Bus Center (; time table here and here), or Ai-15, 16, 17 (time table is here and here) from Aiko-Ishida Station. To Morinosato Entrance, the destination bus stop is either Morinosato 3-chome 森の里三丁目, or Morinosato Chugakko (Morinosato Middle-high) Mae 森の里中学校前. To the Atelier, please get off at the terminal stop, Morinosato 森の里. These are also 30-45 minutes’ drive by bus.

Nanasawa On’sen Iriguchi Bus Stop, near the fire station.
 Next to the fire station is Tourism Info Office
 where we can have info about Nanasawa Spa area.
 One option of your weekend is
 spending a day in Nanasawa Park,
 and relax in Spa afterwards.
 How’s that?

I think the best approach to a park anywhere is to visit its info center first. For the case of Nanasawa Forest, the admin office of the main gate distributes a free English map so that you may find this route is easier to enjoy the park. Bonus: the admin office is doing a questionnaire survey (in Japanese) about the park. If you answer, and submit it to the office, you can have a small objet d’art in pottery created in Mori-no Atelier, free of charge, as a souvenir. They are cute. 😊 All the roads, paved or otherwise, in the park are well-maintained. Fully equipped toilets (in western and Japanese styles) are here and there. In the middle of the park, they have an amphitheatre where regular performances are held several times in a year. Near Morinosato Entrance, they have a space of field athletics equipment for kids. Mori-no-Atelier and Mori-no-Minwa-kan have regular classes for crafts, music, yoga, and physical activities. (Please check here for enrollment.) Walking leisurely from the main entrance for about 15minutes, there is a quasi-restaurant for BBQ, open during March to November. RSVP (from here; you have to complete your order by 5 days before of your visit). We can go there without any preparation, rent tools and buy BBQ ingredients from them. Or, you can bring your veggies, meats, et al and pay only for rental fees of tools and places. I guess final weeks of November would be the best time to have an outdoor BBQ party there surrounded by autumn color. All in all, Nanasawa Forest Park is a nicely prepared and taken-care-of place for family. So, you may think “Huh, it would be a boring place.” Please, not so fast.

The toilets near the admin office. Fully equipped!

The park has traditional Japanese pond gardens
 near the admin office, with carps.

Nanasawa Park’s amphitheatre

My souvenir 😊.
 We can choose one out of about 20 pieces.

The road to BBQ place.

Going up these steps leads us to …

A picnic open space,
 called Oyama Open Space おおやま広場,
 observing Mt. Oyama (ASL 1252m) in front.

Before BBQ place, we have this forest scene.
 This is a well-maintained Kanagawa’s forest.
 Trees are thinned and mantle vegetation is
 nicely developed with sunshine.
 i.e. The park is managed enough.

BBQ Place.

The facilities within the Nanasawa forests are connected not only by paved ways but also standard trekking roads. They are fun. If lucky, we can meet wild animals like sika deer, Japanese serow, and Japanese macaque within the Nanasawa Forest Park (as I did). From any entrance of the Park, we go up to the ridge way that has several view spots to observe Kanto Plain to the east. Near Mori-no-Atelier, the ridgeway meets with Junrei Pass 巡礼峠. The place has a legend. The roads in Nanasawa forests were once utility roads for villagers of the area. One of the routes was a pilgrimage road to Mt. Oyama 大山. Once upon a time, a farther and a daughter came to the point now it is Junrei Pass for praying in temples and shrines along the route. Alas, they were so unlucky to meet with burglars there and killed. Villagers found them dead in the pass, and mourned them by locating a Jizo statue (Kṣitigarbha) there. We are still welcomed by the statue at Junrei Pass …

The ridge way.
 Could you see the road sign in the left corner?
They are ubiquitous within the Park
 so that we can walk safely.

And the ridge repeats ups and downs.
 It is a popular training route for local trail runners.

Looking Kanto Plain and Pacific Ocean.

Beautiful silver grasses …

Junrei Pass

The exhibit at the Pass explains the story.

For the killed …

Actually, we have visited this place, a bit, last year (my post on November 30, 2018). The exit from Hakusan 白山 - Iiyama Kan’non 飯山観音 Hiking Course was Nanasawa Forest Park. At that time, we’ve just gone down the park to Nanasawa On’sen Iriguchi bus stop. Hakusan - Iiyama Kan’non Hiking Course is a part of registered trekking route for Kanto Fureai no Michi (関東ふれあいの道・首都圏自然歩道 Metropolitan Natural Walk Way). Park’s ridge way going from Morinosato Entrance meets with Kanto Fureai no Michi from Hakusan Hiking Course at Junrei Pass. It then descends into Nanasawa Spa and goes to Hinata Yakushi Temple 日向薬師 and Mt. Oyama 大山 we’ve visited on 21 April 2017. Area-wise, the park situates itself within the atmosphere of Oyama Pilgrimage Road.

An approach to Junrei Pass
 from Hakusan-Iiyama Kan’non Hiking Course

Junrei Pass is a crossing of 5 roads, one from Hakusan Hiking Course, the road to Nanasawa and Hinata Yakushi Temple, another to Mori-no-Atelier, the ridge way of Nanasawa Park, and the road going down along a small stream, and ending with the main entrance of the Park. The flow is a tributary of Tama River 玉川 which runs through Nanasawa Spa and joins with Sagami River 相模川 eventually. This route, though steep, is a gorgeous trekking course with well-maintained board passes and mini suspension bridges. It goes within afforested cedar forest whose floor is covered by large ferns. Chirping of birds is above somewhere near tree canopy. Sounds of water stream is very calming. It’s amazing to enjoy such adventure so near the residential area. I loved that.

The direction to the road
 along a stream from Junrei Pass.

One of the suspension bridges.
 Don’t you think it’s a nice scenery?

Eating lunch in one of the view spots along the ridge way of Nanasawa Forest Park, I find it interesting to be on the border between the busy metropolitan Tokyo and calm forest pass. In front of me was an expansion of Kanto Plain, and just below me were several research labs for Nissan, NTT, and the other big names. Around me was a chorus of brambling waiting for my bread crumbles … Birds, could you please wait for just few more minutes before I complete my lunch?

This was a nice point for lunch!

<Park administrator>

Park Administration Office, Kanagawa Prefectural Park Association

901 Nanasawa, Atsugi, 243-0121

Phone: 046-223-1711

http://www.kanagawa-park.or.jp/nanasawa/index.html

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121

〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

A Forest where once girls gathered fallen leaves (perhaps): Iiyama Kan’non Hiking Course 飯山観音ハイキングコース

Out of Metropolitan area, i.e. Yokohama, Kawasaki, Fujisawa, Kamakura, … Kanagawa Prefecture still has places where we can imagine an intimate life between forest and agricultural villages of yesteryears. True, many of them are now simply bed towns of Tokyo with lots of detached houses and condos. Even though, going through such newly developed areas, we find a large, old, but often dilapidated, temple with forest and mountain behind. It indicates the area was once a thriving agricultural community where the forest and a mountain attached to the temple provided firewood and the other seasonal bounties, in addition to spiritual center, for the community. A hiking course in the forest surrounding Iiyama Kan’non Temple 飯山観音 in Atsugi City 厚木市 is one of such places. It is actually a popular destination for local boy and girl scouts. Let’s go there this week! (Map is here.)

Geranimun thunbergii found in today’s itinerary.
 It’s an ingredient for popular folk medicine to stomach ailments.
 We can find lots of them today, i.e.,
 this was the place where people utilized
 the givings from the forest.

Iiyama Kan’non area is secretly famous among spa lovers in Tokyo metropolitan area. You take Tomei Express Way and exit from Atsugi IC. In 20 minutes’ time, your car arrives at Iiyama On’sen (Iiyama Spa 飯山温泉) where a couple of inns provides spa resort with alkaline hot spring. (The choices for inns can be referred here.) If you prefer, you can plan today’s itinerary to end at Iiyama Kan’non and have a rest at spa. Hmmmm … I’m not sure if kids are happy for this arrangement. So, I stick to family friendly plan, and start from Iiyama Kan’non Bus Stop 飯山観音前. To go there, take a commuter bus (time table, here) from #5 bus stop in the plaza of the North Exit of Odakyu Hon’atsugi Station 小田急本厚木駅. Majority services from #5 stop go to Iiyama Kan’non Bus Stop, but you’d better ask the driver before your ride if they go there. The service first passes a standard residential area which gradually changes scenery with random mix of new houses and old farms. It’s a typical sign of Metropolitan Tokyo where a suburban development is spreading to former rural communities. In 20 minutes or so, we arrive at Iiyama Kan’non Bus Stop where a bright red gate says “Welcome! This is the town of Tatsukura Shrine 龍蔵神社, Iiyama Kan’non Temple 飯山観音, and Kongohji Temple 金剛寺.” Let’s pass the gate and immediately turn right. Go straight for a couple of minutes and on our right is a farm land where gorgeous chrysanthemums are smiling during autumn. On our left is Kongohji Temple.

Iiyama Kan’non Bus Stop

Please pass this gate.
 It’s very obvious land mark of the area.

Let’s take this direction.

Beautiful chrysanthemums

Go straight to Kongohji Temple 金剛寺.

Legend says Kongohji Temple was established in AD 807 by Kukai 空海, a superstar monk of Japanese early Buddhism. In a historical chronicle Azuma Kagami 吾妻鏡 which depicts the civil war of the 12^th century, there is a record of 1182 in which monks of the temple petitioned to the government. The place was the center of spiritual life of the village at that time. The principal image of Kongohji is Amitabha 木造阿弥陀如来坐像 which is a wood sculpture in a typical 11^th century’s style. It is designated as an important cultural property of Japan 重要文化財. All sounds impressive, isn’t it? So, you have to go there and see it by yourself. The temple hall where Amitabha is situated stands, I would say, slanting. Record says the institution was OK till the 14^th century. Then, another civil war happened and the decline of the establishment started. In the 16^th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 in Edo (Tokyo) recognized its existence and allowed to have small vegetable plots around it, which is the legal basis of its current situation. In early November, in front of the temple are chrysanthemums and commercial vegetable fields, which indicates until the hall began tilting the place was a typical village temple serving for the thriving farmers nearby. We enter the very old-looking gate of the temple, pass the hall of Amitabha, and take a trekking path on the left which goes through the temple’s community cemetery. The atmosphere of village still remains as it was some 100 or more years ago …

The temple hall of Kongohji.
 The institution underwent renovation when
 Tokugawa Ieyasu allowed it to have land in the 16^th century.
 So, I guess the structure was built at that time.

This way, please.

The route becomes steps leading us to 

A small temple cemetery.

After the cemetery, we go through for about 10 minutes a typical Satoyama forest, a mixture of afforested conifers on the right, and broad leaved spring-flowering trees on the left. I guess kids of yesteryears took daily excursion here after their school … Before long we enter a wide open space with a well-kept public toilet and parking spaces. It’s the territory of Iiyama Kan’non Temple, aka Chokokuji Temple 長谷寺. Actually, if we go straight with the paved road from the big red gate next to the bus stop, we can come here straight, after passing Tatsukura Shrine. The founding legend of the establishment is even older: it is said that Gyoki 行基, another superstar monk, established the place in 725. In 988, the temple was designated #6 temple for Avalokitesvara pilgrimage of Kanto region 坂東33観音霊場. Ever since, the place has been visited by lots of pilgrims, and for the 21st century, parking is the MUST for such premises … got it? The present buildings for the sanctuary were built in the 18^th century whose condition tells us the temple is apparently better off than Kongohji Temple we have visited. The power of pilgrimage tourism. The bell of this temple has an inscription of the year 1442 which explains why this bell became the property of the temple. It also explains how people raised the fund to manufacture the bell. The place was popular then certainly. The trees surrounding the sanctuary are tall and large. It is a typical feature of precinct forest of Japan where people have seen something spiritual in the forest of a religious establishment. People’s will has made the trees very old and large ...

From Kongohji Temple, on the left is an orchard.
 Let’s go straight,

a bit of climbing, and then,

An open space for Iiyama Kan’non.

This is the toilet.
 In today’s itinerary, this is the last toilet
 before we arrive at Nanasawa Park.
 Please use your chance wisely.

From the toilet, we go up a little to …

The sanctuary of Iiyama Temple.

The bell.
 The direction to strike a bell is toward the mountain always.
 The sound should bounce back to …

human community spreading
 at the foot of the mountain where a temple locates.
 The design of the bell house here is a sort of textbook example.

The main hall of Iiyama Kan’non Temple.

There is a cute stone statue of Avalokitesvara,
 which has chop sticks and a rice bowl (we guess, yeah).
 “Iiyama” means “Heaped rice = abundance.”
 Bon appetit!

Forest of very-temple

From the back of the temple hall, there is a trekking road goes up to the top of Mt. Hakusan (ASL 283.8m). Soon we meet three-forked crossing. On the right is Otoko-zaka 男坂, and on the left is On’na-zaka 女坂. Both lead us to the peak. Otoko-zaka (; direct translation, “Male slope”) is shorter but with a bit steeper slope. On’na-zaka (“Female slope”) is longer but a gentler slope. (Oh by the way, it’s not saying about male and female expected life years here!) Today, we take easier path, so enter On’na-zaka. Almost immediately, there is a meshed fence and a gate to keep deer out of the temple forest. Also, from about this point, we can find posters saying “Beware of monkeys.” Hmmm. Large trees of the sanctuary spread their large boughs beyond the wired enclosure … looks ideal corridor for tree-top dwellers to move around. Such is human intelligence … After this site, the vegetation of the forest becomes far more natural than the temple precinct we’ve passed. As usual in Kanagawa Prefecture, much acreage is covered by afforested coniferous trees, but the entire area also preserves broad-leaved trees that were spared from deforestation some 100 years ago for commercial forestry. We have encountered traces of mountain persimmons whose fruits were smaller but sweet as the commercial version. No fruit was left, though. Monkeys! The road is calm and pleasant. After a steep but brief climb, we reach to the top of Mt. Hakusan, in about an hour from the Temple. Next to the peak of Mt. Hakusan is an observatory. To the west, we can admire the entire Mt. Oyama just next to us. To the east is Kanto Plane. Weather permitting, we can recognize Tokyo Skytree over the horizon.

Three-forked crossing

A bunny welcomes us at the entrance of On’na-zaka.

Anti-deer gate.
 Please close it securely once you enter.

But we are sure they are nothing for clever monkeys.

A trekking road now

The bunny continues to guide us to the top.

No fruit here …

Botrychium ternatum.
 It looks like somebody planted them for garden
 … it’s wild, of course.

The observatory at the top of Mt. Hakusan

We could not see Tokyo Skytree!

From the observatory, let’s go down to Nanasawa Forest Park 七沢森林公園. The top of the mountain is a crossing of three-forked road: from On’na-zaka we came, from Otoko-zaka, and to Nanasawa Park in the direction of Mt. Oyama in front of us. The basic vegetation and the scenery we enter now is the same as we came from Iiyama Kan’non Temple. The difference is, this side is continuous ups and downs going through the ridgeway descending to Nanasawa Town. This is the forest sandwiched by Iiyama Spa Town and Nanasawa Town that is another and bigger spa town of Atsugi City. I guess both communities, agricultural villages of yesteryears, used the ridgeway forest as a provider of many things … gathering firewood, searching for materials to charcoal baking and to tools for daily usage, harvesting medicinal herbs and wild sweet fruits, persimmons included … School-aged girls came here after school every fall for collecting fallen leaves that could be good tinder for warming houses coming winter. In the 21^st century, such usages have gone. The trees, like Quercus acutissima and Quercus serrata, are a way too large. They are good to bake charcoals, and before once in 12-15 years coppicing was widely done. It was the way to maintain healthy forest. Not so large deciduous trees allowed enough sun light to forest floors. It would then encourage smaller plants to thrive. Many of such species were utilized for daily lives in villages. Now large trees do not allow sufficient sun to their floor. Ever-green shade trees, such as Aucuba japonica, have started to dominate the beneath … That’s a landscape we should think about carefully …

Descending is steep first.
 From here to Junrei Pass (巡礼峠 Pilgrimage Pass),
 it’s a part of Kanto Fureai no Michi
 (関東ふれあいの道・首都圏自然歩道 Metropolitan Natural Walk Way).

And so, picnic benches here and there.

Though not so steep,
 continuous ups and downs are a bit demanding.

It’s too large …

About an hour or so walk from the peak, we reach to Jun’rei Pass (巡礼峠 Pilgrimage Pass). From here, if we continue to the west to Hinata Yakushi Temple 日向薬師 (; my post for March 24, 2017 to Mt. Oyama), we follow the Pilgrimage Pass Route for Metropolitan Natural Walk Way. Though, today, let’s conclude our hike in Nanasawa Forest Park 七沢森林公園 by going straight at the 3-forked road at Jun’rei Pass. The Park is one of the prefectural parks Kanagawa Prefecture has for our community. As we enter the park, the road becomes wide and sometimes with stone paving. There also are lots of sign posts with maps. It would be easy for you to navigate to the gate of the Park where an office for park administrators locates. Nanasawa Park itself deserves independent introduction. Please stay tuned for the time I tell you my adventure in Nanasawa Forestry Park 😉 From the Forest Park to the nearest bus stop, Nanasawa On’sen Iriguchi Stop 七沢温泉入り口 (“Entrance to Nanasawa Spa”), it’s about 5 minutes’ walk. Any services from this stop (; time table is here) will bring us back to the stations for Odakyu Odawara Line 小田急小田原線, such as Hon’atsugi Station 本厚木, Aikoh-ishida Station 愛甲石田, and Isehara Station 伊勢原.

Junrei Pass

Inside the park is mainly like this.

To the gate of Nanasawa Forest Park

Nanasawa On’sen Iriguchi Bus Stop

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/