Forest Walk: Yatsugatake Outdoor Activities

On a hot summer day in July, we took a cool walk in the forests surrounding Moegi-no-Mura in Hokuto City. Moegi-no-Mura is a unique village where you can find shops, restaurants, and other activities to try with friends or family, including a music box museum, whisky bar, and Restaurant ROCK.

Yatsugatake Outdoor Activities

Yatsugatake Outdoor Activities（External Link） offers a series of different outdoor activities you can enjoy all throughout the different seasons, such as: kayaking, trekking, e-bikes, bonfires, and more. What makes them really stand out from the others, is their wide variety of beginner-friendly, guided tours that are both “active” and “scenic.” No gear? No problem. Helmets are provided, and additional gear like rainwear is available to rent for separate fees.

Forest Walk Tour

The guides who run the tours really know their stuff, and they will show you all the charms of the forest in their exciting tours (around 1.5 hours).

For the tour, I recommend you bring water, walking shoes (regular sneakers are good enough), and, if you like, snacks that you can munch on while enjoying the views. Feel free to bring some bug spray as well, or just borrow some from your guide.

On our walk, we stopped several times to scratch the bark of certain trees and smell their delicate fragrances. We took turns making trumpet noises using a long, thin piece of leaf held between our two thumbs. We even learned how to identify traces left behind by the local wildlife, such as deer.

Our guide even challenged us with some quizzes. We had to guess what plants smelled like certain Japanese spices (for example, “sansho” or Japanese pepper). Since I’m not Japanese, I wasn’t able to pick up on all the references, but it still was a creative way to make the tour interactive and fun.

Your four-legged friends are more than welcome to join you on this tour. Meet Kuu-chan, an adorable shiba who joined us on our forest walk!

▲Kuu-chan, Forest Walk quiz time, and ice cream from Palet d'or

Just a 10-minute drive away from Moegi-no-Mura, there is an iconic shop owned by Shunsuke Saguesa, a reputable chocolatier. At Palet d’or, treat yourself with some delicious ice cream. You can choose between Noir (chocolate only), Blanc (chocolate with cream), or Rendez-vous (a mix of both).

More Info

Yatsugatake Outdoor Activities website:
https://y-outdoor.com

Address : Yamanashi-ken, Hokuto-shi, Takane-cho, Kiyosato 3545 Moegi no Mura
(Moegi-no-Mura is only 2 hours away from Shinjuku via the Chuo Expressway. If come by train, take a limited express train bound for Matsumoto, get off at Kobuchizawa to transfer to the Koumi Line, and take a train to Kiyosato. From there, Moegi-no-Mura is a 10-minute walk, in total a 2.5 hour trip.)