Hiking Mt. Kinpu

Staff Journal

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Mt. Kinpu is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains, located in the Okuchichibu Mountains bordering Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures (altitude 2,599 meters). The climb to the top has a fair share of incline, decline, and straight areas. Starting from the Odarumi Mountain Hut (odarumi yamagoya), the hiking trail takes about 2.5 hours to the top. There are both dirt paths and fenced areas you can follow along to reach the top.

As you get closer to the summit, the trees start to clear out and the forest landscape starts to disappear. There is a wide area composed of large rocks and stones, and it feels as if you have entered an entirely different world.

As you climb, you can see Mt. Fuji peeking out in the distance from various stops along the way—even on cloudy days! In Kofu, the capital of Yamanashi, Mt. Fuji is nearly impossible to see in cloudy weather. However, from Mt. Kinpu, you have a view of Mt. Fuji above the clouds!

After passing the 2,365m mark, we noticed some snow on parts of the trail.

Some of the best parts about climbing Mt. Kinpu are the diverse landscapes and different types of vegetation that can be seen along the trail. If you look to your left, you’ll see Yamanashi. But if you look to the right, you can see Nagano. It’s the best of both worlds!

There is another, less popular trail for Mt. Kinpu that connects to Shosenkyo in Kofu City. According to our guide, Mr. Sugimoto, it takes around two days and one night.

We took the simpler route, which only took around 2.5 hours. We started at Odaimitoge (2365m), which is about 300m from the top.

It was amazing seeing the foliage changed as we hiked further up the mountain. The bark of the trees had a strong, evergreen smell. Our guide said that because it stores well, we could even take some home with us to smell whenever we like.

The most surprising sight we saw had to be these huge stones. It looked as if they had been placed there supernaturally—certainly not by the hands of a human!