Hiroshima Ushitayama
A mountain in the middle of the city
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Most tourists who come to Hiroshima visit the Peace Park/Bomb museum. Then typically they go visit the castle and head down to Miyajima to see the shrine and then they leave. There are a few other spots that may get a look in but pretty much all of them are in the general area between the station and the Peace Park. That’s a pity because Hiroshima has lots of other interesting things including a surprisingly walkable urban mountain to hike. That mountain is Ushitayama (牛田山) and it is about 250m/800ft high. That may not seem like much but it’s a significant climb because you start at an elevation of maybe 10ft/3m above sea level. It’s connected to another lower hill (Futabayama 二葉山) that you can see from the North (Shinkansen) exit of Hiroshima station. A round trip that does both (and a couple of minor peaks on the horseshoe shaped ridge) is about 8km/5 miles long and takes three to four hours for people with moderate fitness who stop to take a few photos - it took me under 2.5 hours but I’m stupidly fit - and is a nice way to spend a morning to work up an appetite for a large okonomiyaki for lunch.
As you climb up and around you get to see Hiroshima from a different angle and to experience a very different side of Japan to that of the big built up city that surrounds the mountain. What may surprise is how quiet it can be with the noise of the city mostly muted. Occasionally you hear sirens, or musicians practicing their instruments as well as birdsong and, in season, the amorous croaks of frogs and cicadas
Equipment and Fitness
Bear in mind that this is a real hill/mountain with rough paths and not a manicured park. If you want an easier trail Hijiyama Park (比治山公園) may be a better choice as it is much lower, manicured and even has an escalator. However assuming you can walk 6 miles/10km or more on the flat, you can do this trail if slowly. If you run 5 or 10km races and/or regularly climb hills and so on you will definitely not have a problem. It’s steep in spots but not excessively so and there are no bits where you need to cling on for dear life. There is (if I recall correctly) one spot where there is a rope but you probably don’t need to use it, it’s more for support for people descending and you are going up at that spot.
As I noted above, the time it takes to do this course is very varied. A guy I know on Strava who does many tough trail races does versions of this course in a little over an hour. I’m pretty fit as is my wife so we took under 2 1/2 hours including stops for pictures: my Strava says we took 2h7minutes moving time which excludes the time we stopped for pictures but which includes an extra kilometer or two because we started at our hotel on the other side of the river from Hiroshima station. Looking at the Japanese Yamap pages it seems some people take a good 5 hours to do the circuit. But 5 hours is probably the time taken by Japanese hikers in their 80s and/or ones who stop every few steps for a photo.
You will need to have running shoes or better to do this. The trail is earth and can be muddy and slippery in places so sandals, flip flops or town shoes with little or no grip will not work. However you don’t by any means need hiking boots or serious Saloman/ Inov8 sorts of trail shoes.
You will need water or sport drink. If you decide to take your time, pack a lunch and eat it at the top. Depending on the weather you may want to pack a rain jacket if you have one.
Also there is generally speaking excellent cell coverage. So take your phone for emergencies. Even if you don’t need to call for a rescue the maps app can help you once you get on to the streets
Start by Climbing Up Futabayama
I’m going to assume for this post that you are starting at Hiroshima station. If you aren’t starting there, you should look at google maps, this yamap page (in Japanese), or your mapping tool of choice to figure out how to get to the start which is Hiroshima Toshogu Shrine (広島東照宮).
From the Shinkansen exit do not go down to street level, bear left to go towards the Granvia Hotel on the upper level walkway and then, instead of going into the hotel, continue on the walkway over the top of the busy multilane street and down the steps on the far side. (Google instructions)
Continue a short way along the street until you get to the first Lawson convenience store (this may be a good place to buy lunch and/or a bottle of water or sport drink). Then turn right on the pedestrian only area. When you come to the next road cross it and continue down the road that T-junctions there. At the next intersection turn left and the shrine is there.
Go up the road just to the right of the shrine and follow it as it turns left behind/above the shrine. Then you will see on your right a map of the mountains and trails and by it steps going up with lots of red torii leading to another shrine (Kinko Inari Shrine 金光稲荷神社).
The path goes through the shrine (by all means take a quick look at the shrine) and up the back (more steps and red torii). After a while the concrete steps and torii end but the path continues on earth and surrounded by trees. Here and there you will see small shrines like this
As you get near the top there’s a big rock visible off top the left which you should go an see. Not just for the rock itself, but also the vew back down to central Hiroshima
When you get to the obvious top there’s a sign to the left to a rock (太陽の岩) which is supposed to also have various wartime air-raid shelters and anti-aircraft gun emplacements nearby (I didn’t look to see). Instead you should head right and come out by the big silver gray pagoda you could see from the station. That also has a good views back down.
Futabayama to Onagayama
From the pagoda go down the steps and onto the tarmac road above a cemetary. Follow the road around until you see a path off to the left. There’s a big stone marker with carved japanese on it just by the turn.
Take the path along and down and continue down the steps at the end and along a road with houses/apartments on it. At the 5-way junction take the road more or less straight across which is the only one going up. Keep up and to the left ignoring the various turns to the right and you will see a path on the left/straight as the road makes a final right turn with signs in Japanese saying that this is the start (尾長山・牛田山 登山口)
From now on until you reach the top of Ushitayama follow signs that have the following: 牛田山
After a fairly short and steep section you will reach the top of the next peak (Onaga yama 尾長山). From the summit (and at various other points) you can look back at where you came from (the silver pagoda is a very visible landmark) and at Hiroshima city in general. At the summit three different tracks intersect but there’s a sign pointing you the right way.
Onagayama to Ushitayama
Take that path which leads to a clear spot with very good views of Hiroshima thanks to the clearing for the aviation warning light and then bends sharply back to the right with lots of tree roots. You then get to a junction of paths with a sign with the Ushita yama (牛田山) direction handpainted where you turn left.
The path follows the ridgeline and is earth with occasional logs to act as steps. Here and there you will encounter seats where you can rest and possibly enjoy the view as well as the occasional earthenware pipe/chimney pot in the ground for people to dispose of cigarette butts (and apparently also used to dispose of chewing gum and other small trash).
There are some surprisingly large trees here given that the entire mountain (and everything else you’ve seen in Hiroshima) was pretty much burned to the ground thanks to the atomic bomb.
After a while (and ignoring various paths off the ridge on either side) you start the solid ascent to the Ushitayama summit. There is a spot where the trail splits but the two paths rejoin in a bit and then a little later there’s a steep uphill with a rope to help. After that it’s not very far before you see the top
From the top, assuming it’s a decent day, you have a nice view of Hiroshima with Futabayama in the front and the mini-Fuji island of Ninoshima in the distance (see first picture in this post). There are also good views in the other direction assuming the weather is good - on my hike the weather was just so-so
The top is fairly civilized with a shelter and various picnic tables/benches. Particularly at the weekend you will likely see Japanese hikers eating and drinking at them. If there are others here you are likely to be asked questions in (probably bad) English.
Ushitayama to Kandasan
From Ushitayama it’s pretty much down hill all the way, there are a few small ascents but not many. You start by taking the other way from the top to the one you climbed up. After a little bit there is a sign pointing on the left to a steepish down trail to 早稲田小学校 (Waseda Elementary School).
[If you are totally done with mountains that’s a way to return to civilization, but not otherwise recommended because you end up in what can best be described as a maze of twisty streets all alike. As long as you keep descending you will eventually run into larger streets, bus stops and other trappings of civilized life.]
Presuming you don’t duck out at this point from now on, except for one point which is the top of Kandasan (神田山), when in doubt take the left rather than the right. There’s path to the right one with a sign to 戸坂 that shows up shortly after the left. From the top of Ushitayama you will gradually descend for about half a mile (800m) before climbing a little to get to the top of Kandasan (神田山). At Kandasan is another opportunity to quit mountains (sign to 牛田早稲田). As with the previous one you kind of drop into a maze of twisty streets but it’s more obvious that you keep going down.
This is the other time where turning left is wrong (unless you want to quit). From now on, for real when you have a choice take the left choice. Also for this section and the rest of the trail follow any signs you see to 牛田旭口.
Kandasan to Mitateyama
Just past the top of Kandasan is a viewspot where you can look down on the Otagawa river and the built up back of Hiroshima and also the bigger mountains away from the sea. Then you head down through some large boulders. The next couple op hundred yards/meters may be the toughest part of the trail in terms of footing. There are steps, the aforementioned rocks and, when the trail starts going up again it was somewhat overgrown when I did it. You come to a couple of junctions of various paths one a few steps after the other. The first left is quite overgrown and has a “no mountainbiking” poster/sign on it. I think this ends up joining the path you want but what you should do is go to the second junction and turn left following the nice wooden sign with 牛田旭口 on it (there may be an attached sign saying 見立山 but this looked like it was going to fall off when I saw it). After going down a bit you will come out to a ridge with a road below you on the right (and the no mountain bike path joins in here I believe). Continue along the ridge which then has some buildings down on the right too. There’s a good view over the buildings to the Otagawa similar to what you saw earlier and at one point some benches where you can sit, rest and enjoy the views in the other direction looking towards Futabayama that you climbed at the beginning.
Just past the buildings you enter the top of a nice manicured park (牛田総合公園 Ushita Sogo park). Pay no attention to the manicured paths down the hill - unless you decide to call it a day - and stay on the concrete path at the top. Just past the end of the park and after the concrete path ends and becomes dirt again you will reach the Mitateyama (見立山) peak and viewspot
Mitateyama and Back to the Start
Back over 400 years ago Mitateyama was where the leader of the Mori clan (Mori Terumoto) chose as a viewpoint where he decided where to build Hiroshima castle. The castle is just about visible if you know where to look - the officcial photo/guide thing marks it (広島城 written vertically). It is quite something to think that 400+ years ago everything you see was basically a swampy delta with a small fishing port and not much more. The port developed, first under the Mori and then after the lords that the Tokugawa selected to replace them (the Mori picked the losing side in the battle of Sekigahara that established the Tokugawa shogunate and went from controlling most of Western Honshu to just what is now currently Yamaguchi prefecture as a result). During the following three centuries Hiroshima expanded gradually and in the Meiji era it industrialized and grew even more. Then in 1945 just about everthing you can see from this viewpoint including the castle was destroyed by the first atomic bomb.
Mind-boggling how you can’t tell.
Anyway back to the trail. You can turn right and/or go back to the park and head downhill. Either way you end up at Ushita station on the Astram line. Alternatively you can continue on and go down a final bit of hill. This takes you down to the back of some new apartments you zag back along behind them and then down steps on the far side to a road. Turn right and go downhill. The road has a couple of bends before ending in a T junction. Turn right and then left at the next T junction a few yards away. Admire (assuming it hasn’t been built on) the little rice paddy as you continue downhill.
After about hundred yards/meters you will get to a junction with a big road. There’s a cafe just across that road (Cafe Luster) that might be a good place to celebrate competing the hike - although you still have to get back to the start, the way back is all on streets and pretty much flat.
There’s a road behind Cafe Luster that you should take, then take the second left (or the third or the first but I recommend second - see these google directions) and continue on that road through the residential area until it deadends at a road along a small stream. Turn right. When that road joins a much larger road (traffic lights) turn left and walk along until you get to a shrine and a complicated junction where you can see a road going under the shinkansen tracks. Turn left again going past the entrance to the shrine and after another 500m or so you’ll be back to the Lawson you saw when you came down from the overpass. Go back over the overpass by Granvia Hotel and you are back to the start.
Links
An older much more detailed description of most of the trail is on the GetHiroshima website
Nice write up!
See, I would be dawdling to photograph the ferns, and flowers, and is that a bug...? This is why my hikes take forever, and why I am not in very good condition!