Hiking Chichibu's Koburi Pass 🥾🏞️顔振峠 and Suwa Shrine ⛩️ 諏訪神社 🌅☀️

To join this event please see below and send me a message on LINE. Without this, you will not find out our meeting point. EVERYONE needs to do this EVERY TIME, including those who have participated with me previously.

The Koburi Pass in Saitama comes with spectacular scenery, is an easy hike, and it’s hard to beat for complete rural and peaceful immersion. It’s a relatively easy 3-4 hour walk with amazing views and very few people.

We will meet at Seibu-Agano Station at 10.30am. Please kindly ensure you arrive punctually. The Seibu-Chichibu line train leaves Hanno at 10.05am, arriving at 10.25am.

◾️After you have applied to join this event, please contact Mark Sensei via the Line application quoting your FULL NAME and this message: [Koburi Pass Hiking event - 14th June] MARK's LINE ACCOUNT
If you would like to bring a guest, please ask me via Line.

◾️参加されるイベントの名前(フルネーム)と日付を付けてマーク先生にLINEしてください。
例:[Koburi Pass Hiking event - 14th June] MARK's LINE ACCOUNT
定員の都合上、お連れ様がいる時は事前にLINEでご相談ください。

After ascending through the forest and a beautiful bamboo groove you arrive at Suwa Shrine (諏訪神社). On a clear day, there’s a great view overlooking Saitama and if you’re lucky you might even be able to spot Tokyo Skytree.

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OUR ROUTE:

Once you alight at Agano Station, take a right and follow the Koburi pass – “顔振峠” sign down some steps and right again along a quiet road.

After a few minutes of walking, you need to take a left to the underpass, under the main road.

Once you cross under the main road, you go up a slope and past a school (on your left) and down again then take a right following the hopefully now familiar 顔振峠 sign. Finally you’ll see another sign pointing you left to the road that winds up into the mountain, and a while down this road you eventually you’ll get to the entrance to the path.

The next part of the route is a fairly steady climb through forest, probably about 300m in altitude gain. Just keep following the same signs taking you up the mountain. At one point you cross over a road and a few steps later there’s a great view of the valley on one side and a shrine on the other.

A few steps further and you come back to the road with a couple of eateries. If you didn’t pack lunch, then this is your last chance to grab some eats before the end of the hike. In fact both restaurants are good spots to take a break, bask in the view quoff some delightful Japanese grub for fairly cheap. Also if the visibilities is good, you should be able to see Mount Fuji just poking it’s head over the ridge on the otherside of the valley.

Follow the trail heading further uphill (straight, not right) another 5 mins to a view point, which starts from behind the eatery. The view point at the top is a small clearing with an unobstructed view of most of Saitama.

After the view point, continue along the trail back through the woods and looking out for the Suwa Shrine signs.

After the shrine, head down to the clearing area, which slightly resembles a car park, and look for the sign to “Yugate” (ユガテ).

From here on, you should follow the signs to Yugate, and eventually to the station Higashi Agano (東吾野). Just a few meters down the trail there should be a sign in Japanese saying “Can you see Tokyo Sky Tree?”. If the visibility is good, then you should have a pretty epic view of Saitama and Tokyo plus can most probably detect a tall dark structure (the SkyTree) in the distance, a bit to the north of the skyscrapers of downtown Tokyo.

Keep following the trail, and after a few more minutes you’ll see fork with a sign post to Ogamiyama (上越山). Follow the route to Yugate.

For the next 30 mins to hour, just keep hiking along the ridge and following the signs to ユガテ. The trail crosses over the road a couple of times, but just keep following the signs and you’ll be on the right track. Eventually the trail brings you to just above Yugate which is a pleasant spot full of flowers and blossoming trees (Hint: Spring is probably the best time to be here). You can descend down to Yugate to the left side of the ridge, and the path to Higashi Agano station is down the right side of the ridge.

It takes a further 45 mins to descend through the forest and follow the road to the Higashi Agano station, and it’s all pretty clearly sign posted.

Route blog

Route video

Event fee:
¥800 - early discount if you pay by 4th June evening (PayPay, or in cash at an earlier event).
¥1250 if you pay between 5th-13th June (PayPay, or in cash at an earlier event).
¥1500 in cash on the event day (14th June) - please bring the correct money (see the NOTE below).

NOTE: requesting to pay on the day of the event is upon the understanding that you will either attend the event OR arrange for the event fee to be paid via PayPay within 24 hours. Failure to do so may result in your removal from the group. See the cancellation policy below.

If you don't have PayPay, please ask a friend or coworker to do the transaction for you (give them cash!).

Cancellation policy:

• 50% refund given if cancellation is notified BY LINE MESSAGE at least 24 hours before the event start time.
• Cancellation within 24 hours of the event start time or no-showing requires full payment of the event fee.

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After the event, you may submit a review/evaluation. Please kindly rate appropriately as a low evaluation has an impact on the group. Things you should clearly understand in advance:

1. I (Mark) am not a tour guide. For many events this will also be my first time, and events are mainly organised based on intensive internet research.
2. Nature cannot be guaranteed, so flower festivals may be impacted by the recent climate.
3. We aim to depart on time, however bus schedules might change. This is unavoidable.
4. We request participants arrive EARLY. In rare cases we might wait a few minutes if we do not need to take a bus.
5. The number of participants is not guaranteed. However we will not have large groups.
6. The event finish time might be earlier or later than advertised. The hiking time might be longer/shorter than anticipated. Return bus times are not guaranteed.

How to calculate your review appropriately:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars) = Everything was as described.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars) = The event was generally ok, but there were a few things that you weren't happy with (please provide further details).
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars) = The event was disappointing (please provide further details).
⭐️⭐️ (2 stars) = The event was poor (please provide further details).
⭐️ (1 star) = The event was terrible (please provide further details).