Welcome to the Meiji Memorial Forest Takao Quasi-National Park

• For a detailed description of each course, click the course name in the map.
• Photographs are available on each course page. For details, please refer to each page.
• For a printable, PDF version of the map click here: Mt. Takao Hiking Courses Map (PDF)

Mount Takao, located within the municipality of Hachioji City in the southeastern part of the Kanto mountainous region, is about 50 km from the center of Tokyo.
Because of this convenient location, visitors can enjoy its natural beauty and the many other attractions all in a day's trip. In recognition of its magnificent beauty, the 2007 edition of Michelin's Voyager Pratique Japon, the famous French travel guidebook, awarded Mt. Takao and Mt. Fuji the maximum of three stars.

Visitors can climb Mt. Takao by taking a cable car or lift to a point 400 m up - halfway up the mountain. They can also climb to the top along one of three trails, each of which takes about one-and-a-half hours.

There are six trails on Mt. Takao designated as nature study courses. Signs posted along each of the trails describe the animals, plants, insects, and birds in the area, which make the courses virtually open-air nature museums.

An observation deck close to the Takao Cable Car Station offers a magnificent panorama of the Kanto Plain, with Tokyo's skyscrapers in the middle.

On the northern side, you can see the Oku-Chichibu and Niko mountains, and in the northeast, beyond the Kanto Plain, is the summit of Mt. Tsukuba. In the foreground you can see the sprawling cities of Hachioji and Tachikawa with the skyscrapers of central Tokyo, the Tokyo Tower, and the Yokohama Landmark Tower in the background.

Completing the panorama is the view of Sagami Bay and Enoshima Island extending along the south to the southeast. The stunning view from here on a cool summer night is unforgettable.

From a vantage point further up near the mountain's summit, you can also see the Tanzawa Mountains to the south. On a fine day even Mt. Fuji is clearly visible from here, and in winter, when the air is clear, you can also get a distant view of the Japanese Alps.

Mt. Takao is endowed with a rich and varied natural environment, where trees belonging to the temperate and sub-tropical regions flank majestic cedars hundreds of years old. In 1967, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration, Mt. Takao was named the Meiji Memorial Forest Takao, and became the eastern starting point of the Tokai Nature Trail that connects Mt. Takao with the Mino Quasi-national Park in Osaka.

Make sure you visit Mt. Takao at least once and enjoy all it has to offer.

• For a map of the eight trails please click here

• Map of Mt. Takao Hiking Courses (Eight Trails) (PDF)

*To view the PDF file, please download the free Adobe Reader.