Mount Amagi

There is no summit actually called Amagi. The name covers a worn-down volcano across the middle of the Izu Peninsula, and the peak hikers count for the 100 Famous Mountains list is Banzaburo-dake, 1,406 m, the highest ground in Izu. Most people do the loop that Izu City calls the Amagi Shakunage course: from the Amagi Kogen trailhead up to Banjiro-dake (about 1,300 m), along the ridge through Ishinagitate, where the rhododendrons grow thickest, over Banzaburo-dake and back by the Karesawa junction. It is about 8.4 km, and the city's reference time is roughly five and a half hours; allow six. The forest is beech and Japanese stewartia, mossy and often wet. Amagi is one of the rainiest places in Japan, averaging over 4,500 mm a year, so the trail is muddy and views from the top are hit and miss. Late May is the pull, when the pale pink Amagi rhododendrons open; from March the paths run through tunnels of white-flowered asebi. The city says hikers get lost here often and asks you to start early: by 10:00 from May to July, by 8:00 in winter. Even in May the summit can drop to 5°C.