Odaigahara

Odaigahara is a broad, rolling plateau at around 1,500 to 1,600 meters on the Nara and Mie border, and it is wet. Kamikitayama village puts the annual rainfall at about 3,500 mm, among the highest in Japan, so expect fog and pack rain gear even on a forecast-sunny day. The plateau is part of Yoshino-Kumano National Park. Almost everyone starts at the Odaigahara Visitor Center and its free parking lot (about 200 cars) at the end of the Odaigahara Driveway. From there the East Odaigahara loop, about 9 km and 4 hours by the village's count, needs no permit. It climbs first to Mount Hidegatake (1,695 m), the highest point, with an observation deck on top, then crosses the open bamboo-grass slopes of Masakigahara, dotted with dead trees, to Daijagura: a rock spur sticking out over a cliff the village describes as an 800-meter drop. There is a chain along the edge and nothing else, so it is not for anyone shaky with heights. The western half, Nishi-Odaigahara, is mossy old forest and needs an advance permit, a 1,000 yen fee and a lecture at the visitor center. The hard part is getting here at all, covered below.