Mount Buko Omotesando Trail

The Omotesando ("front approach") route up Mount Buko begins at the Ichi-no-Torii trailhead, roughly a 20 to 30 minute walk from Yokoze Station on the Seibu Chichibu Line in Yokoze, Chichibu district, Saitama Prefecture. No hiking permit is required, and while a small paid parking area exists near the trailhead, it fills quickly on autumn weekends, so most hikers arrive by train. The full route covers approximately 15.6km one-way to Urayamaguchi Station, climbing from about 250m at the trailhead to the 1,304m summit, a gain of roughly 1,050m over sustained, switchback-heavy terrain. The lower two-thirds follow a well-graded dirt forestry track through cedar and beech plantation forest, passing small roadside shrines and distance markers every few hundred metres. The final third narrows to a rockier, root-crossed ridge path with several short scrambling sections as the trail skirts the edge of an active limestone quarry that has visibly reshaped the mountain's northern face. Shade is near-continuous on the lower forest sections but disappears entirely on the exposed summit plateau, which opens onto wide views across the Chichibu basin and, on clear winter mornings, a distant silhouette of Mount Fuji to the southwest. A small mountain hut just below the summit sells drinks and simple noodle dishes on weekends and holidays during the main hiking season, and a red torii gate marks the shrine precinct at the top. There is no reliable natural water source above the trailhead, so hikers should carry at least two litres per person. Many day hikers treat the summit as the natural turn-around point, retracing the Omotesando route back to Yokoze Station rather than continuing the steeper, less-shaded descent toward Urayamaguchi, which adds significant time and knee strain.