Mt. Takatori and the Big Stone Buddha

"Mt. Takatori (鷹取山) is 139m high mountain located in Miura Peninsula. It used to be a stone mine until the end of Taisho period. Because it used to be a mine, there are many interesting cliffs in this mountains, and today it is a popular rock climbing spot in Kanagawa. There are also many hiking courses, and 10m Buddha statue is on the hiking course." - www.mustlovejapan.com

If you'd like to go and are coming from Ikego, head to the entrance (the Japanese side, not the US military side) of the Jimmuji station. Though we did not stop to check, a friend reported there to be a sign at the station with directions to the trail-head. I tried to use an online application to map the route we took, and you can find the entire map below.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyHike

I've been wanting our family to hike Mt. Takatori for a while, and today seemed like a lovely day to try. My husband loves to hike, and both of our girls absolutely adore being in the woods. So we headed out early - I think we were already walking at 9:00am - because we hoped to avoid the hottest part of the day.

The road beside the school that leads to the trail-head.

Bonsai trees behind the senior center. We had just started up the trail-head at this point.

Be advised: there are LOTS of stairs.

There were bathrooms a couple of times on the trail, but I cannot verify the state they are in or if they are working.

Taking the JR route takes you towards Higashi Zushi station. Head the opposite way (left if you just came up the trail) towards Jimmuji temple.

A bell tower is up on the top of the hill. The temple is through that walkway.

Beautiful!

Head up the stairs immediately to the right of the temple.

View of Jimmuji temple from higher up on the trail.

More stairs.

The girls loved rock climbing.

That is one sweaty, but extremely happy kid.

We made it to the rock-climbing area - technically Mt. Takatori.

Bathrooms and vending machines.

Surprise, surprise. More stairs.

We made it to the Buddha! It's hard to tell how big it is....

So I made The Hubs get into the picture. The Buddha is huge!

The rest of the hike took us down a lot of stairs, but that was a lot better than going up them. We came out near a tunnel and headed away from the tunnel and towards Oppama Station. The walk to the station took about 20 minutes and our kids were exhausted. We stopped only a couple of blocks away from the station to dart in a convenience store and grab some ice-cream and food for the kids. I will admit that even my legs were tired at this point!

All in all, it was a great day of hiking. Yes, our kids were exhausted, cranky, and crying by the time we got home, but they had a blast up in the hills. They said they enjoyed climbing all the rocks the most. We had some lovely views and it was a fabulous way to spend a family day.