Daibosatsurei | 大菩薩嶺
HIKE DATE: June 14, 2026 (Sunday)
PUBLIC TRANSPORT SUMMARY
Check the bus timetable to Kamihikawa (神氷川峠) here. It runs from mid-April to the first week of December.
First bus from Kai-Yamato Station: 8:10 AM.
Last bus from Kamihikawa: 3:45 PM.
Fare: 1,020 one way.
THE ROUTE:
Total time on the trail: 4 hours and 9 minutes.
(Please note that these stats were from when I hiked it. Your conditions could be a bit different.)
Hike Log Summary:
SUNDAY
7:40 AM - Arrived at Kai-Yamato Station.
8:00 AM - Bus departed (It left 10 minutes earlier since it got full, but there was a second bus.)
8:45 AM - Arrived at Kamihikawa.
8:50 AM - Started the hike.
11:30 AM - Reached the summit.
1:00 PM - Back at the trailhead.
1:00 - 2:00 PM - Had lunch.
2:00 PM - Took the bus back to Kai-Yamato Station, where we took the train back home.
Yamanashi’s mt. daibosatsu
7:40 AM - We arrived at Kai-Yamato Station. We headed early here so we could line up for the bus since this mountain gets a lot of hikers.
8:00 AM — The bus departed even though the scheduled departure was at 8:10. If all seats were occupied, the first bus would leave. When we went here two years ago, we saw that they had a second bus coming for the remaining hikers at the same designated time. Take note that the bus fare is only paid in cash and costs 1,020 yen one way.
8:45 AM - We arrived at Kamihikawa bus stop, where the trailhead is also located. If you choose to drive, they have a spacious parking lot. There is a toilet, a shop, a restaurant, and a lodge right by the trailhead.
9:00 AM - We started hiking. It was raining the day before, so the trail was a bit muddy. The weather was also foggy, so we expected no views from this hike.
9:20 AM - Reached Fukuchan Mountain Lodge, the second mountain lodge along the trail. They sell food and other souvenirs. This is also where the path diverges. The left path goes all the way to the summit of Daibosatsurei and will take you an hour. It is steeper and also more crowded. The path on the right goes through Daibosatsu Touge and will take you 2 hours to get to the summit. It has gentler slopes and fewer crowds. When we did this hike two years ago, we took the left path up and went down the other trail. This time, we have decided to do it the other way around and took the path on the right, going through Daibosatsu Touge and going down the other way. In my opinion, the latter is better. It had way less crowd, and the slopes were less steep.
Fukuchan Mountain Lodge
To the left is the path to Daibosatsurei, the summit. To the right is to Daibosatsu Touge, which is a longer route to the summit.
The path to Daibosatsu Touge (Pass). It was pretty quiet.
Moss!
10:03 AM - We arrived at the third mountain lodge of the day, Kaizan-so. This place also sells some food and souvenir items. I bought my mountain badge here last time I went. It is also right next to the summit marker of Daibosatsu Touge (Pass) at 1,867 meters. On a less foggy day, you should be able to see Mt. Fuji from here, but on both times that I’ve hiked this mountain, I didn’t have the chance to see Fuji-san.
The summit marker of Daibosatsu Touge.
10:37 AM - Passed a shelter hut along the trail. It has no door, though, so if you’re thinking of using it as your shelter for the night, think twice about it, since you’ll be sleeping with the “door” always open. It is really useful for bad weather conditions, though, should the weather turn bad on your hike.
You would find this scenic spot soon after passing the Shelter Hut. It was absolutely breathtaking, and I can confirm that it was even more beautiful when I hiked here last time with a fair weather.
This looks so dramatic. The clouds were paid actors.
11:16 AM - Arrived at Kaminari-iwa. This is a rock on the mountain where you can also enjoy the view (if you are lucky to get good weather…we weren’t). Many people take a rest here or eat their lunch. This is also the last viewpoint before you get to the summit because spoiler alert: the summit has NO views.
11:30 AM - Summit! We just took a picture with the summit marker (pic or it didn’t happen, iykyk) and then headed down.
The path we took to go down which most people would take going up. It got crowded for a bit but calmed down soon after.
Saw this beautiful tree on the way back!
12:35 PM - Back at Fukuchan Mountain Lodge.
1:00 PM - Back at the trailhead. We had lunch at the restaurant attached to the lodge and had pizza and coffee. The coffee was not bad, actually. The pizza was okay.
2:00 PM - Rode the bus back to Kai-Yamato Station, where we took the train back to Tokyo.
