hikes
A guide to the best hikes in Kyushu
28 Jun
14 June 2025
·
hyakumeizan
- Elevation 2191m
- When to climb May - mid-November
- A 7 - 8 hour out-and-back hike from Hirogawara or Misaka-toge trailheads
Mountain stats
🚌 Public transport access
If you're coming from Tokyo, there is an overnight bus available on Friday nights that will drop you off at the Hirogawara trailhead.
🚗 Car access
4-hour drive from Tokyo. Decent-sized carpark at Hirogawara trailhead but would recommend arriving as early as you can to get a spot.
Mt Ena (恵那山, ena-san) unfortunately has a bit of a reputation as being one of the most “boring” of the Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan due to the lack of views on its hike up. But on a more personal note, the “E” in Ena (恵) is the same kanji that is used for the E in my own name Emma, so this mountain is pretty cool in my books (I had a little giggle when I thought about Emma-san climbing Ena-san).
Mt Ena’s reputation made me curious enough to pick up the English translation of the Hundred Famous Mountains book to figure out why the author Kyuya Fukuda chose it - and it seems to be due to its mentions in the popular book Before the Dawn and because famed mountaineer and missionary Walter Weston also has a history of climbing it. The book is nearly 100 years old, so I don’t think it’s as well known today - but interesting to know.
While most people today will do the hike as an out-and-back from either of its trailheads, Fukuda did a point-to-point hike between the trailheads, which I’m sure also improved his enjoyment of it.
After a 4-hour drive from Tokyo the day before and sleeping in my car, I started my hike relatively early around 6am. It was already pretty bright, and so I think it’s quite feasible to start as early as 5am if you wanted the extra time. The first stretch of the hike begins along a road that continues on past the carpark, but that is closed off to cars.
Eventually you will come to a point where you head off the road and down to a river.
There is a rather sturdily constructed bridge across the river here, although apparently the water can flow over the bridge if there is enough heavy rain. So if you are worried about that, I would double-check on YAMAP to try and find someone who has recently hiked this course to verify that it’s still cross-able.
Once beyond the bridge, you’ll head into the forest. I’ll admit, the first stretch is a little boring so you can start to see why Mt Ena got its unfortunate reputation. But it was my first hike in Japan in over a month (after spending some time in Switzerland) so it felt good to be back on familiar terrain.
A recent trend I’ve seen popping up on hiking social media is to draw the current date with a set of sticks, so someone had laid it out (it was the 7th of June) on this mossy tree stump.
Eventually you’ll come to a little patch of flat ground, where you can take a snack break.
Beyond this point, there is a welcome reprieve from the climb with some flat sections, before you come out of the forest into a more exposed section of the trail.
From here, you can start to see out to the distant peaks of the South Alps. Honestly, I felt like this was a pretty decent view, so I’m not sure Mt Ena entirely warrants being dissed.
When I Google “Mt Ena boring” in Japanese, you can see some of the results are along the same lines of “I hear Mt Ena is so boring but when I climbed it, it wasn’t that bad?”
But since this mountain is in Nagano, maybe the Naganoers (Nagano-siders? Naganoites?) are spoiled by the rather amazing views you can get from the mountains in the Alps. Understandably this one would be boring in comparison. There are plenty of more boring hikes in Tokyo though so I wasn’t too disappointed by this one.
Although it was only 8 or 9am as I was hiking up this stretch, being on this exposed ridge did feel pretty hot. Make sure to bring plenty of sunscreen.
As well as the clear views out to the Southern Alps, you can see other mountains in the Alps, albeit partially obscured by trees.
Eventually you’ll come to a trail marker letting you know that you are 90% of the way there!
After one final climb, you’ll come to two of the official peak markers for Mt Ena, as well as a small wooden observatory deck you can climb up onto.
No one was using the deck, and since we were pretty surrounded by trees I was a bit dubious of whether there were any views and decided to leave it alone.
As well as the weathered wooden peak marker, we also have a newer metal version, which also marks Mt Ena as one of the “Achi 7 Summits”. It’s not a set of peaks I’ve ever heard of living in Tokyo, but looking on YAMAP I think it is a popular set to try and complete if you’re a local to the area.
From here, you can continue another 5 minutes along the trail, where you’ll reach the Mt Ena emergency hut.
Technically it’s called an “emergency” hut, but generally in Japan it’s not really frowned upon to use it for non-emergency purposes (i.e. planning to sleep there as part of your hike) as long as you leave it the way you found it.
Behind the hut is another chance to enjoy the views. You can actually spot Mt Fuji from here. I didn’t even notice it while I was taking the photo, but upon taking a closer look later, it is there!
There’s also a couple of small shrines scattered about.
Finally there is yet another peak marker if you continue on for a further 5 minutes along the trail past the viewpoint.
This one’s easy to miss - it’s to the right of the trail, so keep your eyes peeled and don’t go walking too far or you’ll walk right past it.
A little confusingly, while the official peak markers and such were a 5 - 10 min walk back the other way, this point here is considered official “highest point” on Mt Ena. It seems like someone put a fair amount of effort into creating this custom metal sign.
The trail is an out-and-back, so after returning to the hut, I enjoyed some lunch before heading back down.
Near the hut, you’ll also pass a separate building for the toilet.
Nice to know there is one up here, but I heard a girl screaming in horror as she opened the door, so I suspect there are too many bugs for it to be usable.
As I got back to the carpark around noon, I could see some of the cars in the carpark had started to thin out. It looks like someone even came via motorbike.
I also took a photo of the trailhead entrance in case you were curious - it had been rather crowded with people in the morning.
All the signs look rather intimidating, but it’s just mentioning that the road is blocked off to cars - it’s still perfectly OK for hikers to pass through.
The metal box on the table on the left contains sheets of paper and a pen so you can mark your hiking itinerary, and then drop it in the mailbox attached to the side of the gate.
As a final aside, a fellow hiker put up a Youtube video from the day that I hiked, if you were curious to see what the hike was like from another perspective. I did see him whip out a camera on a stick (and I also heard his drone at some point) although it looks like I didn’t make it into the video.
When to hike Mt Ena
The hiking season for Mt Ena without snow is May to mid-November. Among the Hundred Famous Mountains this is a mountain that opens up rather early (compared to others where you may have to wait until July) so it’s a nice one to get in earlier in your hiking season before it gets too hot.
If you’re not too sure whether there is snow, you can double-check the latest trail conditions with YAMAP.
Hiking course options
| Date climbed | Length | Course time |
|---|---|---|
| 2025/06/07 | 11km | 7h10min (the expected time for an average hiker without breaks) |
There are two trailheads to climb Mt Ena from:
- Via the Hirogawara trailhead, which is the one I hiked.
- Via the Misaka-toge trailhead.
Both trailheads are an out-and-back course. Hiking via the Misaka-toge trailhead is said to be slightly more scenic and also doesn’t have the river crossing (if you were worried about that).
The key difference between them though is that the Misaka-toge trailhead seems to be down a long windy road (looking at Google Maps) and so whether you are coming from Nagoya or from Tokyo, the drive to this trailhead is going to take you an additional hour. I did consider climbing from this trailhead for the better views, but since it becomes a 5-hour drive one way from Tokyo, I was definitely not interested in that.
The Hirogawara trailhead has a toilet (coin donation). The summit also has a toilet building near the mountain hut, but probably infested with bugs.
Public transport access
If you are wanting to hike Mt Ena via public transport, your best bet would be to get the overnight bus from Tokyo. There is one running with the popular hiking bus company called Maitabi. The link updates every year, so if it is broken you can Google “恵那山 夜行日帰り” and it should show up.
The bus operates on Friday nights, departing from Takebashi or Hachioji station, so you’ll be able to hike on Saturday. The road to the trailhead can only accommodate small cars, so you will be transferred to a smaller micro bus for the final stretch, and can expect to begin your hike by 5:15am. You have until 13:15 to complete your hike - or 8 hours. Which is fairly reasonable, as the expected course time is 7 hours so you have that time plus a 1 hour break. From there, the bus takes you to an onsen where you can have food and a soak (included in the price) before it drops you back off in Shinjuku.
From a quick Google, I don’t think there are really any other feasible public transport options if you are coming from Tokyo. There does seem to be a local bus running to the “Mt Ena Weston Koen-mae” (恵那山ウェストン公園前) bus stop, which departs from the Nagoya side, although looking at a trail report on YAMAP, that brings your hike to a whopping 19km round trip. (As a fun fact, this park is named after the mountaineer Walter Weston).
Car access details
The Hirogawara trailhead has a decent-sized carpark, although small by hyakumeizan standards. I didn’t think I would need to arrive that early, but to my surprise when I showed up at 6am, the carpark was nearly full. I’m glad I managed to snag a regular car spot (on a small grassy field alongside the road).
I would definitely recommend arriving here at or before 6am, and aiming for a weekday if you can. If the carpark looks full, don’t stress too much, as if you keep your eyes peeled you should be able to spot some car-sized patches alongside the road leading up to the trailhead where you can park your car. The only downside being you will then have to walk up hill back to the main car park before you can begin your hike.
Sleeping in my car at a local roadside station
Since the trailhead is so far from Tokyo, my plan was to drive over from Tokyo the day before and sleep in my car before beginning my hike. You can sleep at the trailhead carpark itself, but for safety and comfort reasons I much prefer staying at roadside stations or “Michi-no-eki” (which have very clean toilets and also running water). I chose one about a 40 minute drive away from the trailhead called the Shinonanoji Shimojo. It was quite extravagant for a Michi-no-eki, with a large fake castle.
I came outside of its operating hours but apparently it’s well-known for its soba and croissants.
Technically michi-no-eki are supposed to be used to “take a break from driving” and not for a full night’s sleep per se, but as long as you stay unobtrusive about it it seems to be ok. There were about 10 other cars with me that night, which seems fairly decent for a weekday night in the middle of the countryside.
Conveniently, there’s the Cosmos no Yu onsen only a 5 minute drive away for only 500 yen. I had a long relaxing bath here and grabbed dinner from a FamilyMart (also only a 5 minute drive away) before settling in for the night. I’ll admit I didn’t get the best night’s sleep - it’d been a year since I last slept in my car and I can get a bit nervous sleeping in unfamiliar places. I want to do it a couple more times this year though so here’s hoping I get better at it!
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