Shionomichi Trail Route Guide

Route Guide

This itinerary takes you from Tsugaike Kogen (elevation 820 meters) in Otari Village to Hakuba Village walking from a highland to the Hakuba foothills satoyama area. You will start at Hakuba-Oike Station on the Oito Line, but you have to diverge from the Shionomichi Trail and descend to the national highway at one point, so the actual Shionomichi Trail hike starts from Tsugaike Kogen. Start walking with the view of the Northern Alps on your right and cross the Tsugaike Panorama Bridge entering the Ochikura hamlet in Hakuba Village. Pass through Ochikura Nature Park with its colonies of skunk cabbage, followed by the Kazekiri Jizo statue, and you will soon diverge from the prefectural road and once again enter the Shionomichi Trail on your right. Pass over the Seto Bridge and walk past Okaru’s Hole following the prefectural road and enter the old road on your right. Once you pass Kirikubo Suwa Shrine, you will eventually come upon the Kannonhara Stone Statues of Buddha where the Hyakutai Kannon of Saibu, Bando, and Chichibu will greet you. Descend down to Shinden-juku, and cross the Matsukawa River in Moriue, and you will be walking along the old road that runs behind the center of Hakuba Village. The Yakushido, Soratouge, and Iimori Shrine stone statues of Buddha are nestled along this course.