Mount Gozaisho – Nagoya Day Trip Destination

ByRay Proper

Hiking, Mie Prefecture

Aug 22, 2015

Mount Gozaisho – Nagoya Day Trip Destination

An hour outside of Nagoya on the Kintetsu line is  Gozaisho-Dake’s 1,210 meter peak.  It is a great hike up the highest peak in the Suzuka Mountain Range, and it offers great views of Shiga and Mie Prefectures, the beautiful snow capped Japan Alps, as well as the waters of Ise Bay and Lake Biwa. On a very good day, you can catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji. This is a great spot to visit whether hiking or riding up the rope way gondola to the top. It is a beautiful place, and it even has a restaurant and gift shop on top where you can get some curry and coffee – a BIG bonus when you hike up in the winter and find yourself in a snow storm!

Gozaishodake is right on the border of Shiga ken and Mie ken. It takes about 1 hour from Nagoya on the Kintetsu line, but you can also ride a bus from Sakae Station to Yuno Yama Onsen, and that will actually dump you closer to where you want to be. The train stops about a 30 minute walk up hill to the onsen area. You can also ride infrequent buses or a taxi up from there.

A little farther uphill from the bus station you will find a 2.161 kilometer long rope way, supposedly the longest in Asia, which takes passengers 780 meters up the mountain, where you can enjoy some great views, and the curry I mentioned earlier. If you go up during winter to ski, you can catch the ski lift from that point.

I highly recommend going up during the usual great times to see anything; autumn and spring. The fall colors are particularly great there, though they do not do “illumination.” There are plenty of onsen in the area, so this would make a great day trip.  The view, is very nice, I might add.

I would wander around the town (if you are brave then the trails around town are nice too!) for a couple of hours in the morning, take the ropeway up in the afternoon, and then sit in the onsen for a bit before heading home. Be careful if you plan to ride the bus; it stops early! If you don’t feel like rushing, why not stay in an onsen for the night? The mountain air is a lot cooler than the city…

You might try the Hotel du Marrionier (Tel: 059 392 3210), for either accommodation or simply for their onsen, which is very close to the bus station. It is a big place, and features outdoor baths- which everyone knows are best in snow!

Official Mount Gozaisho Site

Photo By Alpsdake (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Photo "Ise Bay and Yokkaichi, Mie from Mount Gozaisho 2011-10-02" by Alpsdake - 投稿者自身による作品. Licensed under CC 表示-継承 3.0