The amount of trails on the back doorstep of the west Tokyo area are growing the more I learn about this great city I call home.
One recent place a few friends and I have been getting out to is Ome and running the trails there. If you’ve done Takao (see our post about running Mt Takao), or some of the more popular mountains and want to get away from the crowds, this is definitely a winner. The times we’ve gone on a Saturday morning only to find a few elderly people hiking or a university running club doing hill sprints at the entrance and no more. You’re guaranteed to get plenty of space to run and enjoy the ups and downs (there serisouly are some ups – so be ready for that).
The trails here weave through the mountainous forest covered hills high above the Tama river below, every so often popping out to catch a view, before diving into the forest again. It’s hard to believe it’s technically still Tokyo, when all you can see is the forest and mountain ridges around you.
Thanks to a friend who introduced me and showed me these trails, they’re surprising easy to access. You can access from many different stations on the JR Chuo (Ome) Line, however where we entered was up the hill from Ome Station itself. We drove and there is freeparking at this entrance, however from the station according to Google Maps is only an 11 minute walk.
View over Tama River and Ome City 
Typical piece of the trail 
Bear warning sign 
Lookout spot on the Ome trail 
View over green mountains
To reach these trails, there are multiple entrances from other stations along the way, as the river and city run through the valley with stations every so often and the trails run through the mountains above. The entrances/exits are clearly sign posted, so if you’re travelling by train it would be very easy to jump out at Ome and run as far as you want and take a track down to the nearest station once you’ve got jelly legs happening or the lungs are giving out.
Some helpful links:
Entrance & Freeparking: https://goo.gl/maps/ZXUrDTrkqBrgobLr7
https://www.facebook.com/tokyotrailrunning/
If you’re looking for more trail running places or people to run with I started following a Group on Facebook that do regular events further north of these mountains, bordering Saitama. Because of schedule I haven’t been able to join any yet, but they seem to get get out regularly and to different areas too.
