From seaside to thick forest, a beautiful adventure for a sunny day
+ The good
- The forest before Futagoyama is a magical walk among stunningly tall trees, surrounded by singing birds (and the odd bird photographers and trail runners)
- Before reaching it, you briefly cross the well-kept Ruka koen, with a few historical buildings, picnic tables and nice views over Zushi and Enoshima
- Lots of alternatives: depending on the time available, you can easily stretch and shrink the hike from less than 4 to over 5 hours
- The trail is mostly flat and safe, but still provides a nice cardio effort
- Zushi is very well connected, so you can pretty much jump on a train anytime without waiting
~ The bad
- Zushi is still 90 minutes to 120 minutes from central Tokyo, which is manageable but can make your day a bit short
- The original plan, as detailed on the guide, end on two different lines (Zushi/Keikyu-Utaura) making plans a bit more complicated than usual
- The ugly
- In order to switch from the forest trail to the road when Futago-Yama is, the trail takes you straight into the river bed. The water is 5 cm deep at most and poses no challenge but might be problematic after heavy rains or with kids.
- Still in this area, the trail tries sometimes to leave the river bed and climb its sides, but such departures are often brief and slippery (and collapsed altogether here and there). Again, I wouldn't recommend going there after heavy rains