Travel time: 40 minutes - Stations: Wakabadai, Minami-Osawa
Trail time: 5 hours - Effort: medium
The most epic cardio training in West Tokyo?
+ The good
- Who doesn't love 20 km of uninterrupted walking path?
- The path is always impeccably maintained, and ideal for running
- As you're running along a major urban railroad, transport is a non-issue
- A good variety of landscapes, from thick woods, to parks, to pedestrian boulevards
- Some surprisingly panoramic spots
~ The bad
- Adjust your expectations: I'm personally astounded that they managed to coordinate such a long, impeccably maintained path, but it's still an urban itinerary. A string of treed boulevards, urban parks and natural reserves, where you are just as likely to spot a squirrel than a Ferrari (got both)
- The One Kansen highway forces you to do an odd detour in order to reach Nagaike Park and its bridge (worth it)
- The ugly
- Not a single climb: my GPS isn't that precise, but when it says 24 meters of variation, I believe it
- There's a bit of car noise, especially in the first ~20% of the path around Wakabadai, which spoils a bit the relaxing aspect of the walk. I honestly thought about bringing earplugs