Travel time: 90 minutes - Stations: Higashi-Zushi,
Trail time: 3,5 h (running) - Effort: medium
A lovely, random adventure between beaches, old and modern shrines, rock-climbing spots, bamboo groves and panoramas
Both Kamakura and Zushi have many interesting trails to offer. This itinerary combines them in a charmingly varied route
+ The good
- Takatoriyama park 鷹取山公園, which you cross mid-way, is a gloriously random gem of bay panoramas, rock-climbing walls and giant Buddhas
- Finally a trail with bamboo forests instead of the usual sugi. And full of nice fauna, like tanuki, ducks and squirrels
- Most of the trails are surprisingly well maintained
- Well connected: starting and ending in major stations gives you lots of flexibility
- Multiple starting and exit points let you tailor the trip as needed, even on the fly
- The bad
- You often find yourself around highways and electricity pylons. It's never really depressing, but it's definitely a semi-urban kind of trail
~ The ugly
- There are two spots where it's easy to get lost. After the climbing wall area, remember to go down the stairs, then left to the Buddha "cave", then right to stay on the correct path. Before Kamakura, stay on the larger path and go straight towards the shrine.
- It's a bunch of trails chained together. As it's often the case, the bits linking them are either boring suburban streets or tiny trails that get slippery what wet or cold (but never really dangerous either)