Tokai Nature Trail Overview
Hiking The Trail
The Tokai Nature Trail or Tokai Shizen Hodo is one of Japans long distance trails.After a proposal in 1969 from the Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare to create a long distance hiking trail work begun in 1970. The trail was completed in 1974.
Originally the trail was 1,350 kilometers (838 miles), currently it 1,697 kilometers (1054 miles). The trail takes you through eleven prefectures, staring in Tokyo and ending in Osaka.
At times the trail can be some what arduous with steep slopes, narrow roads, and trails that are not maintained. Other parts of the trail take you down forest roads, and through small country towns. Hiking the trail can be lonely at times as you will not encounter people very frequently, but when you do they are always very interested in what you are doing, and show you great kindness. The best part of the trail is the people that you meet, and the conversations that you will have with them.
Camping on the Trail
The Tokai Trail does not have official "campsites" so I camped out at various places I found along the trail. The trail does have many rest shelters, and rest areas, since these are listed clearly on the maps I planned my hike around these area. Many of the guides assume that you are going to be taking the bus back each day and then stay in a hotel. I however thought that this would be quite difficult because of how infrequently the buses come. From reading Japanese blogs I have noticed that people do both, but taking the bus back is much more frequent, and the trip is often broken up into multiple parts.
Avoid camping on public or private property. This should not have to be explained but I have read some other online sources that suggest this would be acceptable. Don’t ruin the trail for others by being rude foreigners. This includes agricultural fields, playgrounds, tennis courts or football stadiums. If you are stealth camping you are giving foreigners a bad name, the trail has ample places to camp if you plan correctly. Reasonable hikers and advocates for the Tokai Nature trail should not encourage or promote this behavior. The administering agency places camping restrictions for a reason. With proper planning it is easy to find camping at designated shelter points, and avoid places that say no camping.
Navigating Trail
As you hike along the trail you will encounter maps, and trail markers. Depending on the prefecture the quality of trail guides will vary.Some trail markers are old, some have time information and some have both the time and the distance on them. Even in a signal prefecture the quality and design differ. Generally I found that except on the Shizuoka bypass course the markers consistent across the prefectures and I had little trouble staying on the trail. I would not only rely on the trail markers. I recommend using the maps and/or a GPS. I think the markers are good for about 90% of the trail.
Each prefecture creates and distributes their own maps. Some of these are available on online, others you have to write to the organization and request a map. Links and alternative maps are available at the website Tokai Nature Trail.
Water on the Trail
Hiking through the trail you encounter beautiful clear streams, and waterfalls. Some English sources on this trail suggest that drinking water from streams is fine, and that you don’t need to treat the water. I cannot stress enough what a bad idea this is, you MUST treat the water in Japan that comes from rivers. This comes from talking to forest rangers I met on the hike, and from the nature centers as well as numerous signs posted along the trail.
Some of the water has water borne diseases and must be treated. Just looking at the water does not guarantee there are no diseases. The rangers and the Japanese guidebooks are still weary about drinking the water even if it is treated. Suggesting otherwise is dangerous, and I would drink water from the streams only after treating and at your own risk. This is general hiking principle and anyone suggesting to ignore it puts others at risk.
There are water spots that mark safe drinking spots, and I frequently collected water from public restrooms. There are some places where the water is not safe to drink. Do not ignore these signs. They are in Japanese, and they usually say something like this “ご注意, この水は飲めません”. Which means, warning you can not drink this water.
Another source is collecting water from peoples outdoor taps. In my time in Japan I have found Japanese people extremely kind and helpful. They are also very polite and there tends to be an air of reservation in the culture in addressing rude public behavior. Do not go take water without asking, do not wander on peoples land or to their houses and use the taps without permission. I was never told no, but rather people went out of their way to let me sleep on their land or use their water. I always asked. If you don't speak Japanese you can jester to the water tap. I have also included a basic Japanese guide in this site.
Food On the Trail
When hiking the trail your food options are limited, you take what you can get. My advice is if you see food or a place to resupply do it! Most places that you will find on the trail will be convenience stores, it has become more commonplace for the bigger stores to accept credit cards. I would not depend on this however as Japan is still a cash based society.
It is important to plan where you will be able to purchase food, and know that the information I provide about where I found food maybe out of date. Rural Japan is facing a sharp decline in population, and many of the mom and pop connivence stores may be gone. I used the rule of thumb that I would be able to find food at stations. I do not consider stores that I find on google maps to be a guarantee either, I have walked to stores and have them be closed for construction.
I would have been able to save more money and time if I had understood how barren and isolated some of the locations were. You will walk though areas where the population is in their 80’s and still working in the fields, where the houses are mainly empty and some falling apart. This is due in-part to more and more Japanese moving to urban areas,1950, 53 percent of Japanese lived in urban regions but 2014, 93 percent did(5).
I suggest investing in the GPS map that shows the convenience stores. I suggest the map from Japan GPS Navigation, which is made for Garmin GPS.
While some places my be out of date or closed down, it will give you a better idea of where there are multiple stores, and where there are none for miles. My rule for food was to consider that there would be a place I could resupply, if I could fine two stores. If store A was shut down, I would still have enough food to get to store B.
I think that this is critical because even with my Phone and Google maps I had difficulty finding convenience stores that were within a reasonable distance. When starting this hike, you should plan out where you can get food, and understand the areas that offer nothing for days and days. I don’t think it is particularly difficult or stressful to resupply on this trail, if you have prior information about it.
This information is taken from tokainaturetrail.com and Hiking the Tokai Nature Trail: A complete guide.
