Umezawa Three Falls Hike

 We hiked a 6 mile trail to the falls which is about my limit with my foot issues. 

The falls are in West Tokyo so it took about 3 hours to get to the Shiromaru station from our apartment.  the station is very small with single self pay reader.

The hike went up this valley and then to the left. It was pretty going through forests and then along a narrow road.  Typical of Japanese hikes, it was very steep in places with minimal switchbacks.

Special 'god' log on the trail

Along the way we saw wasabi farms and the special 'monorails' used to get the wasabi from the steep slopes to market.  Wasabi need extremely clean water which is why they are grown high in the mountains along pristine streams.

On the way back we hiked the road along a narrow, deep gorge and through some tunnels until we got to the Tama river.

The Tama river had people paddle boarding on it along with the scarecrow fishermen - not sure what they were trying to scare away though.

Finally we had local hamburg steak at the Earth Garden which has great views of the Tama river before heading home.