Monday, March 13, 2017

Sightseeing in Izu: Mount Omuro (大室山)

Anette 11:16:00 PM Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Travel

The Izu peninsula offers a range of outdoor experiences like sandy beaches, snorkling, cherry blossom spots and so much more. During my recent trip to Izu we drove through the whole east side of the peninsula, and on our way we stopped by Mt. Omuro (大室山, Ōmuroyama), an inactive volcano known for its magnificent view of the Izu Peninsula, including the Pacific Ocean and Mt. Fuji.

Browse places to stay in Izu on Agoda.com. Free cancellation.

The entrance to the Omuro chair lift

Mt. Omuro is about 580m high and was formed by a volcanic eruption about 4,000 years ago. In order to get to the volcano's summit you have to take a chair lift, a trip that costs 500 yen (/250 yen for children). You can buy the ticket at the bottom of the chair lift, and the price includes the return trip as well.

Once you're at the top you are free to stroll around the volcano's crater and enjoy your surroundings. The diameter of the crater is approximately 300 meters, and you can circle the crater in 15-30 minutes.

Above: The crater of Mt. Omuro with Mt. Fuji in the background

A road going down to the crater of the volcano where there is an archery range

From the summit you can enjoy a 360 degrees view of your surroundings. If you want more action than just strolling around the crater you can also take the opportunity to try out archery for 1,000 yen/hour in the archery range down in the crater of the volcano, and there are also paragliding schools that offer paragliding trips to Mt. Omuro.

View of Izu. To the left

There are also a couple of power spots to be found along the road that encircles the crater. You'll first come across a row of Jizo (guardian deity of children) statues which are believed to have been donated to Mt. Omura's Sengen Shrine (大室山浅間神社) 300 years ago.

300 year old Jizo statues - 五智如来地蔵尊

On the other side of the crater you can find some statues of newer date. These statues gazing out on the Pacific Ocean were donated in 1984 to symbolize the safety of sailors and for the protection of people against damage by the sea.

八ヶ岳地蔵尊

If you want to bring home a souvenir from Mt. Omuro you can find a couple of stores both at the entrance to the chair lift and also on the summit of the volcano. At one of the souvenir shops by the bottom of the mountain they have a cute little store where they sell seasonal sweet manju (steamed yeast bun with filling) - sakura-manju during spring and momiji (leaf) manju during autumn.

Talking about sakura, by the foot of Mt. Omura you can also see blooming cherry trees through most of the spring in the Sakura-no-sato park, where you can find around 3,000 cherry trees of 37 varieties that bloom successively starting in September throughout the winter season until June of the following year.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
-Anette

■ Basic Info

・Place: Mt. Omuro (大室山・おおむろさん)
・Hours: 9:00 - 17:15 (October to mid March: 9:00 - 16:15)
・Homepage: http://omuroyama.com/ (Japanese only)

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About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.