Shosenkyo Gorge, Yamanashi
Famous for Fall leaves and peaceful, unspoiled scenery, the Shosenkyo Gouge is a major tourist spot in the fairly public transport phobic Yamanashi Prefecture and is a mighty pain to access without a car. However, it is certainly worth the effort if you do have access to a personal vehicle (or are rich enough to take taxis everywhere).
How to get to Shosenkyo Gorge
Shosenkyo Gorge is a 2 hour bus ride or a 1h30 train ride from Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. A limited express train called the Azusa service leaves every 2 hours (timetable is here). The bus is about ¥2,200 while the train is ¥3,800 one way. Incidentally there is a very famous Japanese song about this train. Or you can drive there, which is recommended (search for “car rental kofu” to rent once you get there).
At Shosenkyo Gorge, what next?
Eat lunch, Rope-way, (Gem shops), Gem Museum, Gorge
If you are traveling by car, make your way to this car park by Sawarabi Restaurant and gift shop. There is a bus right outside that will take you to the top of the gorge so you can walk down without loosing your car. The bus from Kofu station will take you right to the top anyway.
If traveling by car then bus, the bus doesn’t go right to where all the shops and rope-way are, so you have to walk up a bit further. There is a museum at the drop-off point but their Homepage isn’t even in English so the exhibits are also unlikely to be very foreigner friendly. It costs ¥800 so best give it a miss.
After that you can walk up to the rope-way station, ignoring the gem shop salesmen with their sub-par goods and above-par prices. There are a ton of these shops and they should all be ignored. You can go up the rope-way if the weather is good (you can see Mount Fuji) however for ¥1,300 round trip, if you can’t see anything for the clouds, it probably isn’t worth the money. Here is their promotional video that gets you most of the way.
Tracing your steps a little and you will walk past the Gem Museum (homepage), which is free to enter and contains some impressive gems (at least compared to the stuff in the shops outside). The museum wasn’t always free, however outside of the busy Fall Leaves season Shosenkyo is fairly quiet and people don’t tend to pay to look at gems.
Finally you can then walk down the actual gorge (the thing you came to do) back to the bus stop or your car. The gorge is indeed beautiful and the center piece is the 30m waterfall, which if you catch after some rain is mightily impressive (during the summer months it is lit up and they also hold trout catching events and gem searching). Look out for the 1 yen coins stuck into the nooks and crannies of the rock faces and see if you can pick out the highest ones (how did they get them that far up?).
The full walking route is below, should take about 40 minutes in total. You can wave hello at all the people trying to walk up (it is only 100m difference in elevation so not too difficult).
But I don’t have a car!
How else to get there?
Buses are available (not not during weekends and holidays except during of the peak “Fall leaves season” – confirm the bus times carefully!). “When Japan” recommends going to Japan in November, which is the ideal time to see the gorge in it’s full glory. If you are going to Kofu, “When Japan” recommends staying overnight rather than attempting a day trip from Tokyo or anywhere else. Kofu has the fantastic Hottarakashi Onsen which is definitely worth a visit, and there are plenty of fairly inexpensive hotels nearby.
Buses from Kofu Station to Shosenkyo Gorge
The buses run from Kofu Station direct however only during weekdays. From the third Saturday of October to (the end of) November there is a special but that runs TO the gorge in the morning and BACK FROM the gorge in the afternoon. If you get stuck, a taxi is your friend and can be hailed fairly easily.
