Can you believe this gorgeous greenery is located in Tokyo!? With crystalline clear river waters, waterfalls, hiking trails and a beautiful lake (which is responsible for 20% of Tokyo’s drinking water), Okutama is a perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo city life. Easily accessible from Shinjuku Station, take the Chuo & Ome line to reach Okutama in about 90mins. It’s perfect for a day trip or if you wish a more relaxed exploration take a weekend. We wanted to go fairly relaxed so we actually took 3 nights to meander around the area, as we did a bit of hiking through the mountains to Lake Okutama, trying some craft beer, exploring around and making some soba from scratch for our lunch! We stayed HERE.

LUNCH BREAK AT NONKIYA RAMEN RESTAURANT

Around the lake there’s not so many eating options ( a lot of people we saw tended to bring their own packed lunch) however we weren’t so prepared and wanted to see what was around the area. We decided upon Nonkiya a locally run ramen restaurant, with warm wooden, rustic interiors. Though it’s technically called a ramen restaurant, they also make gyoza and have delightful mountain vegetable soba teishoku sets (which I was estacstic about, as ramen is not my first choice for a meal, but soba, I love soba). It was a great choice, and always nice to support local family businesses. Hubby had the ramen and we shared the gyoza. Their website is HERE. 

HAVE MORE TIME

If you have some extra time on your way to or from Okutama, make sure to make a stop at Sawai Station in Ome, to enjoy some delicious local sake tasting, and eat some flavourful tofu teishoku lunch sets, in the prettiest setting by the riverside. Read about my time there, HERE.

ACCESS

BY TRAIN

SHINJUKU STATION

(CHUO LINE: RAPID OME changes toOme Line, stay on the train)

OME STATION

(Ome Line changes to Local Oku-tama line - either stay on train/transfer across platform)

OKU-TAMA STATION

take roughly just under 2hrs