Mt. Tsurugi may sound like a tough climb. And it is, but there’s also a chair lift that takes you to within 900 m of the peak. The lift starts at Minokoshi station and the ride up to Nishijima takes about 35 minutes. It’s the longest chair lift in Japan. If you’re planning to take it in cold weather, wrap up warm! The top of Mt. Tsurugi is above the treeline, and it’s carpeted with attractive sasa bamboo. There’s a lodge at the summit where you can stay, and in the morning, you may be treated to an amazing view of a sea of cloud. There’s also a shrine, weather towers, and wooden boardwalks that lead to various viewpoints with panoramic views out over the surrounding mountains. Dedicated hikers can climb the entire mountain from the trailhead at Minokoshi near the lower chairlift station. The hike takes about two hours one way. On a clear day the view from the summit reaches out to the Pacific Ocean, the Seto Inland Sea, the Kii Peninsula and Okayama Prefecture on mainland Japan.

Tsurugi is a sanctuary for about thirty black bears. These black bears with a moon shaped patch of white on their chest used to inhabit wide areas of the mountains of Shikoku, but hunting and increased reforestation have reduced their habitats. They live mostly at more than 1,000 meters above sea level where broadleaf deciduous forests remain. Since the bears are shy, you’re unlikely to see one. In summer the pretty yellow wax bell plant flowers along some of Mt. Tsurugi’s trails. This rare plant only grows on high mountains.

The mountain is the watershed of the Iya, Sadamitsu and Anabuki Rivers which flow into the Yoshino River.