Published on Nov, 2024

Aki was a great guide and so knowledgable. We had cloudy weather so didn’t get to see Mt Fuji, but some of the views of Lake Ashi and the surrounding towns were amazing.

Published on Sep, 2024

The views and the guide were amazing!! We hiked on Mt. Kintoki, had a nice time and lunch on the summit and went afterwards towards Hakone. We made interesting stops at Owakudani ("sulfur mountain"), the pretty Hakone Shrine with a Tori at the lake Ashi and saw a pirate ship sailing in Lake Ashi. We then stopped at the traditional teahouse "Amasake", which is located at the "old" path between Kyoto and Edo/Tokyo. Definitely recommend!! And as a nice, relaxing finale, we went to an onsen. We had a great day (:

Published on Sep, 2024

Aki is an excellent guide who we would recommend to anyone. He shared many interesting details about the area throughout the day, including answering all of our many questions. Our hike of the Hakone Caldera was excellent, despite the weather being rather wet and cloudy. We enjoyed a very pleasant hike through the forest, taking us to several "viewpoints" for Fuji and Lake Ashi, which I am sure would have been superb had it not been for our poor luck with the weather. The hike itself was not too challenging for us, as we often hike in Scotland, however a fairly good level of fitness would be best as our total elevation gain was about 650m over 10.9km distance. After the hike, which took around 4.5 hours in total, we ate lunch in a fantastic soba restaurant which we would definitely recommend (especially the hot soba with tempura vegetables and prawns). Aki then took us to a nearby onsen, where we spent an hour, which was very relaxing and a perfect end to an active day. Aki was very helpful in directing us to the best option for transport to our hotel, which turned out to be the cable car over the Caldera. By this time the clouds had cleared, giving us a view of Lake Ashi.

Published on Jun, 2024

We had a great time. The guide moved at the pace of the group and showed us interesting things along the way. Great guy- very fun. We had a little snack and tea when we rested. The hike had beautiful views. After the hike we had at a nice noodle restaurant. This is a reliable, kind and honest guide. Very helpful the entire trip. The hike does take general good fitness though no particular hiking ability. Consider it like climbing stairs of dirt and if you can do that then you can do this hike. It's uneven surface naturally. Hiking stick wouldn't hurt but the guide did loan us some for the downhill bit as I had opted to not bring my own sticks. It was helpful on the downhill. We used a mix of good treaded tennis shoes and shoes with hiking grip. It can get muddy.

Published on Jun, 2024

We had a great day hiking with Aki, he was extremely knowledgable about the forest and animals within it. We spent most of the day with him hiking, eating lunch and then finishing with an onset, it was a great day and would definitely recommend it to anyone considering a hike in Japan. Aki is a legend!!