With a three day weekend approaching, we knew that we wanted to take a short trip somewhere. Since this would be our last three day summer weekend, we thought hard about where to go. After some careful thought and consideration, we decided to plan an Okutama Adventure in the Okutama area of Tokyo.

Since it was still summer we wanted to take advantage of the areas outdoor activities. For the first stop of our trip, we booked the adventure course at Forest Adventure Kosuge. It was around three and a half hour drive from our place in Mito. Our route wrapped us around greater Tokyo, where we cut through Saitama and entered the mountains via Ome.

Forest Adventure Kosuge

Our first stop of the day was at Forest Adventure Kosuge. We arrived just in time for our 12 o’clock reservation. We spent about two hours climbing through the upper canopy of the forest along a series of five obstacle courses. The finale of each course was a zipline. The zipline got steadily longer and faster as we progressed through the courses. We had a fun time at Forest Adventure Kosuge. We highly recommend it.

Roadside Station Kosuge

Forest Adventure Kosuge shares a parking lot with Roadside Station Kosuge, making it the perfect next stop. We got a late lunch at Restaurant Genryu. We shared a delicious seasonal vegetable pizza and some shining muscat soft serve for dessert. Afterwards, we did some lite shopping at the Local Products Store and picked up some affordable shining muscat grapes.

Tozura Pontoon Bridge

After finishing up lunch we took a short 15 minute drive to the Tozura Pontoon Bridge. It was really nostalgic to come back and see the bridge. We originally saw this bridge right after descending Mt. Kumotori. It was one of our first trips after having moved to Japan. We almost go stranded in the mountains.

Tabayama Roller Slide

After some nostalgic time at the Tozura Pontoon Bridge we headed over to the rural mountain town of Tabayama. We were looking up some things to do in Tabayama when we stumbled across the Tabayama Roller Slide. Roller slides are a fairly common sight in Japan and are popular attractions for children.

The Tabayama Slider was 247 meters long and had a combined descent of 42 meters. A ¥400/person ticket got us a pair of knit gloves, a rental foam board, and unlimited rides on the slider. There was only one other small group, so we practically had the whole place to ourselves. The slider was a lot of fun. We learned that we could combine our foam mats. The combination of our weight & momentum made the final descents quite thrilling. The slider was a fun stop.

Roadside Station Tabayama

We were looking for a place to spend the night in the Okutama Area. We came across both Roadside Stations Kosuge and Tabayama. Surprisingly, both had public onsens that were either apart of the roadside station or across the street. We decided to check both out and see which one we liked better.

We had just finished up a fun time at the Tabayama Roller Slide and rushed over to Roadside Station Tabayama. The roller slide closed at 18:00 and we left a few minutes early. We found out that the local products store at the roadside station also closed at 18:00. We made the quick three minute drive and were able to get a quick peak before they closed.

Comparatively, they Local Products Store was quite modest in size. After a quick look we decided that the restroom facilities at Tabayama were larger and more modern. We decided to stay at Roadside Station Tabayama for the night.

Tabayama Spa

It was raining quite heavily, so we decided to drive to Tabayama Spa. In clear weather, we would have taken the suspension bridge that connects Roadside Station Tabayama to Tabayama Spa. We weaved our way through Tabayama town until we reached the final road leading to and from Tabayama Spa. The final road was barely wide enough for one car and was really steep. We took it slow going down and had to go up to D2 to get back up. We recommend walking unless the weather is poor.

Tabayama Spa was a little on the pricier side at ¥600/adult. The number and quality of the bathing facilities made it worth it. The outside open air bath gave us a unique chance to bathe in the rain. After our bath, we headed over to the small restaurant.

Retrospectively, we should have eaten first and then taken a bath. We arrived around 15 minutes before the last order time of 18:30. However, many of their delicious sets were already sold out for the day. We ordered whatever we could. We ended up ordering a side of edamame (soybeans), zaru udon (cold udon noodles with a dipping sauce), and a zaru soba set with tempura.

After dinner, we headed back to the car and drove back to the Roadside Station Tabayama’s parking lot and called it a night.

Final Thoughts

The long amount of driving was rough, but we were able to do everything on Day #1 of our Okutama Adventure. Forest Adventure has locations all across Japan, we’ll likely try to go to another one with our friends some time. Spending some time at Tabayama Spa was the perfect way to relax our bodies and end the day.

More to Come…