青ケ岳山荘

Small mountain hut at about 1,570m, just below the summit of Hinokiboramaru in the western Tanzawa massif, within Aone in Midori Ward, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, and on the main Tanzawa ridge traverse. Run by a family and their friends, it has a homely feel: oil lamps, a sunken kotatsu and a paraffin stove. Since 2014 a small solar array has supplemented them, with LED and oil lamps used side by side. From northern Tanzawa the Yata ridge climbs quietly through beech woods before the view opens out at Kumazasa-no-mine with Mount Fuji ahead. Around the summit the early-summer azaleas and false hellebore, and the views of Fuji and Sagami Bay at dawn and dusk, are the draw. The hut is open all year but the keeper is not resident, so a reservation is essential — at least three days ahead. It sleeps 35. There is no water source, so water is bought at the shop, and the toilet is a bio-toilet installed by Kanagawa Prefecture, used on an honesty-box basis.