Yabitsu Pass and Lake Miyagase: Kanagawa’s Climbing Country

Among road cyclists around Tokyo, Yabitsu Pass is the climb you are either asked about or expected to know. 761 metres, Terayama in Hadano City, on prefectural Route 70. Hadano City calls it “the mecca of hill climbing” on its own tourism site.

Kanagawa Prefecture goes further and publishes an official “Yabitsu Pass and Lake Miyagase Cycling Route” of 60 km. A local government promoting an advanced climb this directly is unusual.

This article is the companion to the Shonan coast piece. That one is flat and works as a day trip from central Tokyo. This one climbs a thousand metres and does not work as a day trip — and we’ll show the arithmetic.

Quick Facts (at a Glance)

• The objective: Yabitsu Pass (761 m) and Lake Miyagase
• The classic route: Hadano → front Yabitsu → the pass → back Yabitsu → Lake Miyagase → Hon-Atsugi
• Distance and climbing: about 50 km and 1,000–1,100 m (about 60 km if you finish at Hashimoto)
• Front side: 11.5 km from Nagoki, +660 m, averaging 5.6%
• Level: advanced — for riders who have climbed a thousand metres before
• Last convenience store: the Seven-Eleven at Nagoki
• Watch for: the summit rest house closes Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the back side has a rainfall closure with no detour

Yabitsu Pass

The Front Side, from Hadano

Two sets of figures circulate. Both are defensible; they just start in different places.

Nagoki is 1.7 km from Hadano Station, which means you can be climbing within minutes of leaving the platform. That accessibility is half of why this climb has the status it does.

The character of it:

• 0–4.4 km (Nagoki to Minoge): through housing, pitching up toward 10% in places. A torii at 3.4 km
• 4.4–11.7 km (Minoge to the summit): settles to 5–7%, switchbacks
• 8.5 km: the Nanohanadai viewpoint — the landmark of the climb, looking down over Sagami Bay

Japan has no official gradient register for roads like this, so these numbers come from cyclists’ GPS databases. The “max 14%” in particular is a single blog figure — treat it as indicative.

The Rest House at the Top — and Its Two Closed Days

The summit has the Yabitsu Pass Rest House (Tanzawa MON CAFE), opened 28 March 2021.

• Weekdays 09:00–16:00; weekends and holidays 08:30–16:30
• Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays (open on public holidays, closing the following day instead)
• Food including a local-pork curry, soft-serve and kuromoji tea
• Toilets — and the prefecture runs a separate public toilet at the pass
• Vending machines
• Bike racks, plus a wood-chip ramp beside the entrance steps
• Open through winter; snow cleared by hand
• 0463-73-5688, 1728-1 Terayama, Hadano

Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays is the most practical line in this article. Ride Yabitsu midweek and you can find yourself on a 761 m pass with nothing to eat.

Water and Toilets, Exactly Where They Are

The prefecture’s facilities list, updated 9 April 2026, is the most authoritative source for this climb.

And on the 18.3 km of the back side, there is nothing at all until Miyagase.

The Back Side, and Its Closure History

From the pass, the back side runs 18.3 km at about 5% down to the Miyagase Kitahara junction: one to one and a half lanes wide, following a stream, with three tunnels (the long one near the bottom needs lights), leaf litter, gravel, and water running across the road after rain.

It also has a history.

The 24 December 2025 notice declared the road fully open, and the Atsugi Civil Engineering Office’s restrictions page, updated 27 July 2026, lists no closure on Route 70.

Honestly, though: that is the absence of a closure notice, not a positive confirmation that it is open. Permanent repair work at the 2025 landslide site is still listed as planned, and heavy rain in September 2026 closed several nearby forest roads. Check with the Atsugi Civil Engineering Office (046-223-1711) or the prefecture’s page before you go.

One more thing: Hadano City’s own page was still showing a stale closure five weeks after the prefecture lifted it. Trust the prefecture, not the city.

Lake Miyagase

The Loop

Using prefectural Routes 64, 70 and 514 you can ride a circuit of Lake Miyagase — about 30 km for the lake alone. Kanagawa’s official routes are a 48 km loop from Hashimoto Station and the 60 km version that includes Yabitsu.

Niji-no-Ohashi and Yamabiko-Ohashi are ordinary prefectural road, so bicycles are fine. Mizu-no-Sato Ohashi (315 m) is a pedestrian suspension bridge — push across it.

You May Not Ride on the Dam

Here is a piece of first-party government information that appears in no English guide.

The Sagami River Basin Dam Office’s usage rules list as prohibited: “riding a bicycle on the dam crest, on the plazas at the left and right abutments, and on the plaza below the dam.” So on the Miyagase Dam structure itself, cycling is not permitted.

The same rules then add: “you may pass through by dismounting and pushing.” Get off and walk and there is no problem.

The incline railway (¥700 return, about 4 minutes, up to a 35-degree grade) runs mainly at weekends and on holidays. Whether a bicycle may be carried is not published. Given that riding is banned on the dam structure, don’t plan around it — ring the Water and Energy Museum on 046-281-5171 if you need to know.

Torii-hara Fureai-no-Yakata, the Cyclist’s Stop

09:00–17:00, closed Tuesdays (open on public holidays). 1674 Toriya, Midori-ku, Sagamihara; 042-785-7300. Farm stand, cafeteria with onigiri and soft-serve, toilets including an accessible one, an AED, and a deck over the lake.

Sagamihara City’s official cycling site lists it as a cycling destination with bicycle maintenance tools on site. In these mountains, it is the only place like that.

About a kilometre west of Miyagase Kitahara, the Mizu-no-Sato shopping street also has food and toilets.

The Classic Combination: Hadano to Hon-Atsugi

On the July 2026 evidence, the standard chain — Hadano → front Yabitsu → the pass → back Yabitsu → Miyagase → Hon-Atsugi — is intact, and nothing on it touches a closed forest road.

That gives about 50 km and 1,000–1,100 m to Hon-Atsugi, or about 60 km to Hashimoto — matching both the prefecture’s official route and the 50 km version published in Japanese cycling media.

Tsuchiyama Pass on the way is 4.1 km at 4.7% (max 12.7%) from the south, and essentially flat from the north. The Mukaiyama tunnel has a footway on the right.

Roads You Cannot Ride — Including Ones Every Blog Recommends

There are roads here you must not ride, and some of them are treated as classics by Japanese cycling blogs.

Kanagawa Prohibits Bicycles on Its Prefectural Forest Roads

The Kanagawa Central Area Administration Center’s forest-road page, updated 25 September 2026, states:

“Passage is prohibited for vehicles — including two-wheelers and bicycles — other than forestry-related and permitted vehicles.”

Bicycles are named. There is not much room for interpretation.

And here is the strongest corroboration. Atsugi City published a cycling course in March 2022 and withdrew it entirely, with a public apology, on 22 May 2023 — because the route it recommended used Yakushi forest road, where a general-vehicle ban including bicycles was already in force. A city government retracted its own cycling product over this rule.

Hanbara-goe Is Doubly Off-Limits

Hanbara-goe (488 m) links the Minamiyama and Horondo forest roads. Both are fully paved and about 4 m wide, and Japanese cycling blogs treat it as a classic climb.

As things stand it is closed — Minamiyama forest road shut from 4 September 2026 “for the time being” after heavy rain, with Horondo closing at the same time — and it is a prefectural forest road, so bicycles are prohibited regardless. Several nearby forest roads closed in late September 2026 too.

Rain Closes the Back Side, with No Detour

A 12.6 km section of Route 70 between Susugaya and Miyagase in Kiyokawa Village is under rainfall regulation: caution at 15 mm/hour or 70 mm cumulative, closed at 20 mm/hour or 100 mm cumulative. No designated detour exists.

This can trigger while you are riding. With patchy mobile coverage through much of the valley, you may have no way to find out and no way to call. Do not plan to descend the back side on a day with rain in the forecast.

Hakone, for a Second Day

Four Roads That Ban Bicycles

This is the crux in Hakone: most of the famous roads will not take a bicycle.

On Hakone Shindo the reality is worth stating too. After cyclists were filmed on it in 2023, Odawara police said reports come in “all the time,” and the Yokohama National Highway Office responded with twice-weekly patrols and extra signage. It happens — and it is both illegal and dangerous. Be careful, too, that some Japanese cycling blogs describe the Turnpike as “apparently a toll road cyclists can use.” The operator’s own documents say otherwise.

The Old Tokaido Road — and the 874 m Correction

What is both legal and good is the old Route 1 from Hakone-Yumoto to Hakone Pass — the Hakone Ekiden route.

From the Sanmaibashi intersection it is 14.1 km with 784–806 m of climbing, averaging 5.5% (6.7% over the climbing portions). It pitches toward 10% inside the onsen town, and holds above 8% for more than 2 km past the Miyanoshita crossroads. The last convenience store is the FamilyMart at Hakone Kowakien — nothing beyond it, not even a vending machine.

Two things English guides routinely get wrong:

• Hakone Pass is 846 m, not 874 m
• The signposted “highest point on National Route 1” at 874 m is at Ashinoyu in Hakone Town — 28 m higher than the pass
• And the Hakone Ekiden does not cross Hakone Pass. The official course puts leg 5 at 20.8 km, with its summit — the 874 m Route 1 high point — at the 16.2 km mark, then descending to the Hakone Shrine torii at 19 km and finishing by Lake Ashi

So riding the Ekiden route takes you to 874 m and finishes at the lake (about 725 m). Hakone Pass is beyond it.

Tsubaki Line, the Only Road to Daikanzan

The best climb in Hakone for a cyclist is the Tsubaki Line (prefectural Route 75) from Yugawara up to Daikanzan at 1,011 m — and it is the only legal way for a bicycle to reach Daikanzan.

Figures vary by starting point: 16.5 km, +919 m, 5.6% from low in Yugawara, or 13.5 km, +787 m, 5.1% from Yugawara Onsen. Continuous switchbacks, maximum around 10% in the first 2.8 km, then a 2.1 km descent mid-climb, then 2.7 km at 7.5% to the radar site and a final 2 km at 6%. Traffic is light. The surface alternates new asphalt with cracked sections, and autumn brings leaf litter.

The last convenience store is 800 m from the start; the last vending machine is at the Yugawara beekeeping facility. After that, nothing.

The Anest Iwata Sky Lounge at the summit sits where the Tsubaki Line meets the Turnpike, so arriving on Route 75 gets you there legally. Free entry, no regular closing day — but published hours differ between sources (09:30–16:00 weekdays / 08:00–17:00 weekends in one listing, 09:00–16:30 / 07:00–17:00 in another). Phone before you climb it.

You Cannot Ride Around Lake Ashi

Another correction. The lake circuit cannot be closed on a bicycle.

• Rideable: the east and south shores, on Route 1 and prefectural Route 75
• Not rideable: the west shore has no road at all, only the Ashinoko West Shore walking trail — you would be carrying the bike
• Not available: the Ashinoko Skyline and Hakone Skyline, which would close the western arc, both ban bicycles

Ride the east and south shores out and back. That is the honest answer.

Otome Pass (1,005 m) and Nagao Pass are ordinary public roads and fine on a bicycle. Gotemba City publishes an official 26.5 km, +524 m course over them. Both passes are crossed by tunnel, and the city’s own guidance is that lights are required even in daylight.

Owakudani and the Volcano

The eruption alert level is 1 — the lowest — unchanged since it was lowered from level 2 on 7 October 2019.

But the Japan Meteorological Agency notes that vigorous fumarolic activity continues, and the Hakone volcanic disaster council revised its Owakudani access-restriction manual in March 2026. The closure machinery is current and maintained; short-notice gas closures around Owakudani are routine rather than exceptional.

Note that Hakone Town’s own volcano page has not been updated since July 2022, so don’t use it as a current source. Check JMA, or call the town on 0460-85-9561.

For a bath afterwards, Tenzan Tojikyo (¥1,450, 09:00–23:00, reception to 22:00) stays open latest, which matters after a long descent. Hakone Yuryo is ¥1,700 on weekdays and ¥2,000 at weekends, 10:00–20:00 (21:00 at weekends) — note it sells towels rather than renting them.

The Arithmetic: Why This Is Not a Day Trip

In the Shonan article we showed that a same-day ride works. Yabitsu does not. Here is why.

Outbound: 09:30 pickup at CycleTrip BASE → bag the bike, 15–20 min → Akihabara to Shinjuku 15 min plus a 15 min transfer → Odakyu to Hadano, about 70 min → rebuild, 15 min. You are riding in Hadano at 12:00–12:15.

The ride: Nagoki to the summit, 11.5 km and 660 m — 50 minutes for a strong rider, 75–100 for a fit visitor. Summit at 13:45–14:15. Down the 18.3 km back side to Miyagase at 15:00–15:15. Another 25 km to Hon-Atsugi at 16:30.

And the return breaks it. Off the bike at 16:30, bag up 15 minutes, Odakyu 50 minutes, Akihabara 20 — you reach Kanda at about 18:30. The shop closed at 17:30.

To make it you would need a train from Hon-Atsugi by about 16:00, off the bike by 15:45, over the summit by 14:00 — which means leaving Hadano before 12:00, which the 09:30 opening makes impossible. The constraint is the shop’s hours at both ends, not daylight.

Daylight then compounds it. Sunset at Odawara is 17:29 on 1 October, 16:51 on 31 October and 16:39 on 15 November — and in the Tanzawa valleys the light goes 30 to 45 minutes earlier. From late October you would be descending the back side in near-darkness.

The answer is a multi-day rental. A cross bike is ¥4,500 for the first day and ¥3,500 thereafter. Collect it the afternoon before and take an early train, or stay overnight and ride Yabitsu on day two and Hakone on day three.

On access: for Yabitsu, take the Odakyu to Hadano — about 70 minutes from Shinjuku on a rapid express, and Nagoki is 1.7 km from the station. For Lake Miyagase, ride out from Hashimoto, about 25 km, which is what the prefecture’s and Sagamihara’s own official routes do. There is a bus from Hon-Atsugi, but Kanagawa Chuo Kotsu publishes no policy on bagged bicycles, so don’t count on it.

Odakyu carries a bagged bike free (three dimensions totalling 250 cm or less, longest side under 200 cm, 30 kg or less, maximum two items). No bicycle-specific rule for the Romancecar could be found, but it is all-reserved with no large-luggage space, so in practice the rapid express is the better choice — more vestibule room, and barely slower to Hadano.

On rental in Hadano, plainly: there isn’t any. HELLO CYCLING states it has no stations in Hadano City, and no road-bike or e-bike rental could be found there at all. The most famous hill climb in the Kanto region has no rental bike at its foot. That is why this is a bring-your-own article.

Lake Miyagase is different: three HELLO CYCLING ports opened there on 1 July 2026 (run by SUNAUTAS MOBILITY) — at Miyagase Lakeside Park (8 city bikes plus 6 e-bikes), Aikawa Park and Torii-hara. So a bus from Hon-Atsugi plus an e-bike around the lake works without bringing a bicycle at all.

Leeches, Bears and the Hunting Season

Land Leeches — Seasonal, and Largely Not a Road Cyclist’s Problem

Tanzawa’s land leeches are notorious, but the prefecture’s own research supports a calm reading.

Their range covers northern, eastern and front Tanzawa — exactly this article’s area — and they are active roughly May to early October, peaking in the rainy season and humid late summer.

The decisive detail is where they are. The prefecture’s study found that almost all specimens were within one metre of a deer trail, concentrated in damp, stream-side ravines. So this is a hiker’s problem, not a sealed-road problem. Stay on Routes 70 and 64, don’t sit down in damp leaf litter at a stream-side pull-off, rest on sunlit tarmac, and check your shoes and socks.

And riding from October onward sidesteps the season altogether — one more reason to come in autumn.

Bears

2026 has been an active year in Kiyokawa Village, which contains Miyagase and the whole of the back side: seven sightings in FY2026, the most recent on 27 September 2026. On the Hadano side there has been one confirmed sighting, on 18 May. Hadano City notes that the Tanzawa population is around 80 animals, classified as critically endangered in Kanagawa.

The official advice: bears move at dawn and dusk, so avoid those hours; carry a bell or a radio; don’t travel alone. At close range, make no sudden movements or loud noises and back away slowly while facing the animal. Never approach a cub.

Around 80 animals and a handful of sightings a year. Put a bell on the bars, don’t ride at dawn or dusk, and stay off the forest roads — which you cannot legally ride anyway. But note that the 18 km of streamside forest on the back side is precisely the habitat described.

The Hunting Season, and Animals on the Descent

This one is rarely written about. Kanagawa has extended its hunting season from the standard 15 November–15 February to 15 November to the end of February (the extension running from 16 February 2024 to 28 February 2027). Deer in designated zones including Hadano, Atsugi, Isehara, Odawara, Sagamihara and Minami-Ashigara; wild boar prefecture-wide.

So mid-November to the end of February is hunting season across this whole area. Another argument for October to mid-November — and if you ride later, wear bright colours and stay on sealed public roads.

More simply: deer and boar in the road at dusk are a real collision risk on the back-side descent. Macaque troops cross the road in groups too — the danger is a monkey in your line on a fast descent, not aggression. Never feed them.

Kit, Signal and Help

On mobile coverage, honestly: we could not verify it against carrier maps. Ride reports describe frequent dead zones on the back side and recommend offline maps, which is consistent with 30 km through a steep forested valley. The operational consequence matters: if that rainfall closure triggers and you have no signal, you cannot check and you cannot call. Download offline maps, and ride with someone if you can.

For medical care, Hadano Red Cross Hospital (0463-81-3721) has an emergency department plus orthopaedics and neurosurgery — the right combination after a crash — and sits on the Odakyu line at Hadano. Its emergency designation tier could not be confirmed, so treat it as the nearest general hospital with an emergency department rather than a trauma centre.

For mechanical trouble, Chiba Cycle Hon-Atsugi (046-204-9724, 10:00–20:00, closed Thursdays and the 2nd and 3rd Wednesdays) is the practical option — it sits exactly where the Miyagase ride finishes and takes overhauls, carbon repair and bikes bought elsewhere. Note the Thursday problem: it closes Thursdays, and so does the Yabitsu rest house. Ride on a Thursday and you have no café at the summit and no specialist shop at the finish.

When to Go

October to mid-November is the window, for four reasons at once: the leech season has ended, the hunting season has not begun, there is still daylight, and the colour arrives.

Foliage around Miyagase Dam turns in early November and peaks mid-to-late November. Hakone separates by altitude: the Sengokuhara pampas grass from late September to early November, the lakeshore in early November, Gora Park in late November. For a ride spanning both high ground and valley, roughly 5–20 November. No source gives peak dates for Daikanzan or Hakone-Yumoto, so work from altitude.

Winter brings the Miyagase Christmas illumination. The previous edition ran 22 November to 25 December, lit 17:00–22:00, with a 30-metre tree carrying around 10,000 bulbs — routinely billed as Japan’s tallest natural Christmas tree. The 2026 dates have not been announced, so plan on the pattern rather than a date. Sunset then is 16:32, which makes it something to see and take the train home from, not to cycle back from.

Yabitsu has no fixed winter closure, but snow closes it ad hoc (most recently on 8 February 2026) and chain regulations are on record. The real danger is refreeze: daytime melt leaves wet tarmac that ices at dawn and dusk. December to March is not a reliable season.

Wrap-Up

Yabitsu Pass starts 1.7 km from a station 70 minutes from Shinjuku: 761 metres, 660 of them in 11.5 km. The reason it became the Kanto benchmark is that ratio of accessibility to effort.

But only the access is easy. The café at the top shuts on Wednesdays and Thursdays. There is nothing on the 18 km of the back side, the signal is unreliable, and if the rainfall closure triggers there is no detour. The forest roads that Japanese blogs list as classics are ones the prefecture forbids bicycles on. Four of Hakone’s famous roads will not take a bicycle, and Lake Ashi cannot be circled. And you cannot collect a bike in central Tokyo at half past nine and be back the same evening.

So get the bike the day before and take an early train to Hadano. Buy food at the Nagoki convenience store. Put a bell on the bars. Carry a tube and a pump. Pick October or the first half of November. And check that the rest house is open before you set off.

If the Shonan coast is the Kanagawa you can do on a whim, this is the Kanagawa you plan for. They are in the same prefecture, less than an hour apart by train.