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Saw-tooth mountain: a ferry across Tokyo Bay, a ropeway over old stone quarries, a rock overhang called the Peek into Hell, 1,500 carved disciples and one of the largest stone Buddhas in Japan.
For centuries, Nokogiri-yama was quarried for Bōshū stone, and the cutting left the jagged ridge that gives it its name and vertical walls that look like ruins of a vanished city.
The whole mountain belongs to Nihon-ji, a temple founded in the 8th century. Its grounds are a maze of stone stairs past the 1,500 arhats, carved disciples of the Buddha with every expression, many headless after 19th-century anti-Buddhist violence and patiently restored; a cliff-carved Kannon; and the Daibutsu, a 31-metre stone Buddha seated in a hollow below the ridge.
At the top, Jigoku Nozoki, the Peek into Hell, is a rock overhang jutting out above the quarry, with a view across the bay to Fuji on clear days. A quirky full day with a 40-minute ferry ride as its best part.
Or walk up from Hota station on the old stone-carriers' path, the Kanto Fureai trail.
Take the Keikyu line to Keikyu-Kurihama, a bus to the port, and the Tokyo Wan ferry across the mouth of the bay to Kanaya, about 40 minutes with gulls following the boat.
Walk from Kanaya port to the ropeway base and ride to the top, with views over the bay and the quarry walls.
Follow the trail through the old quarries, with the 100-foot Kannon carved into the cliff and the sheer walls of cut stone.
Queue for the overhang and look down the drop. The view takes in the bay, the Miura peninsula and, in winter, Fuji.
Descend the long stone stairways past the arhats to the great seated Buddha, then out through the temple gates to Hota station or back to the ferry.
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Keikyu line from Shinagawa to Keikyu-Kurihama, bus to Kurihama port, Tokyo Wan ferry to Kanaya. Allow about 2.5 hours door to door.
JR Uchibo line to Hamakanaya, or to Hota for the temple's lower gate. A loop by ferry out and train back works well.
Kanaya port has seafood restaurants; try the local fish on the way back to the ferry.
Tokyo practical notes →Wikimedia Commons photographs are used under their licences.
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