Mount Mitake

The experience

A 929-metre peak in the Okutama area of western Tokyo, with the Musashi-Mitake Shrine at its summit and a small mountaintop village of pilgrim lodgings below it. The main walk beyond the shrine is the Rock Garden, a narrow wooded valley of moss-covered boulders along a stream with two waterfalls. A cable car running since 1927 covers the lower half of the climb.

Moss, stream and waterfall scenery that reads as deep countryside, still inside Tokyo Metropolis.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.