The road into Oyama narrows as the forest closes in — cedars and mixed woodland covering most of the town's area, broken here and there by terraced rice paddies fed by spring water that surfaces quietly from the volcanic subsoil of Fuji's eastern flank. At Susono-Oyama station on the Gotemba Line, the platform feels unhurried, a working stop rather than a destination, and from here the town spreads west into a long, narrow valley between Kintoki-yama and the Tanzawa range.
The layers of industry here are unusual and slightly incongruous in the best way. Spinning mills and rice cultivation have shaped the economy for generations, while Fuji Speedway — opened in the mid-1960s and now holding international racing events — sits on the plateau like an implausible neighbor to the paddy fields. The Ashigara Pass, once a post town on the old Tokaido Ashigara road, still has its walking form: the Ashigara Kodo trail runs roughly three kilometers from Jizodo up to the pass, passing the ruins of Ashigara Castle, a mountain fortification that fell to Toyotomi forces in 1590. The Ashigara Pass Flute Festival keeps something of that route alive in sound.
At Susono-guchi, the Higashiguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine marks the start of the Subashiri climbing trail and is counted among the World Cultural Heritage components of Fujisan. The new Ashigara Station building, designed by Kengo Kuma and opened in 2020, doubles as a community center — a detail that says something about how a small town maintains its own coherence while remaining open to the present.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
Booking through these links supports AURA at no extra cost to you.
What converges here
1 in this town. 23 within 25 km of the town office.
- Fuji Motorsports Museum
- Lalique Museum, Hakone
- Hakone Venetian Glass Museum
- Mishima Yukio Literary Museum
- Pola Museum of Art
See 18 more
- Hakone Museum of Art
- Hakone Open-Air Museum
- Nishi-Tanzawa Visitor Center
- Okada Museum of Art
- 尊徳記念館
- Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History
- Narukawa Art Museum
- Hadano History Museum
- Matsunaga Memorial Hall
- Hakone Ekiden Museum
- Hotoku Museum
- Odawara Literature Museum
- 江戸民具街道
- Museum Tsuru
- Fujiyama Museum
- Yasushi Inoue Literary Museum
- Yamanashi Prefectural Fujisan World Heritage Center
- Yugawara Art Museum
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026. Some locations © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Mt. Fuji – Sacred Place and Source of Artistic Inspiration
- Fuji-Hakone-Izu
- Tanzawa-Oyama
- Ashigara
- Suruga-Oyama