Hisashiburi-in Japanese, this means "It's been a long time..." A friend and I went to Okutama in March 2007. Okutama is in western Tokyo, in the mountains. In the 1950's there was a railway built during the construction of Okutama Dam, around 10km upstream from Okutama town. It has fallen into disuse, as you can see from the photos. We walked about 6-7 km from Okutama along the old railway bed, through 19 tunnels, up to the dam, and then walked back 10 km along the mukashi no michi (ancient road) back to Okutama town. I was quite surprised to see wild monkeys and a kamoshika (Japanese Serow), which is kind of a mix between a deer and a goat. I did this journey about 10-12 years ago, and it was great to be able to do it again.

For more information on the kamoshika, see Animal Planet-http://animal.discovery.com/guides/mammals/habitat/tempforest/japserow.html