Mount Hiei



Mount Hiei (比叡山 Hiei-zan) is a mountain that lies to the northeast of Kyoto in the Sakamoto (坂本) district of Otsu city. It is famed for the extensive temple complex near the summit. Since many travellers come here from Kyoto, they often enter from the town of Yase (八瀬) at the base of the mountain on the Kyoto side.

Understand
The temple of Enryakuji, the first Japanese outpost of the esoteric Tendai sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mt. Hiei by Saichō (Dengyō Daishi) in 788. The temple complex was razed by Oda Nobunaga in 1571 to quell the rising power of the Tendai's warrior monks, but it was rebuilt and remains the Tendai headquarters to this day.

Tourist information site
The local tourist associations has a multilingual guide site, also covering Lake Biwa area.

Get in
There are several ways to reach Sakamoto and Mount Hiei.

By train
From Kyoto, the JR Kosei line goes directly to the Hieizan-Sakamoto station which is a 1,200-m walk from the Sakamoto Cable Car or the trailhead to climb Mount Hiei on foot. Alternatively, take the Keihan Main Line to Demachiyanagi and transfer to an Eizan train to Yase-Hieizan-guchi (八瀬比叡山口). From here the Eizan Cable Car makes the trip to the top of Mount Hiei for &yen;850/1080 one-way/return (incl. the ropeway: &yen;820/1700 one-way/return), every 30 minutes daily from 08:30 to 17:30 (or longer, schedules vary a bit depending on the season). The last leg of the trip to the summit is a 3-minute ride on a ropeway, which departs at intervals of 10-20 minutes between 09:00 and 18:00.

Or, you could also take the Keihan Line to Sanjo Station and transfer to the Tozai Line bound for Hamaotsu Station in Otsu. From Otsu, you can take the JR Kosei line or Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto line to Sakamoto, although the Keihan station (the last station on the line) is more centrally located. The Hiyoshi Taisha shrine and the cable car to Mt. Hiei are about 15 min away on foot, both fairly well signposted.

Be careful: there are two different cable-cars up the hill, each ran by a different company. So, if you buy a two-way-ticket from one company, you cannot use this for the other railway and you'll need to buy a new ticket.

By bus
There are occasional direct buses from Kyoto station directly to the top, taking about 1.5 hours and all departing in the morning. Schedules are severely curtailed in the winter.

Get around
Sakamoto and Mt. Hiei are best covered on foot. For going between the two, you can use the Sakamoto Cable Car, which costs &yen;840/1570 one-way/round-trip and runs daily from 08:00 to 17:00 once every 30 minutes. At over 2 km, this is the longest cable car in Japan and takes about 11 minutes for the journey. This cable car line was built in 1927 and refurbished in 1993. The European style cars have large windows with wonderful views of Lake Biwa.

A real pilgrim would of course scoff at mechanical contraptions and climb the mountain, which is fairly easy. The traditional route is a convenient path of mossy steps known as Honzaka (本坂), starting from Sakamoto, but it's still 500 m (vertical) to the top. There are also many other routes, with numerous small temples and waterfalls along the way, but watch out as signposting (even in Japanese) is lacking. You may see monkeys along the way.

See
Both the Sakamoto cable car from Lake Biwa side and the Hieizan Ropeway from the Kyoto side terminate near two broadcast towers and the Garden Museum Hiei, whose ticket booth has maps to Hiei's more traditional attractions, which can be reached by about twenty minutes' walk through atmospheric forest.



Eat and drink



 * Hiyoshi Sansō (日吉山荘) within the Hiyoshi Taisha shrine is a traditional teahouse in an extremely scenic little river gorge, particularly popular in fall. Food prices are quite steep (&yen;800 for soba!), but you can also bring your food for a &yen;300 charge per head.
 * There is a small restaurant, Suehiro (末廣), by the Sakamoto Cable Car Mt. Hiei station, serving all the usual suspects.

Sleep
There is a wide range of accommodation in Sakamoto, but many visitors choose to day-trip from Kyoto instead.


 * Saikyōji Youth Hostel (西教寺ＹＨ, tel. +81 77-578-0013) in Sakamoto is a good but somewhat inconveniently located hostel on the northern outskirts of town, although you can take a bus from either station (5-7 minutes, get off at Saikyōji). While affiliated with and run by a temple, the building itself is modern.  HI members pay &yen;3255 a night plus &yen;630/1050 for breakfast/dinner.  As a bonus, Saikyoji is itself a Tendai temple complex worth visiting, especially because of its views of Lake Biwa and Japanese maple leaves (momiji) in autumn.  There are what looks like footprints and handprints on some of the wooden slats in the roof circling the temple; these are rumored to be the old floor slats with bloody handprints and footprints from ritual suicides.