Sengokuhara Pampas Grass Field

What makes it special

Sengokuhara is one of Hakone's best known autumn views: a whole hillside of susuki, the Japanese silver grass, spread across the base of Mount Daigatake. At full colour the grass moves over the slope like gold waves as far as you can see, and the tips glisten when the sun is on them.

The colour changes through the season. The grass is bright green in summer and a mix of green and light yellow around September, then reaches a whitish gold by early November. In the first weeks of autumn the gold and the green stand side by side, a contrast you only get at this point in the year.

In winter the grass turns brown and dies back. Between mid and late March the field is burned on a calm day to keep invasive plants out, which is how the hillside renews itself before the next autumn.

Visiting

Crossing from the Sengoku-kogen bus stop to the entrance, you start at the bottom of the slope. A single path runs up through the tall grass, and it is the only one, so there is no wrong turn to take.

On the upper section, turn and look to your left back across the field. Near the top a small hill gives the view over to Mount Kintoki and the wetland below it.

The colour shifts from week to week, so the field you find in late September is greener than the one in early November. Early on you get the gold and green together; later the whole slope is pale gold.

Tips

The field is at its busiest in October, and on autumn weekends parking fills early, so come in the morning if you are driving. For photographs, the two good times are late afternoon, when the setting sun turns the tips gold, and early morning, when the low light picks out the dew.

Signs near the field warn of wild boar, so keep to the path and give any animal plenty of room.