Musashi-Ranzan Station (RotW)

RotW is my Railways of the Warrior project. Visiting all the Japanese train stations with Fuji in the name & the 12 castles with the original keep still standing wasn’t enough to satisfy my love of lists, so now I’m working through all the stations with Musashi in their name.

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Name in kanji : 武蔵嵐山
Kanji meaning: storm mountain
Station opened : 5th November, 1923 as Sugaya Station; name changed October 1st, 1945
Trainlines: Tobu Tojo
# Passengers daily : 7287
Distance from CityHillsAndSea HQ: 123 km
Located in: Ranzan-machi, Saitama Prefecture

Things to Do

If you don’t like the great outdoors, you’re probably going to be at a bit of a loss in Ranzan. The best I can do you if you are unfortunate enough to suffer from this peculiar affliction is the Ranzan Historical museum. There’s also the Sugaya Castle ruins if you like your history, but you’d best be warned that they’re essentially just a big old park nowadays.

Ranzan Valley is full of scenic hikes, and is home to a barbecue area that has been voted one of Japan’s top BBQ spots.

It’s also home to a lot of butterflies, including Japan’s national butterfly, the oomurazaki (the great purple emperor). I freely admit I didn’t even know this was a thing until I was researching Ranzan. There’s a butterfly centre which is also home to a really chatty guy who bent my ear about all the bugs in the area, and I understood… some of what he said.

Keeping on that nature vibe, if you’re there at the right time of year there’s a lavender festival.

Finally, as this is Saitama, OF COURSE there’s a kofun:

All About Musashi Ranzan Station

The more astute amongst you (and those with questionable taste in music) may have noticed that the first character in Ranzan is arashi. Perhaps you may even have extrapolated from this that another reading of Ranzan is Arashiyama.

You’d be absolutely correct, and it’s all because, many moons ago, a Forestry official remarked that the area looked a lot like Arashiyama in Kyoto… and things just kind of went from there.

Part of the reason for this comparison was Ranzan’s beauty during koyo season, when the leaves start changing colours in autumn :

The Ranzan Valley area is about 2km from the station, and it’s not a hard walk, but if you’d rather save your legs for the trail, you’d be better off getting a bus from the west exit, and getting off at the Senjudo bus stop.

From here, it’s a pretty short walk into the forest.

That’s pretty much all I did on my trip there – enjoyed the beauty of the trees…

… had a gentle hike up Obirayama …

… and then made my way back to the station, home to multiple versions of Ranmaru, Ranzan’s funky little mascot, seen below holding a bottle of Omurasaki, the local sake :

There are more pics in the gallery at the bottom of the post.

Station Rating

Musashi-Ranzan is my favourite Musashi station to date.

The countryside around Musashi Ranzan is gorgeous, with plenty of easy trails for long walks. If I woke up tomorrow and discovered that I had to move here, I wouldn’t mind a bit. (Although I’d want to be working in the town, as the trains aren’t particularly convenient for a daily Tokyo commute. If you hear of any jobs going, give us a shout.)