Hachioji sits where the Tokyo plain finally runs into the hills, a city of well over five hundred thousand people at the foot of the Tama mountains, and the Myogi ride comes back to it as to a front door. In the old days it was a post town on the road to the western provinces, famous for silk, and merchants carried raw silk down the Hachioji road to the ports of Yokohama for export. That trade made the city rich, and the old route is still remembered as the Silk Road of Japan.
The mountain that dominates the skyline is Takao, a modest peak of about six hundred metres with a Buddhist temple, Yakuo-in, on its slopes. The temple is a pilgrimage site and the mountain a favourite weekend hike for Tokyoites, who ride the cable car and eat soba in the shops on the way up. The forest is thick, mixed with cedar, beech and oak, and the Michelin guide once gave Takao three stars, which tells you how many people come.
Hachioji is also a university city and a hub, where the Chuo Expressway, the Ken-O-Do ring route and several national roads meet, so traffic is a feature. Roads out toward Sagamiko and the Kanagawa border climb into forested valleys with decent curves and little commercial traffic, and these are good routes on a weekday morning. Weekend afternoons are crowded with cars heading home, and the evening rush backs up on the main trunk.
The ordinary comforts are all here, with fuel on every main road and cafes, ramen counters and Hachioji's local specialty of ramen with chopped onions on shoyu broth. Spring brings cherry blossom, autumn colours the hills in late November, and summer is humid and loud with cicadas. Winter mornings can bring frost to shaded bends in the mountains, so check conditions. Park and walk the shopping arcades for an hour if there is light left.