Tsubaki Line (椿ライン)

The Tsubaki Line is the local name for Kanagawa Prefectural Road 75, the Yugawara Hakone Sengokuhara Line, on the stretch that climbs from Oku Yugawara Onsen above Yugawara to Daikanzan. At the top it meets the Hakone Turnpike beside the Daikanzan observation deck. Tsubaki means camellia, and camellia trees grow all along the road.

In Initial D it is the home course of Sidewinder and the setting for the last two battles of the series: Keisuke Takahashi against Go Hojo uphill, then Takumi Fujiwara against Shinji Inui downhill, AE86 against AE86. Those battles fill the four episodes of the Final Stage anime, and the series gives the course as 13.1 km, the longest it uses. Daikanzan is where the Project D mechanics set up the cars before the final battles. The course arrives in the arcade games with Initial D Arcade Stage 6 AA, which uses only its second half.

Halfway up is Tsubaki-dai, a small plateau chosen as one of Kanagawa's 50 most beautiful sights. From Daikanzan the views run to Lake Ashi and Mount Fuji on clear days.

• From Yugawara the road climbs out of the Oku Yugawara hot spring valley towards the Hakone ridge through bend after bend, with hairpins along the way.
• Camellia trees line the road and flower from February to April.
• Tsubaki-dai, the small plateau midway up, is one of Kanagawa's 50 most beautiful sights.
• At the top, Daikanzan has the observation deck over Lake Ashi and Mount Fuji, and the Sky Lounge at the end of the Hakone Turnpike with a food court, a tea lounge and a souvenir shop.
• Past Daikanzan, Route 75 carries on along the ridge and down towards Lake Ashi.
• Road cyclists ride up to Daikanzan, and the Turnpike operator has built a cycle path from the Tsubaki Line to the observation deck.
• Best way to experience it: in your own car or a hire car, or on one of the guided driving tours that run on it.

• Kanagawa Prefecture closes Route 75 between the Yugawara Parkway junction and the Hakone Shindo junction in heavy rain: 50 mm in an hour, or 200 mm over a spell of rain.
• The Hakone Turnpike, which meets the Tsubaki Line at Daikanzan, is a separate toll road.
• The Tsubaki-dai car park midway up is run by Kanagawa Prefecture and holds 18 cars.
• Food and parking are at the Daikanzan Sky Lounge at the top.
• Yugawara Station on the JR Tokaido Line is at the bottom of the road.

• Last verified: 3 November 2026
• Official link: https://visitkanagawa.jp/destination/tsubaki-line/1481