How to rent a crash pad for Mitake, step by step

Which one should you pick?

All three rent real foam pads, all three want you to book in advance, and all three apply the same two rules: you climb at your own risk, and if you badly damage a pad you pay its full retail price. Beyond that they differ in price, hours and paperwork.

SCROLL THE TABLE SIDEWAYS ON A NARROW SCREEN

For most visitors the answer is simple: take the train to Mitake empty-handed and rent at the station. Concept is the cheapest and has the longest hours; maunga has more pads, an English-labelled form, and will lend you a brush for free. BETA only makes sense if you are already climbing at their gym and want to carry a pad out of Tokyo for a multi-day trip.

Option 1 — maunga, Mitake main store

maunga is a used outdoor gear shop near Mitake Station that also runs a rental counter. Pads are Mountain Dax, Metolius and Black Diamond models, and you can book up to ten at a time. They also rent climbing shoes (1,000 JPY a day, sizes 20–29 cm) and will store your luggage for the day (500 JPY for a bag, 800 JPY for a suitcase), which is handy if you are coming straight from the airport.

How to book

1. Open the rental booking form (a Google Form embedded in their site; every field has an English label).
2. Fill in: store (Mitake), your name, mobile number, email, number of crash pads, rental date and start time, and your expected return date and time — a rough time is fine.
3. Send it. Staff will reply to confirm. Book by around 19:00 the day before you climb — they warn that bookings sent late the night before may not be confirmed.
4. Pay and collect at the shop. If you have questions, there is also a contact form and an official LINE account, or phone 0428-74-9235.

The rules on their form

• Be on time. If you are more than an hour late for your pick-up slot, the booking may be cancelled. Call if you are running behind.
• Hours are the limit. Rentals are within shop hours (weekdays 9:00–19:00, weekends and holidays 8:00–19:00). You can collect one hour before opening for an extra 3,000 JPY early-morning fee, and returning after closing costs an extra 3,000 JPY.
• Brushes are free. A pamo brush is lent out free with no booking needed — so you are expected to clean your chalk off the rock after climbing and take your rubbish home. The form says so explicitly.
• Accidents while using rental gear are your responsibility; serious damage is charged at the product's purchase price.
• Not sure how to use something? They invite you to ask.

Option 2 — Concept / River House

Concept is a rafting and canoe outfit (the company name is Yugen Kaisha Concept), based at River House, a two-minute walk from Mitake Station. They have been renting pads to climbers since 2013 and it is the most relaxed of the three: 1,000 JPY a day, available any time between 8:00 and 20:00, open every day of the year. The pad is a Mountain Dax Goreiiro Double II, a wide folding double pad.

How to book

1. Email or phone a day ahead. The rental page lists yebisuarimasu@softbank.ne.jp and 080-5516-1104; the company's general address is info@canoebar.jp (phone line 0428-79-7227, answered 12:00–18:00). There is also a contact form.
2. Say when you want to collect and return, and how many pads. One short message is enough — their own page says a single call or email gets you a pad straight away.
3. Collect at River House, 265 Mitake-Honcho, Ome, Tokyo, and pay there.

Good to know

• Their website is in Japanese and the rental page is short. Write your email in simple English, and include the date, pick-up time and return time — the same three things every shop wants.
• River House is on the river side of the station, so you walk past it on the way to the boulders anyway.
• Details of each rental, including stock on a busy weekend, are confirmed on the phone or by email; the site does not publish a deposit or ID policy, so bring a photo ID in case. See the crash pad rental page.

Option 3 — BETA Climbing Gym, Shinjuku

BETA is a bouldering gym in Sumiyoshi-cho, Shinjuku, by Akebonobashi Station on the Toei Shinjuku Line. Their pad rental is designed for Tokyo locals with no room to store a pad, and it comes with more conditions than the Mitake shops. Read them before you count on it.

The conditions

• Members only. The service is for BETA gym members. If you are not a member you have to register first — in practice that means visiting the gym and doing their first-time registration, then quoting your pre-registration number when you book.
• Only 3 pads exist. First booked, first served.
• Priced by the 24 hours, not the day: 1,650 JPY up to 24 h, 3,300 JPY up to 48 h, 4,950 JPY up to 72 h, 6,600 JPY up to 96 h (tax included). Pay at reception when you collect.
• Pick-up and return at the gym front desk during opening hours (weekends and holidays 8:00–23:00, weekdays 10:00–23:00, irregular closures). Ask if you need a time outside those hours.
• If you are more than an hour late for your pick-up time the booking is cancelled — call if you are delayed.
• Keep it dry. They ask you not to use the pad on wet ground; if you must, borrow one of their blue tarps and put it underneath.
• Accidents are your own responsibility, and serious damage is charged at the pad's purchase price.

How to book by email

Send an email to info@beta-climbing.com with the subject line "[date] クラッシュパッドレンタル希望" (crash pad rental request) and the following eight items in the body, in this order:

1. Your name
2. Gender
3. Date of birth
4. A phone number that works on the day
5. Number of pads
6. Pick-up date and time
7. Return date and time
8. Whether you are a BETA member or not — non-members add their pre-registration number

You can also book in person at the front desk. The full notice is on their rental announcement, and there is a general contact form.

A booking email that works for all three

Japanese shops are used to short, polite, factual emails. Something like this, in plain English, is fine:

Hello, I would like to rent 1 crash pad.
Pick-up: Saturday 12 October, 9:00
Return: Saturday 12 October, 18:00
Name: Jane Smith / Phone: +44 7700 900000
Thank you.

Put the date in the subject line. If you are writing to BETA, add the remaining items from their list above. Reply promptly when they confirm — pads are few and weekends fill up.

Before you hand the pad back

• Brush your chalk off the rock and carry out every scrap of rubbish. maunga spells this out on their booking form, and every local climber at Mitake expects it. Our etiquette guide has the rest.
• Keep the pad off wet ground and out of the river. A soaked pad is a damaged pad, and two of the three shops charge full replacement cost for serious damage.
• Watch the clock. Late returns cost 3,000 JPY at maunga and push you into the next 24-hour block at BETA. The last trains back to Tokyo leave Mitake well before midnight, so plan the return around the shop's closing time, not the train.