I have quite a few friends who are living and working in Tokyo. As expats in foreign land, one of their favorite pastime is exploring the mountains and countryside near Tokyo. I'm very fortunate to have these friends who provide me with tips on these nearby trips. I am not a particular outdoor person but I'm always open for some short hiking trips to get closer to nature.
So early one morning, off we go to Mt Takao which is just over 1 hour train ride from Tokyo. It was a nice sunny morning as we set foot on our journey. Upon reaching the station of our destination, I did my usual ritual of getting my stamp of the station. Then we got a map and get into the serious business of determine the hiking routes to take. As the typical nature lover, I chose the scenic route denoted by orange colored in the map (See below). Plus the estimated time taken looks reasonable from the information provided on the board. My friend - YY once told me in much confidence that the hiking is easy at Mt Takao and she is really kinda walker than a hiker and she has no problem at all. Hence I was feeling rather confident.
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| Map of Mt Takao |
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| Details of trails on the map board |
We started our climb from the path and it was a nice breezy walk, taking in the tranquillity around us. It was a beautiful day...
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| Start of our trail |
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| Nice and peaceful |
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| Ray of sunshine on the water |
The strange thing is that there is no one else on the same path despite of a reasonable sizable crowd at the station. Oh well..these folks probably just wanna go for the fastest path to get to the temple but we are the nature-lovers who wanna enjoy our hiking...or so I thought.
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| Make hay while the sun shines |
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| Path up to the mountain top |
Soon we noted that there are some old folks who were climbing down from the path with their hiking poles. They looked quite surprised to see us and started speaking to us in Japanese which of course we don't understand. We smiled nicely and proceed with our hike and the path got steeper and steeper. K turned to me and commented that those folks are probably trying to tell us that this path is for going down the mountain which was why there is no one else on the path in the same direction! I have done it again ... I have led us to a challenging route again ....sigh :p
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| Nature reserve! |
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| View from the midpoint |
The hike was pleasant despite of the wrong route but it was physically challenging as well. We got to a hut for resting in the mid peak and we were rewarded with a beautiful view and cooling breeze, causally messing our hair. We rest for a while before continuing our climb. It was quite a distance up and by the time we reached the peak at where the temple is located, the sun was setting by then. Still we got to view the colours of autumn.
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| Soon it will be flushes of golden shower in the mountain |
