Daytrip to Mt. Takao

Ah, a day in Heaven – we went to Mt. Takao yesterday. It’s about an hour by train to this mountain and the beginning of a whole mountain range. Dennis, Donald Sr. and I trouped off to enjoy the outdoors for a day. There’s a cute little village with tiled roofs houses/apartments at the base of the mountain. Shop keepers are out with food (chestnuts, fruit, dried fish, mochi) and trinkets. Interestingly, they don’t seem to sell t-shirts for tourists.

We took a little cable car about half way up the mountain and then started up one of the many trails to the top. Some paths are dirt hiking trails and others are paved, walking paths. There were people (primarily Japanese) traveling up this sacred mountain but it wasn’t at all crowded. Apparently on the weekends it’s a popular destination for Tokyoites and can get very crowded. And lots of people do a day pilgrimage on New Year’s Day to the top of the mountain. Dennis had not been before and Donald had been about 30 years ago.

We hiked towards the Mountain’s Buddhist Temple as our first stop. It took us a while to find the right trail because there are 6 trails up the mountain. But we did. It involved traveling up 2 very long flights of stone stairs. Dennis called them thigh busters. Donald was a trouper going up all those stairs. I think it was more than he remembered and had bargained for for the day, but he didn’t complain or seem to fatigue.

After a short look around the Temple, we walked through the woods up to the top. On a clear day you can see Mt Fuji. It was not quite that clear. But the view towards that direction was pretty wonderful – mountains behind mountains that faded into the misty clouds.

We had a quick lunch at a noodle shop at the top of the mountain and then started on our trek back to the cable car.

The trail back was even more beautiful because it was all in the woods – no cement path or shops along the way like the trail we took going up the mountain. The forest is covered with thick undergrowth and deciduous trees much more then evergreen trees. The Japanese maples seem to be everywhere – they’re very tall with limbs that fan out and have this wonderfully delicate leaves. So when the sunlight shines through, it’s just beautiful. I’ll have to post some photos because it’s hard to describe the beauty of the environment. The trees haven’t started to change colors yet but it must be spectacular when they do. You look out at vistas through the trees to see large hills across a valley or down the hillside.

I was in 7th Heaven – out in nature hiking with Dennis and his Dad. No crowds, no city. My kind of day :)