Could it Be?

All the time I've been in Tokyo the one thing I've been lamenting about, pining over, alas yearning for, besides Triscuits and See's candies, is a place nearby, where I can go hiking.  Well, I finally found it.  It's called Mt. Takao.  A couple of people mentioned it to me and after some research I decided to make it a project for Russell and I to do last weekend.

Those of you who know Russell, or read about him, know he's not a big hiker.  Generally I can get him to brave the outdoors for about an hour, any more usually requires bribery.  There's only been one time I witnessed Russell hiking in earnest.  It's my favorite Russell hiking story (there are so many).  We were in Great Sequoia National park for a friends 50th birthday RV extravaganza.  The entire group, all six of us, hiked to a waterfall a couple miles away. As usual Russell brought up the rear, lollygagging the entire way.  That is, until we saw the bears.  Yeah, as in plural.  There were four bears gathered indiscriminately around the waterfall.   Two blond bears (until then I didn't know bears could be blond) were foraging in the bushes below, a black bear was on a rock that jutted above the trail and the fourth was on a precipice over looking the fall.  We discovered them all within a few minutes of arriving at the fall.  I've never seen Russell hike so fast in my life.  He was practically running out of there, leading the charge, leaving the rest of us in the dust.

And that's not even the funny part.  The funny part was back at camp we realized the reason there were so many bears around was because the whole area was covered with berry bushes.  The bears were eating the berries.  Suddenly it got very quiet as we all realized that during a portion of the hike we were actually surrounded by those berry bushes and most likely a lot of bears.  

The great thing about Mt. Takao is that it's less than an hour from Tokyo and the train delivers you right to the trailhead.  The bad thing is, two of the trails are actually made of concrete.  The point was to escape the concrete.  There's a quaint shopping street just in front of the station that sells snacks and has several soba restaurants.  We ate at one and frankly, it was some of the best soba we've had.

Trail map right as you get out of the train station.

They have brochures in English as well.

Pretty garden along the path up to the chair lift

Pretty spider hanging overhead.

This spider was the size of a baby mouse.

This picture does not do it justice.

No joke - scary.

Shopping street leading up to the main entrance to the mountain.

The place where we had lunch, resplendent with plastic food displays.

My delicious lunch, tempura and cold soba noodles.

Yum!

Chair lift station at base of mountain.

Because we left the house late and therefore didn't get to Mt. Takao and done with lunch till after 2p, we decided to take the chair lift half way up the mountain instead of hiking up as we intended to do.  The first thing that struck me about the chair lift was - there are no seat belts.  No seat belts!  Yikes.  Clearly, unlike America where citizens can sue because the hot coffee they bought was too hot, Japan has no issues with liability.  I have to admit, even though there was a safety net for the more precipitous drops, I was still nervous.  But the happy school kids coming down from the top seemed completely unfazed as they passed by, two by two, swinging their legs and chirping "hallow" to us.

View from the chair lift going up the mountain.

Note the "danger" sign.  Sheeyeah!

View into the forrest from the chair.

I really wanted to see some monkeys - darn it.

The view was great from the top of the chair lift.  I think Russell was ready to turn around then but of course I insisted we climb the rest of the way up.  No not the roadway, there was a roadway that curved up the mountain in a gentle arc, we had to take the stairway.  Even I was groaning when we got to the top of it and I suggested it.  The shrine was another thousand steps up so Russell decided to "check his email for an important message he was expecting."  Uh huh. 

View from the top of the chair lift looking out over Tokyo

Zoomed in.

Can we go now?

The path to the shrine was lined with ancient cedar trees.

It looked like the Redwood forest.

Oh no, why take the gently sloped road when we can climb these?

My bad.

The climb was worth it.  The temple was like three in one, each beautiful in their own way.  One was grand and ornate, one had sandals all over it, and one had a hundred little kitties adorning it.  Someday I'll learn what that all means.  I took pictures.  I clamored down the steps, hoping to infect Russell with my enthusiasm.  I was able to convince him to take one of the trails up to the summit.  This one actually had dirt on it.  It was more like a fire road than a trail.  We looped around the priests house, for a second sure we were lost, until we encountered a woman who confirmed we were on the right path.  When she told us it would take 40 to 50 minutes to reach the summit I winced, thinking Russell would say no.  But instead he quietly began marching up the hill, without complaint or negotiation.

Gate to the temple.

To ward off evil spirits.  

Do they have one of these to ward off evil calories?

I love how all the temple fountains have their own unique designs.

Somebody needs to do a coffee table book on this.

Ornate temple.

The other temples.

What up with all the cats?

This looks brand new.

It only took us 30 minutes to get to the top and what do you think was there when we arrived? Why an ice cream stand of course.  Isn't every mountain top paved and adorned with an ice cream shop?  I was a little disappointed at first until I saw the view of the rest of the mountain range sprawling from the observation deck.  It was like a masterpiece.  Swallows exalted in the hot air rising above the valley below, their cheerful silhouettes dancing in front of the looming blue ridges of the mountains, the colors graduating from a light blue mist to sapphire.  It was breathtaking.

Naturally occurring ice cream stand. 

Very rare.

We made it to 599 meters - 1,965 feet.

Kind of like climbing Signal Hill.

View towards Mt. Fuji.

Swallows dancing in the wind.

Not a concrete slab in sight.

Not all was buried under concrete.  I learned from the handy map prominently posted, there were more mountain tops to conquer.   The paths that lead to them were dirt.  They will be mine, oh yes, they will be mine.

Dirt trail leading to the next mountain top.

I might actually need hiking boots for this.

We took another way down. This one was partially paved, partially dirt, but mostly stairs.  The good news was it lead us back by the temples Russell had missed.  I was glad he got to see them and the snake I almost stepped on during the dirt portion.  Snake!!!! Yeah, I actually encountered nature.  It was the highlight of my day.  I know, I'm weird.

But happy...

Can you believe I almost stepped on this?

You can't tell from the picture but this was a baby snake,

merely a foot long.  But it looks monstrous here, right?

Clearly designed for gaijin.

For information on Mt. Takao, including trains go to:  http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3029.html