Special Report: Mt. Takao, Nature in Tokyo! (with gift)


 

Last Saturday, I went “mountain-climbing” in Hachioji, Tokyo. It is only an hour away from Shinjuku.

The mountain is called Mt. Takao (Takaosan in Japanese) and although it is in Tokyo, it is rich in green; therefore, it is popular as a leisure place.

I have lived in Tokyo for years but never had climbed the mountain.

It was ideal weather for an outing.

 

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The station by the mountain.
It took about an hour to get there from Shinjuku.

 

 

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The climbers were talking “which route shall we take?”
in front of a map of Mt. Takao.

 

 

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This is the entrance. The building is a cable car station.

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The fare is 470 yen (US$5). About 5minutes of ride took us to the destination.

 

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This is the terminus.

 

 

There are several routes to go to the top of the mountain.

Since this was my first climbing the mountain, I took the cable car to the mid point.

From here to the top, it takes about an hour by walking.

 

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But before started climbing, I got the popular sweet there.
It’s called “Tenguyaki” and has sweet black bean paste.
It’s 120 yen (US$1.30) per cake.

 

 

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There are a lot of souvenir stores on the way.

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Japanese bills!?

 

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Huge trees seemed to be really old are everywhere.

 

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Unexpectedly I found this octopus!
I have no idea what this statue is for.

 

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In the mountain there is a Buddhist temple and as you can see,
there were a lot of visitors.

 

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What a steep slope!

 

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Some kind of memorial building (?). It looks western.

 

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There were tengu bronze statues near the top and the climbers were taking pictures.

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They are quite powerful.

 

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This one is matchmaking shrine.

 

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It made me feel like I was in Asakusa.

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Can you see the small tengu bronze statues?

 

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Finally I came to the top!

 

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If the sky is clear, Mt. Fuji can be seen from there.

 

Because I took the cable car to the middle, it wasn’t so hard to get to the top.

But… going down was hard, actually, it was horrible.

I didn’t take the cable car. I went down on my foot.

 

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It doesn’t look bad on the picture but there were so many bumps,
which torture the climbers’ legs.

 

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A view from the mountain. You can see the center of Tokyo faintly in the far back.

 

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It says “Don’t Feed Monkeys.” So there are monkeys in the mountain (lol).

 

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After the long walking I came back the station.
I found a tengu mask that I didn’t see when I first arrived.
It’s like how could I miss such powerful thing (^_^)

 

After all, I was surprised that there are many greens in the place only an hour away from the central Tokyo.

It doesn’t cost to travel and good for exercise!

 

By the way, I haven’t searched the history of Mt. Takao and the relation to tengu, so I can’t explain now, but I will one of there days.

 

Ah, I shouldn’t forget these. I have got a souvenir for you.

I want to give the following item to ONE winner by lottery!

A beautiful big handkerchief.

 

mount takao

 

The application due is June 20, Sunday. Please apply from the following URL.

 

http://www.japanstyle.info/?page_id=20

 

Please write “Mt. Takao Gift” in the subject box and write your name, address and impression on this blog “JAPAN Style”.

 


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