Tokyo's favorite mountain - Takao-san

Not even 50 minutes from the neon chaos of Shinjuku is a small town at the base of a very big mountain - Mount Takao, or 'Takao-san' as the locals call it. Last week I was very lucky to have a day off in the middle of the week for a school holiday, and took the opportunity to take Bob hiking on Tokyo's favorite mountain. With a backpack full of goodies, and a bottle of whiskey pre-mixed with water, myself, Seiji and Bob headed off for the wilderness.

We started off walking through the Takao town, a quaint little place, like all of these mountain towns are. Pretty little buildings, traditional architecture, and beautiful temples and shrines.



A shrine hides shyly behind a sakura in full bloom.

The hike itself was quite easy -- since Takao-san is such a popular hiking spot, the routes are all clearly cut and often paved. There is also a cable car and a chair lift that takes you up a steep slope and deposits you up to the start of the trails.




Above, Seiji and Bob take a look at long panels with names of all the people who had died hiking Takao. Just kidding! These are all names of the sponsors who help preserve Takao and take care of the buildings and trails.

There are six different routes you can take, but the most popular one takes you to the Takao shrine.



Takao - and many other mountains in Japan - is said to be inhabited by mischievous forest spirits, known as 'tengu'. These spirits are a combination of bird and human, have wings, and wield swords. They are apparently excellent swordsmen and have no qualms about using their weapons.

According to legend, there are two types of tengu. The first is the 'konoha-tengu' with its red nose and extremely phallic long, long nose. This tengu also carries a magic fan made from a large leaf.



The other type of tengu is the 'karasu-tengu', which has green skin, feathers and a beak. The one below is seen brandishing his sword menacingly. The karasu-tengu is apparently the servant to the konoha-tengu.




I also saw something that always makes me smile -- offerings of sake to the gods. That is something I love about Japanese culture... they certainly celebrate and embrace their alcoholic natures! I mean look at this guy! Look at how happy he is! But then again, I'd be a happy god too if people kept coming up the mountain to bring me massive bottles of sake.




Anyways, we continued on hiking after checking out the shrines, and were stunned by the beautiful and expansive view from the top of Takao. The blue mountains just seemed to roll on and on and on.



At the top of the mountain, many people were picnicking and setting up shop under the sakura trees to cook food and drink a wide variety of alcohol. The funny thing about Japan, is that even when you go hiking in the mountains, at the top there is always some kind of tuck-shoppe selling food and vending machines selling booze! We took a spot at a picnic table, drank our whiskey and ate our cheese and raisin bread and took in the scenery. It was really lovely, a perfect, perfect day for hiking.




After lunch we started our descent on a real trail - not a paved one - and walked for a long time alongside a small river. The area was covered with massive, massive trees (I wish I knew what kind), chirping frogs, and singing birds. Eventually we came out back into Takao town, and found these guys on the side of the road...



My dad said it reminded him of the little dudes on 'South Park' in their snow hats. Cute. After that, it was back through town, back on the train, and back home. I'm just glad I live on the west side of Tokyo and that these mountains are so close. I would definitely like to return to Takao-san one of these days and hike more of the trails.