My Little Corner: Takaosan in Tokyo

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Takaosan in Tokyo

Topic(s): Travel, Travel (Japan - Tokyo)

Recently came back from a short trip to Tokyo. While I was chit-chatting with my colleagues, I realised that some may have a misconception that since Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the scenery is mostly in urban settings. However, they may have forgotten that Japan is many many times bigger than Singapore. :)

Mount Takao in Tokyo, also known as Takaosan, is quite accessible through the subway (from Shinjuku station). Upon arriving, you'll see a big sign board telling you how big the mountain is. :)

Sign board showing the routes up Takaosan

There are 2 ways up the mountain. One is the old fashion way of walking all the way up and the other, is to use the electric train that goes halfway up the mountain and runs every 15mins. No prizes for guessing which option I took. :)

Below are some photos of the train station where you can take the train up. The train fare is quite obvious from the photos so I leave it to you to read it. :)

Train station to go up the mountain

Area surrounding the train station

Interior of the train station and the train fares sign board.

Upon disembarking from the halfway point, the picture below will be the scenery that greets you. It's quick remarkable that you can find such natural scenery in Tokyo city. I like the way the clouds partially cover some areas. It makes the place mysterious. :)

Scenery from the train station up the mountain

Do you think that's the end? Of course not. You'll still have to climb a bit to reach the summit. Unfortunately, it was raining by the time we arrived and it was a bit difficult to carry an umbrella and take photos at the same time. Oh well...

It was quite refreshing though to walk up the mountain in the rain. :) Below are some random pictures that I took while walking up the mountain.

Some very old tree. 450 years old I think

This was beside the tree. Not sure what it is but it looks interesting. :)

A walkway that was lined with these boards. Couldn't really understand what was written on it.

Something similar to the 10 commandments. How nice if everyone follows it.

Interesting statues

I love taking pictures of autumn leaves. :)

Last part of the walk to the summit.

I specially like the above picture. It makes you feel that you're walking steadily towards an unknown and that at the end of the bright tunnel, something beautiful awaits you.

I was not disappointed. The interesting part was that while we were up at the summit, the scene that initially greeted us was all white. However after some time, the sky began to clear and I understood why there were so many people at the summit and I do include old folks. We almost missed it if not for the fact that I was preoccupied taking pictures of a pigeon up a tree that was looking curiously at me. :)

The scenery up there is amazing. You could see rows and rows of mountains and one of which is supposedly Mount Fuji. Unfortunately, I did not manage to catch any glimpse though because the sky was still partially cloudy. :(

Below are some of the photos that I took up the summit. If given a chance again, I believe my wife and I may just stay there and make sure that we could see everything. :) For people who likes nature, I highly recommend going up to the summit, provided you are capable of walking up the mountain. The trail can be quite muddy. :)