5 Jul 2025
Today, I’ll be climbing a mountain!
I mean, the path is paved and it’s super-touristy, but if the weather holds, I might catch some views of Mount Fuji. You can climb Fuji itself but 1) there are lots of rules 2) they increased the cost this year (Y4000, I think) and 3) it’s like a whole day affair and you don’t really get to “see” the mountain- you’re too close! So I opted to visit a nearby mountain instead- still get to do some hiking and hopefully get those iconic views of Fuji.
Tourist mode, engaged!
Up until this point, I’d been using a cute sling bag, but it’s getting heavy and my shoulder hurts so I’m embracing the front backpack look. Don’t judge.
Up until this point, I’ve felt pretty good with managing transportation here in Japan, but this morning I made my first mistake: I got on the wrong train… I realized it as soon as I stepped on, but the doors shut and I was stuck. No big deal, just get off at the next station and get on the right train. Still, not a great way to start today (though I do like these open-air stations):
Unfortunately, today might not be my day… I’ve got about 2.5 hours of travel, including about 45 minutes on this first train, so I decided use the handy shelf above the seats to store my big backpack- it’s already getting warm and I don’t want my body heat to melt the chocolates I’ve been acquiring. But I caught one of the handles as I was putting my bag up and it swung back and hit me in the face. As I brushed my tears away, I came away with blood:
Yup, I split my eyelid open. Fortunately, I’ve got a generous stash of napkins from all my 7-11 trips, so I held pressure until the bleeding stopped, and then held it a bit longer to try to stave off an inevitable black eye. The people around me were definitely staring and I realized I didn’t even know how to say “I’m ok” (or, if I actually needed help, that I didn’t know how to ask for that either). I drafted several texts to both Matt and Jill, but ended up just deleting them- there’s nothing either of them can do and I don’t want them to worry about me. So I slathered some bacitracin on it (because that stuff is basically magic) and tried to put on a brave face.
Three train lines later, I made it to the base of the mountain!
One of the things I appreciate about Japan is the abundance of bag storage- every station I’ve encountered so far has lockers for extra luggage, so I stashed my big backpack and started my hike!
It starts with a stroll through town:
and while you can hike all the way up, there’s also both a cable car and a chair lift!
And that sounded like way more fun, so I opted to take the cable car up (and will take the chair lift down):
The ride up was fine, but learn from my mistake: try to station yourself in either the front or the back (it’s ok to stand). I sat on one of the sides by the window and couldn’t really see anything.
I’m on top of the world!
Well, kinda, the cable car (or chair lift, they both end around the same level) get you about halfway up the mountain, but even the 271m/990′ of elevation gain were enough to feel the drop in temperature- today with be a much more pleasant hiking experience.
(click to embiggen)
I decided to take Route 1, as it’s the main thoroughfare and hits the highlights (plus, it’s nicely paved):
This is the octopus tree:
It is the 2nd tallest cedar on Mount Takao and as the story goes, was in the way of the access path to Yakuo-in (the temple on the mountain). They were going to cut it down, but when the tree learned this, it pulled its roots from the path. It is now a symbol of good luck, of the opening of new paths. People used to rub the base of the tree and its roots, until 2007, when a fence was erected to protect the tree and that octopus statue was placed instead.
Almost every buddha statue I saw had a little knit hat:
Joshin-mon Gate:
Red lanterns + blue hydrangeas:
I’m not sure who this small child is, but there were several along the mountain path:
Otoko-zaka and Onna-zaka, the 108 stairs of tribulation:
I opted for the more leisurely right-hand path 🙂
Danger tree!
I took a short side quest up this path to a stupa:
Back along the main path:
Yakuo-in temple:
I picked up another goshuin stamp:
This time, after I asked for my stamp and couldn’t understand the response I got in Japanese, I was able to remember the phrase for “I don’t understand”- wakarimasen– and the woman asked me, “English?”. I said yes, that I was learning Japanese, but only knew a little bit. She was very encouraging and told me I said my phrases well, so that felt really good. I have very limited Japanese, but I’m glad my attempts seem to be well-received.
A nice shady path on final approach to the summit:
I’m on top of the world!
That furthest-away mountain on the right is Fuji:
Maybe if you get here earlier enough, before the haze moves in, you’d have a better view (it’s also starting to rain, so that’s not helping), so I decided to grab a snack before continuing my hike. I though this was going to be dango, a super-chewy dumpling that’s skewered then toasted around a fire, but no, this ended up being some gelatinous, vaguely beef-flavored, monstrosity:
One of the worst things I’ve ever eaten. But it was cold and I was hungry, so I choked it down, then washed it away with this moscato gelato, which was AMAZING!
A refreshing, grapey, frozen treat. I almost went back for seconds.
Instead, I made a loop through the visitor center to plan my route and found this map, which was WAY more helpful than the ones I found online and the printed one they gave me. Route 6 is one way only, and it starts at the bottom of the mountain, so that’s out, but the suspension bridge on Route 4 sounds cool so I think I’ll take that back down (and maybe take 3 back up? or do Route 2’s loop?, we’ll see):
Now this is my kind of hike!
Dirt and inclines!
Danger path!
Suspension bridge!
I had to wait for some couple to finish their unnecessarily long photoshoot before I could get my people-free picture 🙂
Holy reinforcements! Earthquakes and landslides have nothing on this building!
My path eventually hooked back up with Route 1 and food, where I found real dango:
Warm, chewy, slightly charcoaly with a sweet/soy glaze… not bad!
Continuing my hike, I headed down these stairs intending to take Route 2 to Route 3 and back up the mountain:
but then I spotted a sign for a waterfall! I love waterfalls! So I went on another side quest! What I didn’t expect was just how steep this path was going to be:
I pulled up my hiker app and was greeted by this unpleasantness:
I started on the white path, I’m headed toward that icon on the river and my trail (while not pictured) basically zigzags it’s way straight down the mountain. Shoot. If I had taken a closer look at the map at the Visitor’s Center, I would have noticed that this trail was called “Bad Trail”… I probably should have just turned around, but I’m almost halfway, I may as well keep going, right?
It was about at this point in my hike when I heard in loud English, “I love your hiking outfit!”.
Remember that first picture of me in the white skirt? Yeah, that’s what I’m hiking in. And I just happened to run into an English-speaking fellow from Hawaii who found it quite amusing. So we stopped and chatted for a while- it was nice having someone to talk to again, though we gave each other the unfortunately news that there was still a long ways to go (he was going uphill).
Finally, I made it to my waterfall, only to find that it was behind the gates of this temple and there was some sort of service going on, so I felt awkward taking pictures.
It would have made more sense at this point to just keep following the path back down to the base of the mountain, but I had my heart set on riding the chairlift down, so I trekked all the way back up.
I took frequent water breaks, and stepped aside for several groups coming down the mountain- there were a few packs of elderly folk with their trekking poles who were highly amused by my hiking in a skirt. I couldn’t understand a word they said, though one word sounded a lot like “skirt”, and they broke into such big smiles when they spotted me… I’m glad I could amuse them 🙂
I made it back to the main path and decided to call it a day- I still have 2.5 hours of travel between me and my next hotel, and there’s one more stop I’d like to make.
Mountain cover:
Chairlift back down the mountain:
Look, ma! no belt!
Views from the chairlift were far superior to that of the cable car:
I’d definitely recommend taking the lift over the car (but hold on to your stuff- if you drop it, it’s gone!)
Colored cover:
This is Keio Takaosan Onsen Gokurakuyu:
a traditional Japanese onsen (and restaurant, though I won’t be experiencing that part) including outdoor baths! This is something I’ve been wanting to experience since my first visit and since I got to work out some of the kinks yesterday at my hotel, I’m excited to try this out!
No cameras, again, obviously, so I snagged this photo from their website:
I started in that bath in the back right, which was pleasantly warm, I tried the bath in the back left next, which was uncomfortably hot, so I went back to my first bath. I tried the bath in the foreground next- this one was carbonated and fun!
I then moved inside, where there were 3 more baths- a normal one, a cypress one and a cold one (like ICE COLD!)- that one would have felt good after the sauna, which was far to hot for me.
I’m not sure how long you’re supposed to stay at an onsen- I tried to spend at least a few minutes in each bath, but honestly, baths just aren’t my thing and I was getting hungry, so I got dressed and found this pastry:
It was just like banana bread but fluffier and more intensely bananaed. YUM! Then, I started the 2.5 hour trip over to Kawagoe:
I grabbed another snack:
The juice was vaguely peach? but cold, and that’s always appreciated on these hot days. The pastry on the other hand…
I’m not really sure what to think- my phone translated it to “moon cake”, which didn’t help- the filling was more nutty than beany, which I appreciated… it was fine, and filling, and that’s what I needed.
I tried using the bus system here in Kawagoe, but there were like 3 versions of the bus Google told me to take? I was confused and tired, so I just walked, which was probably the better option anyway- I stumbled across this temple, Kumano Shrine:
Which unfortunately, was done offering stamps for the day 🙁
I found a few more covers:
then made it to my home for the night. Rooms in Kawagoe were hard to come by- my options were a hotel near the train station, which is a solid half hour walk from the shrine I came here to visit, or this guesthouse:
It had this cute garden out back:
Down this hall is the bunk room:
I was the 3rd guest to arrive, so I snagged that last bottom bunk on the left:
I did eventually get a upper bunkmate, so hopefully I don’t hear him too much tonight!
Since it’s still early, I decided to go out exploring. First on my list was locating this old belltower- Toki no Kane:
I also found this olde Starbucks:
One of the things I wanted to try here was unagi, or grilled eel, but I didn’t really want to figure out a sit-down restaurant (plus, I heard the wait is usually pretty long), but I had seen pictures of eel on a stick, so I followed my nose until I found some!
This was amazing! It was hot and flaky and mildly fishy- SO GOOD! I even made a friend:
While I waited for my eel to be grilled, I chatted with one of the workers here who was learning English. She asked if we could take a picture with her phone, so I asked to take one with mine too 🙂
Afterwards, I found a grocery store with the best name ever!
I picked up some bedtime snacks:
This cake was fluffly, lemony- yum! and I’m beginning to think squash is more of a description than a flavor- like juice concentrate or syrup or something:
(this grape drink was just ok- not quite as cough syrupy as US grape soda, but not my favorite)
I’ve pretty much been living on convenience store snacks since I got here- these tiny oranges seemed like the perfect fresh snack:
It’s amazing how quickly the streets clear after shops close here:
The temple I found earlier looks cool all lit up:
I was about 5 minutes from my hotel when the skies opened up and it POURED! and since I had dropped my bag in my room and brought just the bare minimum (no umbrella) I was absolutely drenched by the time I got back 🙁 They gave me an extra towel and had racks to hang my wet clothes; there’s a fan and AC in the room, so I’m hopeful everything will be dry by morning.
Something I didn’t realize when I booked here (but that they warned me about when I checked in) was that this is also a cafe which is open until 10pm, so there will be noise at least until then. Bummer. I’ve been in bed by 9pm most nights.
I hung out in the kitchen with the other guests for a while- most of them are local, from Tokyo or nearby enough, but honestly, I’m kind of done interacting with people. I’m tired and really just want to go to bed. So I holed up in my little bed box, repacked my bag (I picked up some chocolates and a bag of coffee for my parents), and, when things finally quieted down around 11pm, crashed:
Good night!