Another public holiday - this time to mark the Equinox. Along with half of Tokyo, it seemed, we jumped on a train for Mount Takao, about an hour west from Shinjuku. It is such a popular destination that they lay on a train every 10 minutes, and maybe that's why they can offer so cheap a fare: Y370 each way (less than £2).
I was a bit nervous about the trip as it would mean Emily missing her first nap at home, and eating on the hop. However, she eventually dropped off on my lap, and encouragingly I didn't have to put her on the breast to get her to sleep, for the first time in months. On arrival we found a nice little town nestling among densely-wooded hills. We walked up the short path from the station beside a brook, stopping to look at the large but quite colourful spiders that seemed to be hanging everywhere.
Though it was still quite warm and humid we decided to walk all the way to the top of the 600 metre peak, rather than take a cable car halfway. There are lots of different trails to the top but we set off on No.1, which is recommended for families, and is 3.8km. Straight away we began climbing steeply on a wide concrete path. The ascent continued for about 2km, in places it was a 1 in 3 gradient and I was glad of the concrete or the footing may have been difficult. We were soon drenched in sweat and only too happy to stop at the first lookout point for a breather and dry off. We could see back towards the city, with the towers of Shinjuku just visible.
Moving on, we had to step up the pace as it was getting late for Emily's lunch, and we were ravenous too. Finally we gained a refreshment area and stopped at the first place we saw for some mountain fare. Noodles featured prominently, as did rice balls on a stick (dango) with sticky sweet/sour sauce. We had a platter of three types of mountain 'vegetable' too - surprisingly good. As we were sitting on a raised tatami platform, Emily could crawl around, which stopped her from getting too bored once she'd eaten, though requiring a pair of eagle eyes at all times.
We continued, the holiday crowds getting ever thicker, until we came to a rather nice temple, which had many images of tengu, the long-nosed goblin creature of the mountains.
Behind the temple the path carried on up some steep stairs and onto a woodland path to the peak. We found it thronging with people milling about and picnicking on the open sandy ground. There was a partial view, and Nick pointed out the very indistinct top of Fuji just peeking out from some clouds.
Mission accomplished, we thought we'd better get on with the descent to make sure we got back to Tokyo in good time for Emily's routine. We took the cable car, which turned out to be more of a funicular railway, from mid-way to the bottom. Feeling quite hungry still, we chanced upon an excellent place to top up our depleted reserves right next to the station, though you'd never guess how good it is from the outside. The chocolate cake was superb, and the help-yourself supply of good coffee only Y400.
Emily was quite crotchety by now, but obligingly went off on the breast most of the way back to Shinjuku. A satisfying day out in only 9 hours total; we'll certainly go there again, though perhaps not on a holiday day next time. It will be good to see Fuji from there in the winter.
No comments:
Post a Comment