Mt. Takao - The Climb

Yesterday, I decided to venture outside the main area of the Tokyo Metropolis to the city of Hachioji. Well, actually, I went to Mt. Takao, which is in the city limits for Hachioji. My day began when I finally managed to get out of my apartment at around ten in the morning. I rushed to the Marunochi Station close to my apartment and boarded the subway till I reached Shinjuku (approximately 40 minutes later -- I opted for the longer route considering it was cheaper and I wasn't in any rush...at least I didn't think so). After arriving at the Shinjuku Station, the busiest train station in Tokyo, I navigated my way away from the subway lines and the JR lines, and towards the Keio Line. I've never taken anything but the metro and the JR lines, so I was praying I had remembered correctly from the internet that this was the line I was supposed to take. After about fifteen minutes of deciphering kanji to figure out how much my fare was, I bought my ticket (also hoping I had read the sign right), and navigated my way through the sea of people to platform three, which, if I had read the sign correctly, was heading for Mt. Takao. Finally, the train came and as I was one of the first to board, I luckily got a seat, as the destination was about an hour away, the last stop on the Keio-Shinjuku Line. Relieved that I was on the right train as I heard the voiceover sound throughout the train compartment, I settled back into my seat and opened my book.

After about an hour, right around 11:50, the train rolled into Takaosanguchi. Good, I arrived just around noon. I still had plenty of time ahead of me to enjoy the day. Of course, as per usual to my traveling techniques, I didn't really know where I was going, but I figured I could check the tourist map probably located right outside the station and see where the Mountain was. Stepping out onto the platform though, I was totally in awe of the scenery of Takaosanguchi. It's surrounded by green hills on all sides. I'm always stunned by the tropical-ness of the Japanese countryside. I know that the island is obviously located in the tropical region (hence the humid climate and rainy season), but nevertheless, I always manage to be awed by the beauty of the wilderness. But I knew that I would have plenty of time to marvel at nature on my hike of the mountain, so I left the station and searched for a map of the area, which was easy to be found. Now, the mountain has a variety of hiking trails to the summit, as well as a cable car that will take you partway up the mountain and then you climb the rest of the way. There is also a hike from the summit of Mt. Takao to another "nearby" mountain, Mt. Jimba (if you call an extra 2.5 hour hike from the summit of Mt. Takao nearby). Anyway, considering my fondness for walking and exploring, I wanted to choose the route that was the longest up to the summit. This involved not taking the cable car, which I was okay with because I wanted to be intense and awesome like that. Pause. I nearly died on that initial climb up. I wasn't aware of how steep the first leg was; now I fully understand why there is a cable car. The hike is AWFUL. I literally wanted to die ten minutes into it, and the leg takes about 40 minutes to do (maybe an hour maximum). Multiple times I felt like my legs were just going to give out on me. But somehow, I ended up making it to the cable car stop and buying overpriced water from one of the vending machines there. From there I continued up the trail, coming into contact with more hikers than I had seen before (considering most of them had made the smart decision in taking the cable car instead of hiking the first leg of the journey).

The interesting thing that I noticed while hiking was that, here, whenever you passed someone, you would say "konnichiwa" or some greeting of the sort. I've only encountered this type of behavior while on other such hikes and sightseeing travels (both inside and outside of Japan). I guess it feels like there is a communal effort being made to climb mountains and see other facets of nature etc. Even as I was hiking, an older man leading a group of other elderly people, clapped me on the shoulder and said "ganbatte!" (translates to: do your best! in vernacular English it's like "good luck"). It was encouraging to say the least. And I still think I surprised a few people with my Japanese as I got into the flow of greeting them first. One lady stopped to talk to me actually and asked me where I was from and the whole bit. This part of the climb, the interaction with fellow hikers, made my spirits a little lighter throughout the entire day. I still think on it now; the atmosphere it cultivates is definitely a happier one. Moving away from the digression of the social niceties on Mt. Takao, I continued my hike, which took me to the Yakuoin Temple.

Yakouin Temple is a Shingon Temple based on the mountain. The temple complex is very large, spanning three tiers of the mountain. Within the complex are fabulous statues of myoo, a few Shinto shrines (one of them is dedicated to Inari), and your usual stalls that sell Temple goodies (like ema, and fuyu). When I came down the mountain, the priests were actually doing the esoteric fire ritual in the main hall, chanting mantras simultaneously. It was pretty to cool to watch and listen to them, as it brought the temple alive (going on a Thursday really helped me to avoid crowds, though this appears to be mostly a Japanese tourist destination versus a foreign tourist one; I saw only two other gaijin there the entire time). However, I was a little bit confused by some of the statues I saw. Now, the interaction and intertwining of Buddhism and Shinto has been around since Buddhism's origins in Japan. That didn't seem out of place to me. What seemed strange was that some of the statues were representative of Shugendo, an ascetic mountain religion that combines Shinto, Taoist and Buddhist practices together.

However, I haven't really been able to find anything (now that I'm curious) on the internet that suggests this is a Shugendo site. I'm probably going to shoot my religion sensei an email in a bit asking her about it (yes, I'm that curious). Aside from the mixture of the religions, what makes this temple stand out the most is its statues. But, after browsing through the buildings, I continued on my way to the summit, taking the "off the beaten" path versus the more traditional path. This way, I met almost no one on my climb to the summit, thus allowing me to just contemplate the natural surroundings a bit (between my heaving and huffing). Mt. Takao is very beautiful; the canopy kept most of the direct sunlight, and thus heat, away (for which I was grateful; I didn't want to get sunburned a second time). However, it was still a pleasant hike and everything seems so lush and wonderful. I ended up even seeing a snake slither across the pathway I was walking on. A nearby female hiker screeched a little bit. You never know what you're going to see, I've learned.

Oddly this has been one of the few times that I have felt like I haven't been pressured, or pressured myself, for time. Even when I'm on my own sometimes I tend to keep myself on some sort of schedule, making sure I see everything on my list for the day. Granted, I did have a list for the day after the mountain, but I never made it to that afterward. By the time I'd come down form the mountain and finished the hike, I was wiped out and ready to sit on a train for an hour, transfer, and sit on a train for another hour before making it home. Besides, I feel like climbing a mountain is a good enough adventure for the day. Though I just wonder at the mentality of constantly having to be somewhere, or dong something productive. But I've come to a realization: whenever I feel like I should be seeing or doing something specific (like visiting an extra site or something), I ask myself, "Would you regret not seeing it?" And in this case, I was just happy that I got to climb the Mountain.

Anyway, I finally reached the summit, filled with hikers chowing down on picnic lunches and children screaming and running around playing tag. The views were magnificent, and there were many to see. I would've like to just sit and admire the viewpoints, but it was getting later in the day, and I can only stand screaming children for so long before they start to grate on my nerves. So I headed back down the mountain, opting to take a different hiking trail than the one I took upward. This one took me by a waterfall...well, it was more like a trickle of water than an actual waterfall (very sad). And as I hiked down the mountain, as it was later in the afternoon, the lighting was starting to shift to a more orange-y sunlight. It was definitely more serene walking the hiking paths. It kind of gave the landscape a twilight-y feel (I am NOT referencing the vampire book. I mean twilight, the time between day and night, around sunset).

But all in all it was a beautiful way to spend my day off. Exhausted by the time I finally arrived home, I kicked off my shoes, organized my room (as I had stuff sprawled every where), made dinner, showered and did laundry. When all was said and done, I proceeded to cuddle up with milanos and milk and watch some Japanese TV, after briefly running across the street to 7 Eleven to pick up milk (in my Stanford sweat pants and multicolored hoodie -- hott mess to the max). Oh convenience stores, you really are super convenient and make my life absolutely amazing.

And Mt. Takao. You thought you conquered me at the beginning, but I still won in the end.