Hiking trip to Takao-san

The other day I went hiking near Tokyo with my Japanese friend. About an hour away from Tokyo, the mountain is named Takao-san and it is known to be a great place to see the fall foliage in full bloom. It also offers, at least on a clear day, a great view of Tokyo and Mount Fuji.

I've done some hiking before in Japan, but I'm always surprised by the great trails Japan has and the type of people that I see hiking. Japan is a very mountainous country, so I guess it is only natural that it has some great hiking trails. Coming from Dallas, Texas, where you can go outside and see as far as the eye can see, I didn't grow up with mountains and hiking trails to go to, so it is a nice change to have mountains so close to hike in. And I always feel a bit like a city slicker when I go, which was amplified by the fact that my friend Tomo had never been hiking before. We kept calling each other "city boys in the country."

Tomo and I also saw a lot of tour groups on the mountain, despite it being a Wednesday afternoon. As you can see in my pictures from Takao-san, it was pretty crowded. I can't imagine what it would have been like this past weekend, which was a three-day weekend for Thanksgiving. Many of the tour groups were comprised of obasans and ojiisans, or older ladies and gentlemen, generally in the fifties and sixties. What was so surprising though, is how easily these large groups of older people were going up and down the mountainside. Sometimes they even passed Tomo and me! One quickly realizes how healthy Japan is when people of this age are easily hiking up and down a mountain that can wear out healthy twenty-somethings.

Enjoy the pictures from Takao-san, especially of the great skylines, natural scenery, and tree leaves!



After hiking, Tomo and I went to the Takao Trick Art Museum. It specializes in paintings that can look three-dimensional from certain vantage points and through the lense of a camera. Tomo and I spent a few hours at the museum looking at the paintings and taking pictures of the the two of us interacting with them. As you can see below, the shots of us are pretty cool, especially considering that everything is painted on walls and nothing is really three-dimensional.



To end the day, we went to a hot springs to relax our weary feet and legs. Spending a few hours soaking in various pools of hot, natural spring water was a great way to end a day of hiking up Takao-san and playing in the Trick Art Museum. I can't wait to do it again in the spring when the cherry blossoms will be in bloom!

JRG