The weather on the weekend was sensational and having been in Japan for 6 months it was time to get out of Tokyo proper and go for a walk in the mountains. Looking through the Lonely Planet guidebook “Hiking in Japan” I decided on a walk from Mt Mitake to Oku tama. The mountains on this walk are covered in cedar and cypress forests, around 1000 meters above sea level and overlook the Tama river valley.
The Tama river valley is 2 and a half hour by train from Tokyo and I actually got to get very close to some of my fellow travelers. One guy sitting beside me went to sleep as soon as he sat down and spent a lot of his time leaning against me snoring his head off for 30 minutes. While this was going on the guy on the other side of me decided that a moving train would be a great place to clean his ears with a 6 inch wooden skewer. Every time the train moved I tried hard not to bump into his elbow. I wasn’t too keen to be responsible for piercing his brain with the skewer. After catching a bus from the Mitake station the final part of the journey was by cable car.
On the way to the mountains I remembered the snow we had in Tokyo on Tuesday wondered if this may make things a little difficult given that all of the peaks I was going to traverse were over 1000 meters.
From the top of the cable car you follow a trail through the cedar forests to a mountain top village.
I visited the information centre to see if the track was still open and was told that, given the state of the track, it wouldn’t be a good time. One thing I have begun to like in Japan is the one word on each side conversations that I manage to have – I said where I was going, the guy said Crampons, I said no and he made this wonderful sound that is so Japanese – never say no just make this sound. To make the right sound put your teeth together, draw your lips back like you’re grimacing and then draw your breath back in quickly – that’s the no don’t think about it sound. When I heard this sound I took it for what it meant and decided to do another walk.
While on the mountain I visited the Mushimitake shrine. There has been a shrine on the top of this mountain since before Christ was born. It is in a great location facing almost due east, supposedly to protect Tokyo (and the cities that have sat in the same location through history). Until 1874 the shrine was both a Buddhist and Shinto shrine, now it is solely a Shinto shrine. You climb what seems to be a never ending number of steps to get to where the temple is located.
The Tama river valley is 2 and a half hour by train from Tokyo and I actually got to get very close to some of my fellow travelers. One guy sitting beside me went to sleep as soon as he sat down and spent a lot of his time leaning against me snoring his head off for 30 minutes. While this was going on the guy on the other side of me decided that a moving train would be a great place to clean his ears with a 6 inch wooden skewer. Every time the train moved I tried hard not to bump into his elbow. I wasn’t too keen to be responsible for piercing his brain with the skewer. After catching a bus from the Mitake station the final part of the journey was by cable car.
On the way to the mountains I remembered the snow we had in Tokyo on Tuesday wondered if this may make things a little difficult given that all of the peaks I was going to traverse were over 1000 meters.
From the top of the cable car you follow a trail through the cedar forests to a mountain top village.
I visited the information centre to see if the track was still open and was told that, given the state of the track, it wouldn’t be a good time. One thing I have begun to like in Japan is the one word on each side conversations that I manage to have – I said where I was going, the guy said Crampons, I said no and he made this wonderful sound that is so Japanese – never say no just make this sound. To make the right sound put your teeth together, draw your lips back like you’re grimacing and then draw your breath back in quickly – that’s the no don’t think about it sound. When I heard this sound I took it for what it meant and decided to do another walk.
While on the mountain I visited the Mushimitake shrine. There has been a shrine on the top of this mountain since before Christ was born. It is in a great location facing almost due east, supposedly to protect Tokyo (and the cities that have sat in the same location through history). Until 1874 the shrine was both a Buddhist and Shinto shrine, now it is solely a Shinto shrine. You climb what seems to be a never ending number of steps to get to where the temple is located.
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