Mt. Takao is the closest mountain to Tokyo - about an hour away by train, it's in Hachioji, Tokyo. This past Sunday one of our buddies organized a day hike for us at Mt. Takao. It's not a massive mountain (599m/1,965ft) but it's definitely a popular hiking spot for people in Tokyo.
There was quite a large group of us but we managed to all meander up the mountain alright! It might be because I've been living in Tokyo for so long now, but I will admit to struggling with what to wear/bring on this hike. I wasn't sure what to expect, since going for a hike means athletic style clothing for me... but as you can tell in this picture most people just wore regular casual clothes.
We ended up taking the most difficult route up the mountain... made lots of stops and it took about an hour to make it up to the top.
The views were very pretty even though we were only an hour away from the heart of the city
Mt. Takao was not really what I expected.. it was more of a nice walk in the park than a treacherous hike. It seemed like every few feet there was a place for you to get a beer, ice cream, or dango (Japanese dumpling made from rice flour snack)
There is a monkey park on top of Mt. Takao
Taking a rest at the monkey park!
The day started out nice and sunny but just as we sat down to eat our lunches at the top it started storming. Not even light rain, it was a torrential downpour with lightning bolts and thunder right above us. The group split up because some people decided to take a cable car down half the mountain but a few of us who were to cheap to pay for that decided to hoof it down. We took an easy path, which was also the quickest and steepest, and ended up running down the mountain in about 20 minutes. We were soaked to the bone but and sore the next day but it was a nice break from the city!
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