This last weekend was eventful, having been getting stuff for Fuji the previous weekend, Tuesday was all about Mt. Takao. Mount Takao is a small mountain (599m above sea-level) and was supposedly really easy to scale. With this in mind we headed to the mountain to try out our new gear and get some pre-Fuji practice in.

The ascent was made very easy by the fact that they’ve built a road pretty much all the way to the top, and that you can take a cable car to reach the top if you so desire. We were hardcore though and wanted to walk to the top. The route we chose was 3.8km of steep inclines, taking in some very windy and steep sections but mostly it was quite straight forward, it was a little disconcerting having the concrete road to walk along so we changed direction and route to a more natural trail which made it feel like proper hiking.

The journey to the top took about 2 and a half hours of walking, which was bad considering it’s supposed to take ninety minutes in total. At the top, the views were stunted by the dense clouds surrounding the mountain and no there was nothing of great worth seeing (or taking pictures of).

The descent took a more interesting route, down route number six. I would recommend anyone walking up/down Mt Takao to go by route six. It follows a stream and a one point you walk down the stream for a few hundred metres as part of the route, it’s exciting, interesting and everything you want from a walk in the country.

The descent was about eighty minutes which made up for the poor climb, but on the way down I was getting dizzy and even though I was drinking plenty, I couldn’t shake it off. I had something to eat once I returned to civilization but it didn’t seem to work. When I was home, I crashed out but not before feeling a little nauseous and very dizzy.

The next was Toshimaen, and after a 14 hour sleep, I felt right as rain again. Toshimaen is a big water/theme park and is amazing. It’s a little pricey (￥3800 for the water park) but definitely worth it. There are about 15 slides, 6 or 7 pools and loads to see and do. We spent the day lounging around the pool, going on the slides and generally larking around in the sun and extreme temperatures we’re experiencing now.

So that was the weekend that was, another 6 more to go and I’m done!

mata ne!    またね！