(note: I may split this post up, and with more detail later…)

Today we started our day trips out of the city.  Rather than get breakfast at the hotel, we opted for a little (again, pseudo-Italian) bistro/cafe place up the street from the hotel.  We shared a mediocre-at-best panini or whatever you call it.  Meh. Not so great.

The mission was to get to the Keio ticket desk and buy a pair of passes that would get us all the way to Mt. Takao, up the chair lift and down the cable car, and back to home base again.  Once we found the Keio Plaza again, we descended into another section of Shinjuku station.  We’d been relatively sheltered until now, only visiting the JR section which was close to the hotel.  We couldn’t find any sort of ticket counter so we asked the guy manning the gate counter.  He pointed us at a tiny window hidden between the ticket machines.  We got our passes and headed to the platform.

The Keio line to Takaosanguchi is really nothing special at all, just your average subway train that goes the hour or so out of the city.  The scenery didn’t really start to change that much until about 2/3 of the way out.  Then the myriad of “mansions” and platforms start to give way to more average homes, fields, green steep hillsides, and the like.  By the time we reached the end of the line, Takaosanguchi, we were into more-or-less rural Japan.

Mt. Takao is only about 600m high, so calling it a mountain is probably a bit of a stretch, but it is the highest point for quite some distance.  Its home to the Meiji Memorial Forest Takao Quasi-National Park, which is a mouthful for a nature preserve, some old temples and shrines, and a bona fide monkey park, with real live monkeys.

You exit the station and make your way to either the chair lift station or the cable car station, or you hike up the mountain to the first stop.  We chose the chair lift, much to the Mrs. disdain.  Fair warning: The chair lift is basically your average ski-lift system.  There are no bars on the chair to keep you in place, only a net to catch you, and then only when you’re over the really high spots.  My advice: Don’t fall out!!

We arrived early enough that things were uncrowded, we only saw a handful of people using the lift.  And the scenery was incredible.  At the top of the lift the hiking starts.  The trails are wide, smooth, clear of junk and obstructions, and not that steep at all, which is a good thing.

Eventually you’ll arrive at the monkey park.  Admission to the park costs ¥400, but its worth it to catch a break from hiking, and just to watch the monkeys play for a while.  The views from the upper deck of the monkey house (what else would you call it) are breathtaking, but you aint’ seen nothing yet.  We watched the little buggers for a while, caught some footage for the kids, then went on our merry way, pausing in the garden below for a spell.

Then the real hike begins.  Up a non-desript trail, past the tree with the octopus shaped roots, and lots of hydrangea eventually you’ll come to a gate, which leads to a long, wide, lantern-lined, trail which alternates back and forth between stairs.

Then you’ll arrive at a rest stop of sorts, where you can visit a cemetary (we didn’t, there were more stairs!) or continue on, past a wall full of boards with people’s names on them.  We weren’t sure if they were memorials or names of benefactors or what exactly.

At the end of this you’ll find the first set of buildings of the Yakuoin Temple.  Here you’ll find numerous statues to the diety Tengu, recognizable by his large nose.  The temple complex is enormous, and the main temple buildings date back to around 744.  No I did not leave a 1 off the front of that.  You’re standing in history here my friends.  Take it in.  Take lots of pictures.  If you hang around long enough, you might get to witness the monks making a procession out of the temple, and hear the bells now and then.  That was one of the best experiences of the trip right there.

This is still a working temple by the way, don’t forget that.  At the main temple (like all temples and shrines) photography inside the sanctuary is not allowed.

If you continue past the main building, up more stairs (stairs, stairs, stairs!) there are more shrines and buildings, including one very intricately decorated and painted.

The trail continues past this point on up to the summit.  I, um, inadvertently went all the way up in search of the Mrs., who had been a few steps ahead of me, but had managed to get behind me in the midst of the temple buildings.  My advice, don’t go up there unless you really want to.  There isn’t much up there but a couple of restaurants and a visitor center.  The view isn’t much better than you’ll find around the temple complex, either.

We stopped at one of the shops in the temple area and had an ice cream before heading back down.  The trip down goes much quicker, since you’re not stopping to take photos, watch the monkeys, etc.  Just watch out for the groups of school children on their field trip.  We saw at least three different groups go through.

We chose to ride the cable car back down.  While not nearly as scenic as the chair lift, you’re enclosed and don’t have to worry about falling out!

At the bottom, the Mrs. grabbed some Hello Kitty caramel popcorn from the uber-cute vending machine, and I snagged my 2nd Mountain Dew of the trip.  Withdrawal hadn’t set in yet, but these occasional hits were fending it off I think.

Once we got back, we cleaned up and headed out in search of one thing.  Sushi.

We found Himawari, a cozy little Kaitenzushi place in the Electric Town district of West Shinjuku.  If you’re unfamiliar with the type of place, the chefs make sushi, put it on a plate and send it around a conveyor belt.  If you like it, you grab it, and they count your plates when you’re done.  Or, as here, you can just yell out what you want and he’ll whip it up and hand it to you.  We had our fill of beer and sushi and got out of there for like ¥4000.  Not bad at all.

Then it was time to crash and prepare for tomorrow, and the Hakone Loop….

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