Exploring the Mitakesan

Another food I hadn't yet tried but had heard of was ”donburi”(rice with main dish top). Last night looking for supper found Donburi shop nearby and settled for ”roosukatsura donburi”. Roosu being abbreviated loanword from roasted and katsu being ”something”. Some sort of meat anyway. Also got myself bottle of some sort of apple flavoured 4% alcoholic drink. Cider maybe? At least friend guessed so.

Anyway come the morning I rose up early(before 6AM) as I wanted to be up and early. Mitakesan looked like there would be lots to see(as a matter of fact I doubt you CAN explore it fully in a day! Even if you were to run through it) and it would be tad over 2 hour trip one way. So departing early I grabbed nikuman + onigiris for breakfast as well as bottle of tea. One small bottle. Too little!


Getting there required several steps. First from Shoinjinjamae(my home station) to Yamashita. There by foot to Gotokuji. First time I tried to find that I wasn't able to find it. Later I realized it had been on the other side...All I would have needed to do was turn left and not right from station. Oh bummer :D


From Gotokuji into Noborito and into the next best thing after Shinjuku morning rush if you want to feel crowded. Only thing that was missing was station staff pushing more guys in. But the train was packed up anyway. Time to mind where your hands are. Well for me problem was I had nowhere to PUT hands as by bad luck I was forced to stand in pretty much dead center with nothing to grab on to so staying UP required quite an effort from legs and trusting that the crowd pressure keeps me up when legs fail. Which worked okay...ish. Then when we arrived to station where like 70% or so guys departured I tried(before realizing that almost everybody is leaving) slip around and let guys pass but it was no good. I was simply swept along by the tsunami called Rush Hour Japanese.


Well that was fun!


Luckily eventually I got into Tachikawa(I even got bit of sleep in there. Fairly safe since Tachikawa was final station so no danger of overshooting) from which another change to Ome where last switch and to Mitakesan.


From Mitakesan it was time to grab bus to lower end of cable car. There was quite a few natives going same way(everybody with back bag). Including what looked like either kindergarden or elementary school students which filled another bus. Probably pre-arranged bus as I doubt there normally goes 2 bus at the same time there. From the lower cable car point I could have gone for cable car but...Naah that ain't fun. Spotting "参道" (pathway to temple) I had suspicion this would take me where cable car would take me and after verifying that I set on my way. This would be(according to map I was given) about hour climb on foot.

 Cable car start was on top right corner. Shrine approach road in it was the path I first took.

 And here we go...

 

Pathway was quite steep. Something I noticed quickly was that there was number on every tree. Starting from some 700 and spare(I took photo but number not readable). First I thought nothing of it but then I realized that if that's countdown until the end of climb then I would have quite a few trees to climb. And as it turns out that was how it was. Phew. 

As I have grown to expect thorough climb I ran into statue like this. Well not surprising seeing I was approaching a temple.

Finally the climb was over and I entered area where were souvenir areas and other shopping areas and from where various routes would begin.

 Looking at the signs and map I opted for the bottom route. Would(if I had deciphered map correctly) take me to Nanayo falls, rock garden and Ayahiro falls. I like water falls and was curious to see what Rock garden is like so sounded like a good plan to me.

But before getting there I ran into something I had missed from the map(it IS written there!). Mitake Shrine. Good good. I ran into locals again(the climb on foot was not that popular choice it seems. I overtook two elder Japanese men but didn't see anybody else going by foot there. Lots of cars going up and down. Likely people working here) as shrine was unsurprisingly popular place. General comment seemed to be "atsui!" which means hot. And I agree! Morning had been cold but that's just until sun comes properly up at which point it gets all hot again and I again took out outer jacket. Why I even bother taking it with me?

 On the lower level before shrine was this nice looking statue.

Getting photo of yourself is easy here as people are happy to take one. But why on earth I took such an odd pose???

 Landscapes started to get nice as I got higher and higher.

It was also around this time as I think I HEARD the kid armada I had seen at the bus station. At least there was the kind of noise only large amount of excited kids can do :D Kids are same Japan or Finland ;)

With shrine checked it was time to head toward the Nanayo falls. Having climbed all the way I...Started climbing down. With map showing circular route I knew I would be climbing this way up again sooner or later.

 Might not show in pictures well but now with asphalt covered road being over it was again much like my experience going down from Mount Takao. Narrow, tree root and stone covered NARROW pathways. Not a place you want to trip down so keep your mind on the pathway. It's not unreasonably hard path to take but you don't want to trip down to tree root you didn't see.

I suppose being up it was to be expected fall colours would be more visible here than in Tokyo. Success!

I ran into viewing area on route. Not long detour and gave good view around not obscured by trees.

 Another attempt to show how steep there was beside the road.

 Finally reached pathway to Nanayo falls which required me to take steep detour down(photo taken after first ladders). Not easiest one to step into and there was in particular one step shown below that had the ground washed away.

That was bit of a maze to find place to put your feet to...

 Finally reached it. Felt like it would have been nice to sit there to cool yourself but I doubt it would be particularly smart idea :D

Hey looky look. Balance practice! To get good view of the waterfall had to walk over that.

 Target reached!

And again polite question(practicing sentence form studied lately at the school. "Shashin o torasete moraemasen ka?" resulted in photo of me. Last moment inspiration gave me idea to give the v-sign Japanese seems to love so much. When in rome do it like a romans eh ;D


Now next part was the Rock garden but I have to admit I'm at bit of loss as to what that actually WAS. I saw lots of rocks on my way sure, but nothing that really struct to me as "garden like".

It was not exactly dangerous walk but not exactly that easy either due to all those rocks you were standing on. Good shoes heartily recommended.

Now I can't be 100% sure they were same but I think I ran into the kid armada here again. That or there was ANOTHER group of kids moving on as there was lots of them resting at one of the rest places between rock garden and Ayahiro falls on the map. Saw quite a few stare at me as I went by :D

Moving onward I then proceeded to see the Ayahiro falls.

Lucky me was always arriving to points of interest around same time as locals. Getting photos wasn't much of a problem :) I could even HEAR when I'm about to overtake Japanese. They seem to often put small bell to their bags so when they walk it's "ring ring ring" all the way. So when there's group of them there's LOTS of bells ringing. Not sure what's the purpose but it's pretty constant. Teenagers not so much but from 30's onward it's pretty normal part of their equipment going to nature like this.

With this the course turned back toward where I had started the trip.

 I sure love these landscapes.

Haha. Beware of falling twigs? A for idea but whoever wrote did mistake I often do with Japanese and opt for word that while native can understand what I really meant is not correct ;) Falling branches are to be afraid of. Twigs don't worry even an infant :D

Still this place is fairly friendly place to visit even if you don't know much of Japanese so no Japanese required to go there.

Finally reaching crossroad(Cedar tree Tengu on the map) I looked at the clock and having plenty of time left before it would get dark opted to head toward Mount Okunoin as well. Now THIS was hard course and saw nobody besides myself through this. If descend toward Rock Garden was tricky this was a nightmare. VERY narrow(at times barely width of my feetx2), at times having to push with my arms to climb up, roots being more numerous and fallen leaves covering ground making safe foot places tricky to find. Occasionally I would find there were loose stones below. It's still not impossible to navigate(as evidenced by me doing it) but do not let your mind slip! And I would avoid going there with kids.

It's doable but you need to keep your mind on it and do it slowly when needed. If you aren't sure of your standings don't take another step least your supporting leg suddenly start slipping. Had couple times where I realized my foot was not secure after all.

That's the EASY part of the climb!

 Here they actually provided hand rail which just shows this is NOT easy climb! They had no such things on Mount Takao and there had already been couple places I could have hoped for one.

 Pathway was not much wider than my feet...

Looking down gave me chillies. I must have been out of mind deciding to come here! :D

 But finally was up! DID IT! 1077 meters according to the map. Hollaballa! At least I think I reached the tallest spot of Mount Okunoin following the signposts.

This was located at the top.

Had to improvise with timer to get this one off. As I said I saw no-one else going here and back so put camera into as good spot as I could and 10s timer and took a pose.

With this time to go back and at around this point I was cursing having taken only one(small) bottle of liquid as I had by now exhausted it(drinking last of the now lukewarm cold tea at the top) and was running seriously thirsty. After getting down from the mount Okunoin(getting down being at times even trickier than going up) I had mouth completely dry. Back past the Mitake Shrine to the shopping maze and I got myself can of orange juice. I also walked around and ended up buying souvenir for my niece. The old lady handling the store even gave bag of popcorns as freebie. Wonder why was that? Was my stomach growling like pack of lions? Well could actually be since by now I had not eaten for about good 8-9 hours or so and had just spent loooots of hours climbing mountain up or down.

That or she was so surprised to see foreign tourist there :D

Btw have to say there's some odd drinks or at least drink names. Pocari sweat does not make me feel like buying that drink!

Reaching to bus station before leaving I went to 7-eleven to get myself back of 3 main ingredients(meat, eggs and fish) over rice plus some vegetables, some sort of cream pudding bread/bun, another nikuman(I said I like those :D) and some sort of drink for eating. Well bread/bun I saved for later night as I ended up filled anyway.

This was actually pretty good quick meal.

Having eaten and feeling more like human(shower and I would have been in perfect condition) I noticed on map art gallery and heading there(yet another 15 minute descent on stairways and back) I treated myself on art of Gyokydo Kawai. Was particularly impressed by huge painting of some big bird of prey. Also good drawings of mountain landscapes I so love about in Japan. Photographing prohibited which isn't unusual for art galleries/museums here so can't show them but if you go to Mitakesan and have 500 yen(less than 4 euro) to spare worth it since it's so close to the bus station.

Also gallery had nice Zen park which I like to watch.

 Kawai, Sawai. Easy to mix names here. And so close to each other too...

And one more landscape shot just because :D

With this I got home(falling asleep again at the train though again while going to final stop. Woke up to the "shuuten desu" or last stop.

Tomorrow plan is to go to Ueno and explore bunch of museums and galleries. Not sure how much photographing I can take as a result though. Maybe I'll get some shots at the Zoo or park though.