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Published: July 31st 2010
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Sawanoi Museum of Combs and Ornamental Hairpins
After the lunch, we went to the Sawanoi Museum of Combs and Ornamental Hairpins. There were scores of beautiful and decorative hair ornaments and hairpins and combs, all of which have been worn by historical celebrities and used at famous events between 1300 and 1868, and some miniature wigs and less decorative and smaller hairpins which were worn by the ladies at the beginning of the 20th century. The museum houses a total of 4,000 hair ornaments.
They were made of wood, ivory, tortoiseshell, horse hooves, and glass and were made in a wide variety of shapes applied with gold, silver lacquering, pearls, and decorated with the symbolic Japanese nature, e.g. cherry blossoms, bonsai trees, shoal of carp, chrysanthemum, azaleas, and Fuji Mountain. After looking at Hiroshige's paintings, we believed that the people who were drawn on his works were wearing those ornate hairpins and costumes. We also looked at collections of Japanese wooden dolls, i.e. kokeshi, and old-fashioned toys and games, and rambled through the garden.
Takao Mountain
My mother had agreed to climb up Takao Mountain with us on 28 May. She checked the timetable with her mobile. We caught
the Chuo Tokkai at Shinjuku station at 9:47. The limited express service went through some of the smaller stations in the urban area. There was a little delay caused by the signal alarm between Nishi Hachioji and Takao in the morning.
We met up with my mother at Takao Sanguchi station. As she said, there were a lot of people. She led us to follow the route No.6, which consisted of the woodland and streams. There were myriads of lovely plants and she stopped several times to take photos. She was knowledgeable about plants and explained to a lot of fellow climbers about them.
One of the highlights was Sekkoku, pretty white flowers appearing on the top of the branches and trunks of the trees. She had planned seeing the orchid plants with her friends in two weeks' time and wondered if she could re-arrange the plan to come earlier.
As well as Sekkoku, there were a lot of bright coloured flowers and plants with interesting features of stems and leaves along the route No.6. Signposts were well-positioned, and it was easy for us to find the correct routes. The No.6 route led us to see the
stream, wooden bridges, and waterfalls. One of the waterfalls is used for monks' training and the partition was placed behind the waterfall so that the visitors are not able to disturb their training.
We walked through the stepping stones laid on the centre of the stream. The information board told us that the site of Takao mountain appeared on the surface a thousand years ago, and there were a series of multi-coloured layers seen on the surface of the rocks. The No.6 route is home to an abundance of wildlife, e.g. owls, rabbits, foxes, and racoons, herons, etc illustrated on the information board. My mother told me that there was a big storm and heavy rainfall in mid March and it destroyed a couple of big trees on the route No.6 and the suspension bridge on the No.4 route. Subsequently, the No.4 route had been closed.
After crossing over the stepping stones, we were warned that we would be walking on a steep slope and steps towards the summit. There were a number of continuous steps on the steep route, and we found it quite hard. As we reached the levelled surface, my mother said, "Well done, folks,
now, let's have lunch." She had brought rolls, salad, ham, boiled eggs, cheese, and oranges. We ate all of them.
Next, we walked to the summit and viewpoint. Sadly, there were thick clouds in the direction of Fuji mountain.
Visitor Centre
We popped in the visitor centre. There were displays of the healthy tree living with worms and moist ground and the unhealthy tree living with cans and plastic bags. We found the model of Takao Mountain, and I pointed out the route where we had walked from the station for Mark. There were pictures of different species of animals and plants living in Takao mountain and we could recognise some flowers which we saw while we were following the No.6 route. We read the history and looked at the photos of the old days of Takao mountain, and I explained to Mark that Takao mountain was used for the place for worship until Edo period and became the tourist destination in the Meiji period.
My mother led us to follow the No.1 route on the downward course. Much of the route had been paved and it had made it easier for people to walk with baby
cars and families with children. We saw the message board from the builders that additional water tanks or sewage tanks would be established in the near future. My mother said that it is necessary to get extra water tanks to be built to cope with a growing number of visitors in Takao mountain, which has become one of the top excursion routes in Kanto region. The No 1 route faces the north direction. We saw various types of pine trees which are grown in the cold climate zone. There were some old and celebrity trees where the trunks were covered with bamboo mat and special types of clothes, which could represent that they were sacred trees.
We found the Yakuoin temple which was constructed with bright red timbers with ornate decorations.
Mark was impressed with very ornate decorations of monkeys and motifs on the facade. Yakuoin Temple has been serving as the place for worship for a long time.
We round the observatory on top of the beer garden. The fine weather offered us splendid panoramic views of the surrounding mountains, lakes, Hachioji city and urban cities beyond. My mother sketched views from the observatory. She was keen to see Sekkoku and asked the staff who were operating the cable cars if she could enter the platform to see the orchid at the closer distance. The staff let us enter the platform as well and saw some rare and beautiful flowers, e.g. white wisteria.
Finally, we rode on the chair lift to go down to Takao Sanguchi. For the safety reasons, we were asked to put the bag in front while riding on the chair lift, and we had the memory photo taken with that posture.
My mother kindly treated us to the sweet potato flavoured ice cream. She showed us we where we had walked and we found that we had covered most of the Takao mountain.
We said "goodbye" to my mother at Takao on Keio line and we got on the JR train back to Shinjuku.
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