小仏城山山頂 [Mt. Takao & Mt. Jimba Trail]

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I woke up early today on my "Sunday" so that I could go hiking - something I had been wanting to do for awhile. Sometimes, you just need to get out of the city! I WANT to climb Mt. Fuji this August, but I'm really not sure that a) my gimp knee can handle it, and b) I'm in good enough shape. So today was sort of a beginning test to see what my body could handle.

I went to Mt. Takao back in November, to see the autumn colors, but hadn't hiked it since. This time, I went alone (!!!) which was awesome, because I like doing things alone and knowing that I can have independent adventures. Mt. Takao itself is a super popular day hike because of it's close proximity to Tokyo, but according to my hiking in Japan book, most people only do Takao by itself and don't continue on - and Takao is part of a long trail called the Mt. Jimba trail, which spans 5 mountains! I did some research and decided I wanted to do Takao and the next mountain on the trail, Shiroyama.

Due to my super early start (hooray me!), I got to Mt. Takao at around 10:30 AM - it takes about an hour to get there. It was pleasant outside, and I'd worn a tank top with a sweatshirt in case I got hot, and had packed an extra long sleeve shirt in my backpack. I decided to take the Biwa Falls trail, since it wasn't the one we did last time, so I started off. For the first 35% of the hike, I pretty much had the trail to myself! There are some shrines and temples along the way, so I stopped to take some photos. By the time I was nearing the summit, I had quite a few people around me, and it had started to rain. ;___; The climb up is 3.3 km, or about 2 miles, and at the end it shifted us back onto the trail we took last time, and boy did I remember those stairs to the summit. YEOWCH. Everyone starts going reaaaally slow on those.

But at the summit, I took some hard-earned photos, and sat and shotgunned a bottle of water and ate some cheesy bread I'd brought with me. It was still raining and getting cold, so I put on my extra shirt that I was really thankful I had. From here, I was sort of relying on a) my memory of my hiking PDF file, and b) my ability to read signs/maps because the only guide map I got at the bottom of Takao was for Mt. Takao only. But I knew that I wanted to continue along the Mt. Jimba trail, so I scoured the signs until I found what I was looking for.

The hike over to the second mountain, Shiroyama, is 2.3 km and I did it in a hailstorm, haha. It was REALLY cold! Rainy and cold, and I met some other people who commented on it. Hikers in Japan are the NICEST people; normally, I never get stopped and people don't say hello, but EVERY hiker on the trail will greet you with "good afternoon" and a few stopped me to ask a few questions, like where I was from, or to comment on the cold rain. They are so nice!! Even runners I meet here while jogging won't acknowledge me, and that was always a thing we did back in America.

There were still blossoms at the top of the mountains due to the cooler temperatures, so that was really nice. Although in the hail, I wasn't really taking many pictures, haha. Boo. But it was a really nice hike and I didn't feel too cold when I was moving, though my sweatshirt did get fairly wet. There were a fair amount of hikers for how crappy the weather was, but the guide book had been really correct with how most people didn't take the longer trail.

By the time I hit the summit of Shiroyama, it had stopped AND started hailing again. By this point, I was pretty tired, but I was having trouble figuring out which trail went down. I finally just found one that was a descent and figured that it was fine - whatever, I was going down! It estimated that the down trek takes 40 minutes, but they hadn't figured in someone doing it with two bum knees after it had been raining, so it took me a lot longer than that. I only saw TWO people the whole 3 km down, and they were together, haha. The trail was virtually mine!

It took awhile to see civilization again, and the trail ended up sort of just dumping me behind this cemetery in the middle of nowhere - I literally had NO idea where I was. There weren't any signs, and I knew I just had to find a train station and I could navigate my way back home, but I didn't know where the nearest train station was! After staring at a very unhelpful map (in the rain), I gave up and just started following the road I was walking along, since it seemed like a fairly big one. I would have asked for directions, but there was no one around to ask!

Fortunately, I found a bus stop that was headed towards a station. I didn't know the kanji for the station name (other than "station", which is a lifesaver) but I guessed that it was Sagamiko based on what I remembered from my hiking book. A sign said the station was 2 km away, but I was like OH HECK NO, and waited the 10 minutes for the bus so I didn't have to walk that much extra. Sagamiko is on the Chuo line, so I knew I could get my way back home with some transfers - it sure does help to know the train lines around here!

I was freezing by the time I got home, and decided to throw my sweatshirt in the wash with some jeans that needed cleaning, and because I'm SUPER smart, I forgot to check my sweatshirt pockets and ended up washing my iPod. ;___; WAAAAAH. The only good thing is that I ordered a new iPod yesterday, because I wanted an upgrade after 4 years, but it's so sad! I'm so stuuuuupid. So I don't have any music for a few days since my new one will probably get delivered tomorrow when I am at work, so I'll have to schedule a redelivery for Sunday. I hate my work schedule and how difficult it makes getting things in the mail!!

But all in all, despite the terrible weather, it was a very good day and I am happy I got to do it!

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