Mount Takao, Tokyo

trip report by site editor Rick McCharles

Mount Takao …

Standing 599 metres (1,965 ft) tall and located within an hour of downtown Tokyo, it is a popular hiking spot, with eight hiking courses and more than 2.5 million annual visitors. …

There did seem to be 10,000 or more the day I was there. Hordes of school children, too.

… choose to start climbing from the base, or take a funicular or ropeway ride halfway up the mountain. …

Climbing the paved trail #1 was mainly interesting for people watching. I had hoped to see monkeys (there’s an enclosure for them en route) but spotted none this day.

Trail 1 is nothing special for hiking. But there’s plenty of interesting history and culture, en route.

Most signage is in Japanese only, so I’m still mostly ignorant of what I was seeing.

You can sometimes see Mt Fuji (photo) from Tokao — but not the hazy day I was there.

On the descent, I started on Trail 4 — unpaved and far less busy.

This is more like it. … Still, there were men in business suits “hiking”.

At one point I left Trail 4 in the direction of “waterfall”. On this path there were only myself, one trail runner and this protective land crab.

I learned that it doesn’t take much to get away from the crowds in Japan. … On the other hand, I came off the mountain far from where I had started. Lost.

Yet anywhere in Tokyo you can find a map directing you to the nearest train station. I was quickly unlost.