Amy
School of Commerce
Mount Takao is a great hiking opportunity for those living in Tokyo. It offers beautiful scenery, great temples, and an unforgettable hiking experience. With only 50 minutes travel time, Mount Takao can be a well-planned daytrip.
On Saturday, the 14th of October, the ICC of Waseda University organized a cultural exchange with full-time Waseda and exchange students. Here, everyone was able to meet new people from all around the world. We started our journey in small groups around 10:45, taking the most popular trail, the red trail, with a length of 3.8 km. Mount Takao has six trails in total with two additional trails leading to connecting mountains.
The way up of Trail One is definitely quite steep but very beginner friendly, so everyone in our group could enjoy the nice hike. Every now and then, there is a little flat area where you take a break, relax, and enjoy the view. As you go further along the trail, once you have passed the chair lift station, the way gets a lot easier and you can enjoy a nice drink and skewered Dango, a traditional Japanese sweet. On the way back, you’re able to enter the Monkey Park and Wild Plant Garden halfway up the trail.
As you go on, you will come to admire the great Yakuou-in temple, an impressive multifaceted Buddhist temple established in 744. Soon after that, you will reach the top of Mount Takao at a height of 599m. At the top, there is a nice view of connecting mountains and especially on a sunny day the atmosphere feels nice and calm.
After spending a nice lunch break at the top of the mountain, we decided to go down again and use the chair lift to get a nice few of the city – this is highly recommended by all of us. The chair lift descent is something you don’t want to miss!
On this trip, I was able to make many friends, internationals and native Japanese. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I that I will return to Mount Takao when autumn is here.
