Cave art, 2021. 1/6. Jan-Feb

Greetings spelunkers of all ages, shapes and sizes.  

This past year was a great one for art on the walls of my mancave and I want to share some of it with you.  I have way too many pictures to put into one post so I've concluded to break it up into six separate posts covering 2 months in each.  I hope you enjoy them.  I certainly enjoyed taking them.

 

Falling down

What a wonderful, warm fall day for a hike!  It was really nice and I was happy to take a hike up over Mt. Otake with my buddy, Mike.

For this hike, since it was a beautiful fall day and seeing as the COVID restrictions have just recently been lifted in Tokyo, I knew the usual routes would be heavily trafficked so I opted to head up to Otake from the Senzoku bus stop in Hinohara.  Most people go to Otake from the north side of the mountain and take the cablecar up to Mitake on the way.  

I think it was a good choice.  We saw very few people on the trail but there were about 100 people on top of Otake when we got there.  I shudder to think what their hike was like coming from the other direction.  Even on Nokogiri there were about 25 people.  I've been there 4 or 5 times and have never seen anyone there before.

Tengu Falls is just up the trail a bit from the Senzoku Bus Stop.  It's a silly place as you will see later in this blogpost.  Stay tuned.

Fuji was there in all its glory today.  On this route, there are a few spots to see it.

Otake is only a few hours' climb. It was packed up there.  Mike and I had to wait in line to get this picture taken.  

I was surprised that so many leaves had changed.  My last hike was just last week to a colder place and at a higher elevation, but the leaves were changing here faster than there.

From Otake, we descended to Mt. Nokogiri and soon after that took a right turn so we could climb Mt Tenchi before finally descending through the Unazawa area to get to the train at Shiromaru Station.  The trail traversing Mt Tenchi doesn't really show up on maps so I had never done it before but I'd always been curious about whether Tenchi could be climbed or not.  It can!

. . . and it has a nice view.  The highest mountain in this picture is Mt Honnita.

Before reaching the station, there were a few more interesting things to see walking along Ome Kaido and the Tama River.  

This is the route for the day.  We used public transportation for this hike.  There is a bus from Musashi Itsukaichi Station bound for Fujikura that stops at Senzoku.  Returning, we took the Okutama Line from Shiromaru Station.

As I said, Tengu Falls was a funny place.  

If you want another hike near Otake, check this out.  Mitake is very popular and scenic.

https://mymancaveisthemountains.blogspot.com/2021/02/mt-mitake-january-30-2021-i-had-chance.html

That's all for now.

Caveman out

See you soon.  I hope to get in some serious leaf-peeping soon.

Mt Mitake February 2021

Mt Mitake

January 30, 2021

I had the chance to go hiking with my friend, Russ, for a few hours the other day.  Since time was short, we went to Mt Mitake.  I am tempted not to post these pictures because I didn't take that many on this particular day and there are many great views that I'm not showing here.

Mitake is one of the most trafficked mountains in Tokyo.  Probably #2 only to Takao.  It's not too strenuous, has spectacular views of downtown Tokyo and is connected by trails to Hinode and Otake Mountains which are popular in their own right.

This is the main temple at the top of the mountain:

One thing that I really like about Mitake is the souvenir shops at the cable car stations.  They sell inoshishi (wild boar) and bear meat in a can.  This is an inoshishi sandwich I had a few days later.

The street before the shrine.  There are plenty of shops, restaurants and inns in this little area.

On the trail . . .

Most people take the cable car up and down.  From the top cable car station it's a 45 minute~1 hour walk to the shrine.  We opted to start at Kori Station and extend the hike by a few miles.  Taking this route brings you by Mt Otsuka on the way (and avoids the crowds.)

This is the first time I ever have seen this place open.  They were charging admission though.  We skipped it.

Behind the main temple, there are a bunch of little shrines in the back.

Thanks for looking.  Hope you enjoyed it.

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