It’s hiking season now!
Longer daylight hours, mild temperature, moderate humidity, vivid greens, and colorful flowers! Marvelous!
Before the rainy season, March to May is the best season for hiking.

Mt.Takao is one of the recommended places for hiking. This mountain is located in Tokyo, only about an hour train ride from central Tokyo to the nearby train station to Mt.Takao.
The mountain height is 599m. Since it is not very high, expert hikers use this mountain for practice.
The good point of Mt.Takao is that it has many routes to reach the mountain top. From steep rocky trail to the easy paved way. So when you get to the nearby train station, you will surprise there are so many varieties of people. There are from well-equipped hikers to the kindergarten kids. Some hikers will go up Mt.Takao and keep walking to other mountains next to Mt.Takao by going through mountain-ridges. And kids will use the funicular railway to the middle of the mountain and take the paved road to the top.
By the way, this funicular’s inclination angle is steepest in Japan!
And chairlift, to come down, is fun! If you are not fear of height, I recommend you try it!

Mt.Takao is 2,600ha wide, but it has 1,598 species of plants! Compare to Yakushima Island, one of Japan’s World Natural Heritage Site, it is 50,000ha wide, 20 times larger than Mt.Takao, but it has only 1,723 species. I can say Mt.Takao is a treasure trove of plants!

Besides nature, Mt.Takao was the object of mountain worship from the old days. There are shrines and some Buddhist statues here and there.
Mt.Takao gives the picturesque Mt.Fuji view to people. And that makes people visit Mt.Takao and worship as one of the holy mountains.

It is nice to get out of the bustling city and listen to the bird’s song and feel the cool breeze. And have an onigiri, a rice ball, at the top of the mountain!

Let’s go there during your stay in Japan with me!

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