Today was a very busy day! I woke up way too early, though better than the past couple days. At least this time I slept in until almost 4:00 in the morning. But we met up as a group, ate breakfast, and then prepared for a long hike up a mountain.
We went to Mt Takao, about an hour train ride outside of Tokyo. It's in a very rural area, and the buildings surrounding the station look incredibly old. We took a cable car up part of the trail, which was a smart decision on our part. Climbing a bunch of stairs would have killed us all!
While walking the trail, I quickly realized this place was kind of a holy site for what I believe is a shiny temple. There were a lot of Buddhist iconography and sculpture, but also just as much Shinto, including multiple statues of Koppa Tengu and Karasu Tengu. But the craziest thing were the spiders.
They were huge! And they were everywhere in this place.
I didn't care to touch them, but they did set up shop in a couple spots that made me duck so I didn't grab their spider webs.
Along the trail were several overlooks. We stopped multiple times along the way to pray at different shrines and also take pictures of the stunning view.
And of course my photographer friend caught me right as I asked him to hold on a second because I needed to blink and adjust...
The temples and shrines may have been incredible, but the summit was something else! We caught a glimpse of Mt Fuji through the clouds while we ate our lunch! A couple people tried taking photos, but they didn't exactly come out the cleanest. So we decided to take a picture in another part of the vista point. One that overlooked the city.
The train ride home took almost twice as long due to mechanical issues. But we had dinner at yoshinoya and then went to a bath house to scrub and soak. It felt amazing and was a great way to cap off the day. I'm going to bed soon, and I can't wait for tomorrow!
[//]:# (!worldmappin 35.62458 lat 139.24304 long My Actifit Report Card: September 22 2025 d3scr)
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