Tokyo April 2006
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Takaosan - Tokyo April 2006

Takaosan

Saturday 15th April 2006

A day out to visit Takaosan - a nearby mountain - for a bit of a walk and to catch the last of the cherry blossom.

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14:24:12 We stopped off at Chofu on the way for complicated ticket related reasons, which also gave us the opportunity to buy some food - so in this random picture you can see Chie with shopping bags, plus a complete stranger in the foreground.

15:05:55 So here we are at Takaosanguchi now - this is the cable car / chair lift station at the bottom.

15:09:13 From our previous visit we had learnt that the chair lift is significantly more fun than the cable car (more of a rack railway), so the choice on the way up was an easy one!

15:09:49 ...so there now follows lots of chair lift pictures.

15:09:59 An unfortunate pose/angle makes me look a bit fat in this one.

15:10:24 Looking back down the chair lift course.

15:10:41 Chie eating rice crackers on the way - bless her.

15:12:12 A surruptitous (?) picture of the photographer who takes souvenir photographs of people, presumably only on the way down.

15:13:31 At the time, I couldn't seem to get bored of taking chair lift pictures...

15:14:35 ...the view off to the left of a forest covered mountain side was very nice, not sure it really comes out in the pictures.

15:14:45 At some points the whole thing is suspended above the tree canopy, with just a sort of wire mesh to catch anything/one that falls of the chair lift.

15:15:18 More trees by the side.

15:16:19 The view to the rear gets better and better the further you go up.

15:19:31 ...pretty much the same thing again.

15:23:31 I think we must have got off the chair lift now, which deposits you must of the way up to the top.

15:25:13 Hazy as always, but still some nice views to be had!

15:26:43 Very mountainous around here...

15:38:06 A very Japanese scene - a sakura tree by the side of the steps up to a temple / shrine.

15:38:33 More sakura. The great thing about Takaosan is that the altitude makes it a bit colder, so the sakura blooms a little later than in Tokyo. So just when you think it is all over and done with for the year, you can take a short train ride and virtually speaking set the clock back by two or three weeks.

15:42:15 Another very Japanese scene...

15:42:28 Chie with some other blossom - not sure if this is a type of sakura or not.

15:42:56 Me under the tree, probably looking a bit out of breath after having quite rapidly ascended a large number of steps!

15:53:50 So I think we're at the official top bit there, where we stopped for a bit of a picnic... and of course, yet more cherry blossoms.

15:53:58 A very nice tree, under which we sat for our hanami.

15:54:13 Chie tucks into a very late lunch, with the sakura in the background.

15:57:58 I think this was a kind of deep fried tofu.

15:58:25 It was quite warm at this point, especially after our rapid ascent (we were hungry) and thus my very summery attire.

16:07:56 More sakura and lovely blue sky.

16:08:12 Hard to stop taking pictures of these trees!

16:08:16 Lovely.

16:17:55 A nice view out over several layers of mountains, from the top of Takaosan, nearby where we had lunch.

16:18:01 The sun was quite bright, so all of the foreground came out very dark unfortunately...

16:18:17 Still, you do at least get the layered effect on the mountains...

16:21:06 Chie admires the view.

16:21:56 A self timer shot of me and Chie, mostly obscuring the view behind us!

16:23:28 Chie and the sakura tree where we'd had lunch again.

16:26:12 A close-up on some of the flowers.

16:26:24 Chie looking very happy underneath the sakura!

16:26:56 Taken as we were leaving the lunch place...

16:35:26 We decided to walk back to the cable car / chair lift station by a different route which was a bit quieter and more foresty.

16:35:31 Errr, not much point to this pictures - just trees really!

16:38:21 I like these little hollows in trees - I always imagine gnomes living in there.

16:38:27 Chie drinking a can of hot tea, bought from the vending machines on the top (you know you're in Japan when mountain tops have restaurants and vending machines).

16:42:42 A mountain pigeon.

16:42:51 He seemed very domesticated.

16:48:17 An tree with very interesting roots - it looks like it could wander off if it felt like it.

16:52:07 A suspension bridge.

16:53:16 Me on the bridge.

16:54:00 Chie on the bridge.

16:56:37 A very tall sakura tree.

17:07:56 At the end of our walk now - unfortunately the chair lift closes a bit earlier, so we had to return by this, what the Japanese call a cable car (we'd probably say rack railway in England).

17:15:32 Chie on the cable car, or whatever you call it.

17:16:04 This sign here says something about "Mr. Ben" presumably nothing to do with the English kids TV series...?