Takao-san (高尾山) and Yokohama (横浜)

So, the forecast for today looked pretty similar to that of yesterday. But I have an umbrella now ... right? Which means, if I take it with me, I don't have to worry about it ... right? Well, that's what I went with as I took a train to the outskirts of Tokyo for something slightly less ... Tokyo.

I found a direct train that took me from Shinjuku directly to the foot of Takao-san (Mt. Takao). And then I just had to walk up. Looking at a map, there were quite a few different options available, but in the end I went for the option that was described as "While some sections are a little rough, this ridgetop trail offers refreshing, wonderful views."

Lies! On both accounts. In terms of rough sections, the roughest part was when they put boards above the walk to presumably cover up whatever roughness was underneath, but they weren't anchored very well so they wobbled a bit. And those refreshing wonderful views were ... well I think that sign may have been written when all the trees were a little bit shorter and not completely blocking the view outward yet. But they did have a little praying temple being guarded by the firecest of ... cute cuddly statues with knited hats? Okay, I guess even guardian statues have mothers, and those mothers have probably heard how cold it can get up on the hill. Why they're not allowed to take them off in the swealtering heat of summer though ...

The advantage of the path having had all the folliage get overgrown is that the path was correspondingly well shaded. A welcome fact when you consider the roughly 500m worth of ascent that I apparently went through trying to get to the top. What was slightly less welcome was some of the wildlife information signs that you saw along the path. Completely in Japanese, but just enough comprehensible to produce serious concern. Like having pictures of three different wasps, with the sizes in mm going up to 35mm. Or a bunch of snakes and some diagrams of fangs. Presumably telling you how to identify the different poisenous snakes and whether to run for the hospital or ask you to just curl up in the shrubbery somewhere because you're not going to make it anyway and they'd like to avoid the paperwork.

Once all the paths converge at the top, there actually is a lookout though. And here you can see all those stormy rain clouds that contributed to that rainy weather forecast and cooling temperatures. Or lack thereof. But a pretty cool view! In one direction ... the view back towards the city was still overgrown. Which was kind of cute as the sign for describing the different things that you were meant to be able to see was still there.

After taking the advanced track up, I thought I'd treat myself and take the easy way down. I mean, by the time I was recovered enough from the ascent and ready for some ice cream, the only shop that was open up there had closed, so this was the best alternative. But I'm not too sure that was a clever idea. "Trail 1" was "paved". At 16 degrees. With cobblestones. It was certainly a far more direct path, with far less height variation in terms of the path snaking vertically. But as something that my body would regard as a treat, it did not count. And to give some muscles a break, I walked a good chunk of the hill down backwards, using all those fun muscles that I have been neglecting for 5 years and were comfortably lying on the sofa.

I definitely came on an off day though. The place is equipped for so much more than the handful of people that I shared the trail with. There was a cable car and chair lift (with only the former running). Halfway down there was a whole village of temples, gates, wishing walls, and generally enough shops to keep an army of tourists at bay, all with their shutters firmly shut. Though they do appear to be building a roller coaster past a four-legged mechanical spider monster? I'm not too sure I'd take that roller coaster ...

Having arrived back at the bottom, I did not take the train that brought me here but I thought I'd go back via Yokohama, because that's not on the way back whatsoever. But that also meant that I needed to get a different train that left from the centre of town and so I got to enjoy walking through a little bit more of a country town. It was pretty! Though my feet had some very different words to say about the town. Like: "we just hiked up and down a hill, give us a break!"

Going to Yokohama was a nice example of under-preparation. I found that I was pretty close to the Yokohama line, which presumably would take me straight to Yokohama! Well, I couldn't even figure out how much the train fare was because the little country station I was at did not have any of its signs with Latin characters, and trying to compare picture characters didn't get me very far. So I bought a small ticket, and decided it would be a later problem how much I still needed to pay.

The next problem was: the Yokohama line didn't go to Yokohama station but rather stopped short. Presumably there's some maintenance happening as the plan certainly shows it going there. So ... more walking to try and walk into town centre. But that required time. And I didn't arrive particularly early. And the further I walked, the more worried I got about the fact that there's this concept of a 'last train' in Japan. And I really don't want to walk home. So I kept on trying to find myself a nice spot to relax for a little by taking shortcuts that would either ending up being dead ends, or suddenly go in a direction I wasn't actually aiming for. Oh well, learnt a little. Including how slow local trains are.

After safely sitting on my train that would take me directly back to my home base, they decided to throw in a little bit of additional excitement, by hitting the emergency brake. To be honest, while sitting, I didn't even notice until an automated announcement came across the intercom informing us that the emergency brake had been triggered. And then we stood on the track with everything dark around us, for 17 minutes. With a bunch of announcements in Japanese. The JR East web page said there was a delay due to a safety inspection at a crossing. The only reason I could think of that would connect that to triggering the emergency brake is that we crossed a red signal. 🤷‍♀️