TENGU November Regular Tour

Having two guests from Philippine and India our tour was held on 17 November. The area in front of the station was crowded with many arriving travelers as expected: the day satisfied all three conditions like Sunday, good weather and autumn foliage season.

We took the trail No.6 along a mountain stream toward Biwa Falls and then made an ascent of Biwataki Falls Road. After a little hardship we could see Tokyo Skytree from the nearby scenic point. There were a lot of visitors who looked like fun on the approach to Yakuoin Temple.

Biwa Falls

Joshinmon Gate

 We visited Relics stupa where leaves started turning red, and we had lunch under a beautiful foliage of maple trees.

At Yukien with guests

Maple tree

In the precinct of the temple our guests showed a great interest in Japanese spiritual enlightenment: span the stone ring, purified their hands and washed small changes etc.

Stone ring

Hand-wash basin

 

Washing money

Since the season of autumn leaves just started visitors to Mt. Takao would be able to enjoy the colorful and beautiful nature from now on.

 

By good luck, we were successful to have a view of Mt. Fuji, and then made a descent through the trail No.4 and No.1 to reach another view point where we could see the yellow-colored ginkgo tree line of Hachioji City.

Mt. Fuji

Ginkgo tree line

How wonderful day with our guests and observers it was.

(Nobby)

TENGU PRIVATE TOUR ON NOVEMBER 14, 2019

It was fine day in that morning. 
We met four guests near the exit of KEIOU Takaosan Guchi station　at 9:20 a.m.

Our guests were two from Singapore(Husband & Wife ), another two from Shanghai, China.(young couple)

At first, we exchanged greetings each other.

Then, we made sure of Today’s tour plan and explained about matters to be attended to the tour.

Our guide began at the sweeper boy stone statue, flying squirrel bronze statues and the statue of Saburo Kitajima who was

 a famous melancholic Japanese song’s singer .

We took the cable departing the station at 10:00 a.m. and it was crowded.

Autumn leaves through the window began on the top of trees.



After we left the cable car, our guests went to the store to buy  MITSUFUKU dumplings having sweet Miso taste and they looked like happy to eat it.

After that, we took them at the observatory and they enjoyed the panoramic views, though it was a little hazy

One of their tour plans was to visit the Monkey’s garden. So, we all entered into the garden. They took several photos of monkeys such as the leader, a baby and mother.

After we left the garden, the highlights of Mt. Takao, such as Octopus cedar tree, , Treasure house of plants and flowers, Jinben Dou Shrine, Chestnut tiger ( travelling butterfly), Relic Stupa, Shitenno Mon Gate, Eight Dragons Statue, Yakuoin Temple ,Gongen Do Shrine were guided.

We arrived at the summit at 12:40 p.m. It was behind the schedule because our guests were so busy to take photos.

We could see Mt. FUJI, however it was dark in shadow.

We took our guests to MOMIJI DAI for lunch. One of guests challenged to have a TORORO SOBA which was put grated yam on the buck wheat noodle and he looked like to enjoy it. Others had SOBA noodles without TORRO.

We left there at 1:30 p.m. and we took the trail 5(north), trail 4 , trail 1. in order to go down.

Before arriving at the suspension bridge on the trail4, NABE took young couple at the LOVE tree and was asked to take several shots. They looked so happy hand in hand. Finally, we took chair lift to get the foot of Mt. Takao.

One of guests took the video while taking the lift and young couple bought a photo.

We believe they could make happy memories .

We arrived at the foot of Mt. Takao and exchanged

“GREETINGS of SAYONARA” each other at the KEIO

 Takaosan Guchi Station at 3:30 p.m.

WRITTEN by NABE

2019.11.11 TENGU private tour

Though in the early morning it rained a lot around Mt.Takao, it was cloudy by the sunrise. Four guests booked this tour, but two of them cancelled, finally two ladies from Australia were guided by three TENGU members. Since one of guests would like to see a waterfall, we planned the walking route from Biwa-taki to Yakuo-in temple then the summit. However due to the rainfall, we changed the route that Biwa-taki came to the final spot.  

We met at Takaosanguchi station at 9:30 and introduced each other. Then we talked about the sweeper boy and flying squirrel at the foot of mountain and took the cable car to the middle.  

When we arrived at Takaosan station the atmosphere was a bit hazy. This mysterious landscape was also tasteful, though we couldn’t see skyscrapers nor Sky tree.

We guided through the trail #1 to Yakuo-in temple, talking about Octopus cedar tree, rich nature of mountain, 108 human desperation in Buddhism, Izuna-Daigonngen. 

At the main hall of Yakuo-in, one of our guests told that 11.11(November eleventh) was the good fortune day to make wishes in Australia. And amazingly we were there at11:11am. It was 11.11.11:11.

Then we went up to the top of the mountain, took a photo together and had lunch. An alley cat welcomed us. The haze was cleared already, but unfortunately Mt.Fuji was covered by thick clouds.

We took trail #4 and Biwadaki trail to return, walked through the quiet forest.

At Biwa-daki fall we heard a powerful voice of the man who was doing self-discipline under the water fall.

The tour went through in the friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

Finally we came back to Takaosanguchi station and ended the tour around 3:30pm.

Guided by Nosan, Misa and written by Tack.

2nd Nov. 2019 Beginning of November at Mt Takao

    

Today it was first day of three-day weekends in November, 2019, so we started the tour earlier than usual, and directly went to Kiyotaki-station from Takaosanguchi station to avoid long waiting time for getting on the cable car.

We performed orientation for Today’s hiking tour out of top cable car 

station and organized two groups.

The six guests were from five countries; Myanmar, Viet Nam, Egypt, Kenya and Afghanistan.

It was less crowded than we expected, so we could take a leisurely walk under the autumn sky at our own pace.

I enjoyed chat with guests from Viet Nam during the hiking

-       Ho Chi Minh City is commercial city, and Hanoi City is Capital and Governmental city. 

     It looks Osaka and Tokyo in Japan.

I recalled Ivela auripes ; Kiashi-Dokuga when I saw photo of a swarm of white butterflies that fills the sky and ground in Viet Nam.

Today it was fine, but we could not see view of Mt. Fuji from the summit of Mt.Takao due to distant clouds,

We had lunch time near to the summit, and we asked guests to complete the two survey sheets from Hachioji city government and Hachioji Visitors & Convention Association.

We used 4^th trail for going down. Sumo-san presented “Lover’s threes” along a way.

In beginning of November autumn leaves are still early usually.

                                                                        Today we could not see colored leaves at all except limited spots.

We used the chair lift for going down. Waiting time for chair lift was 20min. It was shorter than last year (50min).

We wrapped up successfully in front of Kiyotaki station.

We stop by the information center on the way home and Guests replaced the complete survey sheets with novelties; Japanese folding fan and Tin badge.

They graduated from Mt. Takao hiking there!

Thanks to the guides and Supporters everybody returned here without any troubles.

                                                                                                                      By Tim

The private tour (２０１９/１１/１）

We were supposed to meet our guests at 9:30 as usual, and today’s guides (Nabe, Comson, Ryo) greeted each other at about 9:10. The minute Ryo put up the TENGU sign, Australian travelers  (Mari-Louise and Bruce)appeared in front of us as if by a magic. Wow! Excellent efficiency like our Bullet train. At 9:15
we started climbing. A beautiful autumn morning with pleasant temperature, too. They are here to see The Rugby World Cup 2019 Tokyo, and are, naturally, the fans of Australian Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks.

All the way to the end we were lucky. 
We witnessed the priest processions of the 10:30 service. We had a poster like stunning view of Mt. Fuji at the summit. We also saw a Mamushi (poisonous snake) on the way.
Our guests were eager learners, were curious about all the stories and the histories we told. Nabe and Comson must have enjoyed having wonderful listeners. Enclosed please find some pictures of guiding spots. Sweeper boy, Flying squirrel, and so on and so on. 

Hey! M&L we only left footsteps, didn’t we? ( Sweeper boy)  Let me remind you that Bruce even picked up some trash.  Also, when an elderly man fell on the trail, he was quick to help him stand up.
We saw an Asagimadara (Chestnut Butterfly) along the way, also came across our future generations, nursery kids, grammar school pupils and high school students. We could have lunch, surrounded by the 9 years old school children full of energy .  Another treat to our appetite.
After hearing about 108 delusions and the significance of 108 stone steps at Otokozaka, M&L went quickly up to the top and posed Banzai -a titanic like posture with both hands up.
On our way down on the Ride Trail, they had an international phone call, and had a serious conversation. It was from their credit card company, concerning about a certain purchase. It turned out to be a fraud.
In the middle of the quiet, peaceful mountain , an international call about a card fraud. A detective novel!  We sure live in a modern world.
Congratulations on NEW ZELAND’s Bronze victory over Whales!

By Ryo

TENG private tour on Oct.26

Since the previous day it rained a lot around Mt.Takao, we worried about the weather and walking condition. However fortunately it was one of the nicest days we had. We enjoyed the view of skyscrapers and Tokyo sky tree and Mt. Fuji covered with fresh snow, though our tour ended at Yakuo-in temple.   

This day we had two groups, five guests total. Our guests, team B, were one American lady and her friends, a lady and a gentleman from Holland. Amazingly he wrote a book about Japanese style fermentation and makes ‘Natto’ by himself. 

First we talked about the sweeper boy and flying squirrel at the foot of mountain and took the cable car to the middle. 

We guided through the trail #1 to Yakuo-in temple, talking about Octopus cedar tree, rich nature of mountain, stratum formed 100million years ago, Izuna-Daigonngen, 108 human desperation and Buddhism and Shintoism. Our guests had enough knowledge about Buddhism, so we had many question about it. Some of them were hard to answer to me.

Since our guests booked Buddhist dishes at Yakuo-in for lunch, we visited and explained the main hall of temple and Gongendo before arriving dining place. 

Finally we took a photo together and end the tour. The American lady is a journalist and writing many articles in paper. So we are looking forward to read her article of this tour. It will be good support for TENGU.

 Guided by Nabe, Shin and written by Tack. >>

TENGU October Regular Tour

Our tour was held on Sunday 20 October. We were worried about the damage of Mt. Takao caused from the huge and strong typhoon No.19 recently hit Eastern Japan: there were the widespread damage like mudslide, flood etc. We did information gathering carefully before our tour, so that trails we selected were almost ordinary and safe. 

We had two young guests from Germany and they were staying in Tokyo as exchange students of a public university. We met at the Takaozanguchi station and caught a cable car and took the trail No.1 after we saw Shinjuku skyscrapers from view points.

Our staff explained several historic and impressive points on the way and our guests paid attention and listened to the explanation eagerly.

In front of Eight Dragon King’s Hall where is popular because of its offbeat idea of washing money: it is said that the waters of the basin were able to multiply the money washed in it.

After lunch we walked down to the chair-lift station through the trail No. 4: there was the popular suspension bridge.

Both of our guests were strong walkers, so we went back to the cable car station at the foot of Mt.Takao in the early afternoon and declared the finish of the regular tour.

It was very enjoyable day!

(Written by Nobby)