2017年6月16日金曜日

A happy family from California, U.S.A.

 Though the rainy season just started, we were lucky enough to have some sunshine and cool breeze, making the day very relaxing and comfortable. 
Today's guests were a happy family of four from California, U.S.A., a couple (Steve and Sandy) with 2 young ladies, the elder going high school, the younger 5th grade elementary school.

 We started the tour at around 9:30 a.m. with the explanation about the statues of the sweeper boy and the giant flying squirrel near Kiyotaki station. Then we took the cable car. Unlike the weekend, the cable car was not crowded and the guests were busy taking photos of the beautiful fresh greens around. After visiting Kasumidai Observation Deck near the Takaosan station of the cable car, we took Trail no.1 to Yakuoin temple. On the way, we made stops at various points to give the guests explanations about each spot, including Takosugi, Botanies and natural history of Mt.Takao, Six senses Purification stone wheel, Joshinmon Gate, Otoko-zaka Onna-zaka, Yuki-en, wooden board of the contributors list, Shitenno-mon Gate, Chozuya (stone basin for the Purification), the Main hall, Mitsumata(Paper tree), Stone Guardian Dogs, Main Shrine. When we arrived at Shitenno-mon Gate, the young two, feeling hungry after the walk, bought Manjussteamed bean-jam buns and were kind enough to offer some of them to us guides. Thank you, ladies !

 Inside the gate, they were interested in Purification Basin (Chozuya) and were happy to practice the purification ritual following the guidance by us. 
Sandy had known and planned to buy Takaosan stamp Books (Goshuin-cho) for her two daughters. She looked happy and satisfied when she got the books after the staff put, in front of her, some writings and a red stamp on the page of the book. We kept walking to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately we could not see the Mt. Fuji but were happy we could enjoy the tour in spite of the rainy season.


 We climbed down via Trail no.4 and took the chair lift to arrive back at Kiyotaki station at around  1:30 p.m. For the parents, this was the 2nd visit to Japan (the 1st was about 30years ago when they had stayed at and seen only Metropolitan Tokyo) and the 1st for the young ones. So, for all of them, today's experience at Mt.Takao is their first and we are sure that they enjoyed it. 
 Thank you Steve, Sandy and two young ladies for joining us in the tour and we hope you will see and enjoy many things during your holiday in Japan.

(Nori)

2017年6月8日木曜日

We held Takao-san hiking on June 3

It was a clear fine day. At Takaosan-guchi station we met 7 guests, 6 ladies and a gentleman, from the countries of South-East Asia, Middle East and Central Asia.
After self-introduction, we told them several important rules of Mt. Takao. Those are “Trails are for people, others are for plants. So stay on the trails. Collect memories, not flowers. Take garbage back with you and so on.”


We divided 7 international guests into two groups. For going up we took cable car, then walked along the Trail no-1.
   
            
At summit, unfortunately, we were not able to see Mt. Fuji because of the early summer mist. There were so many people taking lunch on the ground here and there. So we decided not to take lunch together. We took a lunch break by several groups.
  


For going down, we took trail no-4, then trail no-1 and chair-lift. Coming back to the foot around 15:00. At the Takaosan-guchi station we advised them how to go back to the place where they were staying, because almost of them were arrived recently and not familiar with transportation here. Then we said “goodbye” to each other and were satisfied to see that they enjoyed today’s hiking.

(Comson)

Report on the TENGU Tour held 4 June 2017



It was a nice day today though the temperature was a little high. One of my club member Guchi and I guided Mt. Takao for a Singaporean family. They were a family of four; a father, a mother, a daughter who is a university student and a son who is a high school student.
We met at Takaosanguchi Station at 9:30 and greeted each other. Then we walked to Sanroku Station of Echo Lift and took pair lift to Sanjo Station.
We had a nice view from Kasumidai, where we could see Skytree and Sagami Bay.
We went through Yakuoin Temple and got to the top of Mt. Takao. We were lucky meeting monk's procession for Goma ritual at the main hall.
We went down following trail 4. At Miyama Bridge I took a picture of the family.
After we were satisfied with the rich nature, we went down following trail 1.
Around 2:00 pm, we separated.
Written by Kimie