Report on TENGU tour held on 23 October 2024

 

Our guests were a group of thirty-four (34) business persons of a Japanese corporation, the majority of who appeared to be working at their overseas offices, who are attended by a couple of tour conductors and a mountain guide. TENGU members included Nabe-san and myself.

 Looks like our guests left their hotel by a sightseeing bus for Mt. Takao after they attended the business conference on that morning held in the center of Tokyo.

Accordingly, their plan for Mt. Takao tour had to be a very challenging one from our perspective.

 Unfortunately, it was drizzling even before the tour and the proposed start time of 2 pm of their tour was rather late for the time of the sunset scheduled a little earlier than 5 pm on 23 October 2023.

 Moreover, their sightseeing bus didn't arrive at the foot of Mt. Takao until 2:30 pm.

Sightseeing bus with our guest on board

To look at the bright side of things, we would not expect to see too many visitors to Mt. Takao and consequently, Mt. Takao should be much less crowed than usual.

 So, in the briefing before the tour, I told them that they were very lucky!

Briefing to our guests before getting started

Based on the foregoing situation, I strongly recommended that the best plan should be to take a cable car on the way as well as on the way back while my speech did not appear to be convincing enough.

Eventually, half of our guests stuck to taking a walk from the base of the mountain following Trail 1 while the other half chose to make a short cut by taking a cable car leaving at 3 pm.  

Our guests in the cable car

Needless say, two (2) old guys from TENGU took advantage of the cable car service while a mountain guide sent from the travel agent led the group of guests who opted to take a walk.

Moving on through the fog

Due to the weather conditions, our guests were not able to enjoy the wonderful view either from Sumika-mae observation deck, Kasumidai observation deck or the peak of Mt. Takao, which was unfortunate even if such a situation was more or less expected.

 Considering the very tight schedule combined with a little too many guests for just two (2) TENGU guides, we planned not to stop at many places for any active guiding while we planned to answer any questions our guests might have from time to time during the tour.

 To my surprise, I found that all the guests who opted to take a walk from the foot of the mountain caught up with us after we detoured to Yuki-en (Joyful Garden) where we guided on the photogenic white Thai style stupa.

 According to the mountain guide, many of them have longer limbs and walk with longer steps than most of the Japanese people, which is not fair!

 So, it turned out that it was a good decision for me, an older guide with shorter limbs, not to join the group who opted to follow Trail 1 on foot!

 When all the guests arrived at the Main Hall of Yakuo-in Temple, we divided them into two (2) groups as some of the guests (the "Group A") were eager to move on further to the peak of Mt. Takao going through Izuna Gongen-do Hall while the other guests (the "Group B") were unwilling to do so or a little too exhausted to do so.

In front of “Wish Coming True Ring” in the grounds of Yakuo-in Temple

I joined the Group A while Nabe-san joined Group B.

 The Group B left Yakuo-in Temple earlier and took an earlier cable car back to the foot of the mountain.

In front of Izuna Gongen-do Hall

When the Group A got to the peak of Mt. Takao, it started getting dark at around 4:30 pm.

 As expected, our guests in Group A were not lucky enough to see a graceful figure of Mt. Fuji from the peak of the mountain.

At the peak of Mt. Takao

On the way back, in the interest of safety, the Group A followed a different route called "Fuji Michi" which is broad enough for a small vehicle to pass through going down via Yakuo-in Temple.

 It was after sunset when the Group A were following Trail 1 relying only on the lights along the front approach to Yakuo-in Temple.

Following Trail 1 on the way back to the cable car Takaosan Station

Fortunately, the Group A managed to catch a cable car leaving at 5:15 pm from Takaosan Station as planned.

Everything is in the dense fog in front of the cable car Takaosan Station

t was good that we finished the tour without any problems to speak of notwithstanding their challenging tour plan.

All is well that ends well!

 

Dated: 25 October 2024

 Written by Shiro

Monthly tour on October 20th, 2024

 Today, we had two guests, a gentleman from Canada and a nice lady from China, both guests were very much interested in Mt. Takao and very friendly. Other than those guests and two guides from TENGU, we had a potential TENGU member as an observer, so we started our tour as a group of five around 9:30AM at Takaosanguchi station.

 After quick briefing in front of the statue of Sweeper Boy, we got on the cable car to go halfway up Mt. Takao, then enjoyed clear view from Kasumi-dai. It was a bit chilly and windy, though we could recognize not only for Tokyo sky tree and cluster of buildings of Shinjuku, but also for buildings of Yokohama area.

From Kasumi-dai, we walked on the Trail No. 1 talking about monkey park, octopus cedar tree, Joshinmon gate, Shugendo, 108 worldly desires etc.,

then we reached to Yuki-en (Joyful Garden) where a white beautiful stupa was welcoming us.

From Yuki-en, we continued walking on the Trail No.1 talking about legend of Tengu, guardians of the compass points at gate of Four Heavenly King, history of Yakuo-in temple, other small halls and statues along the trail, then arrived at the peak of Mt. Takao around 12:30PM.  At the peak of Mt. Takao, weather itself was very fine, however unfortunately we couldn’t observe Mt. Fuji, since she was so shy and hiding in clouds.

After the lunch break near the peak of Mt. Takao, we started going down the mountain thru Trail No.4 where we could enjoy breath of nature and popular green covered suspension bridge, then back to Trail No.1.

And finally, we took the chair lift and ended our tour safely around 2:40pm at the foot of Mt. Takao.

Thanks to the two guests, we wish all the best for both of you !.

 By Shin

Private tour on October 5th, 2024

 Today I had a guest, gentleman from Singapore. Usually, I meet with guests at Takaosanguchi station, however today we met with the guest at Takao station at 9:15AM, because both of us wanted to get Mt. Takao discount ticket at Takao station. 

 After successfully got the discount ticket, we moved to Takaosanguchi station using Keio Line. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Takaosanguchi station, it already started drizzling. So, we started our tour with umbrella.

 Firstly, we got on the cable car to go halfway up the mountain, then started walking on the Trail No. 1 talking about Monkey Park, Octopus cedar tree, vegetation, main gates, historical halls and statues along the trail, then arrived at Yakuoin temple. While talking about the four heavenly king gate, I learned something new about guardian of four directions. Legend of four heavenly king is similar to western legend of “guardians of the compass points”, or “angels of the four directions”. I thought I need to study more about such western legends.

 After talking about history of Yakuoin temple, we decided to stop further hiking, because we couldn’t expect good scenery from the summit of Mt. Takao due to drizzle. So, we started going down the mountain thru Trail No.1, then took the cable car then visited 599 museum for a coffee break as a wrap up of our tour.

By Shin

Report on TENGU Tour held on 5 October 2024

 

We met JICA guests members at Takao-san-guchi station at 9:15. This morning, I received the phone call from JICA staff and was told that two guest canceled the tour unfortunately. But we expected some cancellation because it was a rainy day. Even in a bad weather, 14 guests still joined our tour,and I check their equipment (umbrella and jackets). Some guests wore only T-shirt, so I suggested to buy jacket at station store because it was a cold day in rain.

We got on a cable car to go up to the middle of mountain and then saw Lucky Octopus tree, that is one of the famous tourism spot in Mt. Takao.

Then we visited at the Yakuo-in temple, that is main temple in Mt.Takao and saw the mountain priests were marching from the main hall , after performing Goma fire ritual. It’s very impressive!

When we were reached to the top of the mountain, we can’t see any view unfortunately, because of the rain. But we took the group photo there.

We took the lunch at the top and were chatting one of the guest had almost same look as one of our guide member, so we took the photo of two in a good memory.

 Every time I check the number of our guests in head count, I check the wrong guy of two in mistake. We called them they were brothers. That was a nice tour, even though the weather was not so good.