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