Our guests were a group of seven (7) school teachers from US and Canada with one (1) US coordinator accompanied by two (2) Japanese organizers and one (1) Japanese school teacher.
TENGU guides included Nabe-san, Massy-san and myself as tour leader.
At the request of our guests, we started the tour much later than usual leaving the Takaosanguchi Station on Keio Line around 2:30 pm.
Briefing before
the tour started
Swallow chicks
welcoming our guests at the eaves of the Takaosanguchi Station building
In fact, due to the unfavorable weather
forecast we had asked our guests to be prepared for the hiking in the rain.
Having said that, looks like our guests had the devil’s luck to see the blue sky as we started the tour．
For the avoidance of doubt, I confirm that none of TENGU members are either rain bringers or fair-weather friends.
Explaining the cleanup campaign at Mt. Takao Explaining Japanese giant flying squirrel
On the way, we took a cable car leaving the cable car Kiyotaki Station at 2:45 pm.
After getting off the cable car at the
Takaosan Station, we followed the Trail 1, which is the front approach to
Yakuo-in Temple, stopping at most of the usual landmarks such as Octopus Cedar
Tree, Joshin-mon Tori-I Gate, Yuki-en (Joyful Garden) where we can see the Thai
style white stupa, the statue of Izuna Daigongen (the current religious ruler
of Mt. Takao) in front of an outdoor fire altar, etc. for guiding before we got
to the precincts of Yakuo-in Temple.
At the
Kasumidai Observation Deck
In front of
legendary Octopus Cedar Tree
Touching the
statue of lucky octopus for diving blessings
At the Jinben-do
dedicated to the founder of Shugendo
Hydrangea in full
bloom along Trail 1
When we went through the Shitenno-mon
(the Gate of Four Heavenly Kings), the final gate before the grounds of
Yakuo-in Temple, it was rather late finding most of the souvenir shops in the
grounds of Yakuo-in Temple were closed.
Moreover, the purification basin had dried up.
So, we had to pray without being purified, which is not good.
At the hall of
Eight Dragon Kings
Some of our guests, however, managed to
get “omikuji” fortune telling papers.
More importantly, most of their fortunes were good ones such as Great Fortune, Good Fortune in the Future, etc.
Getting fortune
telling papers
It is generally understood, however,
that the share of bad fortune including Great Misfortune is 10 – 20% anyway,
which means that many of the Japanese Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples take
the customer friendly approach.
In front of the
Gate of Two Heavenly Kings
Explaining Komainu
(a pair of stone curved guardian lions)
Although we were originally told by the
organizers that Izuna Gongen-do Hall located on the third level of the grounds of
Yakuo-in Temple would be the final destination of this tour, it turned out that
more than the majority of our guests wanted to move on further up to the peak
of the mountain.
In front of
Izuna Gongen-do Hall
So, at that stage, we divided the guests
into two (2) groups so that I took care of a group (Group A) of guests eager to
get to the peak of the mountain and my guide fellows took care of the other
group (Group B) who started going down the mountain from the Izuna Gongen-do
Hall.
Group A got the peak of the mountain around 4:40 pm.
Then, we took a group photo with Mt. Fuji hidden by clouds
in the background.
With the
invisible Mt. Fuji in the background
I suspect that if our guests had behaved
a little better, we should have been able to see the graceful figure of Mt.
Fuji from the peak of the mountain?
Group B went back to the foot of mountain earlier waiting for Group A at the coffee shop.
Group A, taking one of the easier routes (called Fuji-michi) on the way back from the peak of the mountain, managed to catch the cable car leaving Takaosan Station at 5:15 pm.
Both A group and B group took a group photo respectively in front of the cable car Kiyotaki Station
Group photo of Group A Group photo of Group B
Group A and Group B got together around
5:30 pm moving on to the Takaosanguchi Station and took the final entire group
photo at 5:40 pm which was the end of the tour
In front of
Takaosanguchi Station
Thanks to the unfavorable weather
forecast combined with the late departure, Mt. Takao was much less crowed than
usual, which was good for our guests.
Dated: 28 June 2025
Written by Shiro
