Treasure every meeting.

On July 19th, we had seven guests who are four young ladies and two young men from Philippine and their Japanese friend. The day before yesterday, typhoon which hit the southern Japan had gone to north. So we had a clear sky. But very hot and humid because the typhoon brought hot air and much rain to Japan. For ascent, we got on chair lift it took 12 minutes to middle of Mt.Takao, during the ride, we enjoyed the summer gentle winds.

 

 Almost of them are first time to come to mt. Takao. Along with no-1 trail, we guided prospective view point of Kasumi-dai where we could see Tokyo Sky Tree it's elevation is 634 meters. 
Do you know the altitude of mt. Takao. Yes, it is 599 meters. Tokyo Sky Tree is higher than mt. Takao.
Then we walked along N0-1 trail, explaining Octopus cedar tree, Shimenawa-ornament, Joshinmon-gate, Stone monument of "take no life", male path and female path, meaning of 108 worldly desires, nest of giant flying squirrel, young cedar tree offering plaque,Shitenoumon-gate, Niomon-gate, main hall,gongendo-hall and so on.

 We arrived the summit around 12:40, then took lunch. After then one of our member gave us a picture story show which warned us that failure might happen when we felt at ease.

  
Accordingly for descent we were very careful so that we did not slip on stepping stones and tree's root to get the foot of mountain safely. The guests were very friendly, then we shook hands with each of them. Maybe I might not see them again.
I remembered the phrase of Japanese tea ceremony, "treasure every meeting, for it will never recur."
by comson

Tour of Sep 20th

Since a U.S. family planning to travel Japan had contacted us through our TENGU homepage a few month ago and asked to guide them Mt. Takao, we are expecting the family with TENGU Bingo game for their children.

Blessed with the fine weather, the tour went on smoothly in spite of the people jams. Parents, a son and two daughters are all older for the bingo. But they enjoyed TENG Bingo. So Kimi’s first Bingo trail was successful!

After being lifted up by the cable car, we walked up all the way through Yakuouin Temple to the summit and descend on No.6 trail, which is natural path along the stream.

(By Shirley)

TENGU Tour Activity Report

Five guests of a family from USA, and three Japanese joined 9/20 TENGU Tour.

 On September 20th Mt.Takao was quite crowed like Shinjuku-station, since It was first day of Silver Week ( Autumn Holiday Week), and the weather was fine.
We got on a cable car after waiting 20min. A lot of visitors were walked on the path, so we often checked head counts of the guests

At this time one of TENGU Staff introduced Mt. Takao Bingo game. It was interesting, because our guests could learn Mt. Takao through the game, so it should be continued.
During the hiking we made presentations many guide points for the guests. In addition we chatted with them while walking.
We returned to Kiyotaki-Station at 3:30pm. It was one hour behind the plan, but I was happy because nobody got lost! By Tim

 

Voices from our guest.

Mr. Benedict joined our tour  in September and he had send us nice letter which we would like to share.

Good after noon.

We were very grateful to your team for sparing your time and resources to guide us on the referenced.

The hospitality of the Japanese people was surely demonstrated. Kudos to your team and keep on doing the good job.
Kind regards.
Benedict Mutunga Joseph


Thank you Benedict for joining us.  Good luck with your studying at the graduate school and hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Japan.

By Comson and Cat

Thanks to all of our guests.

Recently the weather in Japan including Tokyo has been unstable, but it was fine only on 5th September like in an eye of typhoon. 

We started Mt. Takao tour with two groups for seven guests around 9:30am, who were from Pakistan,Lebanon, Namibia,Botswana, Kenya and South Africa. 

My group had three guests from Kenyaq and South Africa.

The guests diligently heard our presentation for guide points , and often asked us questions. 

We enjoyed practicing some rituals for praying and purifying, Praying at Jinpen-Daishi do hall, Going up 108 steps on Otoko-zaka, Handing around the stone wheel for purifying the six senses, Cleansing hands and mouth in Temizuya, Passing through the monument circle for realizing wishes,and Praying at the main hall and the main shrine. 

Finally Everybody could be Buddha??

We reached top of the mountain around the noon, but could not see Mt Fuji due to fog. What a pity!! 

Area of the summit was crowded, so we moved to Momiji-.dai and had lunch there. 

During lunch time we had an event to sing "Udagi"in Japanese together with guests. Pretty good!!

 

 

After that we returned while chattering each other. 

At Kiyotaki station we had wrap-up meeting, and took some pictures for all participants. 

At the end we visited new Takao 599 museum where displayed all nature of Mt. Takao visually. 

I believe all of guests enjoyed hiking in Mt. Takao. 

Of course we really had a grand day and international interaction. 

All guests, thanks a lot!! 

By Tim

Intercultural Contact On July 4th

On July 4th we hold a tour with 8 guests from South American nations and Cabo Verde, an island nation near North Africa. It was a disappointment that we didn’t have a nice view, because of a misty weather, but we enjoyed a mysterious atmosphere of Mt,Takao which enshrined a mountain worship god. In this rainy season, here and there beautiful blue hydrangeas were seen.

Our guide talk went on about Yakuo-in temple, Buddhism and Shintoism and Japanese culture. The guests listened to us in a sincere manner, so I questioned one of guests. “What interest you the most about Japan?” “Japan is the nation of a new technology and has a long history. You put value on both of them. You also accept differences of culture and customs of other countries, and respect them. It is a wonderful thing.” 

I was a little surprised to hear such an honest answer, but it reminded me of a goodness of Japan and what we have to pass on to the future.

By Nancy

Report for July 4th Tour

South Americans and a Cabo Verde, join us TENGU today. It was no rain between rain and rain. We were lucky. We enjoyed so much. I explained them the typical feature of Mt. Takao, mixture of Japanese Shinto and Buddhism.By Nao