Blog for May22 Tour

Not using cable car is a theme for today.

And, we took the trail No.6 bearing in mind that we might go farther up to another peak called Kobotoke-Shiroyama reachable by a walk of some one hour from Mt. Takao.

Our guest, Ms. Connie a lady from Philippines, has a plan to climb up Mt. Fuji during her next visit to our country (the forth of her career), and this was a training for that event, a sort of.

So, we tried to walk a bit faster, or tried not to stop so often for guiding, though we were often forced to stop because of a big group of pupils of primary school of no less than 200.

She has a very good character of out-going, and was very talkative and even seemed to have no moment of silence.

So, my colleague Nosan and I had a quite easy time all day long.

Though we couldn’t reach the summit of Kobotoke-Shiroyama, and compromised at a plateau called Momiji-dai, she could complete the walking up and down all the way.

I thought it was quite something for her only on the second day of her journey after a long flight.

Thank you, and congratulations, Ms. Connie.         (by Sumo)

The tour on the 24th May

The tour on the 24th May,2018

Today’s guests were about 30 people, visiting Japan from all over the world for some important conference in Tokyo, who had decided to visit Mt.Takao for a break between their busy conference schedule. 

We, 4 guides for today’s tour, were waiting anxiously for the guests at Takaosanguchi railway station under ominous black clouds with occasional lightning and thunder.

They arrived at 2pm as scheduled and after introducing ourselves and giving them necessary advice for the tour, we started for the cable car station, when it began to rain.

Though they were well prepared for the rain, having vinyl rain coat, we were worried if we could give them an enjoyable tour.

The sky looked more and more ominous and when we arrived at the cable car station, we were told that the service had been suspended due to possible lightning and had to wait until the thunder cloud went away.

After 15minutes or so, the service resumed and we were in the cable car. When we arrived at the upper station, we found the black clouds had disappeared and the weather was rapidly improving. There, the guests were divided into 4 groups, each led by one of the 4 guides and the 4 groups started the tour separately.

A Chinese guest asked me if there was any guide who speaks Chinese but I was sorry that we are TENGU, Takaosan English Volunteer Guide Club!  

Because the starting time was late today (usually it is 9:30am), we planned to make Yakuoin-Temple our destination, without usual walk up to the top of the mountain. Thanks to the weather, not so many visitors were around, making it possible for us to proceed with the tour on our own pace and rather effectively in a limited time.

By the time when we arrived at Yakuoin-Temple, the sky was blue and even the sun was shining and we all, guests and us guides, were enjoying the beautiful fresh green all around.

Though October and November are the most popular season for Mt.Takao, May is equally splendid time to visit the mountain.

Having said this, I thought of beautiful scenery of the mountain in summer and winter time and I tell you that you will never be disappointed whatever time of the year you visit here. Come and see Mt.Takao not once but many times in different season!

We took the cable car down and arrived back at the lower station at 4:30 pm, 30minutes later than the scheduled time but it’s not bad, considering the circumstance.

We broke up there after taking group photo. Some of the guests were going to the public hot spa nearby. It must be the first experience for many of them and I am interested to know their impression.

We thank you, all the guests to join our tour and hope it mentally and physically refreshed you, who were to work hard the next day.

Written by Nori  

Report of JICA tour on May 5th, 2018

The pleasant wind, the brilliant sunlight and the fresh green leaves made us all feel happy.On such a beautiful day, we had 3 guests, lovely young ladies from JICA. “May 5th” is the Children’s Day in Japan and is also a national holiday. There were already so many hikers on the foot when we started the tour. Despite congestion, we were able to get on the cable car with little waiting time. 

Then we took Trail No.1 and headed to the summit via Yakuo-in temple. In front of the Wild Grass Garden, one of the guides introduced a famous HAIKU (Japanese shortest style of poems) sang about violets by Basho Matsuo. Mt. Takao is famous as a mountain of violets. The guests seemed to be impressed by it. 

We reached the top at 12:30 and fortunately we found vacant tables for lunch. After lunch, another guide gave a short lesson of ORIGAMI to the guests. She taught them how to fold “Japanese traditional helmet” which is a symbol for boys on Children’s Day. They were good at folding origami!  

For our return, we took Fujimichi way and chair lifts. While waiting for our turn to ride the chair lifts, we enjoyed eating ice cream or dumplings and chatting with guests. There we also took a photo with them together. Thanks to our wonderful guests, we had a great time with them. 

Written by Sally

The private tour on May 1. 2018

On 1^st in May, we had guests from Australia. We got on the cable car and enjoyed its steepest part as always.

   Japanese beech tree close to the upper cable car station was bearing a lot of fruits or nuts.
We walked under sunshine filtering through various kinds of  leaves.

 She said that she visited Kongobuji temple on Mt. Koya which is same of  religion of Yakuo-in temple on Mt. Takao.  And we were surprised that she knew “ Kachikachiyama” Japanese fairly tale of the funny raccooon dog.

We took lunch at Momiji-dai further to the top. And descending by trail 4. During the day, we spent in the greenery of the mountain forest.                      Written by Kate

The private tour on April 21,2018

Today we had two guests from USA (Houston). They are working colleague in the same BBQ restaurant there, so we had a lot of talk about Japanese food. They liked Sushi, but they were not good to use chopsticks.

We got on the cable car that is the steepest in Japan, so they said it’s like a roller coaster in amusement park. We pretended to release hands hold, Yippee ! When we reached to Takao BBQ garden. They were so excited because they work in a BBQ restaurant, as mentioned above. On the observation deck there, we had really nice view.

At Yakuo-in temple, we saw mountain priests and their fire ritual. They cast a question, whether or not a priest can get married. We explained now Buddhism society is modernized, so they can get married. They live in the temple outside Mt. Takao and commute to here. Sometimes they drive a car.

 At the top of mountain, we could see Mt. Fuji, and it’s so nice weather and so warm. We are so lucky.

We got down by the chair lift、enjoying the grand view. They seemed to have enjoyed the tour very much and we, too, enjoyed the tour with them.

 (by Guchi)

A very unique tour on the 15th April, 2018

Today’s tour was a very unique one because I did not have to explain about things nor to speak English. 

The guests were from a TV production company in Holland who came to Mt. Takao to make a documentary with the theme of “Japanese love of nature”.

They had contacted us wanting to hike the mountain with our elderly member(s) to interview them on the way.

The guests of 6 consisted of a lady Director, a male interviewer, a cameraman, all from Holland, a Dutch and an American gentlemen, who are residents in Japan and helped the Dutch crew to make various arrangements here and a Japanese lady who was a friend of the crew and to be interviewed as one of hikers. 

I felt relaxed when we were told to speak Japanese and no English. Actually I found that the interviewer (once lived in Saitama, Japan) and the two Japanese residents speak fluent Japanese. 

We met them at the Takaosanguchi station around 9:30 and after discussing the day’s plan, we decided to take the cable car up, then going to the top via Trail no.1 and going down via Trail no.4 and no.1, coming back at the Kiyotaki Station at the foot of the mountain by the chair lift. 

Before we set out, they fixed me (and the Japanese lady) with a microphone and a recorder

I was a bit nervous about the interview because I had been told that they were interested in the cultural/social background of our love of nature and I didn’t know how to answer but once interview started, I did not feel that I was being interviewed and instead, found myself enjoying the conversation with a new friend. 

I had totally forgotten about the microphone and the recorder and hope I didn’t mention anything inappropriate.

The interviewer was a handsome young man as tall as 186cm. Dutch people are known to be tall and according to him, the average height of Dutch male is 183cm and that of female is 174-5 cm. I asked him what kind of food makes Dutch people so tall, then he said maybe kale was the answer. I should have known that much earlier!

Though we were worried about the weather, the tour went well as scheduled without rain. 

After lunch at the noodle restaurant at the top, we started going down to the chairlift station 

I must mention that Mark, the Cameraman did his hard job very well, running ahead of us all the time, carrying heavy equipment. Thank you and well done, Mark!

According to them, they will edit the shooting this time to 15minutes program and hopefully sell it to Dutch National TV.

So broadcasting the program on National TV has not yet been guaranteed, but seeing and joining their effort here today, I really hope they will be successful.

Thank you, all of you. It was a great and enjoyable experience for me and thank you for the delicious waffle you gave me as a souvenir from Holland. 

Written by Nori

Report on the regular tour of the 15th April 2018

A guest for April regular tour was a young couple from Malaysia. They were using 15 days holidays for going around Tokyo and found Mt, Takao on the top of the list for Hachioji tourism. Unfortunately it had been raining since the previous night and still raining in that morning. It was a big disappointment for me kept checking the weather forecast for a week. However the rain was getting weak gradually and almost stopped by the time I arrived at Mt, Takao. Is it a miracle? No, I knew because we had a “hare onna” (a women brings the sun wherever she goes) in our member and her power was strong enough to send away rain! 

When we started to walk toward the Yakuoin Temple, the pass was getting covered with a white mist. How mysterious! It looked like proving the words “this mountain is filled with spirit”

The guest’s main plan was to see senbonzakura in Icchodaira but it was already over so we decided to go down from the top after lunch. There remained some yaezakura (double-flowered cherry tree) or sidarezakura (weeping cherry tree) on the way and they enjoyed taking photos of them.

In addition to our tour, an exciting event for us was going on. Dutch national TV asked TENGU to help make their program. One of the members of our club offered the help and we hiked together. Our hare woman was also interviewed and filmed. It seemed to be well done.

Before the tour, I had a lot of worry about weather or so on. But it turned to be a nice day thanks to the guest whose smile was impressing and my colleague. I asked the guest if they cared about rain on the special day. They said “Not so much. Because we have some rain almost every day in Malaysia” I learned I should take it easy and things go well.  

Nancy