I hiked a mountain in class; what did you do today?

Most people know that I’m not really an outdoors type of person. The only camping I’ve done was in Rainman’s backyard back in middle school one night… and later on we ended up going back inside. So, it’s a bit of a surprise both to myself and maybe others that I voted to go on a field trip to Japan’s Takaosan (高尾山).

This was my first time seeing Mt. Fuji in person. I’m glad we climbed 高尾山 and not Fuji.

Located about an hour away from Shibuya Station, on a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji from this mountain. And that’s just what we did. A selection of pictures follows, but for ALL of the pictures, visit my smugmug. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the white balance set correctly on my camera, so I had to correct in post. And I was lazy, so a lot of it still looks way too blue.

On our way down, we stopped here. I believe this is a 薬王院, or a yakuouin. I think it’s related to Buddha, but I’m not positive.

It’s a mountain 599 meters high. There are multiple trails/paths to get to the top and back down to the bottom. Our path up was 3.3 kilometers (2.05 miles) up and 3.8 km (2.36 mi) down.

Don’t remember what this was, but again located on the course down.

Now, I’m not obese or anything, but I am slightly out of shape. I knew I’d tire pretty quickly, but I didn’t expect to be so out of tired after five minutes!

Here are some 天狗 (tenga), or demon goblins.

Still, it was a great time, and I’m really glad I was able to do something “outdoorsy.”

People wrote their wishes and prayers here on wooden placards called 絵馬, or ema. When you come across these, messages in other languages can often be spotted. I saw one in Korean here.

But roughing it it in the wild still isn’t something I plan to make a habit of.

A parting view of 紅葉, or kouyou. Leaves turning their autumn colors.

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