Mount Takao

After waking up at the Mercure, we went up to Tokyo Station where we had tsukemen for breakfast at Rokurinsha. We then took the train to Takaosanguchi, a chairlift partway up Mt. Takao, and then walked up to the summit. We enjoyed the view as well as the Takao-san Yakuo-in before returning to Tokyo. We then went to see the winter illuminations at Tokyo Midtown and Tokyo Midtown Hibiya.

Morning

We woke up at the Mercure Tokyo Haneda Airport just in time to see the sun rise up above the horizon. The Land of the Rising Sun indeed! The weather was pretty good so we decided we would go to 高尾山 Mount Takao today.

We headed out from our room on the 10th floor at around 7:40am.

The two decorative elements on both sides of the door are 門松 Kadomatsu. They are to welcome the 年神 Toshigami, the spirits of the yearly harvest, to receive their blessing for a bountiful new year.

We took the train from 大鳥居駅 Otorii Station on the Keikyu Airport Line to 宝町駅 Takaracho Station on the Toei Asakusa Line. The non-JR transit in this part of Tokyo can be a bit confusing as different trains operated by different companies run on different lines. In this case, trains go from Otorii to Shinagawa and then continue north as a subway.

Another confusing aspect of these trains is that despite the naming, there is no supplemental limited express fare. That differs from JR where the limited express name is only used when an additional limited express fare must be purchased to ride on the train.

Tokyo Station

After getting off at Takaracho Station, we started to walk to the west to reach Tokyo Station. We noticed this building that had quite a bit of greenery on its lower floors. It also had Ginko trees with their beautiful yellow leaves along the street!

We were rather surprised to see so many Ginko trees with their fall foliage still intact! We don’t recall seeing them like this during this time of year in previous visits.

We also noticed many Camellias with more on the way!

After entering the labyrinth known as Tokyo Station, we came across this sign which explains the Dutch influence upon this part of Tokyo, translated to English using Google Translate:

The Dutchman Jan Joosten, the man who gave Yaesu its name, died in 1623.

Jan Joosten (Dutch, Japanese name: Yayousu) was a crew member of the Dutch ship Liefde, which was shipwrecked in Bungo (present-day Oita Prefecture) in 1600, along with William Adams (Japanese name: Miura Anjin) and others.

Jan Joosten was valued as an interpreter by Tokugawa Ieyasu and was given a mansion near present-day Hibiya, near Edo Castle, which is why the area was named Yayosu Riverbank.

"Yasaiga" was later written as "Yaesu," and it first became the name of a town in 1872 (around present-day Marunouchi 1-chome).

After that, when Tokyo Station opened, most of Yaesu-cho became part of the station, but in 1954, the area to the east of Tokyo Station became "Yaesu-cho, Chuo Ward," a name that remains to this day.

Jan Joosten, who married a Japanese woman, obtained a red seal license from the shogunate and engaged in extensive trade, mainly with Southeast Asia.

Furthermore, when the Dutch trading post was opened in Hirado, Nagasaki in 1609, he worked hard to develop trade between Japan and the Netherlands.

Later, Jan Joosten decided to return to Japan, but negotiations to return home were unsuccessful in Batavia (now Jakarta), and he died in a shipwreck on the short voyage to Japan.

It explains the origin of 八重洲 Yaesu, the name of the area on the east side of Tokyo Station. This east side is referred to as the Yaesu side. The ship that Jan Joosten traveled on departed from Rotterdam, which we visited almost two months ago.

We decided to eat here at Tokyo Station before continuing on. It was still relatively early at around 9am so the options were a bit limited. We ended up going to 六厘舎 Rokurinsha, a tsukemen restaurant that we’ve been to before. Unlike our previous visit, we had to wait in a queue for awhile before we were able to eat.

Tsukemen is dipping ramen. The broth and noodles are served in separate bowls. To eat, you pick up some noodles, dip them in the broth, and slurp them up. When you are done with the noodles, additional hot water can be added to the broth so that it can be consumed as soup as it would otherwise be a bit too strong in flavor.

We got two variations of their tsukemen, one had minced pork while the other had more chashu. There were also differences in the flavoring of the broth. Both were good and an excellent breakfast!

Mount Takao

After breakfast, we caught the next JR train on the 中央本線 Chuo Line to Takao Station. There are quite a few options on the Chuo Line ranging from local services to limited express trains. The trip from Tokyo Station to Takao takes just under an hour on a special rapid train which does not require any supplemental fare like the JR limited express trains.

After arriving at Takao, we changed to the Keio Takao Line to travel one stop to 高尾山口駅 Takaosanguchi Station.

We had to wait a few minutes for the next train. This station is at the foothills of the mountains to the west of Tokyo and is the transition from Tokyo’s urban sprawl to the rural mountains.

After arriving at Takaosanguchi Station, we started walking southwest from the station next to the Annai River.

We saw what looks like a shoe or boot cleaning station!

We decided to get some fresh orange juice from an IJOOZ machine. Pretty good and much more affordable compared to trying to get fresh orange juice in the US!

We followed the path to Mount Takao as it turned to the west, next to a small stream.

We passed by a cafe that sells underwear? Or are we misunderstanding the messaging here!

We reached this sign which shows Mount Takao and the various options to reach the summit and beyond. We will take the chairlift up rather than the funicular as the chairlift seems like it should be much more interesting and scenic!

Although the funicular station is at the ticket office, the chairlift station is actually uphill. It can be accessed via stairs.

We weren’t able to photograph the chairlift boarding process as we needed keep moving. It is a bit unusual in that you step onto a conveyor belt which limits the speed differential between you and the chairlift. The actual lift is fixed grip and extremely slow but its likely many guests have never boarded a chairlift before so this design probably makes sense.

The chairlift route goes through mostly forested areas. At places, it is very high off the ground. In these locations, there is netting below as well as paths that are probably intended for maintenance and emergency use. Many of the trees here still held leaves and some had beautiful fall colors.

Getting off the chairlift at the very top of this last section is sort of like boarding. There is a conveyor belt that you step out onto. Its kind of weird and a bit unlike using a normal chairlift at a ski area.

There is a fair sized plaza at the chairlift’s upper station. It does have a view to the east, towards Tokyo, but it is mostly blocked by trees.

We came across a sculpture on a pole. There are others of similar design nearby as well.

There was a bit of fall color as we saw some buildings ahead.

The buildings were the upper terminal of the funicular as well as some dining options and and observation deck atop a small hill. We just took a look at the view from ground level.

We continued on.

We came across another viewpoint. This one was more open with less trees in the way. The view here is to the southwest.

The Mt. Takao Monkey Park and Wild Plant Garden is near the funicular station. We kept on going but did see this monkey outside by the fence that surrounds the park.

The sign by the path below the tree explains the significance of the tree, translated using Google Translate:

City-designated natural monument
Takosugi (octopus cedar)
Location: Takao-cho, Hachioji-shi
(11th street, approach to Mt. Takao)
Date of designation: July 23, 1964

A large cedar tree, 37 meters tall, with a trunk circumference of about 6 meters, and about 450 years old, it is the second largest tree in Mt. Takao after the Tokyo-designated Imorisugi.

The name "Takosugi" comes from the legend that "when the approach to the shrine was opened a long time ago, the roots were getting in the way of the construction, so when they tried to cut it down, the roots bent backwards overnight," and the roots resemble "the legs of an octopus."

March 31, 2012
Hachioji City Board of Education

There is quite a bit here. Some of the additional signage refer to the Octopus Cedar. Presumably, so does the octopus on the stone block.

It wasn’t obvious exactly what the purpose or meaning of the black ball on the right atop the column with dial was. A British Prof in Japan has a bit of an explanation on their blog. It is explained by a worn sign somewhere, which we missed. The sign reads, very roughly translated using Google Translate:

"Six Senses Purification Stone Wheel"

Repentance means to correct the three weak points of the mind that lead to confusion, such as food, putting oneself first, anger, and bad reputations, and to have a repentant mind.

The six senses are pure, and the human senses are filled with the eyes that see things, the nose that smells, the ear that hears sounds, and the senses that are rich in talent, and the colors that judge information are impure. Repent and repent!

After looking into your own heart, you can live your life to the fullest with your body and mind.

This translation is almost certainly pretty poor and missing parts. This explanation was a bit unsatisfactory so after a bit more sleuthing, this page on Live Japan came up titled Tokyo Day Trip: Feel the Power of Mt. Takao! It explains that there are 18 of these Six Sense stations on the mountain. You are supposed to rotate each wheel six times while praying, “repent, repent, clean the six roots”. This results in rotating the wheels 108 times. Wikipedia explains that “the number 108 represents all the possible sensory states that one could experience.”

This would have been good to know at the time! It seemed like the dial should be something that could be rotated but we weren’t sure if that is something we were supposed to do or not!

Continuing on, we came across what seems like Jizo.

This is something to do with preparing for the new year.

We passed through a gate indicating that we are entering the 高尾山薬王院 Takao-san Yakuo-in. This gate is the 浄心門 Joshinmon.

We came across a small shrine as well as another six senses station. These things should have some sort of name but we’re not sure what they’re called.

Also, look closely near the base of the pole closest to the camera!

There was a map of the temple grounds, unfortunately in Japanese only.

We continued on. We passed by a warning to take your trash home with you and to not feed the monkeys! So far, we haven’t seen any monkeys.

We came upon a fork in the road, as well as another six sense station.

We chose the path to the right. We learned last time we were in Kyoto that in this sort of situation the steeper way is referred to as the mens’ path and the easier the womens’.

After arriving at where the two paths join back up, there was another path that went further up but in the direction that we came from. We decided to skip this path for now but to possibly take it later.

We came across some more big trees. A sign explained in English:

Plant
Takaosan no Sugi-Namiki

  The row of cedar trees, planted along the approach to the ground of Takaosan Yakuou-in, is very unique in Tokyo. This row is composed of more than 10 cedar trees with a giant cedar at the beginning. Although the 26th typhoon ravaged in this area on 24th September 1966, these giant trees survived. The giant cedar is 47 m high and has 5.6 m trunk circumference. As these cedars are already old, the trunk of some of them is hollow near the roots.

Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education

These cedars are 杉 Sugi in Japanese. Despite their name in English, it seems that technically they are in the Cypress family rather than a true Cedar.

Also notably, the zig zag paper attached to the trees, which look like lightning bolts, are a Shinto thing, however, this is a Buddhist temple. The mixing of Shinto and Buddhism is pretty normal in Japan.

We arrived at the 山門 Sanmon (Mountain Gate).

We came across two additional six sense stations, one with a carving of what seems to be Mt. Fuji instead of the black sense ball.

Who are they? They look fearsome! They are 天狗 Tengu, literally Sky Dog. They seem to be described as a sort of combination of human, monkey, and bird. There seems to be a differing interpretation of them between Shinto and Buddhist religions in Japan, if Wikipedia is to be believed.

There were two different cleansing stations nearby.

The view looking back at the Sanmon.

There was a seating area here at the side of the mountain with views to the southeast. Unfortunately the haze is really limiting visibility.

The view in the opposite direction is of the temple buildings.

This shrine seems to be for 倶利迦羅 Kurikara, the Dragon King.

Another map depicting the temple. This one doesn’t seem to be to any sort of scale.

We walked up some stairs to reach the next gate, the 仁王門 Niomon. This name identifies the type of gate rather being a specific name.

The gate led into the main area of the temple.

The view to the right.

We walked over to take a closer look, finding a bell.

There were also some shrines as well as additional six senses stations.

We turned around and went in the opposite direction, coming upon some stairs on the left side of the main hall.

The view looking back from the stairs.

We came to a small landing in front of more stairs.

The view from the side showing some of the statues to the side of the stairs.

This was… Maybe up the stairs? Or not? One of the two…

There was another hall atop the stairs. the 権現堂 Gongendo.

There were two fierce looking Tengu next to it, one of which is seen here on the left side of the building.

A small shrine with a six senses station in front. There is a 下駄 Geta (Japanese sandals) theme here. More specifically, these are Tengu Geta. The Tengu Geta are described as having one tooth, the support on the bottom, and are preferred by the Tengu.

There was a stone torii next to the Tengu Geta shrine with an Inari shrine beyond that. Inari shrines seem to be really common in Japan with Kyoto’s famous Fushimi Inari-taisha as the head shrine, which we last visited right before the pandemic.

The Gongendo from the left side showing the intricate carvings on the building.

A stone tablet with art rather than text carved upon it.

We went back to the right side of the Gongendo. This perspective shows the Tengu on the right side of the hall as well as the six senses station in front.

We continued around the Gongendo’s right side.

The path led to an open fence and stairs leading up. This is the way.

The view from atop the stairs.

After going up the stairs, there were more stairs.

We came upon a closed shrine.

And another shrine behind a stone torii.

Is the circular concrete structure a well that has been capped? Or something else?

As we continued past the temple area, we came across a boardwalk running through this portion of the forest. This area is supposed to be inhabited by flying squirrels, which are nocturnal.

We continued on…

We came across a warning sign about lost children! They’re dangerous! Well, the English could probably be better phrased. Apparently this is a place where children are commonly lost.

We came across a small snack stand.

Just beyond and up a few stairs, we have reached the summit area of Mount Takao! It was fairly busy here even though we didn’t really see that many people on our way up. It’s likely people stay here for awhile.

This sign, indicating the elevation at 599.15 meters, was busy with a queue so we took a photo from the side.

Unfortunately still quite a hazy view to the east, towards Tokyo.

We went to the west end of the summit area where we had a view of the many mountains that are further inland. And, in the background, it seems we see Mount Fuji?

It was definitely Mount Fuji! A bit hazy but we’re glad wee were able to see it!

We passed by a kawaii little sculpture.

Returning to the views to the east, we looked around with the telephoto lens. Despite the haze, we were able to find Yokohama. The tallest building visible here is the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Yokohama and formerly the tallest building in Japan.

We could see a cluster of somewhat tall buildings nearby but it was too hazy to identify anything in the distance.

Looking more to the south, its really quite hazy. The horizon should be ocean in this direction. It does seem like we can just barely see the Enoshima Sea Candle on 江の島 Enoshima, an island near Kamakura. We visited Kamakura the last time we were in Japan, back in April, but didn’t visit Enoshima.

It is possible to continue hiking past the peak of Mount Takao but we started to head back.

The view from the temple area was still rather hazy. We captured this photo in a brief moment of sunshine.

Looking around with the telephoto lens, again, we could make out Yokohama in the distance.

Still very hazy looking out to the sea.

We continued heading back…

We stopped for a snack on the way down, just past the temple area.

The path that we skipped earlier was just beyond the snack stand. We decided to walk up to take a look.

This little guy kind of looks like a boy scout? Apparently, that’s what he is! This sculpture was created in 1982 for the 10th anniversary of a tree planting by the Boy Scouts of Japan in Hachioji, which is the city that contains Mount Takao.

There are a few Jizo here.

There are also some tablets along with what seems like it may be an image of 観音 Kannon, or Guanyin in Chinese.

The main thing here is this stupa. There sculptures in front of it, including a pair of Tengu. The fenced area in front of the stupa looks sort of like the area we saw in the main temple area with what we thought looked like a capped well. There is one here too.

We continued back down the way we came. The place where we got our snack is right there at the base of the ramp.

We continued heading back.

Upon reaching the funicular station, we looked around again with the telephoto lens. This time, we were able to see Tokyo to the east! The Tokyo Skytree is visible in the distance, towering above everything else!

We continued on past the funicular station to reach the chairlift. It is possible to take either option back down with the same ticket. However, going up, you must purchase a specific ticket for the initial option that you want to use.

We recorded two short videos of the initial part of the trip down.

The total time to ascend and descend by the chairlift is about 12 minutes. While we didn’t try the funicular, it seems the lift should definitely be the better option when the weather is OK.

The funicular station and ticket office as we headed away.

The flying squirrel is something of a mascot here, though we’re not likely to ever see one in the wild.

While waiting for the train, we noticed this building on the other side of a large torii. It is the 高尾山トリックアート美術館 Mount Takao Trick Art Museum, basically, a museum of optical illusions. There are apparently a number of trick art museums in Japan, possibly as many as 17¹ according to a quick Google search.

We left Takaosanguchi Station not long after 4pm. Although it wasn’t sunset yet, there was less than minutes to go.

Tokyo Midtown

We decided to go to 東京ミッドタウン Tokyo Midtown, a shopping mall near Roppongi. After taking the Keio Takao Line from Takaosanguchi Station, we stayed on the train all the way to 新宿駅 Shinjuku Station. Once there, we took the 大江戸線 Oedo Line to 六本木駅 Roppongi Station.

We spotted this large Netflix advertisement when we arrived at Roppongi! Emily in Paris and Squid Game season 2!

After walking into Tokyo Midtown via the underground passageway directly connected to the station, we decided to have dinner in a restaurant at one of the lower floors, つじ半 Tsujihan. There was a bit of a queue in front of the restaurant and it ended up being a much longer wait than expected.

Tsujihan specializes seafood donburi (rice bowl). The bowls consist mainly of a ball of salmon roe, bluefin tuna, nakaochi (rich flesh scraped from the bones), shrimp, whelk, geoduck clam, squid, herring eggs, and cucumber. Available options add crab, uni, and extra salmon roe. It is also possible to get extra sides of tuna, salmon roe, crab, and uni.

We ordered an extra side of tuna, because one can never have enough Japanese tuna!

We ordered the Matsu, which includes all the optional ingredients.

We also got the Ume which is the basic donburi without any of the optional ingredients. Also available is Take, which adds crab and extra salmon roe, as well as Tokujo which has larger quantities of uni and salmon roe compared to the Matsu.

It was very different from the seafood rice bowls that we’ve had due to the ball of seafood. It was good but hard to taste most of the ingredients.

Sea bream broth is also available for no added charge once you’ve eaten a portion of the bowl.

Tokyo Midtown has illuminations during the sakura and winter seasons. We headed upstairs to reach the Midtown Garden by a pedestrian bridge on the mall’s northeast edge. While in the mall, we could see that a skating rink had been set up outside.

We headed outside and crossed over the road via the pedestrian bridge. Below, we could see some illuminated trees and bushes lining the roadway.

There were some really good ice skaters. Maybe not Olympics good but they were still zipping around and doing things that you normally don’t see during casual ice skating!

The skating rink here is very different from what we saw in 2019 when this area was transformed into the Starlight Garden.

We descended to street level and walked around the skating rink to walk through the park which warps around Tokyo Midtown.

We walked onto another pedestrian overpass on the northwest edge of the mall to take a look at the view along the road below. The best looking area was the illuminated road section between the two overpasses.

We returned to the ground level to continue walking through the park.

The character 木, meaning wood, which is the last character in Roppongi.

After reaching the large street on the southwest side of Tokyo Midtown, we saw this illuminated pillar.

There were some nicely illuminated trees here as well, including more than expected fall foliage that still remains.

We decided to head to 東京ミッドタウン日比谷 Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, a newer development that was completed in 2018, as there are some illuminations present there.

We walked to the south to take the 日比谷線 Hibiya Line from Roppongi Station to 日比谷駅 Hibiya Station. We saw these very tall Ginko trees with all their beautiful fall leaves next to the elevated highway that runs through Roppongi. Although the Oedo Line, which we arrived on, and the Hibiya Line both stop at Roppongi, their platforms are at right angles to each other and only connect near the ends. So, we walked above ground to reach the Hibiya Line platform.

Tokyo Midtown Hibiya

We’ve never been to Tokyo Midtown Hibiya before so we weren’t really sure exactly where to go after arriving at the station.

We ended up finding the right place to go and came across this sign which lists all the winter illuminations here. Unfortunately, the Hibiya Winter Square ended on Christmas.

We went outside to see the Park View Winter Garden. This area an outdoor patio on the 6th floor of the mall and has paths lined with small illuminated shrubs as well as some seating.

The edge of the patio is lined with high glass walls. The view overlooks the Imperial Palace to the north. The palace doesn’t have much illumination at night so it just mostly seems like a dark area surrounded by the bright lights of Tokyo. It would be interesting to come here again during the day to see the palace as most of it can’t be seen from ground level.

There is also this large patch of lights on grass. The lights change color.

Overall its a nice urban outdoor space, though the illuminations aren’t particularly special.

As different as the countries of the world are from each other, at times, it all seems like its the same!

We decided to go down to take a look at ground level. Looking out from the second floor, we could see some illuminated trees outside.

Inside, there were some seats and umbrellas below on the ground floor. The red seats and umbrellas are designed to look like the style of seating that is often found in outdoor garden areas.

After going to the ground floor and walking outside, we discovered the Hibiya Magic Time Illumination. It seems to be rainbow colored stairs.

We walked around a bit, looking at the various illuminated trees. Again, we were surprised at how much fall foliage was present as well as the trees with green leaves.

There is a famous ゴジラ Godzilla statue near the eastern corner of the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya mall. It is out in front of the global headquarters for Toho, the production company behind Godzilla.

We came across Ladurée, the Parisian macaron shop! We had their macarons before in Paris at their small shop by the Tuileries Garden. This location looked more like a large cafe but was already closed for the day.

We took one last look at the illuminated Magic Time stairs before going back inside to return to the Mercure for the evening. From Hibiya Station, we took the 三田線 Mita Line to 三田駅 Mita Station and then a Haneda Airport bound train on the 浅草線 Asakusa Line to return to Otorii.

1. Introducing 5 TrickArt Museums Around Japan!
   https://www.gltjp.com/en/article/item/20010/ ↩︎