{"id":34622,"date":"2023-12-14T22:02:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T14:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=34622"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:48:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:48:25","slug":"day-07-tokyo-mt-takao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2023\/12\/14\/day-07-tokyo-mt-takao\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 07 @ Tokyo \u2013 Mt. Takao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mt. Takao<\/strong> was our main place of visitation on Day 07 of our 18 day trip. This mountain is relatively near Tokyo, at just 50km west of the city, and is a frequent half-day trip for residents of the city, and also for visitors likewise. Takao is very easy to get to too: we took a train along the Keio Line at Shinjuku Station and got off at the terminal station of Takaosanguchi Station. If you’re on the specific Limited Express, you need not get off at Kitano Station and change platforms to a different train.<\/p>\n

From Takaosanguchi Station, it’s a pleasant 6 minute walk to the base station where tickets are sold for the rides, and there is a small shopping street along the way too. There are several ways to get up to the top of Mt. Takao. You can hike up by one of the seven hiking trails, or take the ropeway or chair lift to the midway point, after which you can rejoin the trails. We opted to go up and then later down via the chair lift, then Trail 1 for the rest of the ascent, and Trail 4 for the descent.<\/p>\n

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Arriving at Takaosanguchi Station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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It’s a scenic walk from the station to Kiyotaki Station where tickets are sold for the rides up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Entrance to the Chair Lift. The platform is a short one minute walk away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Cable Car, but we recommend going with the Chair Lift instead; the ride is a lot of fun!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As these visits go, there were just a handful of other visitors when we reached the base station just before 9AM, where the cable car and chair lift systems start. By the time we left, there were quite a lot more visitors in the area, including groups of what looked like junior high students in sports shirts and pants. There are plenty of vending machines everywhere along the route, and toilet areas are also frequent.<\/p>\n

Getting on and off the chair lifts is a little adventure in itself! Firstly, if you’re carrying a backpack, swing it to the front. You then get on the travelator and the chair lift staff will bring a moving chair to you. Immediately sit your butt in! Getting off is easier: once your chair is above the travelator, feet down and briskly walk away to the left. Do note though: there are no safety harnesses or seat belts. But the chairs are moving at a moderate speed, and there are hand railings for you to hold onto. Beyond that, apply common sense, e.g. don’t swing the chair. In the worst case, it would just be a fall of about a meter or so, and there are safety nets at parts of the ride where the chairs are several meters above the ground.<\/p>\n

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The Chair Lift ropeway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Lovely late autumn colors of red and yellow mixed with the usual green.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sanjo Station, where the Chair Lift ends.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Observation Point a few minutes walk after arriving at Sanjo Station offers a great view of Tokyo from an elevation of around 490m.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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You can’t get lost if you’re on Trail 1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Arriving at Joshin-mon, where various trails interconnect. Trail 1 continues on the left, and Trail 4 is on the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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As the wife quips, Trail 1 is clearly the most civilized one, with paved roads for you to walk. It’s a fairly easy climb, the couple of steep stairs aside, especially around the shrine areas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Several cafes selling snacks and food items along Trail 1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This should be the Yakuo-in Temple area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The top of Mt. Takao itself is another 25 minute walk. We were able to see Mt. Fuji clearly in the distance from the top of Mt. Takao. I reckon we got really lucky! Other visitors to the same mountain remarked that they didn’t get to see Mt. Fuji when they visited just a few days ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A perspective shot to show how expansive the view is.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Taking Trail 4 on our descent. Trail 4 is mostly well-marked dirt trails that are reinforced with wood beams that also mark out the descending steps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Trail 4 is safe to walk in dry weather. There is signage though that warns visitors that the trails are not lit at night, and trying to walk them is extremely dangerous.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Miyama Bridge (Suspension Bridge) about midpoint of Trail 4.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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It’s impossible to get lost while on Trail 1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our visit to Mt. Takao was in all about 4.5 hours, and we took it really slow during the final climb and descent. If you’re visiting, you can probably make it up and down a lot quicker: about 3 hours should be sufficient. The scenery from the top of Mt. Takao was magnificent, but you’d really want to make sure the weather is cooperative first before you make the trip!<\/p>\n

Continued in the next post: returning to Shinjuku!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mt. Takao was our main place of visitation on Day 07 of our 18 day trip. This mountain is relatively near Tokyo, at just 50km west of the city, and is a frequent half-day trip for residents of the city,<\/p>\n

Read More Day 07 @ Tokyo \u2013 Mt. Takao<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-34622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-chubu-kanto-japan-2023","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/blog-2023-japan-day-07-20231214_103506.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34622"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38258,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34622\/revisions\/38258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}