Mt. Takanosu ( 鷹ノ巣山 )

Start: Okutama, 350m
End: Mt. Takanosu, 1750m
Duration: 5 hours (fast hike / run)
Distance: 24km (both ways, with some excursions)
Difficulty: Easy, but long (from Okutama). The mud tends to be very slippery.
Access: There's a two hour-long 'holiday express' training for Okutama; it was totally full when I got in.
Trailhead: Multiple options, the longest of which is Okutama. There is good bus access to two other heads, one at the lake (south side of mountain) and one near some caves (north side).

Mt. Takanosu, in the clouds

The strange thing about most hikes around Tokyo is that you can just go there by metro. It's a long metro though.

On the way to Okutama

Getting to Okutama is not hard - there is a direct train, passing from most central Tokyo stations, including Tokyo, and Shinjuku. However, the train I took around 8:00 was very crowded and I could only sit towards the end, when most people had disembarked for other destinations (Okutama is the last stop). And I had been wanting to do my Japanese exercises.. anyway. On the way back I actually found a seat, but I left at 15:25 which is early.

First part of the trail

Getting to the mountain top is easy - there are many paths, but I took the longest one, as I wanted to run as much as possible. My Japanese books and 2l of water made this a bit tough. The road was initially moderately steep. In the beginning I met a fellow runner who was tackling the much tougher Kumotori mountain (at 2100m and another 10km further, so that would make it a ~2000m mountain marathon). He seemed to be struggling, which was surprising, given his goal. But then he left me behind in the steeper parts. In retrospect, I shouldn't have done so many deadlifts this week.

A small shrine

Most of the path was in deeply shaded forest, not that it made much difference, as it became very cloudy after a couple of hours. So, no views to Fuji for me.

Mt. Mutsuishi

 This is my first encounter with a small-scale picnic at the top of a mountain. It seems to be popular to do quite serious picnics in Japan. Anyway, this finished the steeper part of the trail. After Mutsuishi, the way becomes considerably flatter until you reach the area around Takanosu.  This is about 5km, and can be done easily in 30min.

Some blossoms

Mt. Takanosu, in the mist

Panorama from Takanosu-san

These trees are really tall

Small shrine

Back in Okutama

Okutama is a town build over a gorge. If you have the time, or use another trailhead, you can visit the nearby lake or some caves. I didn't do that. I ordered some yakodon and beer, which I wolfed down in 10 minutes to catch the train back!