On Thursday, I got a call from my buddy Jon, who had recently returned from the states, proposing that he, Josh and I went to mount Mitake and Ohdake. I accepted the offer, expecting a hillside stroll. The next day, they called with the transportation details and such. Saturday was the day of the hike, and the day of hiking was Saturday. The hike that was on Saturday had been hiked on the day before Sunday.

*cough*

Saturday morning, I woke up at seven o'crock, took a shower, and headed out to Tachikawa to meet Jon and Josh. The entire train ride took about an hour and a half and we used that time to catch up and eat rice crackers. From Mitake station, we rode the bus, which took us to the bottom of a steep hill, at the top of which was a cable car station. We took the cable car up to Mitake mountain. We ate a quick lunch at the tiny tourist nitch and started to make our way through the small town, following the string of lanterns.

Eventually, the lanterns disappeared and the steps turned into dirt paths. They got steep and rocky. After quite a few snack breaks, we reached the look-out point, the psuedo summit of Ohdake-san. The last part of the ascent was more like rock climing than hiking and, at the top, we took a well deserved break. Certain that that would be the last of our major uphill worries, we followed the sign that pointed towards the path to Okutama station.

The next sign we approached, after a series of up and downhill paths, suddenly had the name of another mountain in front of Okutama station. In a fit of groaning, we reached the next summit, took another substantial breather, and followed the sign towards Okutama once again. We found ourselves in a similar situation, eventually at another small peak where there were a couple of tiny stone shrines. Other than the occasional hiker, it seemed like a place to find a Buddhist monk attempting to reach Nirvana. After much uphill exhaustion and downhill pain, we made it to the tiny town, had dinner at a small, shit-hole of a restaurant, and made our way home.

Converse Hightops + rocky terrain + 3(mountain peaks) x (12 kilometers + 6.5 hrs) = a sore body

Back home, I practiced shamisen a bit and quickly made my way into bed. I was tired, no questions asked, but it was impossible to get comfortable with all of the aching muscles and whatnot. After a lot of thrashing around, I was out cold.

Yup. My mountain climing adventure. See pictures here and here