Saturday, June 24, 2017

Unexpected

Yesterday I went to Mt. Takao to do some hiking.  It was beautiful (and very popular).

They promised views of Mt. Fuji, but it was too cloudy.



It was such a lovely hike; I could have gone on forever.  I ended up hiking at least 16 kilometers, much more than I thought I would.  To get to the last peak I hit, I ended up on a side path that was *much* harder than the main path.  I descended all the way to the bottom of valley between the peaks and switchbacked up the very steep side.  There were fewer people on that path though.  And the top (where I enjoyed a beer served with pickles) was stunning.


There were shrines all along the path where you could pray to the gods for good fortune.  Someone tenderly provides bibs and little knitted hats for them.  



I loved this old worn-down one:


I was not expecting any Go-related adventures on this outing, but I ran across one anyway.  On the way down from Mt. Takao, I chose one of the less-traveled paths.  It was more like the hiking to which I am accustomed in the US (dirt and stone paths, often along a stream bed instead of paved path with ice cream stands every half kilometer).  Even on this path they had educational signs posted every so often.  One of them was this:



I might have slipped a small piece of slate into my pocket as a souvenir...  (Not nearly so bad, I think, as stealing a cobblestone from Blarney Castle.) 

Today we take the Shinkansen to Osaka!  We're headed to Go camp!


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