It's about …
Takao-san is a popular mountain to the west of Tokyo with a number of hiking tracks and Yakuoin temple, and I’d never been out there. This is surprising given that it’s only an hour from Tokyo and easy to get to, quick to climb, and (supposedly) has views across to Fuji-san. I think what had deterred me from visiting previously was rumours of large crowds and queues of people lining up to get to the summit.
Kawagoe promotes itself as “Little Edo”, with a streetscape that lets us imagine what a town in the Edo period might have looked like. One key stretch of the main street even comes without power lines, which are so often a blight on the Japanese cityscape. This might sound like only a small attention to detail, but it is noticeable way of making the streetscape so much more enjoyable. If only cars were removed from the main historical street as well!
On a beautiful late summer’s Sunday afternoon, I headed out to Kawagoe, a city in neighbouring Saitama Prefecture, with some friends to see what the old town had in store. Although we only had a few hours, we found that the Kita-in temple and the old streetscape definitely warranted our time. Some of the old town has survived progress, the 1923 Kanto earthquake and WW2 bombings, and has now been preserved (including power lines being submerged), with the humble mountain potato (yama-imo) selected to be its souvenir of choice.
My sister Cathy was visiting Japan for nearly a week, and we had a great time catching up in Tokyo while she was here. Unfortunately, she’s already gone home to Australia, but on Sunday, we had a really fun, although rather hot, summer’s day exploring a few sites in Kamakura, followed by Yokohama for dinner.
Japan has the Kita (North) Alps, the Minami (South) Alps, and, according to my Japanese language guidebook called “Tokyo One Day Hiking”, also has the Kamakura Alps. Of course, they’re only about 100 or so metres above sea level, and civilisation almost reaches their peaks. But, they’re forested, have some impressive views of Yokohama and Kamakura, and have lots of charming historical shrines and temples nestled in their foothills. At this time of year, the plum blossoms were starting to come out.
