mountain climbing day....

well... today... carolyn, her 'da jie' and me hiked takaosan (takao mountain)...it was a great day for mountain climbing since the weather report said that it will be sunny... the mountain was like 559 m high on the submit i think... anyway.... it's soooo not easy... haa... the begining league of the journey we were debating bout taking which routes to take and by carolyn's theory, we have more energy at the beginning so we should take the longest route... oh well.. we did tat...

route 1, the one we took, is about 3.8 km to the submit... it is SUPPOSED to take 90 mins.. well... with much phototaking, stopping for rest and lunching... we arrived there at around errr...2 plus i think.. we started at like 10 plus... but like said.. we did alot of phototaking alot of resting while only one lunching.. hee... the route worst part is the beginning with those crazily steep slopes... everytime we tranverse a slope... we almost have to take a break.... well... it really din make us feel better when u see grandpas and grandmas 'zooming' past us with their walking sticks... no way am i gonna challenge anyone of them for speed man... haaa....

we reached one of the midway points and had lunch there... the lunch is vegetarian and we suspect that the restuarants in the mountains are all vegetarians.. think it is becos this mountain used to be like a pilgrimage for monks, with its temples and such... anyway... the food really refreshing and u can taste the taste of summer in those dishes... really nice...

we finally reached the submit at around 2 plus.. some of the trees have changed into their autumn dress so it was really pretty... the air is fresh and cooling too sia.. realy felt a sense of accomplishment when we reached there.. haa... the only sad thing is that it was rather foggy in the surrounding areas so we couldn't really see the cities and such.. oh well... but.. it was a good trip up...

what goes up must come down and we too finally went down around 3.30pm.. we took route 6 down.. route 6 is a more reguarly mountainhiking track with no roads or concrete paths, unlike route 1... since it was getting late, the sun was like setting and such, we had to make our way down fast... well.... the beginning part of route 6 is the difficult part with the millions of steps... it was really steep and going down it was really errr.. exciting... the rest of route 6 were across mountain terrains with its mud path.. there was actually this portion where we had to walk in the creek... the water is not too deep but still.. it make the road slippery.... highlights of route 6 is mainly this waterfall... small one though.... haa.. but 'mai hiam bei pai' so we took pictures... but like said, it was getting dark so we decided to like rush through route 6.... we finally reached the bottom at around 5 and left for home...

route 6 is one nice route to take up we think since it has the more natural environment... the trees are such were really pretty and u are in contact with nature... route 1 is the normal route up we suppose since the midway point has the cable car system from the bottom... the worst part of route 1 is the beginning part till the midway point and the cable car effectively skipped those areas....

well.. all in all... Takaosan is a nice mountain to climb.. not easy but the scenery and air is really good... on a good day, i supposed we can see much more from the mountain... it is said that we can see Shinjuku and Yokohama from certain parts of the mountains... i suppose on a good day without the fog we should be able to see Fuji-san too.... well..the close contact with nature is a total opposite with the urban jungle of Tokyo... Takaosan is one of the many mountains in that area so mountainhiking enthusiasts would love it there.. like Carolyn... ^^