Takaosan

Posted on 2006/04/15 24:05:58 (April 2006).

[Saturday 15th April]
The cherry blossom has pretty much all finished in Tokyo, but thanks to a handy chart in our local station, we were alerted to the fact that on Takaosan, a nearby mountain, it is still only 50% in bloom. I guess this is something to do with the altitude making it cooler or something. So anyway, given that the weather forecast for Sunday was not that great, and by next weekend the best of the blossom might be over, today seemed like the perfect day to visit Takaosan.

We were pretty lazy in the morning, which meant it was about 3 by the time we got to Takaosanguchi, the station for Takaosan. We were only really there about two and a half hours in the end, but still managed to have a very nice time of it. We'd bought lunch on the way, and planned to eat on the top. We got the chair lift on the way up, but the place it deposits you at still leaves about a 45 minute lesiurely stroll to the top. We were quite hungry by that point, so you couldn't exactly call our ascent leisurely, and we arrived at the top in about half that time.

So we enjoyed a very nice hanami, right under big over hanging sakura tree. It'll probably be our last of the season, unless we can get anywhere next weekend that is high up or further North where the bloom comes later.

On the way back down we went via a different route, and took our time (actually a leisurely stroll this time round). Once off the main path that leads to the top, there wasn't a great deal of sakura to look at, but still some very nice woods to walk through. Similar to the last time we came to Takaosan, it really felt like a few hundred miles away from Tokyo, and yet we were under an hour away by train.

We got back home some time around 7, and had a very quiet evening in after that, full of that sort of comfortably tired feeling you get after a nice day out.

Ahhh, back to the "proper" camera again!

Well you'll be mesmerised to know my own particular cherry tree has not yet blossomed. Still, this being in the cold UK - Easter and April and all that having failed to nudge the weather in to anything more than a grey, gusty failure - it will be some time before the blossom shows!

As always - great to do the tourism bit with you! Cheers John!
:))

Posted by Nigel at 2006/04/17 23:02:33.

Yes the "proper" camera is on a totally different plane of existence to the thing in my mobile phone.

The difference is of course though that there has to be a concious effort to take my proper camera with me on a day/night out, whereas my phone goes with me by default. So typically the phone covers those nights out where I went directly from work, but didn't anticipate in the morning that I'd be going anywhere (or just couldn't be bothered to pick up my camera).

Posted by John at 2006/04/18 12:40:53.

Anyway, that aside, I hope you are looking forward to your cherry tree blossoming!

Being a chap I never used to be that into flowers and all that, but in Japan the obsession with cherry blossom is sort of infectious. I guess as much as anything else it is just a signal that spring is finally here, and the weather is about to improve (and then, in the Japanese case, go right to the other silly extreme and be far too hot to bear).

Posted by John at 2006/04/18 12:43:19.

Post a comment