The view from our hotel in Shinjuku (the Century Southern Tower).

...and again, pointing in a slightly different direction.

Chie in our hotel room.

For breakfast we went to a pan-ya (bread shop).

Here's the "focaccia" I bought from "Peck" in Takashima no chika. It was pleasingly salty.

Having a coffee in the Segafredo in Shinjuku, just after a visit to Bic Camera, where I bought an Eye-Fi card - an SDHC card with a wifi chip in it, that automatically uploads pictures you take to the internet.

This one is going to be filed under the "why did I take this picture?" category. Chie pointed out the crow sitting on top of the sign across the road was probably responsible for the fact all the paint on the top of the sign was worn off. It was oddly fascinating at the time.

I was briefly excited to spot a sign saying "veggie pizza" - assuming it to mean something vegetarian. In reality it wasn't - the top one was something with chicken, the bottom one was something with prawns. Both happened to also contain some form of vegetables.

After a failed attempt for me to find something to eat for lunch in a soba place, I left Chie there and retreated back to our hotel room by way of a convenience store, where I picked up a konbu omasubi, some inari sushi, and Sapporo's autumn beer.

There's the Sapporo Autumn beer up close.

On the train (the Keio line) from Shinjuku to Takaosan. I used to use this line to commute to work when I lived in Japan, so this picture was taken for the sake of nostalgia.

After arriving at Takaosan and meeting up with our friend Yumippe we headed straight for the chair lift to take us half way up the mountain.

I think something went a bit wrong with may camera today - some kind of humidity issue perhaps - and consequently all the pictures today are a bit over exposed.

....anyway here follows the obligatory large set of pictures on the chair lift which goes up Takoasan.

The scary bit - where there's a big ravine underneath the chair lift, covered by this loose net thing.

Still crazily overexposed.

From about this point on you really start to get an impressive view of the mountains below - unfortunately again it's a bit too over exposed / hazy.

Near the top now.

Chie and Yumi-san having just got off the lift.

Taken near the top, where the chair lift goes to - one of several views to be had of the sprawl of the Western suburbs of Tokyo.

There are some temples on the way up. Again though all these pictures today seem to be suffering from this weird lighting problem.

More temple bits etc...

The view from the top of Takaosan. As pretty much always, too ha to really see very much, but I guess you get the general idea.

Chie and Yumi-san having reached the top.

Now in the Takaosan "beer garden" with Tanaka-san and his family. Despite being inside there's still some weird lighting issues here which is a shame, because composition wise this would be rather a nice picture.

I stuck to a slightly strange diet this evening - in addition to beer, I mostly just ate edamame, kimchi and tofu.

Tanaka-san and his son Rintaro-kun, who was rather excited to discover the candy floss machine.

I rather like this picture of me and Rintaro-kun, despite the lighting problems - somehow it managed to make me look younger than usual.

After Tanaka-san and his family left, I went and joined Chie and her friends at their table. They had managed to get hold of a tako-yaki (octopus ball) grill thing. I was rather surprised to see this thing, which was essentially a portable gas hob, being placed on top of a plastic table. Apparently that's fine in Japan.

A rather unsuccessful attempt to take a nighttime picture of the view out over Tokyo from the beer garden atop Takaosan. My camera really wasn't behaving today.

Another weirdly lit picture of ouyr group.

As we were leaving it started to rain somewhat, which had an interesting effect on the atmosphere - somehow I was remined of a Miyazaki film (Sen to Chihiro / Spirited Away).

I rather liked these lanterns.

My camera had decided on representing these scenes with a weird green hue.

The cable car that would take us back down to the base of mount Takao.

On the cable car.

....and now on the train on the way back to Tokyo.

A (not very good) night time view from our hotel room.

A picture of my laptop, mainly taken to test the new Eye-fi card Id bought today.