One of the things I wanted to do while in Japan was to get out of the city and into the countryside. Well maybe not out into the remote countryside but at least to the areas surrounding the city. After reading up for a while I decided to go up Mount Mitake. I say go up as there is a “cable car” (which would appear to be a funicular railway) but at the top there are various hikes to different peaks and there is also a shrine to take a look at.

Once I got there I discovered that the cable car wasn’t working (due to open the following Wednesday) so it was either go home with my tail between my legs or walk up the mountain (a feat that would take, I was reliably informed, between 1.5 and 2 hours). So off I set up the mountain. Along the way each of the trees you pass are numbered. They count down from 800 to motivate/goad(delete as appropriate) you. This is the path I took:

It may not be obvious but this is actually really steep. I was required to take baby steps at the worst bits. Mount Mitake was very quiet (no doubt due to the lack of working cable car) so I was largely on my own with a few passers by here and there. Walking up this mountain all alone I did feel a little like a character from a Murukami novel. Well, I did until a guy on his bicycle overtook me. I guessed he must have been on EPO given how steep the path is.

Half way up is this little shrine (presumably so you can pray that you get to the top).

I went to a cafe/restaurant at the top village for some udon soup and generally pottered about. I didn’t do any of the treks at the top as I had planned as I was pretty knackered. I did have a look at the shrine (which was further up the mountain just above the village).

This was the gate at the top of the village:

The main gate to the shrine was more substantial:

The main shrine building was covered in scaffolding but this rather pretty building was part of the shrine complex: