Hiking Ooyama and Takamizusanyama

June 2007

Two hikes. The first to Ooyama (big mountain) close to Tanzawa. The second Takamizusanyama (three high-water mountains) close to Mitake-san.


This being the first real hike this year, we thought it would be a good idea to take the cable car up for the first part of the hike.


Instead of heading straight to the top (touristic route) we decided to take a slightly longer way and see a waterfall.


... and a wild dragon.


And like almost every hike in japan, also this had a lot of steps to climb. In contrast with Europe, where you normally zig-zag up the mountain, the japanese really seem to think stairs are more convenient. We are not convinced yet.


Can you find Mt. Fuji? We couldn't... although it should be visible from there, there was too much moist in the air for a clear view.


yeah... very japanese style hiking...


The second hike was the takamizusanyama route. It was a hot day, but once in the forest it was very nice and relatively cool. Not too steep and maybe most important: almost no stairs! All together a great hike. Pretty soon we came to a shrine with a lot of smaller sub-shrines.

















Back in the valley, it was time to relax and put the feet in the river...