Tōkai Shizen Hodō, day 1
8:00 am — Tōkai Shizen Hodō, day 1
Morning started a bit later than I hoped, still within the frames of expectations. Riding a metro with several train changes convinced me yet again that the best way to get your way here is to ask. At Minami-Senju I found a nice guy who pressed all the buttons on the ticket machine for me. And at Nippori another guy saw my doubts and gave me all the directions I needed.
Quite spectacular that even though Tokyo metro is as crowded as the Kyiv one, it is way more friendly and… Quiet! The trains are quiet, the people are silent and the whole atmosphere feels more calm and friendly. Btw, train stops are long enough to get in or out without the need to rush.
P.S. At ticket counters, info centers etc. they even have preprinted answers (in English) for frequently asked questions!
10:00 am — Start
9.45, I’m at Takaosanguchi station, getting my gear ready, resetting gps statistics and starting the adventure.
11:30 am — Mt. Takao
Mt. Takao, about 599m high, a habitat of different animals and birds, guarded by mountain Tengu (just google it, jgi).
12:30 pm — Mt. Shiroyama
Mt. Shiroyama
Nice hike so far
7:00 pm — It could be…
Hachiōji Station (八王子駅)
It could be a boring regular hiking day with a lot of ascending and with a lot of descending and with a lot of traversing between them…
7:30 pm — It is…
Hachiōji Station (八王子駅)
The lodging is the case. Whenever one can not translate the other, they begin to interpret. Sometimes their interpretation is right, and sometimes it is /left/ not… I hope for the first case.
Whenever I see a bigboard depicting a camp tent I am assuming a camping (especially since there is one on the map). Whenever I see on such a bigboard a big red arrow labeled “entrance” I assume this is where I should enter from. Walking around the camping and calling out loud proved there is no one beside me (or they are too scared to come out, or they are waiting for the dark), which left me a bit puzzled. Yet after finding a paper with an announcement at the building right facing a perfect tent spot, with the paper saying what my “camera translator” converted to “get it free”, I assumed I can simply set up a tent and hope for the first case…
8:00 pm — And yet…
極楽パイロット
The wind started to blow strongly. I’m fine with falling leaves. I’m even fine with nuts and stuff like that. Yet when a tree branch fell I’ve got a bit nervous.
And since I’m the only one person here I decided to move my camping spot under this nice reliable-looking roof of the public kitchen.
Now I’m setting up a tent, cooking food from the nearest convenience store I’ve met on my way, and going to sleep while setting an alarm to something like 5am. I want to move out early tomorrow to be able to rest during the day. Today with its late start went really hard.
おやすみなさい