The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Monkeys

Feeling like I had been to most of the places of interest in and around Tokyo, I turned to the students for advice. One place came up that I’d never heard of before, although it’s supposedly a very popular getaway for Tokyo-ites. Mt Takao, at a tiny height of about 600m is known as ‘the Hampton’s of Tokyo’. So last weekend I went.

It was a little too early for the autumnal red leaves, but at a distance of 40 minutes from Shibuya and a measly train fare of £1.50 (crazy, hey!) each way, it’s very accessible.

A cable-car took us a short distance up Takao-San as it’s too steep to walk in parts.

Being a weekday, it was quiet although there were quite a few school groups. Every big trip I’ve been on, primary and secondary school kids are on nature trails – they seem to have a very broad education here. I suppose I did go to Hengistbury Head and Fishbourne.





These stairs religiously number 108 – an important Buddhist symbol. It’s believed that if you trip while climbing them, you’ll have bad luck. If you’re a Buddhist.


Again, it was that little bit too cloudy at the top to see Fuji.



Some red leaves were starting to show.


On the way down, for some unknown reason Keiko and I talked about tongue twisters. I taught her ‘Peter Piper’ but ‘Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry’ is a no-go for the Japanese as they have a problem separating “r’s” and “l’s” in the first place. Keiko taught me a Japanese tongue twister:

nama mugi nama gome nama tamago*



This tree has an interesting history. Supposedly, when people travelled to the shrine on top of the mountain, the roots were growing increasingly in the way of the carriages. The townspeople decided to cut it down, but that night, the trees roots bent round, miraculously, out of harm’s way.



Near the bottom, we went to a monkey park. This year saw the birth of four monkeys and they were extremely excitable; swinging, climbing and jumping on everything, including each other.





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And the day was completed by this Hello Kitty popcorn machine.

*raw wheat, raw rice, raw egg – which is a bit of a tongue-twister in itself!