It’s finally autumn, and we needed go to a place that shows proof of it!

Last Monday was a national holiday. A labour and thanksgiving sort of day. Thanks to the CNN link Mama sent me, travel advertisement boards all over the train stations and the beautiful weather forecast, we decided to go to Mt Takao.

It’s less than an hour’s train ride from Shinjuku via the Keio line, which was the line Dzaid and I used to travel to school for the first 3 months in Japan. If you’re in the area, you can find out more about how to get there in this WikiTravel page.

This is the base of the mountain near the train station. Looking good already!

Now this is where the headache starts! There are seven paths leading to the peak of Mt Takao and you gotta choose two, one for ascent and another for descent. Most travel sites don’t give out recommendations so we had to decide for ourselves.

Dango daikazoku! Don’t they just look delicious!

We were not even close to climbing the mountain and we could already see the autumn colours.

Lazy people lining up to take the cable car, which takes you halfway up the mountain. No thanks, we strong!

For challenge’s sake, we took the TOUGHEST path of the seven. It started out with madness; we had to climb high steps and steep slopes.

It was refreshingly different from my earlier Mt Fuji climb. Instead of volcanic ash and rocks, I see trees, dried leaves and brown soil. A bit close to home, minus the leeches and insect trouble (hooray!).

Now this is what I hate about camera flash. I can see myself clearly, but it looks as if I photoshopped myself into the picture!

Since this is the toughest path to climb, there were more people descending. We actually felt stupid for a while :P But thanks to this, I now have a six-pack stomach *flex*

Mama taking the occasional rest…

…while drinking hot tea below the shade. This is the life!

We have reached the resting area, where you can relax, use a (smelly) restroom…

…and enjoy the breathtaking view! According to a signboard, Shinjuku (where we live) is visible right in the middle of this picture, at the farthest point of the landscape.

No time to waste though, not much daytime left to reach the peak. We quickly climbed up these stairs to continue our journey.

There were bridges along the path that overlook a bunch of different-coloured leaves.

And now we have reached the final boss! Reminds me of the Batu Caves steps.

Took a little rest midway…

…and voila! It’s as if the mountain shouted “Congrats, now here’s your reward!”. Simply beautiful (the leaves, btw).

It was kinda crowded, but I was too drowned in the breathtaking view to let it bother me.

We came at just the right time. Few weeks earlier or later and we might miss out on all this.

I just realized something, I don’t have a picture of myself with the leaves on my camera. Rats!

To top it all off, we were blessed with the sight of a beautiful sunset.

Same picture but photoshopped… just kidding.

Oh almost forgot to take this! The proof to show that we have reached the peak of Mt Takao @ 600 metres.

As much as we’d like to stay, it’s time to descend the mountain.

Uhoh, it’s getting rather dark. Better hurry.

After a while, it got so dark that our eyes had to readjust to the darkness. Didn’t bring a torchlight, ehek. Mama was a little freaked out but there were other people walking as well, so I wasn’t too worried.

This is how it was without flash. Eek, I’m getting goosebumps just staring at this pic! Don’t worry, it’s not an animated gif :)

Midway through the descent, we were treated with a lovely view of city lights. It was nice to see such a romantic sight… with… my mom…..