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Tokyo's own mountain, fifty minutes from Shinjuku: forest trails beside a stream and a waterfall, a mountain temple guarded by long-nosed tengu, a summit with Fuji on the horizon, and a hot spring at the station for the way home.
Takao-san is one of the most climbed mountains in the world, thanks to its train station at the foot and its forest full of old cedars, protected for centuries as temple land.
Several numbered trails climb its 599 metres. Trail 1 is the paved pilgrim route, about 90 minutes up, past the giant "octopus cedar", the monkey park and Yakuō-in, a mountain temple of the Shugendō tradition with gilded halls and statues of tengu, the winged mountain spirits. Trail 6 is the nature route: a path that follows a stream through the forest, past the small Biwa waterfall, and up stepping stones in the streambed, about two hours to the top.
On clear mornings from October to February, Fuji appears above the hills from the summit. A cable car and a chairlift cover the first third if you want to save your legs. The onsen at the station is the right way down.
The best combination: forest and stream on the way up, temple on the way down.
From the station, walk past the souvenir shops and soba restaurants to the cable-car station, and take the path to the left signed for Trail 6.
The path follows a stream through cedar and broadleaf forest, past the Biwa waterfall, then climbs on stepping stones in the streambed itself before zigzagging to the ridge.
The summit plateau has viewing decks, tea houses and, on clear days, Mount Fuji to the west. Eat soba or dango at a summit stall.
Descend Trail 1 through Yakuō-in's gates and halls, past the octopus cedar and the cable-car top station, and walk or ride down to the station and the onsen.
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Keio line from Shinjuku to Takaosanguchi takes about 50 minutes and costs around ¥430. Semi-special express trains are fastest.
The cable car and chairlift cost about ¥490 one way and save about 300 metres of climbing.
Keio Takaosan Onsen Gokurakuyu is right by the station: soak, then catch the train home.
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A shrine village, mossy boulders and waterfalls.
The Yoshida trail to sunrise on the crater rim.
Edo cobbles in Hakone and Zen trails in Kamakura.
A ferry, a cliff Buddha and the Hell Peek.
Wikimedia Commons photographs are used under their licences; Pexels photographs under the Pexels licence.
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