Ninja is still alive in the 21st century. He has a mission. Friends were killed. He need to do it.
Ninja has a mission.
He is escaping from a crazy gangster "Katakana Hakusyaku" (カタカナ伯爵) . Hakusyaku's golden bike is nano-carbon made, almost 2 kg and he has a gun. Ninja has pink short sword called Katana in Japan. Ninja has short sword because he usually work in the room like in the castle and the ceiling is too low to swing a long one...
Iga and Koga were two big organizations of Ninja in the age of the war. They were all destroyed hundreds ago. Modern people believes that reading textbook in school. But Ninja is alive still. In the mountain, not so many ninja but the survivors live deep in the mountain and take over their special skills.
It's September. Autumn has come. Leaves of Icho trees outside are not yellow yet but the weather is cold. I want long-sleeved shirt and went to Shinjuku 新宿 town.
Tokyo is an amazing city for fashion geeks. Comme des garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Mihara Yasuhiro... these cool fashion brands were born in Tokyo. I have someitems but they are really expensive for me.
No problem, I can get these items in shop RAGTAG in Shinjuku. RAGTAG is the used clothing shop which handles high-fashioned brands. I've visited the shop for over 5 years. all items have always great quality.
The shop is on the 4th floor in a small building near Beams Japan. I found nice shirts of NUMBER (N)INE, tried on and bought it :) It was around 4000 yen. Anyway, Japanese loves all-black style...
After work I sometimes drop in to Shibuya town since I change the train in the station. I see many travelers to Tokyo at Starbucks. There, they take photos of the scramble crossing which is the most popular crossing in the world while we have coffee time. Since the cafe is on the second floor in the building in front of the crossing, there is the best place for photo.
For the first time to visit Tokyo, Shibuya is a great town. Except the crossing Tokyu Hands has all items you want and nobody can be bored there. 109is the fashionable building that teen daughters excite and appreciate her father. Also, If you want to try Nanpa, needless to say, Shibuya is the best place. ( see this blog too: Welcome to Yabai Japanese Slang) But what I want to say is Shibuya is still level one. If you go to next level as Tokyo travelers you better to go inside Yamanote Circle. This circle was the route of the most popular train, JR Yamanote line. In Japan big towns exists near the big station. So popular sightseeing spots are along the circle. (Shibuya is the one) Let me introduce some stations and the sightseeing spots.
Iidabashi is not so special town but you walk a few minutes from the exit and you find Kagurazaka 神楽坂 which is popular for beautiful stone pavement. It's opposite from Shibuya this town remains traditional Tokyo scenary since the Edo era. I know there is a few Geisya house. There are three or more restaurants are registered with the Michelin Guide.
It's popular for Tokyo Dome and Laqua.Tokyo Dome is a baseball stadium of Yomiuri Giants. Laqua is an amusement complex including roller coaster and natural spa. So father and son enjoy all day long together.
Roppongi station
Keyakizaka street
Roppongi has two complex buildings Roppongi hills and Tokyo Midtown including theaters, restaurants and art museums. Also, there is the television station TV Asahi around there. In winter Keyakizaka street has illumination and beautiful.
Okutama 奥多摩 is the western mountains area in Tokyo. It takes around 2.5 hours from Shinjuku by JR train. It surprise us that such great views exist in Tokyo. Last month I climbed Mt. Fuji and searched the next one around Tokyo. Japan is rich nature country and has hundreds of mountains that climbers aim. I read a magazine about climbing and rock-climbing and found that Yarigadake 槍ヶ岳 and Tsurugidake 剱岳 are so exciting but I am still a beginner and they might be one of my lifetime goals. Not now... I know Okutama has several mountains and chose Mt. Takanosu 鷹ノ巣山 as the next mountain of Fuji. The height is 1736 m and I thought it was easy (but I knew that was mistake later...)
My plan follows a map book "山と高原地図" and I take a bus from Okutama station (奥多摩駅) to Higashi-nippara (東日原) and walk to Naka-nippara and then start climbing there. I climb Mt. Takanosu for around 3 hours and take lunch break on the top. I climb down along the ridge to Okutama station. Check trail map. The plan is okay. Let's climb!
I left home at 4:30 am(!) and arrived at JR Okutama station at 7:30. Then I got off a bus at Higashi-Nippara at 8 am and in 10 minutes I found a small entrance to a mountain trail around Naka-nippara. The trail was wet and slippy since the previous day was rain. And it was steep slope. My shoes air magma are probably not a real mountain shoes but I climbed well for a while. I met only four or five parties. One of them seems like a mountaineering club of university. They wore black uniforms and carried very big rucksacks.
Inamuraiwa rocks/稲村岩
The first point I took break is called Inamuraiwa rocks (稲村岩). Here is rocks area and I searched the top. It was exciting like a rock-climbing but scary when I looked down. And suddenly, ohhh, a black snake came up to my hand! I froze for a moment. The snake was surprised too (?) and went somewhere. What if it has poison... Finally I didn't know correctly where was the top.
Greeeeeenn!!
I restarted climbing. It kept steep. It takes 100 minutes to the next point called Hirumeshikuinotawa in my schedule. The view is wonderful. Everything is green. In Mt. Fuji it was too high to live creatures and the view was only boring stones though the sunrise was awesome. Here in Okutama fortunately is a treasure house for nature. Beech trees, rivers, insects, flowers, mushrooms... Haa haa... It was killer steep. It took 130 minutes and arrived at the next point Hirumeshikuinotawa. I am not sure about the name of origin but Hirumeshi means Lunch in Japan. Definitely it is a perfect place to have lunch :D I had Onigiri. I was relieved that the mountaineering club was there.
The top of Mt.Takanosu
I was behind the schedule so I restarted soon. The top of Mt. Takanosu 鷹ノ巣山 is in front of the eyes. I climbed 30 minutes and finally stood on the top. It's 1736 m. I feel great! There was no tree around and I can see only mountains and sky. Guidebook says that I can see Mt.Fuji but I could not.
Then I climbed down along the ridge. It was not so hard and I could ran like a trail running. The only problem is the slippy trail. I slipped a few times and fell on my butt..
I finished off my water (1 litter) at the top and I was so thirsty while climbing down for around three hours. I ate chocolate instead. The trail was not clear and I was worried if I got lost. I have a compass that I bought at Tokyu Hands. I knew that Okutama station is east way and my trail was right.
I got lost?
I came back to Okutama town at 16:30 as schedule. The sky was not dark and I did not use headlight. I bought Cola in vending machine and finished this activity. Okutama has beautiful nature that Tokyo citizens are proud. The next time I will challenge the highest mountain in Okutama Mt. Kumotori 雲取山 (2017 m).
Last weekends I climbed to the top of Mt Fuji for the first time. This was a midnight climbing to see sunrise on the top of Mt.Fuji. Mt.Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan at 3776 m (how tall!) and registered with Unesco World heritagein 2013. I and five friends joined as a team including one person with experience. We had been in the mountain for 15 hours and finally we achieved the goal. That was the perfect view ever in life!
Mt.Fuji is located around 100 km to the west of Tokyo and it takes 2.5 hours by bus. We moved from Tokyo to the fifth station of Mt. Fuji (the fifth station is the base of climbing Mt.Fuji) by bus and arrived at 3 pm. The weather of Mt.Fuji was great as forecast. My plan was to start climbing at 9 pm, so we had more than 5 hours. we had lunch, chatted, took photos or sleeping. We saw a beautiful sunset and then it got dark and cold soon. After all, we started climbing an hour early (later I knew it was good decision).
The fifth station (before climbing)
The route that I chose is the most popular one called Yoshida trail (吉田ルート). While we climbed even at around the fifth station it was hard to see a few meter away without headlight. It was okay we had three lights. When looked up, wow, what a gorgeous sky, millions of stars were spread. I didn't know the names of the stars...
The eight station
It was fine for a while. We walked 30 minutes and took 10 minutes break regularly as plan. However, we obviously slowed down after the 7th station. Because of thin air, coldness, tiredness, we slowed down like 15 mins walk and 15 mins break. When we took break, someone was almost sleeping and I woke him up because I was worried about a mountain sickness. At 2 am it was so cold and wore down jacket. While we walked it was okay but when stopped we shook with cold. At the eighth station Nisshin Cup noodles are sole and it was 600 yen there. (Regularly it's 140 yen. You better to carry it in your bag..)
Sunrise started
I expected that we would arrive on the top at 4 am and wait 30 minutes until sunrise. Google says it takes 6 hours 30 minutes. Oh, we took too much break. The sky got slightly bright beyond clouds around at the ninth station! The last station is left but we need to judge if we climb to the top or see the sunrise here. Our team were tired and chose to sit here considering our current pace. The sky got bright suddenly and the tiny sun came out from cloud. Oh, amazing! We sat there and prepared to take photos. It is breathtakingly beautiful and gorgeous. The perfect view ever! We smiled and shook hands proudly . We took great photos since it was great weather. We were lucky!
Beautiful
After that, we restarted climbing and stood on the top of Mt Fuji since at 8 am. We came back to the fifth station at 11 am. So we finished all-night activity of 15 hours. All climbers slept like babies in the bus. The next day I came to office dragging my feet... In lunch time I ate cup noodles that I didn't in Mt.Fuji. A real life comes back. We work as usual and sometimes smile remembering great memories.
After work I sometimes drop in to Shibuya town since I change the train in the station. I see many travelers to Tokyo at Starbucks. There, they take photos of the scramble crossing which is the most popular crossing in the world while we have coffee time. Since the cafe is on the second floor in the building in front of the crossing, there is the best place for photo.
