Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Fellowship on Mt. Takao

Today, I hiked up a mountain. That sounds so cool. XD Tom, Daan, Daan's friend -Walter, Mitchell, and I decided to hike up Mt. Takao.

There were 6 routes to choose from, each varying in length and scenery. We chose Trail 6, a 3.3 km hike to reach the top at 599m, with an estimated time of 90 minutes. I was hoping we'd go for the 18.5 km climb that goes from Takao to Mt. Jimba, but that would have probably taken a long time ^___^'. Plus, having never hiked before, I think it would have been a huge challenge to start with. I didn't realize how well, tiring, hiking could be. Feeling tired...it's such a strange feeling. x__X
 First we had to find where the start of the route was XD.

 Ah! Here it is.

Tom found a walking stick:
I mean, a magical staff. While hiking, of course we thought of Lord of the Rings. We each gave each other characters. Tom said since I was swift and some other stuff, I would be Legolas. SCORE. HAHA. They were totally thinking of naming me Gimli though...
lolol, but Tom was Gandalf, Daan was Frodo, Walter was Sam, and Mitchell was Aragorn.
Our trail followed a stream that led to a [very wimpy] waterfall [that was mainly covered up by a blue metal wall].
The trail was so beautiful, with gnarled tree roots on the path acting as stairs, forest everywhere, and no outside sounds. It really was like a fantasy world. The weather was perfect too. It was slightly cool, but we were still warm from the hike. The snow on the trees was also melting and a light rain/melted snow drops fell on us throughout the hike.
Fellowship pose:
 And then another hiker was able to take a complete Fellowship picture:
I took the lead from here in which someone said "Oh, but now we have to go 'Kat' pace." lolol. I don't walk that fast...
There were about 2 sets of these stairs:
 "Smile!"
 "Yeah, that's easier said than done."-Tom
haha, he also said he should have joined more of my training classes XD. About a 5 minute walk later, there was a resting area with some awesome views.
 The city:
 Snow up here!
A little bit farther up, there were a few tables where people were eating and a guy making a huge snow man.
But then there was this amazing view of all the mountains, though cloudy here:
 Fuji! I knew I could edit this so you could see it better, haha.
We sat down and ate our snacks at one of the tables. There was also a restaurant with udon, soba, and stuff that we went to after. I didn't know we were going to stop there and was full from my snack so I didn't get anything ^__^'.
One of the workers had made this outside:
 Mitchell had 3 very small, sad, and expensive yakitori. He was so sad when he finished them =[.
 TOM LIKES SOBA:
 DAAN LIKES VEGGIES:
 Restoring our energy before hunting orcs.
We didn't have enough time to go to Mt. Jimba, so we headed down a different trail, Trail 1. It was very different than our trail up. Instead of a dirt path with tree stairs and mud puddles to avoid, there was a steep road and some temples with staircases. There were also cars on this path. I definitely preferred our first path, but this one was still pretty fun.

"What is it, Gandalf?"
 "Pffft, I don't fucking know."

Daan's new house:
 Another temple:

 We were being watched:
 The wood carvings were pretty awesome.
 Definitely a different trail:
Tom liked this thing a lot:
 And he really wanted to see a random monkey exhibit they had, but it cost 400 yen to get in.
So I wanted to ask, "Can we get a fellowship discount?" I mean, we are saving the land. I don't think they would have appreciated that though. What's an elf to do?
 Gandalf and Frodo:
 More pretty views:
 YAYYY!!
Daan and his love for monkeys:
Without the smaller rocks in the road, it would have been really slippery to walk down this trail O__O.

We hiked down really quickly. Today was definitely one of my favorite days. I've wanted to go hiking and on nature adventure for so long. Not that I don't like city adventures, but being surrounded by the foresty area - it's really like nothing else. And especially with awesome people. I'm really going to miss everyone here ()(T.T)().
After hiking, I went home and talked with Timmy, which ended up being 3 hours long. It did not feel like 3 hours.
He discovered the Google Effects app, lololol:
We called Cremer at 4:30 in the morning and I sang "On Eagle's Wings" to him. He stayed for the whole chorus before hanging up. It was really impressive. His wall is decorated with reminders as well.
Poor Cremer...
Tomorrow is probably the last day I can use the Training Center =[. It will be closed on the 10-13th for some exams =[. So sad. D=
But yeah! It's also my going away party, hosted by Okuma. w00t! ^___^

2 comments: