"Climbing" Tskuba-san

Last weekend on Sunday (Nov. 8th) Tessa and I climbed Mt. Tsukuba. They call it "Tsukuba-san" (kinda like "scuba-sahn"), the "san" suffix being the same they apply to people to denote honor or reverence. Basically they call it Mr. Tsukuba. Anyways, while it's not the world famous Mt. Fuji, it is locally quite famous, and we have been trying to get a chance to get out there to climb it for a while now. It is 2,877 feet high (for some really interesting historical info go here). It's almost a two hour drive from the trail head, so we left home at about 9:30 am to make a day of it. I have to admit that when we got to the base of the mountain, we were a little intimidated. Both of us have gotten a bit out of shape recently, not having much to do but hole ourselves up in our apartment, so the looming mountain looked quite daunting. We decided that this time we would forgo the actual hiking up the mountain trail in favor of the cable car that takes you up to the middle of the two peaks. Mt. Tsukuba has two peaks, a male and a female side. The cable car is angled like the steep side of the mountain and took us straight up the steep (35% grade at some points) mountainside in ten minutes. Once the cable car got us to the middle of the two peaks, we picked the male side and began the hike up. It was strenuous, but not too far. At the top there was a small Shinto shrine, and we witnessed some people praying at it. Unfortunately, it was a bit foggy at the top, so our view was a bit obscured. Usually one can have a panoramic view of the whole Kanto plane, but alas. Maybe next time. On our way down the peak, we randomly ran into our coordinator from our company. She and her group had hiked all the way up the mountain (next time, I vowed) and poked fun at us for taking the cable car up. We then decided to hike down the mountain, which we did. It took about an hour and a half with rests, and it really wasn't easy. The trail was quite rocky and rooty from all of the trees, but we made it. So yeah, we may not have climbed *up* the mountain, but we climbed *down* it; that has to count for something, right? I'll answer that question, yes, yes it does. The following three days, Tessa's and my legs were INCREDIBLY sore (did I mention we were out of shape?). Walking up stairs was tough, but walking down them was torturous. I also heard later from seasoned Tsukuba-san scalers that going down was more difficult, so there you go. Anyways, we got some great pictures, this area of Japan is really beautiful in the fall, and not too cold yet too. The first picture is from my iPhone of a sunset over Lake Kasumigaura, and you can see Mt. Tsukuba in the distance. I took it about a month ago, but I added it here to give a bit of perspective. Enjoy!

Beautiful sunset. Mt. Tsukuba is left of center in this shot.



The beautiful fall mountainside.

I am conquering Mt. Tsukuba!

Scaling the rocks.

The shrine at the top of the male peak.


Beautiful fall colors at the top of the male peak.


The view of the cable car tracks down the mountainside.

Action shot of the cable car moving down the mountain.