Roger and Stephen in Singapore: Autumn in Tokyo

Autumn is a lovely time to be in Tokyo as the weather is much cooler and the days are generally sunny. The street trees and the many parks and gardens have wonderful autumn foliage from the brightest reds of the Japanese maples to the rich yellows of the Ginkgo trees (maidenhair trees).
Tokyo was also gearing up for Christmas with the main street in Ginza having Spruce trees planted in order to be decorated. The high-end stores had elaborate Christmas lighting on the exterior of the stores like their counterparts in Fifth Avenue New York. It was quite interesting to be in department stores where little English is spoken to have Christmas carols sung in English being played.

On the outskirts of Tokyo is Mt Takao which is a very popular spot as it is regarded as a sacred mountain and also a great place to see the rich autumn foliage . Concierge of the hotel suggested not to visit on the weekend due to the crowds and taking their advise a midweek visit was planned.
It was easy to get to on a express train from Tokyo and then it was just a matter of following the crowds of people also visiting mid week. The crowds of people included families, school groups, people with dogs and retired Japanese with walking poles. Mt Takao has about 8 different trails you can walk on and a fernicular and chairlift to take you halfway up the mountain.
As the queues for both the chairlift and funicular were horrendous and would have involved an 2 hours wait the best option was to make the climb up to the top of Mt Takao which takes about 2 hours. The climbing was strenuous at times and I don't think I have had to say 'Konnichiwa' as many times as I did passing the hikers coming down the mountain. During a quiet spot on the trail a large tap - tap sound could be heard and it was coming from a woodpecker building its nest in the tree.
The summit of Mt Takao was extremely busy with picnickers and the eating establishments were doing a very swift trade.
There were about 6 different options for the descend down the mountain and one of the trails passes the Yakuoin shrine where people pray to the mountain gods for good fortune.