After having gone hiking in the northern alps 2 times alone, I finaly managed to persuade some friends to go hiking with me. We ended up being 5 guys and 6 girls. Since we were bringing girls who were not used to hiking, we decided to take an easy trail.
We met in Shinjuku station a Saturday morning around 8 o'clock and took a train out to Mitake station in Oku-tama. Our first goal was Mitake-san. After everyone had visited the toilet, we started walking down the road in the direction of Mitake-san. According to the map, it would be a 10-15 mins. walk to the trail to Mitake-san, so we did not want to take the bus. After 10-15 mins. walk, and still being on the same road nowhere close to the trail, we realized that we were heading in the wrong direction. After having walked around for a while, we finaly found the trail to Mitake-san. Next to the trail was a cable car also leading up to Mitake-san, which we got on, and we were up in 5 mins.
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After getting off the cable car we took a little break and enjoyed the view. From there we continued up to the top of Mitake-san, and on the way we saw the first and only tree in fall colors.
Since the cable car did not go all the way to the top of Mitake-san, we would have to walk the rest of the way. The walk up to the top is not a tough one, but none the less, the speed went considerably down. We finaly made it to the top where we took another break. From the top we could see Hinode-san, which would be our next goal.
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On the top of Hinode-san we took a lunch break. Some of the girls had not really gone hiking before and were already quite tired. The weather was fine, so we unpacked our lunch in the sun, and opened my one bottle of red wine. Funny how ordinary wine always tastes great on top of a mountian. Everyone had brought all kinds of food, except for me. I was lucky to get some bread and cheese from the girls, which went well with the wine.
We take photos before we start our descent down towards Ome and the train. The descent is quite long, but the hike is an easy one.
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We finally get all the way down after Yoko slipped twice in the mud right in front of Mike. Yoko managed to live up to her reputation as a "clumpsy girl", and since mike didn't catch her when she slipped, he can hardly be said to be a gentleman.
So we are standing at the end of the trail and I am getting ready to take the final photo of everyone after our hike, when this old dude looking quite drunk comes by on his bicycle. He of course stops right in front of us so I can't take a photo without getting him in the middle. He doesn't seem to notice that half of the group are foreigners, but starts chatting to everyone. He finally gets back on his bicycle, and just as he is about to take off, he tips over right in front of us. I guess he didn't just look drunk, but he really was drunk.