At the dinner I went to on Thursday night, one girl asked us if we wanted to join her and her friends on a hike at Mitake. I looked on the map and saw that it would take me almost 2 hours just to get there. I was a bit hesitant because of how far it was. Then I remembered that my mother`s friend told me that she went to Mitake last weekend and the autumn foliage was really beautiful. I didn`t have plans for the day and it was a national holiday, so I decided to join. We arrived to Mitake station at noon and I expected to hike right away. Instead we went for lunch. We took some pictures and then we walked on a suspension bridge to get to the cable car station. The cable car took some time and was a bit steep, but definitely not as steep as the cable car at Mt. Takao. We walked around and the views were really beautiful. It was a bit cold though. Definitely the coldest I have felt in Japan this time around. When it was time to leave (it was a bit dark at this point) myself and one other girl decided that since we didn`t do any hiking that day that we would run down the hill and meet the others at the cable car station. We decided to run down the hill because it would take us much longer than the girls taking the cable car. It was quite an experience to run down the mountain. I think we probably scared the person who was in front of us because when we got close he started to run for dear life. We got to the cable car station and didn`t see the girls. My friend called them and they were still in line at the top of the mountain! We had to wait 15 minutes for them to arrive. The girl who ran down the mountain with me decided she wanted to run/walk back to the train station. I decided to join her while the others took a bus back. We even did standing yoga on the suspension bridge. We met the girls at a place where the town lit up the autumn foliage under lights. It was quite nice. Then we went to a small local izakaya (Japanese pub). The food was good and the main chef was really nice. We had a great time and it was a good way to end a great day.
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| the group minus 1 |
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| nice red leaves with the river below |
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| Japan |
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| on the suspension bridge |
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| waiting for the cable car |
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| nice views |
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| Canada |
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| mythical duck creature |
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| not sure what the giant stone slabs were |
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| hiding in one of the steps |
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| nice foliage |
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| red maple leaves |
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| the main shrine |
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| such nice leaves |
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| more leaves |
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| good view point |
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| loved the different colored leaves |
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| giant bell |
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| Japan |
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| stone wolves standing guard of the shrine |
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| nice painting of a wolf at an art exhibition |
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| nice views |
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| going back |
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| lovely ladies at the last café at the top of Mt. Mitake |
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| trees lit up at night |
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| the river was lit up too |
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| yellow, yellow, yellow |
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| inside the izakaya |
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| old school pay phone |
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| Japan 9214 |
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| last selfie for the day! |
