Okutama

Me and my friend decided to make a last minute trip to Okutama, a mountainous area on the other side of Tokyo. It took a couple hours to get there and we took a cable car to get to Mt Mitake, where our hotel was. It went up a pretty steep part of the mountain. There were green forests covering the area and it was nice and cool. It was slightly drizzling at times too and there were some lookouts where you could see Tokyo city.

We did a hike to the Rock Gardens, which is an area of the mountain with a stream running through a bunch of rocks. The hike went through the forest and there was a couple look-out points as well. It’s been a while since I was in the mountains like this, it was very peaceful and quiet. Afterwards we had dinner at the ryokan, there was grilled fish, tempura, pickles, chawanmushi, and vegetables.

After breakfast the next morning, we headed to the Nippara Limestone Caves. It was pretty wet inside and there were a lot of stairs. It was also nice and cool, with a gentle breeze blowing. We had lunch in the area then took the bus and train to Lake Okutama. There was a floating bridge we could cross and we took pictures. The bus ride itself was cool, it went around the lake and there were many bridges around it.