Oyama!

Since we arrived in Sagamihara, Vanessa has wanted to explore the mountains, especially to escape the summer heat. We finally did it. Vanessa researched maps and satellite images and came up with a route to take us to Mount Oyama. This is the tallest of the small chain of mountains that we get to view from our terrace.

We drove about an hour and came to where the road ends and becomes a walkway up the mountain. We parked the car and began strolling and exploring.
We saw a temple tucked away off the main path and went to check it out. We found these old statues interesting because they replaced the fallen heads with regular rocks.

We kept climbing and found some shops filled with everything you could want. We stopped for coffee and the very nice hostess gave us some tea (since Maddie wasn't drinking coffee) and also some local treats. She was very kind and generous!
We walked on up and past the shops and came to the cable car. It was about US $10 for a roundtrip ticket.




We got to the top where there is a big beautiful temple. We were surprised to see the bear sign!







After checking out the beautiful temple we saw a sign that said there is a trail up to the peak of the mountain where there is another small temple. The sign described about a 90 minute hike. We had not planned on a serious hike and didn't have any water or anything but we figured we could handle a small hike like that. The first thing we came to was a very steep set of stairs.
At the top of those stairs, the paved pathway ended and it became a trail of rocks. It was very hot and muggy but quite a pretty hike.

As we kept climbing the trail was a mix of big rocks, gravel, and sometimes some wooden steps. It was quite steep and was more difficult than we expected. We were all soaked in sweat but kept going.
Along the way there were these little statues tucked away in tree trunks and bamboo. After 90 minutes came and went we were starting to get discouraged but Madeleine got a second wind, took the lead and inspired us to make it to the top!
Thankfully there was a small cafe at the summit and we were able to get some very yummy ramen soup and soba noodles. They also had some fresh cucumbers in cold water served with fresh miso paste. Delicious! The ice cold beer was pretty good too. It was a drastic temperature difference at the top. There was a cloud sitting on top of the peak which made it quite chilly - a nice change from the summer heat below.


We had a very nice, relaxing time exploring the area at the peak but after a while we were getting cold so we headed back down the path we climbed up. It was a lot faster going down! We stopped for ice cream in some shops outside the temple.

It was another great summer day in Japan.