Hiking the stairs on Mt Oyama

 This weekend Kimball and I decided to stay closer to home and go for a hike on nearby Mt Oyama. We walked from our house on Camp Zama to the Sobudai-mae train station (about 20 min) then took the train, made one transfer and arrived at Isehara station (about 25 min). Next we found the city bus that would take us to the base of Mt Oyama (about 15 min).

At the base of the mountain, after you walk up 350 stairs, there is a cable car station. The cable car will take you half way up the mountain (see picture of map). If you want to walk the whole way rather than taking the cable car there are two routes - the men's trail (considered to be steeper) and the women's trail. Can you guess which of the 3 options Kimball wanted to take? Yep, the men's trail! If only we had know at that point how many stairs still lay ahead, we would have opted for the cable car!



 




It's hard to show how many stairs there were just to get to the half way point where the cable car would drop you off. Also, the steepness of the stairs was crazy! At some points I had to use 3 points of contact (hands on the stairs to get up) 

There was a lovely Buddhist shrine and temple next to the cable car station (the one at the top). After passing the temple there was another very long, steep set of stairs to begin the second half of the hike. From there the steepness stayed about the same but the "stairs" turned into just rocks and boulders.








At the top of the mountain there was another shrine and a small ramen shop! I was surprised by that. The VIEW was spectacular and I had to admit I was glad I got to see it. We heard there is a really good view of Mt Fuji on a clear day. I felt like we were up pretty high. In the pics you can see out to the Pacific Ocean.




I have a question - why am I the only one who sweats? (of course Kimball sweats too) But it seemed to me that no one else around us was sweating. Seriously? I wondered about that in August when it was 100 degrees and I wonder it still. Others around me look lovely while I look like.....I just hiked 2 miles of stairs!


So the way down was about what you would expect - slow going for me. My fear of heights plus care for my knees had me taking it very carefully on the way back. When we arrived back at the Cable Car station the 640Y for the ride down seemed like a great deal.





Now that's over and I'm no longer mad at Kimball for choosing the hardest route to the top, I can say it was a cool hike. 

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