It was not a walk in the park like Mount Takao. Mount Mitake is around 2 hours from Tokyo first by JR train to Mitake Station, then a bus to the ropeway station followed by the ropeway which takes you up 431 metres in 6 minutes at an incline of 22 degrees: the steepest in the Kanto region and wicked cool!

The hike doesn't really start until you get to the top of the ropeway station and another 15-20 minute walk to the village and shrine itself. The shrine is a few flights of stairs up again and a great "warm up" to the hike. Some nice little shops, probably locally run with souvenirs, drinks and soba. We decided to skip this until we returned in the late afternoon.

We had already decided that we walk to do the hike from Mount Mitake to Mounta Odake. It is hard work and it didn't help that we took a wrong turn and had to back track around 1 km (on an incline and in the bush, this is an additional 20-30 min walk!). We passed the rock garden and had a little break here before going the additional way (another 90 minutes) to the top. Hard, hard work constantly walking at an incline and very steep and slippery in some section. There is a tori gate before the final summit and it gets even HARDER! More rocks - literally there are sections where you are holding on to the built in chains and hauling your ass up (and we had to get back down...). And finally, after another 30 minutes from this gate, we made it to 1,266 metre up... the summit of Mt Odake! There was sunshine and lots of other people (surprisingly) and so we only took a small break again before descending. The descent was very hard on the calves and thighs but it only took us 90 minutes to descend all the way back to the shrine - i was surprised.

So had a quick check of the timetables (so easy with google) and we had time to have a really late lunch (soba again!). Just missed the ropeway so we had another 30 minute wait which was fine, it was a nice area to wander and browse more of the small shops around. Glad I brought a spare tshirt too as it helped me feel slightly refreshed. On the train, it was packed with others who had finished their hikes. The Japanese sure are well prepared with almost everyone decked on in expensive poles, boots, backpacks and weatherproof layers... crazy. Never would you see such a scene in Australia.

Another great day - glad we did it on Sunday as if it wasn't for work, I would have written off the next day! My first 30,000+ step hike!