Mt. Tsukuba is a famous mountain located north of us in Ibaraki Prefecture. Gordon and I have been wanting to climb it for the longest time. Its been taunting us on clear days in Tonosho when we can see its distinct double peaks. Well, on Sunday, we finally made it up to Mt. Tsukuba.
Mt. Tsukuba is 30 minutes outside of Tsukuba City, a city known for its science museums and space center JAXA (the Japanese version of NASA). It took us about 2 hours to drive to Mt. Tsukuba.
Mt. Tsukuba.
When we arrived at Mt. Tsukuba we were greeted by a giant, red torii gate and Tsukubasan Shrine.
The torii before the mountain.
Gordon at the entrance to the shrine.
Tsukubasan shrine.
Gordon and I decided to hike up the mountain (about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour climb) and ride the cable car down. The nice thing about Mt. Tsukuba is that it is very family friendly. If you want to hike it, you can or you can take the cable car or rope line. One complaint I've heard about Mt. Tsukuba is that its too commercialized and not as rugged and natural as other mountains, but I thought it was a great experience that people of any age can enjoy, not just the young, fit and healthy.
We started our hike on the Miyukigahara course around 10:15 am. We didn't know what to expect but we were assuming this hike wouldn't be as bad or as hard as climbing Mt. Fuji.
The Mikyukigahara Course. Let's go!
And so we began hiking. The course was very well laid out and was like climbing a series of rock and wooden steps. We kept a good pace and stopped every once in a while for water. Our only problem was the humidity and heat. Even though we had the shade of the trees, the humidity left us drenched in sweat 10 minutes into our hike. Gordon said "There's a smiley face on your back, Emily! Oh... that's the outline of your sport's bra". Yes. Thank you Gordon. That's the outline of MY SWEAT!
Beautiful tall trees surrounded us on our hike.
Gordon hiking along.
Rocks are no obstacle for me!
Climbing the convenient natural staircase.
Gordon washing off at a little mountain stream. The water was nice and cold.
1 and 1/2 hours later... we made it to the top!
We had no clue how much further we had until we reached the top because we couldn't read any of the signs on the trail, so we just kept hiking and following the people in front of us. Getting to the top was anticlimactic because we were unsure for the first minute or two whether or not we reached the top. Then we saw the view and knew we had made it!
Taking pictures of the view. I love the little boy at the binoculars :)
There were lots of restaurants and shops at the top.
The next thing on our to-do list was to hike to both peaks. We had made it to the middle of the top of the mountain but needed to conquer Nantaisan peak and Nyotaisan peak.
Shrine at the top of Nantaisan.
The view at the top of Nantaisan.
Shrine at the top of Nyotaisan.
Gordon looking at the view below.
Don't worry mom, we were careful not to fall!
Its a baybee Gordon and GIANT Emily. I had way too much fun.
We could see the ropeway from Nyotaisan.
Butterfly resting on a rock. There were so many bees and butterflies at the top of the mountain.
On the small bridge next to Nyotaisan shrine.
The view from Nyotaisan peak was definitely the best. Several people found a rock and just sat to admire the view for a while. There was a slight breeze and the sun felt great. Here's a video I took at the top of Nyotaisan:
After we visited both peaks, we went down to the center of the top and did some shopping and ate lunch. We chose a place that had a good crowd of people and attempted to read the menu outside. The man who sat us spoke a little English and recommended Tsukuba udon. A bowl of udon noodles with pork, chicken meatballs and vegetables in broth. We also ordered some beer to celebrate our ascent :)
Tsukuba udon. It was delicious!
The view from our restaurant. Not bad!
Reading up on Tsukuba.
The udon obviously didn't fill me up and I had to get some warm mochi that was cooking over some coals. YUMMY!
Mochi.
We decided to be lazy and take the cable car down the mountain. It was a fun, short 8 minute ride. We got to enjoy the mountain scenery from the comfort of a seat.
Here we go!
Getting off the cable car at the bottom of Mt. Tsukuba.
Gordon and I had so much fun at Mt. Tsukuba. Its definitely on our list of places to take friends/family if they visit. After our time on the mountain, we went to a nearby shopping mall, Iias. It is relatively new and had 3 floors of shopping and a movie theater. We shopped for a little while and then hung out at Starbucks. Whew! What a productive day!
