When I lived back in Toyohashi I had a goal of hiking Mount Hongu every month. Back then I didn’t know how my life would change. I think I ended up hiking that mountain three times.
After I moved to Tokyo I didn’t get the chance to hike much. It took longer than expected to get used to life in Tokyo and my new job. Finally, after almost 5 months, I got the opportunity to hike a mountain.
Today I hiked Mount To. This mountain is usually hiked by people as training for Mount Fuji. It has a similar level of difficulty.
When I was invited to hike this mountain I didn’t know anything about the mountain’s height and difficulty. I wasn’t mentally prepared. But then the hike started.
It wasn’t an easy hike. It is definitely not for beginners. The weather didn’t help either. It was cloudy and slowly started to rain. One hour into the hike it kept on being steep. The weather didn’t change. It was rainy throughout the hike to the top. It took about four hours to reach the summit. We did take breaks in between. I certainly wasn’t prepared for a four-hour hike. After we reached the summit we had a short lunch. Then started the hike down.
The weather cleared up a bit. It was no longer rainy. But the rain had already done its damage. The ground was wet and slippery. It also didn’t help the fact that my legs were tired. But we had to go down.
Finally, after three and a half hours, we were down at the start. My toes were hurting. My legs were fine. There were a lot of stairs throughout the hike. I didn’t want to look at any stairs after the hike. But as soon as I got off the car I saw the stairs.
I enjoyed the hike a lot. It was challenging but beautiful. I want to return on a sunny day when we can enjoy the views more.