Kids-friendly Japan Trip- Mount Takao

If you're visiting just Tokyo and still want to enjoy beautiful Japanese nature, Mt Takao is where you should visit. It's only about 40mins by train from central Tokyo. You don't need any hiking gear, you can even go there with a toddler in a stroller (if you wish, with baby in a pram too!)

Can you find Paul in this photo?

This is where I used to go with my kinder and school for excursions. A cable car will take you to the halfway point of the mountain, where you can enjoy some attractions, a monkey park, a botanical garden, lookout and Yakuoin Temple. From there, you can walk up to the summit, but you can also stop there and go back. Of course you can climb the mountain from the bottom too-you'd better prepare proper clothes and shoes for this though. There are many routes to go up to the summit and you can choose which one depending on your hiking experience. It's a mountain that even school kids can climb so I'd say it's a"kids-friendly" place.

Since it got three stars in the Michelin guide book, it became really popular for international tourists. My mum told us that we would have to wait for a cable car for long time especially in autum leaves season..

But the day we went was quite foggy and had light showers, (well the forecast was fine!) so there were not many tourists and no long queues for the cable car. The only thing we got disappointed was that we couldn't see the view from the mountain (you can usually see the city) but we really enjoyed the fresh air in the rain.

We had rice cakes near the monkey park and it was really yummy!

Nico really enjoyed seeing many monkeys.

Lovely walk in light rain.

At Yakuoin temple

We didn't go to the summit so it took us only about two hours to go up and come back. We had Italian lunch near the train station.

Hopefully we can go there again when the weather is better next time. We're looking forward to climbing the mountain with Nico too when he gets 5 or 6:-)


with love,

Allie