Tokyo's Only Village

This weekend was spent in Hinohara-mura, Tokyo's only village, further out in the west. Our lodgings were in a disused elementary school, which had been converted when the village no longer had any children left to attend it; most folk who live in the village are the elderly or retirees who just want a slower pace of life from the city.

It was a lovely weekend filled with chat, Othello, football, walks, wine, a BBQ and too much food. The friend with the motorbike had thoughtfully brought his spare helmet - I had arrived the previous evening by bus - and for the last time, before he was to leave the country, we biked it back to Tokyo.

Swedes & Spanish

There's a Christmas Bazaar at the Swedish Embassy! Let's go and check out the food!
There's a Spanish Fest down in Yoyogi Park, let's check that out too!

This friend and I never seem to have trouble agreeing on what to do :)

Lake Stroll

At the request of my supervisor, I organised a walk for my fellow English teachers. We strolled around Lake Tama, enjoying the autumn leaves as we went, before ending up at a karaoke box to kill time before the bars open for business.

Rock & Thai

After a spot of rock-climbing at a never-before-tried gym near Yokota Airbase, we hit a Thai restaurant called Khao Man Gai. And the food was such, that I'm now a returning customer.

Meditation & Mountains

ひさしぶりのソロハイキングをしました！ 太陽寺から雲取山に行って鴨沢までのコースです。 昨日、太陽寺に泊まって、宿坊の体験をしました。 写経したり、読経したり、座禅したり、精進料理をたべたりして、面白かったです！
It's been a heck of a while since my last solo hike, and what perfect weather I had for it for my route from Taiyouji to Kamosawa, via Kumotoriyama. I'd stayed at Taiyouji the previous night to do a temple stay experience, where I did sutra writing and chanting, zazen meditation (which all require me to sit in leg-numbing seiza), and had some seriously beyond yummy buddhist fare.

[The view, as I descend from the peak. I wanted to see how fast I was, and at the end, I was delighted to discover that I had shaved a third off map time!!]

Pangaea in Yushima

More catching up with another lovely lady, but this time at Pangaea, a Filipino restaurant in Yushima, for some authentic grub.

Tawan Thai

[Tawan Thai, Takadanobaba, Tokyo.]

Doria, Coffee & Cake

Went to catch up with some lovely ladies from my previous schools at Takakura Machi Coffee, a cafe chain which is apparently well-known for its pancakes. The doria i.e. a gratin with rice wasn't all that great, but the coffee and this cake were nice enough.

Heaps of Fried Chicken

立川にある店 - ひなたかなた - のデカ盛り唐揚げ丼はほんとにデカい！其れに安い！お店を出る時はお腹がぱんぱんでした！
Granted the seasoning needs some work, but 700yen for a lunch set of around 900g of fried chicken?! For those with bigger appetites, there's a 1.5kg Fried Chicken Challenge. Eat it within 30 minutes, and you get the meal free; and if you don't make it, you pay up 2000yen.

Takao Loop

Route:

Takao Station >walk or bus> Rei-en Mae Bus Stop > Hachioji Castle Remains > Kagenobuyama (727.1m) > Shiroyama > Ootarumitouge > Mizawatouge >  Kusatoyama > Takaosanguchi Station.

Maptime: 10-hours

Distance: Around 17-km.

Lost in the Trees

Hidden along this route to Shishikurayama (1288m) on the west side of Okutama, is the Tokyo Peace Pagoda 奥多摩仏舎利塔 Okutama Bussharitou which is apparently one of eighty peace pagoda's in the world. Who would imagine that there would be one right here, in the middle of nowhere?

The latter part of today's trek ended in an out-of-the ordinarily eventful manner. With a lot of tree-clearing and road construction along the last section of the route, we had somehow strayed of the path, and had instead headed down through a steep incline of forest and into an derelict camp ground that had barriers around the vicinity. It started raining hard. The entrance of the camp ground was a locked-up bridge lined with barb wiring that was built over a river. We tried calling the local police for help, but they responded by saying that they weren't allowed to enter the grounds because it was private property, and they hadn't been able to track down the owners. After much contemplation, we backtracked up a little into the forest and found a path that took us out of the grounds, and allowed us to finally continue on to our final destination.

Route:

Okutama Station > 08:35 奥10 bus > Miyamabashi bus stop > Hike 5.5 hours > Tanbayama Onsen > 15:47 奥10 bus > Okutama Station

- Distance: 9.4km

- Elevation gain: 680m

Thai in Tachikawa

Lots of farewell meals lately, this one was a "joshi-kai" aka. a girl's night out, with lady colleagues from my city's JET group and Board of Education. We went to this cute little Thai place in Tachikawa, the food was not bad, and the Aussie in the group taught everyone how to make hand-towel turkeys.

Our last supper as the 2014-2015 JETs of our city at The Penthouse, this extremely tasty restaurant in Hachioji, where the chef had previously trained in Los Angeles for some years.

Yakiniku.. Yakiniku..

Forgot the camera, so making do with the iffy quality of the ipod camera.
I went to Keishuu-en in Tachikawa with a few fellow foodies for Korean BBQ. It's so unhealthy, and yet, so good...

Hike n' Ramen

I realise that I haven't gone hiking a while now... it's all been food posts for the past month.
A friend wanted to do some hiking, and so we did a nice little hike in the Ome area before heading to Tachikawa for some carbs.

Ikusabata Station 軍畑駅 > Raidenyama 雷電山 (494m) > 41Bantetsutou 41番鉄塔 > Ome Station 青梅駅