Well, we cruised there in about 45 minutes, parked the car at the train station. The initial plan was to take a cable car up the mountain, but well, there weren't really "child-friendly" lifts. They looked like ski lifts but were completely open, with no bars across the laps or anything. Just air and a long way down! Josephine might have sat still, but Evie....nah! Definitely not! She's a wiggle bottom of note (as all toddlers are). So, we checked out the map and decided to take a walk. It said 3km. I don't remember Michael telling me this - he swears he did. But anyway, from the word go, Josephine outright refused to walk. We had hiking backpacks to carry the kids in, but they're also getting heavy now for us, and besides that...she's 4! She can walk, she should walk, she must walk. The kid must learn to walk!! Even if it's just 10minutes! So, we encouraged, bribed, licked, tried our best to remain calm, lured, tempted, you name it, we tried it. She whined, dragged her feet, yelled, screamed blue murder....a stubborn little madam she was! Whoever came to the mount of peace and quiet for reflection and forgiveness of sins was severely disappointed and probably quite hacked off. She had ear shattering tantrums which echoed all the way up the mountain, through the valleys and over the hills. Her cries were heard for miles, I'd bet. We made her walk about 300m. It took 1hour or so. After she reached the point where we said we'd carry her a bit, she was immediately happy. Well, we walked on another km in peace. Now, I have failed to describe a highly important point here. The walk up Mount Takao is steep. Michael and I reacon it's easily a 40-45 degree gradient. If it were much steeper, you'd fall over backwards. Where Josephine was walking, it was less steep, but it just increased to stupid gradients whereafter, I started to get stressed: "Michael! How much further is this!?!" ...Him: "I told you it's 3km. So we're probably about 1/3rd of the way" Me: "what!?! WHAT? 1/3rd? This is a bit much!! We have 2 small children, remember? I can't carry Evie like this with my thick jacket and stuff on my back. I want to go back down." So I started my adult tantrum. I have a confession to make...when I'm under physical strain, I get very stressed out. Always. If I start to pant from overworking, I get my neck into a knot and can't breath as well. Today was one of those days. I was stressed! MIchael knows this and was fortunately very patient with me. "Honey, I'll carry Evie then and you can take off your jacket if you like and have a rest." (what a nice guy!). Anway, to cut a long story short, I pulled my act together, and we plodded on... After another steep summit (zigzagging up) we saw the sign "2.5km up arrow). Urgh! I felt like giving up. Anway, we made it to the top and then we had a Japanese treat which they were selling up there: some hot rice with marmitey type dip. Sounds wierd, looks interesting, tasted good! Evie sunk her little teeth into that lot and Josephine too. At the very highest point, we shared an orange chocolate: the christingel which my aunt Lucienne taught me about (the mandarine with a candle in it on NY's day at church). The views from up there were lovely. Lots of other mountains and also Tokyo stretching out as far as the eye could see. But most of all, we enjoyed the fresh air and the exercise was good, despite Josephine and my complaints. Anway, we shared some chocolate segments and then made our way down again. This time, it was little Evie's turn to protest. She wanted out of the backpack. She cried freedom. But she got none. We were all too tired to wait for her to gather a baby handful of stones and deposit them 30cm away, just to collect more and dump them again making a mound, taking an age. So we continued and she finally fell asleep. Our legs shook with the steepness and I'm sure we've got blisters on the tips of our toes from the downward force applied to them! Michael carried both (sleeping) girls down. Phew! I passed out in the car, girls were awake and poor Michael had to stay awake to drive us home safely. We made it home, the girls had loads of energy, we were zonked, but pushed through with some wild dancing and doll games.
Anyway, we had a great start to 2011 - certainly won't forget it!! - and wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR too!
xxxx
Above is what Josephine thought is Peter Rabbit's hollow in the sandy bank. Yup, the naughty rabbit in the blue coat is hiding there somewhere together with his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail.
Yummy Japanese treats (on the barbie)
Pappa passing out. He deserved a rest, I can tell you!
chilling out, playing "silly" games with camera bags as hats and little Emma doll constantly "needing" nappy changes :-)
