My. Takegawa

We woke up to cloudy skies and a slight chance of rain and made our way out to the mountains deep in Saitama, to take on Mt Takegawa.

After a long drive filled with stories, questions and jokes we arrived at the base of the mountain to begin our hike. While making our way into the mountain we were all amazed and taken aback by the beautiful scenery that surrounded us.

As we started to make our way up the mountain we observed on one side of the ridge line where trees planted for lumber and on the other side natural Japanese forest. We observed and talked about the differences and their uses. As we were observing the scenery one of the scouts found an acorn that had sprouted and wanted to plant it. Using our walking stick we poked a hole, popped it in and covered it with soil hoping that it would grow in the spring. This set off a flurry of activity and after finding and planting many acorns we continued our way towards the first summit. The going was steep and challenging, with leaves and slippery gravel among boulders and roots, but everyone kept pushing onward and with a few breaks in between we made it to the top.

At the top we came across a big pile of poo. With the poos being a varying age. I sent a quick message to a hunter friend of mine and he told me that it was most likely from Tanuki. They like to poo in one place and sometimes can pile up quite a high mound of poo before moving on to a new location.

While we were there, discussions arose about what to do if when stumbling along or confronted by a wild animal. We discussed making ourselves look as big as possible, not backing away, and if necessary shouting as loud as you can to show the animal you are not to be messed with. Everyone wanted to practice it so we did that for a while before continuing on our hike.

We continued on towards the next Summit before us and we ascended half way before deciding that it was too difficult and with the weather looking like it might shift, we felt it would be best to head down. We came down and had lunch on a very soft, moss-covered opening. We sat and ate, talking and laughing, bandaging up blisters and resting for the return down the mountain.

After we had finished we practiced some spear throwing into the embankment before packing up our things and returning back down. On the way down we added some rocks to the pile of rocks that those who made it to the top had stacked up.

After descending for a bit we heard the sound of children’s voices in the distance and went about making some of our own echoes which was very surprising for everyone. After some fun with that we talked about how easy it is to become disoriented when you are lost because of the way sound travels. We had a very clear example as we knew exactly where the voices of the children were coming from but when trying to hear it it sounded like it was coming from the opposite direction.

We headed back down to the car and on our way back and stopped at a small rest area with produce from the local towns and ate some snacks before purchasing our souvenirs and loading back up to head to the drop off point.

The return trip was full of stories and silly jokes until one of the scouts asked for music and within a few moments everyone was fast asleep.

We had a wonderful day together and  thank you so much for sending your boys along. I am looking forward to our next adventure.