English Adventure Blog

Sunday’s nature walk was in Kamakura, a place known for for its temples and history than its nature. It turns out that Kamakura is a great place for a nature walk, with lots of interesting flowers and plants. We had a great day, and very good luck with the weather: the rain that was forecast never appeared.

Kenchoji, a 750 year old zen temple, was the first stop. We learned about the temple’s history and admired the impressive wooden buildings and works of art, like the dragon painted on the roof, above, or this large wooden Jizo Bosatsu sculpture, erected to comfort the souls of executed criminals. It seems that before the temple was built the land was used as execution grounds.

On our way through the large temple grounds the kids stopped to pose with lion dog (here and here) and a frog. That beautiful flower is a a botan (peony) given to us by a gardener who was trimming the bushes.

The temple grounds stretch up into the surrounding hills, ending with Hansobo Shrine, which is surrounded by protective tengu. From here the path becomes the Ten’en hiking course, which runs through forested hills, surrounded by soft sandstone (below) and moss-covered rock formations. The rock above may not seem like much, but check it out from another angle!

The path is very old, and although the rock is quite worn it is still possible to see evidence of it being hand-carved. Here and there along the path ancient caves can be seen, thought to be carved during the Kamakura era (1185 to 1333) as graves for local samurai.

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Sometimes everything just comes together on a hike, and while it’s really thanks to nature’s cooperation, it makes me look good as a guide! Yesterday morning I met a charming group of elementary school girls and their mothers at Takaosan-guchi Station, and we set off on my favorite trail up Mt. Takao, #6.

I’d visited Mt. Takao a few days prior, and heard many more frog mating calls than on our March 18 Nature Walk. I also spotted a couple of types of frog eggs, and along with all the spring flowers, I knew we’d have plenty to see and hear on Sunday.

But even I didn’t expect such a wildlife-filled day, especially on a busy weekend trail! The first and best surprise came as the girls were diligently filling in Nature Journals during a rest break.

Suddenly one of our mothers exclaimed that something was moving across the stream from us! It was a “ten”, or marten, an animal related to minks and weasels. It was only my second sighting, and the first in the daytime. It didn’t seem too worried about us, and we watched it walk parallel to the stream for perhaps 10 meters before it disappeared into the plant cover. I often get at least as excited as the people I guide, and this was one of those times! How lucky we were! I imagine that our relative silence as the girls wrote their journals was a big factor.

Another surprise awaited at the spot where I knew we would find frog eggs and tadpoles. A few days before, I could hear but not see several “tago-gaeru” frogs. Today they were out and mating, and again relatively unconcerned by our presence. With the help of a magnifying lens, the girls were able to gently observe the eggs and tadpoles up close, and I imposed on one frog for a photo opportunity.

The girls (and moms!) were all real troopers on the trail, and did a great job learning and using a lot of new English! It was a great first outing together, and I’m certainly looking forward to the next one.

If you’ve got a group and would like to put together a private event, please get in touch! We can help create a memorable day of nature in English. Who knows what we’ll see???

The March 18th English Adventure Nature Walk on Mount Takao was a big success! 10 of us hiked up the mountain and saw plenty of nature along the way. The sakura (cherry blossoms) weren’t out yet and the deciduous trees hadn’t started sprouting leaves, but there were wildflowers and spring plants all over the place. Here are a few that we saw and identified on the way up and down the mountain:

Nirin-sou (soft windflower, Anemone flaccida).

Dried-up but still beautiful ajisai (hydrangea) leftover from last year.

Hana-nekonome, literally “flowering cat’s eye”; (Chrysosplenium album var. stamineum, a variety of saxifrage).

Moss stalks, possibly hanehitsuji-goke (Brachythecium plumosum), catching the sun.

Tachitsubo-sumire (Viola grypoceras, a variety of violet).

As for animals, we didn’t see as many as we hoped. These yama-bato (mountain pigeons) were neat though. They are very handsome and can be distinguished from city pigeons by the round blue patches on each side of their neck. We also saw a warbler, but our hopes of finding frogs (mating season is supposed to be in full swing) came to nothing, although we did find a whole bunch of frog eggs. We also saw plenty of signs of nocturnal animals, learning how to identify the paths of inoshishi (wild boar) and determine the diets of ten (martens) based on their prolific droppings (apparently the greenish ones we saw indicated a vegetable-based diet).

When we reached the top of Takao-san we were treated to an amazing view of Fuji-san. After admiring the view and taking a few pictures, we stopped to have lunch (we brought our own). Takao is less than 600 metres high and is an easy hike, but we were glad to have a break.

After lunch the hike continued, passing through Yakuo-in Temple near the top of the mountain. Here a Tengu (a long-nosed mountain god) guards the temple.

A wooden sign on the temple grounds. I’m not sure what it means, but it seems to be a list of temple supporters.

The grounds of Yakuno-in contain both temples and shrines (which are Buddhist and Shinto, respectively). This is not terribly unusual in Japan, where both religions coexist peacefully. Here, a brightly-painted relief on the side of one of the shrine buildings pops out of the shadows. The main temple is of plain unpainted wood, but this one is painted crimson and covered in colourful carvings, making it seem a bit gaudy in comparison.

Go-en dama (5 yen coins) tied to poles for good luck. These coins are considered lucky because of a pun: go-en can mean both “five yen” and “connection” or “relationship”. Let’s hope everyone who tied coins here make the connections they are looking for.

We decided to walk back down the mountain instead of taking the cable car, when we got to the bottome we popped into Yuukidou, a manju (sweet azuki bun) shop. I had a cup of coffee and two pieces o-sugi manju. Each topped with a walnut, one contained tsubu-an (chunky azuki paste) and the other shiro-an (white azuki paste). Maybe I was just famished after a long walk, but they were so delicious that I bought a few more to take home.

There are new Nature Walks coming up in April, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s new and in bloom then. For more information on the walks and other upcoming events, see the schedule here.

We’re still getting things up and running, but this will be the place to visit for the latest post-event reports and photos, and whatever else the folks at English Adventure have on their minds.

Please stop by often!