Mt. Takao and Ukai Toriyama

Saturday we ventured out of the city with another family for a day trip to Mt. Takao and to enjoy the restaurant Ukai Toriyama. Doing a trip like this is so much more fun with another family and we had a great time. It took about a hour by train to get to the station. From the station we took a shuttle bus to the restaurant. As we got off the bus, they told us to stand by the side of the road as a parade was coming...turns out it was a wedding parade! The restaurant was AMAZING in so many ways - presentation of the food, ambiance, taste of the food, beauty of the outdoors. We had made reservations and had our own private little tatami room, complete with little mats for the babies to sleep on, and the sound of a creek running outside. The scenery was so beautiful. Being in the city, you forget what trees look like sometimes, and here in the restaurant we were surrounded by trees, running water, and not a skyscraper in sight! The lunch was a lengthy process - about 2 hours - and we were served by women in traditional kimonos. The food was both beautiful and delicious. After lunch, we took the shuttle back to the bottom of the mountain. From there, we got in a cable car and rode to the top of Mt. Takao...along with everyone else! It was pretty crowded being a Saturday and all. We walked around a bit, enjoyed the view, fed babies, and took the cable car back down the mountain to head back to Tokyo. It was a long day, but a very good day, and I really enjoyed getting away from Tokyo with family and friends and forgetting about city life for a day.