Hike to the Top of Mt. Tenno

One of the days we were in Kyoto, we decided to take the train to Oyamazaki to learn a little about the area and get outside.

Luckily, we know the kanji for Oyama and could guess at the zaki part.

We weren’t really sure where we were going, but the weather was nice and we were ready for the day’s adventure.

 

After seeing these signs we were on the look out for monkeys and boars, but unfortunately didn’t see any.

 

The first part of our hike took us through a giant bamboo forest.  

 

 

We didn’t see any animals, but we came across this – in the middle of the forest!

As we continued our hike upward (in some places it was very steep) we saw several shrines and temples along the way to the top of Mt. Tenno.

 

This area was the site of the Battle of Yamazaki, where Hashiba Hideyoshi defeated Akechi Mitsuhide in 1582. We saw some painted murals depicting scenes from this battle.

 

There were also observation areas where we could see far into the distance.

 

When we got to the top of Mt. Tenno, there was a map showing where we were, but it was not a very exciting place to be the top of the mountain and all.

 

We took another path down, seeing other shrines and temples.  It was just as steep going down as going up.

 

I highly recommend this day hike if you are in the area. It was most enjoyable (even though there were no monkeys to be seen)!