This was the first American Club hike of the 1989 season and a total of 27 people turned up on the day. Meeting at 7-45 a.m. at Shinjuku Station we took the 8-01 a.m. train on the Keio Line from Platform 2, arriving at Takaosanguchi at 8-46 a.m. We started walking around 9 o'clock, following the stream up to the cable car and then branching off to the left along Route 6, the valley route. The party began to string out as we climbed up to Mount Takao, but we reached the summit in little over an hour. Resting for a short while, we then took the trail leading off to Jinba. Our next rest point was Ichodaira, which we reached at 11-05 a.m., and here some of the party began an early lunch! Our next destination, Shiroyama, was clearly visible ahead, being easily identified by the microwave relay station on its summit. This took 20 minutes from Ichodaira, but we did not rest long at Shiroyama, deciding instead to push on to the ridge itself where there are good views on both sides, the Chuo Expressway snaking up the valley on the one side, and Lake Sagami on the other. The expressway and the railway go under the ridge itself through a long tunnel.

After lunch on the ridge we pressed on to Kagenobu Yama, 727 m, where we assembled for a group photo. This took longer than expected, as a Japanese man we asked to take the photo seemed to be a perfectionist, arranging the group and making sure that the sign behind us could be clearly seen on the photo. This aroused the interest of others sitting nearby, and one gentleman decided to get in on the act and take our photo with his own camera. What he will do with a photo of 27 hairy barbarians I do not know!

We reached our next place of rest, Meio Toge, at around 2 p.m., stopping for drinks and basking in the sun. As the time was getting on and the majority of the group wanted to begin the nearly two hour descent to Sagami Station, the party split into two, with Messrs. Minegishi, Sturges, Kang, Langley and Piper making a high speed assault on Jinba itself. This we did in 46 minutes and arrived back at Meio Toge at just after 3 p.m. Walking very quickly down the mountain from Meio Toge, we eventually caught up with the tail end of the main group at Jiganji. The fasted members had arrived at Sagami Station a few minutes earlier and had been able to catch the 3-59 p.m. train, but we had to wait until the 4-21 p.m. train arrived. This took us as far as Takao, where we changed trains for Shinjuku. We arrived back at Shinjuku Station around 5-30 p.m., having had an excellent day out in brilliant weather.