Maclehose Trail Section 5: Tate's Cairn to Beacon Hill

Saturday was another lovely day.  Since I was free I decided to do a short hike up from Shatin to Tai Lo Shan (Tate's Cairn) an imposing hill of 583m which is prominent from both Shatin and ICC.

I set off around 2pm and as before took a taxi to the village of  Siu Lek Yuen on the other side of the valley and then hiked straight up the side of Buffalo Hill.  

Tai Lo Shan from the Buffalo Hill track.

After 2 km the track reached a pass and joined the Maclehose Trail section 4.  I did the last 1.2km up to start of Section 5 at the Gilwell Campsite (map), and carried on Section 5 up Tai Lo Shan.  

Buffalo Hill looking like a Buffalo when viewed from Tai Lo Shan (looking north-west)

Shatin and Tolo Harbour from Tai Lo Shan (looking north-west)

Kowloon City from Tai Lo Shan with the old airport on the right.

I was feeling quite fresh, so decided to exit by completing Section 5 along the Kowloon Hills to Lion Rock and Beacon Hill.    The views across Kowloon in the afternoon sun were really nice.

Kowloon from Beacon Hill.

I finished at the Tai Po Road just before 7pm, having hiked 13.8km in 5 hours.   To cross the road I had to walk through a large troupe of monkeys who were sunning themselves on the foot-bridge.

Tai Chi Charity Event

I had to return from Japan early on Friday night to do my tai chi class and then join my classmates in a large all-day charity event on Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

I still don't know much about the event but it seems that many Tai Chi schools raised money for charity and then could do a demonstration at the the event.   A month or so ago I'd mysteriously been asked to make a donation so I had without knowing why.

not our school

Our school had many demonstrations in the morning and evening.  I was part of an 80-person group doing Yang 24-form and a 30-person group doing Chen 56-form around 11 am.

not our school either

KaBo from our school.

but not our school in the arena 

Other classmates from our school.

Sifu leading the mexican wave.

One of my classmates who has excellent form.

Hatsushima Island Resort

This year, we decided to visit one of the islands off the Izu peninsular for 2 nights.

Rika chose Hatsushima the closest which is just 10km from Atami (link).   It was cloudy but hot when we arrived on Wednesday and sunny and hotter for most of our stay.

View of Atami on the mainland from the top of the island (Friday)

On the allocated budget, Rika was able to book us into a tent for the first night at the grandly named 'Hatsushima Island Resort'.  In fact, an air-conditioned tent with its own deck.

The Hatsushima Island Resort had a salt water pool and onset, there were nice walks around the island and we could have dinner of fresh seafood in small restaurants in the fishing village.    It was very quiet and relaxing as there are almost no cars.

On the second night we stayed in a trailer park.

Actually both were very pleasant

We got to meet some of the locals.

The highlight for Hannah (apart from the ice-cream shop) was 'Sarutobi', a sort of confidence course with  a series of high-wire paths high in the trees. 

Sarutobi, means "monkey jump", and is named after Sasuke Sarutobi a legendary ninja who was known for his monkey-like agility and quickness especially in trees (link).  The same ninja our cat Sasuke was named after.

Hannah displayed great confidence in negotiating the various high-wire paths.

I was very proud and impressed.

Video:  Hannah at Sarutobi

Hannah on the flying fox.

Video:  Hatsushima and Atami from the ferry

Birthday with Baba

After Tokyo we wend down to Ikadaba to vista Baba for a few nights and celebrate Hannah birthday.

Hannah was very happy with her presents.

And a birthday cake from Baba

Nao-chan and Papa-oji-chan were also visiting and on Saturday we went to a very very nice sushi restaurant in Ito called ?? Taro.

The restaurant was not especially flash or expensive but very relaxed with wonderfully fresh fish.  Even fish I don't usually like much in sushi, like sardine, was totally delicious.

Family portrait.

(In case you were wondering, the fist-shaped horn growing out of the left-side of Rika's head went away the next day).

Hannah had a great time playing with the girls from next door.

And hanging out with Baba.

Tokyo holiday in Odaiba (3)

On Friday night we had dinner with Kyochan at a teppanyaki restaurant on the top of our hotel.  We all sat around the hot-plate while an expert chef cooked wagyu steak to perfection just for us....

 ... as we sipped find wine and enjoyed the view of Rainbow Bridge and the Tokyo skyline.

It was great to see Kyo-chan again

I could tell it was a truly high-end restaurant because it had an AED by the till  (now required by law in all Japan's most expensive establishments).

On Saturday, Rika and Kyo-chan went to the craft fair nearby and Hannah and I went to Disneyland, or rather 'DisneySea'.

Hannah was very happy that she was now tall enough to do go on most of the rides.

Including this roller-coaster with a 360-degree loop

One of the highlights for Hannah was exploring the playing in the playground in Aerials undersea kingdom.

We also saw a strange show which seemed to involve worshiping giant Furby eggs.

We watched it from the walls of a Byzantine castle

One of the themed areas was 'The-Venetian-Macau-Land',  although I didn't find it very realistic since it was outdoors and there were no slot-machines.