First of all, thanks to LapLap and others for their recommendations and suggestions. I and my wife were at Takaosan last Saturday, weather could not be better that day - it was overcast until early afternoon and sun came out once we were at the top. We did take lightweight raincoats but did use them. With google map scheduling was easy and very accurate. There might be Japanese language apps to plan train rides which offer better options, but for English, I could not find any and Google Maps always worked very accurately.

We departed from Futakotamagawa and the trip one way required two train transfers. We arrived at little past 11AM and this - as we concluded later - was a good timing because on Saturday afternoon everything became quite crowded. If you want to make the most of your trip, you should plan to be at the base of the mountain before 10AM. Before going, I did some research and came up to this blog post and can tell that recommendations there what NOT to do are quite good as well.

In terms of trail options we decided to take #1 trail up to the cable car/ropeway junction points and the take #4 trail to the top. This was also a good choice in terms of getting to enjoy forest, views and avoid crowds. However, hiking all the way up and down requires very good level of physical fitness. Unless you do triathlon on regular bases, expect that the whole trip round trip will take at least 6 hours, including rest stops and having some meal/snack at the top. I did try local grated yamaimo with soba at the shop on the top of the Takao - can tell that it is an acquired taste - my wife was smarter defaulting to udon

We walked down to the junction point using main #1 trail - seeing temples. By that time around 2PM trails and sights were pretty crowded. And hiking up took its toll - we took ropeway down and my wife felt pretty exhausted to do anything for the rest of the day, so we directly went back to hotel, skipping onsen, but I would not go there anyway - not a big fan of crowds.

In short and in retrospect here is my recommendations how to make the perfect day at Takaosan:

- Avoid hot days and if possible - weekends
- Be at the base of the mountain by 10AM if you want to avoid crowds
- Unless you are very physically fit do not hike all the way up - you can take tram or ropeway at the junction point and start hiking from there.
- Combine different trails going up and down - you can use #1 trail going up and other trail coming down
- Water is available at junction point, near temples and at the top, but at other places, especially if it is side trail. Plan to take water with you, but no need to carry several L - just a small water bottle would be sufficient.
- There are no garbage boxes anywhere from the moment you exit the train station. This is by design, but a bug - expectation is that you need to take all trash with you.