The last post focused on pictures and a movie. I guess that makes it story time again.
September this year, much like last year, has seen me working a lot of weekends. 5 weekend days I've had to come in this month, with an equivalent number of days taken at weird points during the week. Example: two weeks ago I worked a 7 day week for the Sports Festival. The following week, I had the Monday off for a holiday, worked Tuesday (That day is at my other school so weekend days must be made up by the same school) and then had Wednesday off. It was like I was working part time the schedules were so weird.
What all this culminated in, however, was a four day weekend ending yesterday -- more than enough time to make some trouble
Saturday morning, threats of a typhoon delayed our 3:30 AM (Yes AM.) departure to go hiking until 9:30. The trip to Sanjiyoume outside Takato is a relatively brief one. And the park is more isolated than anywhere else I'd been thus far. After driving out into the country, we hopped on a bus -- the ONLY way to enter the park. The imposing metal gate, decorated with cartoon animals denying access to private cars in the cutest most non-threatening way, raised for the bus and we were in.
On the way up, the lively bus driver pointed out the pack of monkeys in a ravine down below, a deer that was grazing by the road, and killer hornets' nest after killer hornets' nest. Yes, they are actually killers. They are bigger than some hummingbirds and each sting poisons you with a flesh devouring enzyme. Between the iron gates and animal slide show, it had begun to feel more like a zoo than a park. A short walk and 5 minutes of set up later, we had Kampai'd (Cheers, Salud, Prost. What have you.) and were cooking dinner at a very reasonable 3:30 pm. The weather had held all day. Typhoon be damned.
At 6 when we woke up, everything was mist. At 8, not halfway up the mountain, we were trudging through pure white. The fog had given way to heavy, dense clouds at the higher altitudes. By the time we peaked the 3,033 meter mountain at 11 or so, we were hiking through heavy clouds; drops of moisture collecting on the rocks around us -- making them slippery. Our rain gear, bags, my Japanese sweat rag (rendering it useless) and even at the tips of my eyelashes had little drops clinging to them. We could hear other groups hiking as they got nearer, but couldn't see them until a tour group of 30 or so Japanese, decked out in full flourescent North Face Gear was right on top of us, both sides apologizing as we pushed past each other on the trail. It wasn't really raining up that high. Where would it fall to? More cloud? But at least the Typhoon had backed down. Despite the clouds, it was light, so the sun was out there somewhere.
Then, on the way down it hit. The rain we'd avoided all weekend finally exploded. In minutes the entire trail was a small stream switchbacking it's way down the mountain. The mud was unavoidable. We just had to put faith in our boots to hold up to the inches of mud and puddles that we had no choice but to shuffle through. Then the lightning started. Kyoko was quick to tell a story of how she had climbed a mountain shortly after a storm and seen them bringing down bodybags of climbers fried by lightning. Thanks. That could have waited til after we all made it out safely. There were no rest stops on the way down, only a small shed. Unfortunately, the small wooden shed was being held on the mountainside with some flimsy looking metal rope, tied to flimsier looking young trees. Rather than spend 5 minutes in a mud slide's easy first casualty, we kept moving.
Remembering a story from some friends stuck in a similar situation out in Yosemite in California, I took off my hood. In Japanese, “If my hair stands up, run.” At one point they also asked whether it was safer to be close to or far from trees. I'm not an expert, but I thought it was unlikely to matter considering how wet everything was.
About 5 hours up with breaks. 2.5 down. No breaks. No stopping. I'm not sure how dangerous all this actually was. It didn't feel too bad at the time as we laughed and joked at our situation, but I've been called an idiot on several occasions since so it must not be great. Feel free to take a stance. But we made it down alive and scooted over to an onsen as fast as possible.
When I got home I realized my house key fell out somewhere on the mountain. Rather than deal with that problem, I opted to run away from them when I caught word of a combined live and DJ “Jazz Fusion” show in Tokyo. It was at my favorite club, so why not?
The next morning, pretty sore and tired from the hike, I drove into the city and caught the bus to Tokyo to dance all night and not sleep. I wasn't really sure what to expect with that tagline, but it ended up being a fun, varied mix of Disco, Jazz, and more electronic music from the DJs and some great music from the live bands. We danced all night.
As the sun was coming up over the bay, we were dancing out by the pool on the deck when one of the girls I with says she's going in. This is a no-no. No one jumped in the last time I was here. Ever the dad, I'm shaking my head. She asked the Security Guard if it was ok. He would have to do something if she jumped, but if she was pushed then he couldn't very well blame her could he? She handed us her bag and took off her sandals and was <ahem> accidentally pushed into the pool. 3 Security Guards laughed as she waved her hands and cheered. A couple people helped her out after a minute's swim, and the whole crowd cheered as a couple copycats jumped in. Before she could put her shoes back on, one guard, needing to make an example of her, had grabbed her by the wrist and was dragging her towards the door, the rest of us close behind.
As the crowds cheered she waved. “Thank you Tokyo!”
And today I'm back at work. The students and teachers think it's hilarious I lost my key running from lightning. Jokes are tossed around the staff room and my Vice Principal shoots me a VERY joking disapproving look as everyone laughs. He loves it. The man at the Village Office handing me the spare after lunch found it somewhat less amusing.
