Man vs Nature

At the time of writing, I'm a week behind on the blog.  So, Golden Week was last week, but still plenty to write about.

My work week closed on an awesome note.  I got to know one of my vice principals really well (they're the ones who really run the schools in Japan), and I bonded with the kids at my last school of the week, with like 2 hours of outdoors playtime.  I even taught a little girl how to kick a soccer ball properly, with her scoring the goal I was guarding afterwards (sadly, I was actually defending the goal that time).

 

 

My plan for the 4-day:

• Climb Mt. Hayachine
• Go to Morioka to meet up with this girl I met last weekend
• My ALT friend's birthday
• Fix another friend's bike

Friday:

I woke up much later than I should.  By the time I arrived, it was noon.  I lost half an hour because I missed the access road entrance off 106 and the trail entrance. The weather's also not looking good, but I was determined.

 

About 50 m in, a large tree blocking the path, but I will just shuffle underneath it with some crouching. Then another tree... I will just climb over it.  Then the path's gone, looks like a landslide took it out, but the rocks seem scalable... I will just hug the cliff wall and spider-man my way across.  Success!

At the 5th station, there's a torii gate across a small river, which added to the mystic feel of the mountain. This is the start of the real hike/climb. No idea on the altitude, but it's cold enough for snow to remain. After a pregame dump in the woods, I pressed forth.

At first, not too bad, trails still visible.  Then a few 100m's up was the hillside blanketed with snow. The danger was what's under the snow; it could be flat ground or a large skewer of a branch that'll take out my leg.  The snow also looked partially melted underneath, where I could step through into who-knows-what below. I proceeded slowly.

 

As I climbed up, it's getting colder and the ground was more hard packed with snow.  It also started snowing at some point.  I had extra clothes and food, but my shoes and gloves are wet from earlier (hypothermia risk); it started to dawn on me that I wasn't equipped for this climb, or maybe the trail's actually closed.  However, I'm stubborn.

Past 7th station.  I couldn't see trails anymore, just pink flags.  So I will just connect the dots with the fastest and safest way possible.  I was feeling like Bear Grylls, getting deep in a nature survival scenario; the adrenaline kept me going.

 

 

I said I would stop at 3:30, but it's more like 4 before I backed down.  I was just climbing the most direct and clear path, so I was on my hands and knees a lot, not to mention it keeps me from falling through some thin snow sections.  I gave up when my sanity won: it's getting dark, there's a snowstorm, and I couldn't find any more pink flags.  I believe I had 2 km left to the peak.

When I finally got back to my car, it's almost 6.  I ate "it" quite a few times, but I felt like a bad ass. Looking back, glad I stopped when I did.  I would've certainly got lost in the dark and froze to death, or got hurt and then froze to death.  There wasn't a soul for miles to know I was in trouble, plus no cell signal nearby.  I bid my trusty partner, a hiking stick (found a nice solid branch at the start of the hike, saved me dozens of times), a ceremonial goodbye.  I decided to make a spur-of-the-moment trip to Morioka.

 

The trail entrance at Kadoma was closer to Morioka than Miyako (my town), so I may as well go.  I bought stuff, had yakiniku with my ALT friend nearby (epic fail on the meat ordering; he doesn't like a lot of fat on his meat... giggity), and bought more stuff.  At my final shopping stop, I ran into another ALT from Miyako.

 

I finally got home around 4 am.  I had to sleep at a rest stop because I almost crashed my car, bumped the tire on the highway curb at 60+ kph.  Woke me the f*** up real quick!