Hiking in the Rain

A few weeks ago my boss, Simon, took Donna and me on a relaxing hike through Mt. Bandai. Bandai is pretty cool....its beautiful from the front, but you go around to the back of the mountain and...nothing. The whole backside collapsed into itself during an earthquake many years ago. I was specifically promised relaxing hiking, but what I got more closely resembled a forced death march. Seriously, a light hike to a beautiful waterfall turned into a 300 meter descent into the utter depths of hell. The waterfall was accessible only by stairs, yet many of them had been washed away by the rain. You got though those rough patches by shimmying down a thick piece of chain bolted into the rock. Now, I'm not so much what you would call a "hiker" per se, but um, this was not fun. As much as it sucked going down though, it doubly sucked climbing back up! I just silently chanted, "Try not to die, try not to die," over and over again. However, hindsight is 20/20, and I do think the "hike" was worth it. It was absolutely gorgeous and green and a great representation of how beautiful Japan is. Also, its kind of hilarious that I made it up and down the death-stairs unscathed, but walking back to the car on the perfectly even pathway caused me to trip over a root and fall FLAT on my face. Hilarity ensued.





Proving once and for all, paper covers rock.

After a hard day hiking, we went to an onsen. An onsen is a hot spring, but they are considered sacred places to relax. So you gotta go in nekked as the day you were born. Sweet Mary on a bicycle it was a day of firsts! First this "hiking" nonsense, then public nudity, and lastly, the grill your own meat place where I ate gyutan for the first time. What is gyutan, you ask? Why, its cow tongue, my friend, and its surprisingly oishe (delicious).

I did need to pick up a beer to help the gyutan do down, though.

All in all, a good day!