By Mark
Like that chili you ate before bed, the essays just never stop coming up.
Yes, it's Mark again, continuing my explorations of the coast of Japan. This is the essay I promised you regarding a hike through the mountains.
Now some people's definition of a hike may be a little hour-long easy jaunt through the woods. Not me. When my friends and I go on a hike, we don't screw around. We are gone for hours, if not days, and we grind ourselves into pudding on the roughest terrain we can find.
In this case, it started out as a suggestion of Kim's. She knew where the beginning of a trail was, and since it ran by some shrines, she thought we should see it. So she called up two of her Japanese friends, and enlisted them to accompany us.
We took a bus up to a shrine (can't remember which), looked around there for a few minutes and then started hiking. We entered the trail, and immediately began heading upwards. The modern world faded quickly behind us as we passed among the trees. The trail turned out to be about 9 kilometers long, which may not seem too bad. Keep in mind that this was all up and down, schlepping over foothills and ridges in 100 foot increments. The trail was relatively well kept, and slightly muddy in places.
We kept an eye out for local wildlife, and came across one of the beasties sunning himself on the path. It was a thin green snake about two feet long, just taking it easy. We watched him for a few minutes, then headed on our way. We saw a puddle that appeared to be full of frog eggs, but the frog in question was nowhere to be seen.
We stopped for lunch at a rest area, and there saw the only other people on the trail. They were heading in the opposite direction, and didn't spare us a glance. We reached the end of the trail about 2:00 in the afternoon, and were feeling pretty good. That's when we saw the sign saying 'Bus Station 6 km'.
That's right. We had to walk another 6 kilometers to catch our bus. Now this is rural Japan. There is only one bus, and if you miss it, you are out of luck. If I remember right, the bus was at 3 or 3:30. It's not like the ground got any easier at this point. The walk to the bus was just as murderous as the trail had been, only this time we were under a deadline.
It was at this point I became a bit of a jerk. I was the drill sergeant for the next 6 kilometers. I force marched the girls up and down the hills, and across knife-edged ravines with a foot of walking space and a hundred foot drop on either side. No, I didn't yell anything at them. For that matter I don't think anyone spoke other than to say 'What time is it?'.
The trail exited right next to a gun club, and gunshots rang out as we slumped by the bus stop. We made it with several minutes to spare. Nobody was very talkative at that point. We just sat there and drank lots of water. On the upside, I got lots of great pictures.
I heartily recommend hiking in the mountains of Japan to everyone, but be sure to do your research, or you could be stranded.
Well, that's all for now. Email your comments to gleep@lvcm.com
