i am writing this while i am experiencing a huge amount of pain in nearly every muscle, joint and nerve in my body. yesterday, we did this:
this is mt. yotei, which is a dormant strato-volcano, 1898m high. it's Japanese nickname is ezo-fuji, because of it's resemblance to the other mountain that only idiots decide to climb.
we did it. i hated every minute of it, it was NOT fun, the summit, while truly awe-inspiring, was just so exhausting to reach. i cannot cannot cannot believe we climbed it. it stands in niseko like some giant monster, challenging you, encouraging you, offering you things. it is a MOUNTAIN.
it took us about 51/2 hours to climb to the lodge, where we stayed with two other guys, one of whom was setting up an amateur radio antenna. the other we nicknamed "happy japanese" because he just grinned. he wanted to practice his english out on us. i didn't have the heart to tell him how bad it was. but, then again, my japanese is really bad. the proprietor smelled like whiskey, looked like Methuselah and had a cute dog named "locu". he begged like cordelia, which was nice.
here's a word i learned: gombatte, which means "go, man, go." we said that a lot on the mountain.
after we reached the lodge, we sat for a wee bit, then decided to tackle the summit. it took a long long time and it looked like the freakin' moon. the descent back to the lodge is where it got dicey. a huge fog rolled in and darkness was approaching. i'm not going to lie; i cursed a great deal, yelled a lot at rob and ultimately just cried and cried as i looked into the dark recesses of my soul. yikes, right?
but we made it. slept a bit (the floor was VERY hard), woke up around 4:30, when rob went to take pictures of the sunrise. i demurred that round of ascent, and woke up for the descent around 6:30. we made it to the foot basecamp at 10:54.
i can honestly say that that was the hardest physical activity i have EVER done. i will NEVER do it again. but i did it.
tonight: onsen, a yummy dinner and lots of sleep. rob and aika want to go to the beach tomorrow. i think i will rest. i've earned it.
hope all is well in your respective worlds. i am a little homesick and miss each of you a great deal. it always takes a trip to see the value of home, right?
for this post, i have to resort to rob's sign-off.
peacelovegodbless,
volansky
ps rob and i are back on speaking terms...
4 comments:
V--
My God, I was worried! When I heard nothing for several days, I feared you had dumped the whole blog idea and had gone off on a pilgrimage to seek your fortune (and a decent pair of cotton briefs). Thank God you were merely off climbing various mountains. Very entertaining stuff, that--and what, I'm really asking now, WHAT could be better than cheese AND avocado salad? Yeah, baby. Much love from me,
Dillmansky
I need never travel again. From here on out, I will simply send you on excursions with a laptop. And while you're at it, you can keep exercising for me too. Enjoying the view from my comfy chair. . .
-cousin gret
Why do the Japanese seem to have nearly perfectly symmetric mountains? That's weird I tell you.
I think the plan for the next day should be: eat sushi, drink, sleep. That's my plan anyway.
grading CNW papers awaits,
bob
You are to be congratulated heavily for all of your mountain climbing. That shit looks hard, but I can imagine the joy of which you spoke upon reaching the summit.
How jealous am I of all these trips to onsen? Why can't we have those here? I want a waterfall massage, dammit.
Find some tiger balm, maybe?
xoxo Kristy
Post a Comment