a beautiful discovery

yone yama [yama is japanese for mountain] is in yoshikawa town, about an hour away, near yoshikawa high school where i teach every tuesday. our friend simon organized a hike there this saturday to celebrate his birthday. about 10 of us met at a nearby grocery store to stock up on food and wine before driving to the base of the 997 kilometer mountain. it had been raining all morning and continued to drizzle, but we decided to brave the weather and head for the public cabin located at the peak. the fog and mist gave the hour-long hike a surreal quality. the walk was strenuous but fairly easy as we weaved our way through the woods, along narrow paths with breathtaking views edging on sheer drops.


the log cabin at the top is for everyone's use and we discovered there were already 5 middle-aged japanese folks there. i am sure they were thrilled to see 10 rowdy gaijin [the borderline rude term for foreigners] with loads of alcohol. we agreed to split the cabin, them upstairs, us downstairs. we circled up for drinking and dinner.
on the far right is simon the b-day boy. in the orange shirt is ben, my predecessor. i currently live in his old apartment, use his old things, have his old desk and previous coworkers at his old schools. weird huh? chad is sitting to his left. he's the one who organized our christmas trip to thailand.

there is also a shrine behind the cabin where we hung out a bit. the foggy weather made visibility near zero which made our evening shenanigans eerie and fun.
we rose early to make our descent before the morning hikers began arriving at the cabin.

because of the unyielding rain, the clay path had become muddy and slippery and some of the steps carved out of the earth had eroded a little making the climb down a bit tough.

you'd think that my thumb problems would have very little to due with hiking, but i was fearful of losing my footing in the mud and falling, which would have meant putting my hands down to catch myself which is a huge no-no. so i had to use the slow and steady method while everyone else joked and barreled down the mountain.


after we reached the bottom, we all caravaned to a nearby onsen, a natural public bath, for a rejuvenating soak.