Guide to climbing Mount Sannoto

Well it's not really a guide, but it's my story, which might be useful to others who want to go try to go walking in the Tanzawa-Oyama Park, as I was looking around on the net for information before I went, and I didn't really find much except a vague article from a dumb magazine. Anyway, yesterday I climbed a mountain, Sannoto (三ノ塔), I guess it's a mountain, I didn't really climb it, I walked, but it was 1200m high. Before I went I was searching round for somewhere to go, because I wanted to get out of this goddamn city, I noticed on a map that there was a mountain not too far from here on the way to Fuji. So I thought I'd head out there, the only info I found was a list of train stations to go to (Hon-Atsugi, Isehara, Hadano, and Shibusawa on the Odakyu line), it also said to take a bus from one of them (Isehara), but there was no word of which bus to take. So I caught the train, and as I looked out the window on the approach to each station I evaluated whether it was close enough to the mountain base for me. Of course I couldn't see the next station, so I had no way to tell which was closest. When I finally got to the last station I figured I may as well try from here. So I got off at Shibusawa, and the hills looked pretty close, maybe a 10-15 minute walk. I started walking, I didn't seem to get any closer to the mountains, they just kept getting bigger and further away, I kind of gave up hope on the way, but figured it was good enough to have a walk in the semi rural neighbourhood. Finally after about an hour I came to a park which was at the base. I found out here that I could've taken the number 2 bus from the station to here. But there were no English signs around, and my limited ability of 50 Kanji wasn't good enough to figure out what was going on. The park was kind of extravagant, there was a huge suspension bridge across the river, looked like it must've cost a lot to build, but there weren't many folks around there. So I crossed the bridge and headed towards the mountain, taking the first bushy trail I saw, as soon as I entered a car came driving out. I didn't actually intend to climb the mountain, I just started walking along the path, it was a concrete road and I followed it for a while, until I saw a small track heading off to the side which I followed. I still had no idea where I was going, but at this junction the 2 signs both had the same writing on them so I figured they'd meet up again. My road was the harder way, but more interesting. It's hard to describe how it was, a bit muddy, very damp and foggy. It was just a forest and I kept walking, it went up and up, through different types of trees. I began to doubt that the paths would meet up again and then the path started heading downhill again, but it was only a little drop and after a few minutes I stumbled out of the bushes back onto the concrete road. A few metres up there was a gate and a little shrine, I had a rest and tried to figure out what the signs were saying, one I could read meant mountain pass峠, it's a mountain山 followed by and up上 above a down下. And there was the same sign I'd been seeing from the bottom(三ノ塔), whatever it was it was now only 2.4 km away. It doesn't sound far and I figured I had enough time to get where ever it was. So I headed off, it was steeper and muddier, no concrete, though the really steep bits had steps made from logs, but most of them had eroded away, I wondered who carried all this wood up here, because I was struggling to walk up with no wood. I got to the stage where I was using my arms to lift myself on my legs, if you know what I mean. Suddenly I heard a noise ahead, and I met my first fellow traveller on the way down. It just happened to be exactly half way, coz there was a sign there that said 1.2km. I tried to speak Japanese to him, but I suck so we just spoke English, he told me I was headed for the "summit", accompanied by a triangular hand gesture above his head. Then he told me it was 40 more minutes and he carried on down the mountain. The last part of the trek was the hardest, pretty steep, and slippery, but not really dangerous, I dragged myself up, and suddenly emerged from the forest onto a windy plateau. It was funny, like a portal to another country, the weather was completely different up there, windy and cold, yet if I walked 2 metres back it was warm and humid again. The view from the top was amazing though, the clouds allowed me to see a whole 5 metres ahead, just grey....there was a hut there though, with forks and spoons screwed on for door handles, after a few minutes I began to freeze so I headed back down, it was almost as difficult going down as up. I made it back to the concrete road by the time it was dark, so it was just a wander down through the darkness listening to Iggy Pop. When I got back to the park the hazey fog made it look kind of mystical, with the big bridge illuminated in the middle, I was also listening to Led Zeppelin at this stage, which added to the tolkienesque feeling, then I was abruptly attacked from the side by a mad orc, but I fended him off with my trusty sword. It might be noted that I wasn't listening to music the whole time, only on the way back down the concrete path, the rest of the walk I preferred to listen to the sounds of the forest, occasional bird farts and some wildebeest running away in the bushes. Funny that we use sight as a reference point for indentifying encounters with animals, it's not enough to just hear it. I wonder how this works for deaf people, they must come back from the forest saying "Man, I heard so many animals, it was amazing!!" The best bit is that I got back to the bus stop just in time for the bus, not even a minute to drink my coffee from the vending machine. The bus was another experience, kind of reverse system, you get on at the back door and pay as you get off, bizarro bus, to add to the authenticity the driver did the whole journey in reverse. Finally I got back on my train with muddy shoes and headed home, while all the business men gave me weird looks, well they probably didn't but my paranoia makes me think they are all looking at me. Now no one has any excuse for not climbing this mountain because the instructions are clear. Thank you.

spamtastic

How about some blog, maybe just a little. I was sick this week, kinda funny coz I was thinking recently that I hadn't been sick for a while, then I got the flu, so I had my first day off, I probably should've had more off, but I don't get paid for sick days, so it's better to go to work and spread the infection properly. I also got another present, spam started coming to my mobile and my email simultaneously, I thought it was a guy I gave my email address to when I first got here (he had some private student thing going, but I wasn't interested), my theory was he sold it to spammers. So I wrote to him and harassed him for it, and he replied saying it wasn't him, now I think maybe it wasn't, but who knows...? Guess I shouldn't write to folks after a few beverages. Anyway, so now I can enjoy random messages from Japanese dating services and ways to reduce my mortgage all day long, thank you spammers.
On another note I'm tossing the coin about the future, what to do, it's crazy that next week I've been here nine months, time for a baby. Do I stay on, or scoot, I'm definitely getting bored here, the job is going well, but the textbook we use is truly shite, I'm done with it, maybe it's time to do something more worthwhile. Though I feel a slight happiness when I see the students who have gotten better, then there are those that come everyday and aren't going anywhere. The pro for staying here through the winter would be doing more snowboarding...but maybe there's more of that in Europe to be done, well I'll keep flipping.
What else? I've started going to a free Japanese class, it's ok, problem is I got put in the very bottom class, with folks who can't say a word, while I have a moderate vocabulary of useless words, these people know nothing, we also spend a bit of time learning the alphabet, which is like going back to kindergarten, where we studied the big alphabet book, one letter a day, I was so excited when we got to Z. Also I usually go out on Thursday night, so Friday morning I'm usually spacing out sweatin' my arse off in the class room. Since I'm the only guy there, the rest seem to be housewives, maybe a representative from every country in Asia. I think the have a lower blood temperature, on a hot day one of the "teachers" gave me a piece of paper and I felt that her hand was as cold as a corpse. Also at work, the students say the room is cold while I'm melting into my lovely vinyl chair, maybe I'm just too woolly.