Aaaah where did my week go?

Sorry about the lack of updates in the last few days. It's been mostly due to a combination of exhaustion, frantic running about, and a sort of general achiness in my down time. So the breakdown of the last week (illustrated), starting Friday.

FRIDAY

It was my first day in Intermediate class. Hooray! The whole remaining 5 of us from Keigo module made it into Intermediate, so we're happy. I finally met Tatyana, Jarvi's friend, and interviewed her for class. The day came and went, and after class, Sampath asked if I wanted to go to the Toys R Us. I'd heard the place was out of the way, and it was raining outside--so what could I do but say "yes"? We hopped on our bikes and off we went. Sampath had a poncho, so the rain wasn't an issue for him--I had an umbrella, and very quickly had to learn how to ride one-handed while carrying an umbrella in the pouring rain. It wasn't fun, but I didn't crash (mercifully).

We got there, and Sampath admitted it was the first time he'd ever been in a Toys R Us. I decided to make a celebration out of it, by running around and playing with every sample toy. We went a little crazy--we played the video games, tried our hands at those ring puzzles, and set a robot penguin and some crazy doll to fighting on that "moving toys" table they've always got near the front. This escapade culminated in a light saber duel which I'm sure scared the hell out of the local mothers, but fascinated their children (we could hear them giggling). Eventually Sampath asked about the Tamagotchi's we had apparently come for (I had forgotten all about it until that moment) and was informed that the Tamagotchi's weren't in until SATURDAY. Grumbling, we headed back. After an ill-fated trip to a "Game Palace" (which turned out to be an absurdly loud, obnoxious pachinko hall) we parted ways for the day.

That night I hit up the bar (hereon known as Zig-Zag, as it'll undoubtedly be mentioned more), where an unusually large crowd was forming. Sarah showed up, and I sat chatting with some Canadian dude and the bartender whose name I never learned, hereafter fondly known as Frenchie. Partway through the conversation, I looked up and realized that my famous equation (proving that women are evil) which had been posted on the wall was no longer there! Slightly distraught, I asked Frenchie if he knew where it had gone. Declan walks in, tells me he was getting it framed, and unveils the equation in an oversized frame. He tells me he'll get it reframed more properly, and tells Frenchie to make me a free sandwich for my accomplishment. It was a very good sandwich, in fact possibly the best I've ever eaten. I would know.

After a few hours, Aaron showed up with two Japanese men who made it their mission to chat me up in Japanese for most of the rest of the evening. They were nice guys and continuously complimented me on my Japanese. The place filled up more than usual and we had a great time until Sarah and I had to head back before the hotel closed up at 11. Declan vowed we would close the bar together next week after I moved out of the hotel. We then remembered that next Friday is the night before the Fuji trip, so our celebration would have to be put off.

(Photo: L to R: Sarah, Canadian Dude, and Declan, looking thoroughly nonplussed.)

SATURDAY

The plan: Get Sampath, Vivi, Mark, possibly Adrian, and I together to hike the Kiso Valley, a 7.7-kilometer walk through the mountains between two preserved Edo-period towns.

The fact: Sampath backed out due to an unfavorable weather forecast, Adrian didn't want to lug his video camera 8 kilometers, and I forgot to tell Vivi when we were meeting.

So in any case, I woke up bright and early, grabbed a bento from Seiyu, packed it into my backpack, and headed over to the train station by 9:15 to meet the others. Surprise surprise, only Mark was there, and even though we waited until 10 (the designated meeting time) nobody else showed. After a confusing struggle with the pricing system for Japanese trains (Mark accidentally paid almost four times what he had to for his ticket) we hopped on the local rapid--right alongside Eric and Sarah, who were heading to Nagoya for the annual drum festival. We chatted, Eric was VERY loud to the chagrin of the locals, and Mark and I got off the stop before Sarah and Eric.

Three hours later--two on the train, a 40-minute wait for the bus, then a 30-minute bus ride--we arrived at Magome, a preserved Edo-period town up in the mountains. I had been able to watch the scenery from the train as it gradually faded from concrete to rice fields to mountains, but getting off the bbus in the middle of it was something different altogether. Magome itself is basically a tourist trap, albeit a lovely one, and not a whole lot of people actually hike the trail--in a three-hour walk we only ran into maybe three groups heading the other way, and one guy who passed us. Before we left the town, Mark spotted a giant water wheel and announced that the place felt familiar. A few moments later, he realized he'd been there three years earlier, doing Yamasa's Japan Discovery tour. I rolled my eyes and we continued on. The first hill started with the main street through Magome, then as the houses fizzled away we hit the scenic overlook. The view was breathtaking, and I figured out how to work the panorama function on my camera.

The first two kilometers or so were entirely uphill, and it was steep. Good training for Fuji, I figured, and we kept at it. Relatively close to the top we stopped for lunch before heading onward and upward. The scenery was unbelievably breathtaking. We even passed an old Japanese woman working in the rice field beside her house, and waved and yelled "KONNICHIWA" over the roar of the rapids nearby.

The hike was beautiful, but something better explained by pictures (which are all on photobucket). On the way down, however, we did swing by the two waterfalls along the trail. The large, quiet one is known as the Male waterfall, while the smaller, raucous one that is powerful enough to generate its own wind is the Female. Gotta love the Japanese. The bridge near the falls was a great place to rest our weary feet, and we relaxed quietly for about ten minutes before trudging onward.

After that, we ran into part of the path which had been blocked by a mudslide. Forced to go around it, we walked down the shoulder of a major road--and found this little fellow on a moss-covered log. See, I knew he was real.

Long story short, we hit the end of the hike, found the nearest bus station, and hopped the bus to the nearest train station. A multitude of slow-moving local trains later (read: about 3 hours) we were back in Okazaki, around 9. We stopped at the bar. Some new guy came up and introduced himself, and Mark proceeded to monopolize the conversation and do nothing but complain about everything under the sun. (He's good at that.) I got irritated and went home early--I was exhausted anyway.

SUNDAY

Woke up. Slept some more. My legs were absolutely killing me from the hike. After lunch, I started feeling sick... and thus begins the previous entry.

And now, some videos for you all:


The legendary battle of Penguin vs. Doramon


Behold Magome.