Friday was a long day. It started out with a meeting in preparation for Mrs. Yamamoto’s last class. The class went over well even with all the teachers, principal, and vice principal watching. After that class, there were meetings to discuss what they thought of the class as well as things she could improve on when she becomes a teaching in half a semester. Right after the meeting ends I find out I have another class to go to, and so off I go, no plan, nothing. Ah good times. So when that class ends, surprisingly it is lunch. Gross lunch, but lunch none the less. After lunch my work day is finished. I say goodbye to Mrs. Yamamoto, wish her the best, and off to my house I go. Quickly change into work clothes, then it is straight to the farm. When I get there everyone is out picking asparagus, so I grab the skinning tools and set to work. Midori came with Yumeno and helped as well as talked to me. Yumeno fed me fresh strawberries that they just picked. She is such a cute little kid. After a few hours, one ice cream break, it was 5:45pm. They gave me asparagus, fresh farm eggs, and milk in exchange for my work (in all I managed to skin two logs). And they told me information about climbing Mt. Yotei, which side is best, that sort of thing. So I rushed home to clean up, shower, and eat before I had to go pick up Melissa (enter total exhaustion here). I arrive in Kutchan at 8:50pm, pick up Melissa and we go shopping to get supplies for tomorrow’s climb. My body at this time is starting a petition against such acts, but anyway. We get back to my house and watch tv, talk, eat snacks, by the time we get to bed it is 1am. Exhausted I fell instantly a sleep and didn’t move till the alarm went off 6 hours later. Ugh. But we managed to get ourselves up and fed (thank you farm eggs), and out into the car, ready for the adventure. The night before Melissa and I couldn’t decide between what side of the mountain we should climb. In my mind I wanted to climb the Kyogoku side because it is the highest and shortest, but in good Japanese fashion we played paper, rock, scissors (because that is how must debates are settled here). Melissa was Kyogoku, I was Makkari. I won. So we arrived at the Makkari side, and now after climbing both sides I can say that I like the Makkari side better for the climb itself, but Kyogoku for the view of the crater at the top. Anyway, so we did the climb if you look down you will see all the pictures. It took us 4 and a half hours to the top, and 2 and a half hours down (Melissa was practically running down because we thought we were going to be late for her train). All through the climb though I kept spotting this florescent red bugs and the gorgeous view, and Melissa kept spotting mountain vegetables. It was pretty humorous. So I learned about wild garlic, eatable ferns, wild mushrooms, and I pointed out bugs, told her to watch her head (she hit is a couple times on branches and trees), and reminded her to look at the view. It was a good trade all in all. The best part of the hike is that there are three distinct vegetation belts that see on your climb. The first on is the montane belt and you see mainly deciduous trees like beech (which in Hokkaido they can only survive to an altitude of 900m), poplar, silver birch, and maples. The second belt is the sub-alpine belt, here there are coniferous trees, fir, Sakhalin fir, Yezo spruce, red pine, and only a scattering of the deciduous trees. This belt reaches up to 1500m. The last belt is the alpine belt, and this consists mostly of haimatsu (or brush pine). It looks like stunted pine trees mixed with a bonsai look. The brush pin only reaches about 1-2 meters in height and they can be extremely difficult to try to walk through at times. But in this alpine belt there are also wild flowers and some mountain vegetables. The belt itself starts at 1500m and continues to about 1800m. After that not much can grow and you find yourself climbing up rocks. So basically you start walking through forest, then you reach this soft of jungle like phase, then tiny brush trees, after that it is nothing but a great view and climbing up rocks. Course it is at the high height that my body decided it needed to go to the bathroom (an not just a quick squat and pee), and so there I was holding on to a rock, squatting, face towards the mountain (cause stuff runs downhill), ass out in the air (1800m up), trying to keep my balance. Ah yes, by far the most exciting bathroom experience. Anyway, we got to the top (I know this story is scattered but bear with me), and we see the crater, cheer, take pictures, eat (finally), and head down. I really wanted to do the hike around the crater, but time wise we couldn’t. And on the Makkari side there is a lodge there that you can stay overnight that way you can see the sunset and the sunrise. I totally want to see the sunrise from the top of Mt. Yotei. One day I suppose, before I leave this place. So today it is all about dying shirts, watching a sports festival, and maybe even skinning logs. We shall see. It has been quite the weekend.
Alright sports fans, enjoy your Sunday. I am going to start mine!