Japan

This is, btw, my first child "Borschti". He is now 12 years old.




Today he has seen Mt. Fuji for the first time.

A miracle.

I resisted the devil. That´s not the miracle. The miracle happened here:



This is my wedding ring. Until yesterday it was shiny silver coloured. Now it´s golden.

You want to know the romantic explanation?

I resisted the devil and so she changed my silver ring into a golden one, so that everybody can see my faithfulness.

09.02.2008

It´s snowing. I´m sitting, dressed in my Yukatta behind the huge window in the ground floor. When I open the window I can walk in the garden.
The light is switched off. AHA ("minor earth major sky") is playing in my iPod it does not fit completely into this scenery, but I´m too lazy to search any longer.

The last weekend in Japan has begun. It started at 4:30 in the morning.
After a few trainrides I eventually made it to Odawara, where I purchased the Hakone Freepass for unlimited rides (train, bus, ropeway, cablecar, ship) in the Hakone area. Good deal, I think.
So it came that I had a visit to Owakudani, the hell. Hot suphur gases coming straight from hell. I now understand, why nobody wants to be there. From there I wanted to hike.


The trail is very easy to find I begin to climb. The first hundreds are easy and not covered with snow. Sometimes some small bits and pieces of ice, but nothing dangerous or uncomfortable. Along the path are signs, that the gas is poisonous and gas sensors are installed. In case the concentration of the gas is too high an alarm will go off. Depending on the current position I should either return or run, without breathing. Today it smells horrible (worde than Beppu) but no alarm or warning.

Soon the path is covered with snow. I continue . The incline gets steeper and steeper. I arrive r a junction. Taking a left would lead me to a round course around the hill. I want to go right,, crossing the hill and taking the ropeway down to the other side. The signs gives no information about the diatnce to the ropeway station. It only says that it will take about 100 minutes. Cool. It´s snowy, so it may take longer. Maybe 2 or 3 hours. Still enough time to catch the last car at a quarter to 5°°.




The traces of other people are suddenly disappearing and I can see snowshoe traces. A few minutes later I´m sure that there are 3 men in front of me. two of them are not drinking enough. The one with the snowhoes seems to be the only one with enough water in his body. It´s fun to read the traces. To know, where they stopped, were they discussed, were they took a rest and so on.
The snowshoeman seems to be the leader of the group.
After a while the incline is still increasing, I´m thinking the first time about returning. But the decision is made. I will continue, since my jeans are wet anyway (I have new trousers in my backpack). A wrong step and I´m gone. I forgot to check the snow before taking the step. I´m sunken up to my hibs. Lucky me, there´s a tree nearby, which makes it not so difficult to get me out of this misery. Very careful I continue. I enjoy the area, the snowcovered trees and bamboo. I´m now high enough in the hill, to have no smelly air anymore. I reach the first peak (Mt. Kanmuritake). I´m still following the traces of the 3 men. Shortly before I reach Mt. Kami I look up and see a guy coming my direction. The snowshoeman.

He wants to know where I´m coming from and where I´m going. I tell him. His englishis better than from the staff at the hotel. So we talk for a while and he points out, that he is returning, because the snow after the summit is getting wors and the weather forecast says even more snow in the afternoon. He is not sure anymore where exactly the path goes after the peak. Most of the signs are burried under the snow. During our small talk it starts to snow. I tell him, that I will continue to the summit, take a rest and will return too.
On the last 200m, I meet 3 other persons. So it were two groups. I see, that I have to practice the trace reading a little bit more... The guys are also coming back.

I reach the summit and start to take the picture of me at the summit. I never thought about it, but it´s not so easy to look good at the top of a hill.
1438m - nearly half of Mt. Fuji. Not too bad.




On my way down I pass the groups of three again. To change my trousers, my new challenge is to find a proper toilet. The first one is even worde than every scottish toilet I´ve ever seen. The next one is the one in the ropecar staion. This one is big enough for me and my backpack, western style, tidy and warm. A perfect place to relax and change the clothes.

Ramen with egg for lunch and then I take the ropeway. Inside the cabin a japanese guy starts talking with me. He is, soe he tells me from Saitama area. I don´t care where he is from, but I´m sure that he is annoying. His hobbies are travveling and meeting friends all over the world. When he tells me, that he has friends in Paris, New York, London, Prague, Mexico and he has visited them all, I ´m sure that I will not give him my adress. Unfortunately my email adress is already in his hands. Damn!
I shows me all the pictures he has taken this years. Wonderful. I want to enjoy the view and now I´m stucked with picture of Nagasaki, Horoshima and Miyajima. They would have been interesting, if this would have been my first day in Japan, but not after 4 months, where I simply want to enjoy the view and say goodbye.
The car stops. The door is opening. I say goodbye, but he follows me, still talking. How can I get rid of this guy. I´m thinking about the restroom. Either he will follow me or wait outside. The follow me sign is hopefully not blinking. He would wait outside, I´m sure. We are not in the ground floor, so I can´t escape through the window.
He continues taking pictures of me with his camera and his mobile phone. I move as fast as I can, so that he gets blurry pictures. He is still talking. I try it friendly. It does not help. My last chance is to say in japanese: "Ikkimasho!" (GO!)

Wonder! He says goodbye and walks away. I have to take the same pirat ship he is in. I see him again, but he is not talking to me anymore. Perfect. Was I too hard to him? I´m sorry, no I´m not, or maybe I am...



After the ship I take the bus to hit for my Ryokan. The day is not over yet. It´s almost 5°° and I´m sleepy. But there´s no time to be tired. This girl takes all my attention. She is flirting like there´s no tomorrow.

I do not know that it is so hard to resist, when a unknown woman tries to seduce. Except the eye blinking, the touching whenever possible (things I have experience with) she goes for more. Instead of taking a seat while typing my name and conatct details into the computer, she leans over it, still standing. She moves her hibs, the trousers slip down. She continues. I can see her naked back, the thong, her black tights and half of her ass. Can she PLEASE stop to move her hibs, while typing. Nobody does it like she does... It´s not imagination. I pinch myself. I have to go to bed. Now!



---Give me a break ---[While writing these lines, still sitting in front of the window with my Yukatta]

In this moment, while I´m writing this, she out there taking pictures of her in the snow, with a flash light. After every flash she checks, if I react somehow.



I go to bed now. I have to resist the devil in this hell of sins and sulphur. I hope I will survive.