Autumnal Penitentiary
Week 26
6 Months
6 Months
Busy work week to say the least. Friday had 8 classes and Saturday had 9. Rough way to end the week, but always a great way to ensure a good night's sleep on Saturday night. Other than that nothing particularly noteworthy occurred.
Oh wait.
A little something happened.
Change happened.
And Ayn Rand looks like she's about to lose a lot of her influence in the White House.
As a little experiment I asked almost every one of my students their opinion on the election. The almost universal answer was that the election was good for the US but questionable for Japan. The latter was a bit surprising but stems from the somewhat protectionist nature of Obama.
I guess we'll find out soon enough. Round about January 20th.
Thank god for the weekend. First chance in almost a month to really go out and do something!
Saturday night I stayed home.
*cough*
Melissa and I concur that our new schedules do not encourage wild clubbing outings on Saturday night. We're just too exhausted. Instead I went home and spent a couple hours chatting with my mom and, in a couple of cameo appearances, my grandmother and my aunt Val. First time I'd talked to anyone outside my immediate family since immediately after the Fuji trip. I was very happy to speak to them.
Sunday I...slept in. A lot. Unfortunately this meant that I managed to piss off my friends that were waiting for me in Ikebukuro. It didn't help that I also had to stop by Shinjuku for an hour or two in order to renew my internet at the Leopalace offices there. That's done now and should be good for the next six months though.
I ended up meeting the crew (Winny, Melissa and a new acquaintence Miguel) at about 4 PM in Shibuya. We spent the next hour or so wandering around the city trying to locate the restaurant we were interested in going to that night. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the place. We wondered around through Shibuya's narrow streets for an hour or so. M, M and W had all been walking for hours so far that afternoon, so at this point they were getting quite exhausted. Time dragged by as we wandered around in a light drizzle trying to find our elusive quarry.
Oh wait.
A little something happened.
Change happened.
And Ayn Rand looks like she's about to lose a lot of her influence in the White House.
As a little experiment I asked almost every one of my students their opinion on the election. The almost universal answer was that the election was good for the US but questionable for Japan. The latter was a bit surprising but stems from the somewhat protectionist nature of Obama.
I guess we'll find out soon enough. Round about January 20th.
Thank god for the weekend. First chance in almost a month to really go out and do something!
Saturday night I stayed home.
*cough*
Melissa and I concur that our new schedules do not encourage wild clubbing outings on Saturday night. We're just too exhausted. Instead I went home and spent a couple hours chatting with my mom and, in a couple of cameo appearances, my grandmother and my aunt Val. First time I'd talked to anyone outside my immediate family since immediately after the Fuji trip. I was very happy to speak to them.
Sunday I...slept in. A lot. Unfortunately this meant that I managed to piss off my friends that were waiting for me in Ikebukuro. It didn't help that I also had to stop by Shinjuku for an hour or two in order to renew my internet at the Leopalace offices there. That's done now and should be good for the next six months though.
I ended up meeting the crew (Winny, Melissa and a new acquaintence Miguel) at about 4 PM in Shibuya. We spent the next hour or so wandering around the city trying to locate the restaurant we were interested in going to that night. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the place. We wondered around through Shibuya's narrow streets for an hour or so. M, M and W had all been walking for hours so far that afternoon, so at this point they were getting quite exhausted. Time dragged by as we wandered around in a light drizzle trying to find our elusive quarry.
Eventually we took shelter in the Hobgoblin, a bar that I've frequented on numerous occasions. We sat around for about and hour sampling British beverages. After some consultation of our cell phones and Google maps, we discerned that our restaurant was close at hand.
Venturing back out into the slight drizzle, we eventually found the restaurant discovering that it was only one block further than when we had stopped looking earlier.
And so we entered The Lock Up.
Mel had been here a couple of times before, but it was new for the rest of us. It's one of the many themed restaurants in Tokyo, the theme in this case being that of a haunted prison. It's a shame we hadn't gone a couple of weeks earlier, would have really been a great place to hang out at Halloween.
The food was pretty damn good, when it finally showed up. I say finally because the time that elapsed between requestin service and receiving it was monumental enough to be indescribable under the auspices of simpe seconds, minutes and hours. Perhaps parsecs is a better gauge. We had to slap the service button more than ten times before finally tracking down a server and dragging them up to our table.
There's a kind of dinner show at the restauarant too. Every hour or so a sort of prison break occurs, with all kinds of costumed employees running around, shaking bars and whatnot. Klaxons, strobe lights, wardens firing cap guns, the whole nine. Certainly an unusual experience, but a lot of fun. The drinks were pretty neat to, arriving in test tube racks and large beakers. Winny drank a concocation that contained a large jelly eye. Awesome.
Engaging conversation was had by all, as we discussed the merits of, among other things, Kevin Smith. Miguel give me a nice history of the political turmoil in Ireland which I've never heard first hand.
After dinner Miggy had to take off, so Mel, Winny and Ben (who showed up at the end of dinner) headed off to the nearest Karaoke place and proceeded to belt out an hours worth of songs before catching the last train home. It'd been a long time since I went out for Karaoke, so it was welcome opportunity to get back into the groove.
The next day started nice and early for me. I woke up, packed my bag, loaded the camera and departed for Mitake station and the start of my second solo hike in Japan. It was also November 10th, the 6 month anniversary of my arrival in Japan. Not a bad celebration in my opinion.
Fall is a bit delayed as far as I can tell in Japan. Although I was out hiking in early November, many of the trees still had yet to exhibit any significant loss of chlorophyll. Still, there was more than enough colour at the top of the mountains to make it worth while.
My 5 hour hike began at around 12:30 and ended close to 5:40. This was much later than I expected it to go because I had left at what I thought was a relatively early time. Not so as it turns out. Bad train connections are any Tokyo hiker's achilles heel. Next time I go hiking my departure time will be around 5 or 6 AM to ensure that I'm off the mountain before it gets dark.
The hike ran from the cable car at the top of Mitake-San (929m) across 12km of ridge line and mountain to the city of Oku-Tama, nestled in the same river valley that houses Mitake. The summit of Mitake-San is also resident to a shrine that has existed in some form since 90 AD.
The weather wasn't all that great, pretty overcast, but not cold once I started moving. The trail itself, despite being listed as Easy, was at times a bit daunting. I got my first taste of holding chains on narrow ledges near the top of Odake-san, which was also the high point of the day at 1267m. The climb itself to the top of Odake was also quite a bit more physically taxing than Takao-san due to the short distance and vertical rise. It was enough that when I reached the top of Odake-san I let out a little whoop of accomplishment.
The weather wasn't all that great, pretty overcast, but not cold once I started moving. The trail itself, despite being listed as Easy, was at times a bit daunting. I got my first taste of holding chains on narrow ledges near the top of Odake-san, which was also the high point of the day at 1267m. The climb itself to the top of Odake was also quite a bit more physically taxing than Takao-san due to the short distance and vertical rise. It was enough that when I reached the top of Odake-san I let out a little whoop of accomplishment.
It was a picturesque trail though. There's a small waterfall at one point along the path which is serenely beautiful. The views of the surrounding mountains were also stunning at times. All in all, a very good hike despite my second late arrival at the destination. The final hour of my descent from the mountain took place in a dark cedar valley guided only by the light of my headlamp. At least it was safer than the highway last time near Takao.
I got home around 9 o'clock after stopping by the Bic Camera in Tachikawa to buy an Xbox 360. I like to think that going hiking and then buying a piece of high-tech hardware says something about the duality of humankind, but it might be a bit too lofty a statement.
Carting that heavy piece of game console goodness home, I relaxed, had some food, and then promptly passed the hell out and slept the sleep of the dead until the next morning dawned with a new week of work.
And that leaves us at the end for now. Next update: Kyoto Special!
As always
Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello
And that leaves us at the end for now. Next update: Kyoto Special!
As always
Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello
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