hawkeye’s thoughts of tomorrow

Change of pace today. Went the opposite way out to Oume to see Mount Mitake (Mitakesan). I actually headed out to see Mitakesan and Takaosan but Mitake was a bit bigger adventure than I thought it would be. Anyways, the trip out was very different. The trains are much older (read: rickety) than the ones in Tokyo & the people are much more…normal. Less designers and less suits. Also a lot less money in general, the houses are more like what you’d see in an old Asian movie, nice but definitely showing their age. Beautiful areas though.

Made it to Oume without trouble, I was starting to get a little nervous as more and more signs were in Japanese only and I was off the map. But sure enough Mitake was right there. Got off the train and wandered for a couple minutes. Luckily their was this adorable tour group of 4 elderly Asian women who were totally obvious that they were going to Mitake, so I subtly followed them to the bus that takes you to the cablecar. The cablecar ride was interesting, it was more like a train up a 60 degree incline, but I guess that’s a cablecar. I always pictured them suspended by a cable. Once at the top of the lift I was on my own, since the little old ladies went to lunch. So I headed off in the most obvious direction…left (there wasn’t a right). After following the trail around for a bit and going up an inordinate amount of stairs I came upon a beautiful…if a bit old and somewhat run down shrine. From their I found miscellaneous trails that weaved through the forest in every which way, saw a sign for a waterfall, totally had to check it out. The sign of course didn’t mention (or didn’t mention it in English) that the waterfall was quite a ways away through very rough terrain. Doesn’t matter though, totally worth it (checkout the pics). Once at the waterfall there was another neat looking trail so I followed that, within a few minutes I saw a sign for…another waterfall! So as I proceeded to get further and further from civilization and hungrier all the while (skipping breakfast + hiking = stupid…no seriously) but of course I couldn’t go back when I was almost to the end of the trail, so I forged ahead into the great wilderness following the trail through amazing streams and waterfalls, beautiful overlooks. Ok, well there would have been beautiful overlooks if there hadn’t been so much fog…or really clouds, it was pretty high up there. The fog kept it cool though, otherwise I’d probably be dead. I actually got to thinking about that whole, “Never go hiking in an unfamiliar place alone” axiom I’d heard in Boy Scouts…oops ;( I didn’t die though so that’s what’s important. After getting back to the tourist part of the Mitake area and eating a bit (I didn’t even care that I was drinking green tea…ok maybe a little, green tea is god damned FOUL) I took the cablecar down, rode the train back and now I post to thee.

I’m extremely glad I went today. I was kind of getting down on Japan, all the shopping made it seem like one big flea market, but this really kind of redeemed it. I mean I kinda realized that not all of Japan would be like big city Tokyo, but to see real people made it kinda hit home. While going up to Mitake I got to a fork in the road and an old woman was sitting at the bench, seeing that I was confused (read: lost) she said, “Jinza?” which of course I had no idea what that was at the time (it’s the shrine at the top) but I went along with it and she didn’t lead me astray, it was exactly what I was looking for. Also while I was waiting for the bus for instance, an elderly woman who was also waiting, just walked over to me and offered me some of her snack. I can’t remember what she called it but basically it was a shortbread cookie shaped about like a KitKat bar, very tasty, nice lady (that comma there makes all the difference in the world).

Pictures aren’t labeled yet, I’ll do that when I get back from hanging out with Ben. Everyone wish Ben a happy birthday!