Monday Day 13

We were up at 0745, grabbed roll cake for me and obento for D at the station, and settled in for a 1.5 hour train ride into the mountains. We met my old friend Karen, from Virginia, and her husband Ron, from New Zealand, twenty minutes from the end of the ride. They live west of Tokyo. They guided us onto the bus and cable car to a temple on Miitake Mountain. We had ramen and udon (noodles) for lunch and had a great chat—they are super nice people, and Karen has been giving me career advice about how to get a position working in Japan. She did say, though, that she spends a lot more time traveling around the South Pacific islands than actually working in Japan, but still, it seems like a good job. Unfortunately she had to go in to work in the afternoon, so they took off right after lunch.



D and I decided that we would hike up the mountain in search of a waterfall on the map. Well, the waterfall looked a lot closer than it actually was—maybe because it was a tourist map with a drawing of a cartoon waterfall that took up a good deal more space than the actual one.



We saw some lovely boulders and moss and trees and butterflies in the next two and a half hours, and we were dusty and sweaty and aching when we finally crawled back onto the bus. We both fell asleep during the train ride back into Tokyo.






Still in our dirty clothes, we met Hiroko again, this time at a rather fancy Western place. We were a bit disappointed it was Western food, especially D, but couldn’t very well refuse. And I must admit I felt a little twinge of joy when I read “linguine in mushroom sauce” on the menu. There were plenty of Japanese things on there, too, and maybe it was the influence of the champagne (it was most definitely the influence of the champagne) but I decided to try a tiny tiny piece of sushi. Luckily, all I could taste was the cucumber and rice and seaweed the fish was wrapped in, and I chewed twice and gulped it all down in a ball. But I didn’t die, and now I can say I’ve had sushi in Japan.

We were joined by another of D’s former students, Machiko, and the dinner became really lively. Hiroko is always a hoot and Machiko seemed to have a cheeky streak, and all three of us ladies got quite tipsy from the champagne. I think D had to put up with a lot of teasing in multiple languages, but it was fun for everyone. We were in bed at midnight, having successfully managed to exhaust ourselves every single night in Japan.