Week 18

Last Tuesday I pulled overtime again. Coming home late in the evening I quickly packed for Wednesday's adventure before getting a good night's sleep.

Wednesday I met up with some friends at Abeno-bashi station were we caught a rapid train for the two hour ride from Osaka to the middle-of-nowhere Nara. We arrived at the foot of Mt. Yoshino (on of Japan's many sacred mountains) at about 10:00 am. We took our time and slowly made the ascent. We had great weather for the first 2/3 of the hike until we reached the summit when someone just had to go and say "gee, it's hasn't rained yet" causing an almost instand down-pour. All-in-all it took 5 hours to hike up and about 2 to hike back down. Rain and exercise aside it was a great hike with some really good friends making for a good day.

Thursday, in some cruel twist of scheduling I had to work my normal shift. Fortunately, Golden Week started on Friday and I got to spend the day with my girlfriend (we went to a flower park in the outskirts of the city.) On the way back we stopped off at my place so I could pack for the weekend before going to her place where we made gyoza (pot-stickers) for dinner. (Who knew that a dish called pot-stickers REALLY sticks to the pan? Well, I do now.)

Saturday had a 4:30 wake-up call so my girlfriend and I could pick up our rent-a-car by 5:00 and our friends by 5:30. We had a nice drive out of the city, tailed by the rising morning sun. It took us about 4 hours to get to our first destination: Izumo-taisha. (too long to explain, click here) We spent almost two hours walking around and taking pictures before getting back in the car. Our next stop was Mt. Daisen (kanji translation: Big Mountain.) About half way up the mountain (by car) we stopped at a dairy farm and had some delicious fresh ice-cream. Somehow our navigation system though it was a good idea to take us to our next destination by going OVER the mountain so we had a harrowing hour of hair-pin turns inches from thousand-foot precipices (admittedly accompanied by some spectacular vistas.) Some time later we safely arrived at out hotel in Tottori. After checking in we all headed off to the baths to relax before heading out to dinner. On the way to dinner we witnessed an attempted drive-by bag-snatching (a "common" crime in Japan) luckily the victim fought off the assailant and both ran away before we really realized what was happening. We had dinner at a nice izakaya followed by some relaxation and drinks back in our hotel room.

The next day we slept in a bit and hit the baths one more time before hitting the road. Sunday's main event was the Tottori sand-dunes. Of couse it was just our luck that we arrived on the windiest day of the year and were beaten by flying sand the whole time (I still have sand in my hair.) I was the only one brave (read: stupid) enough to climb down to the water's edge and put my hand in the Japan Sea. Turns out going down a sand-dune is a totally different story than having to climb back up it. After a lot of shoe-banging-on-the-ground and coat-shaking (and a spin through the gift shop) we got back in the car and got some lunch at a local restaurant that surved the local delicacy of a bowl of rice with grilled and raw squid on top (it wan't to bad, and was VERY filling.) After a stop at a fish marked down the road we pointed the car back towards Osaka. We had one more unexpected adventure as my friend got us pulled over for speeding. Fortunately we found the ONE nice traffic cop in Japan who let us with a warning (after which we continued back to Osaka... a little slower.) We rolled into the city about seven o'clock with the setting sun descending behind us. After fueling the car up and returning it, we fueled ourselves up at my favorite burrito restaurant.

Monday was spent sorting photos, doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, and buying airfare home for the summer.