Golden

Spring is in full swing here. The weather teeters between beautiful and a little rainy. Most of the rice fields are now flooded. Because of this, as I bike or walk home at night, I do so to choirs of frogs and cicadas. Its new and strangely relaxing.

With this moisture of all types comes the swarms of bugs. Kids here dig the "mushi" so much you'd think they were tiny dinosaurs. I've already had to clear several radioactive colored, monster spiders and I dread their pissed off brother's and sisters that I'll be dealing with all summer long.

The past week was the legendary "Golden Week" where several national holidays all fall within same time period making it perfect for a little get out and look around. The first weekend I went to Hiroshima with McGill, Muldoon, Keiko and Tetsuo. Keiko was my Japanese teacher for the past several months, and over that time myself and the girls became quite close with her and her husband, Tetsuo. They are by far some of the nicest and most generous folks I've met.....ever. And, they are an absolute blast to spend time with.

In Hiroshima we went to a baseball game, visited several famous and some not so famous places, ate like viking lords and finished it all with a visit to my now most favorite onsen. (Onsens are public bath houses in which the water comes from natural hot springs. I plan to expand more on this at some later time)

But with the end of that trip, a Tuesday spent at work, the next day I went off again for another extended weekend backpacking trip to central Kyushu (the island just south of Honshu, on which I live). With the generous lone of a friend's car, I took off all alone on what turned out to be some much needed solo time. The round trip drive wound up being something like 32 hours, much more than anticipated, and after each leg I felt like a crazy bug eyed person.

Like any good backpacking trip nothing really went according to plan. I met up with a fellow ALT, Colin, and his visiting friend (both Canadians) and we headed out for a round trip 3 day hike. Two days later we were back at our cars wet, muddy, soar and beat. I've always enjoyed picking challenging trips for myself, but this time I went a little too far for a guy who'd spent most of winter nursing boxes of wine and chocolate in his cozy little apartment. Both Colin and his buddy were in better shape than I, but I'd be willing to bet they'd share my sentiment that it was quite literally the hardest trail any of us had ever done. Not the scariest mind you, but definitely the most challenging.....and you can add to that a forecast that changed from beautiful to pouring rain. Of course I forgot my camera and if I can score some pictures from Colin I'll share with the group.

The great thing about those trips is though no matter how far it may have strayed from the initial idea, there were still times when I could smile and think to myself how happy, and fortunate, I was to be an able man walking on a mountain.

So the backpacking season of '07 is ushered in and I'm super excited. There are all kinds of ideas set for the future months and the mountains. I'm more or less just excited to be getting back to doing what I love more than anything else.