筑波山に登りました

hey all,

So as planned, I woke up and traveled over to Tsukuba, then over to Mt. Tsukuba, and climbed it. The new ALT had planned on coming, but when I asked him this morning, he didn't feel like going. So, I went by myself. Mt. Tsukuba is around 880m tall, depending on which of the two peaks you are on.

On the bus ride from the train station to the mountain, you actually start to ascend the base, and I was worried that there wouldn't be very much of a hike. My fears were unjustified. It took about 1.5-2 hours to get to the "top." Top being the valley between the two peaks. The male peak took another half hour, as did the trek from the male peak, down the valley, and up the female peak.

Gama-ishi: frog-rock, if I understand the sign. The Japanese people are taking turns throwing rocks into its "mouth:" if you get three rocks to stay in the mouth, this is good luck.

The male peak, as seen from the female peak.

The views were pretty amazing, and on the way down, I took a different path than I had on the way up. This path featured more interesting sites, including 弁慶七戻り, which is a rock formation with one massive boulder precariously balanced between two other massive upright boulders. The thing looks like the vibration from your footsteps could cause the one rock to fall and crush you as you tried to walk underneath it. 弁慶, or Benkei, was a warrior monk who was famous for his bravery. It was at this spot that Benkei supposedly started walking beneath the rock, only to turn around, too afraid to move forward. 七戻り, means "seven returnings:" it took Benkei seven tries before he made it under the rock.
The hike down took another 1.5-2 hours, so between the actual hiking, the 40 min. bus ride to and from the mountain, and the 2 hours by train, the whole day was taken up by this trip. Well worth it, many times over.

I have not decided what I am doing tomorrow yet. I was told that tomorrow is my school's anniversary, so there are no classes and I don't have to come in. I may visit Kawagoe again, but I think I might try for a new city.

Cheers