hey all,
Just another nice weekend here in Japan. Saturday, I went to Shinjuku for a check-up at the doctor's, did laundry and played video games. Result from the doctor's office is that I'm healthy. The game I played afterwards was Demon's Souls, which is an incredibly punishing RPG. It is tough, but I've come to like that part about it, and its difficulty makes it more rewarding when you succeed.
I had originally planned on doing more of the same on Sunday, but one of the outdoor club members invited me to go rock climbing outdoors, so I couldn't pass that up. We went to Tenno-iwa, near Musashi-Itsukaichi station, which is in Okutama, which is technically still in Tokyo, but is pretty rural.
Some really nice climbs there, but we ran into some trouble with some of the "locals." Tatcha and I wanted to climb this one route, but all the bolts already had quickdraws hanging from them. We debated what we should do for a bit, then decided I'd climb and take the quickdraws off before replacing them with my own. I didn't feel comfortable using someone else's gear, and the other option (putting my own quickdraw through the same bolt as the abandoned quickdraw, then trying to sort out which to use (all while hanging from the rock by one hand)), seemed too much hassle, besides being outrageously dangerous. Anyway, I climbed the route, and brought the "abandoned" quickdraws down with me, and a Japanese guy approached Tatcha and I and wanted to know why we took their quickdraws off. I explained, and this dufus (who is apparently a corporate sponsored climber), said I should have done the dangerous option. He and his friends seemed really upset that I had removed their quickdraws on a route they weren't even climbing, hadn't climbed for hours, and didn't seem to have any plans to climb in the near future. Tatcha and I disagreed, returned his quickdraws, and moved to a different spot.
The thing about this is that there were only about 40 routes to climb at this place. We arrived at 10AM, and this route already had quickdraws on it when we arrived. At 2PM, when we decided we'd climb it anyway, of course the same quickdraws were still there. So these people climbed it, then prevented others from climbing it for 4 hours by not removing their gear. That's rude, in my book, at least.
Other than that incident, it was really fun. I climbed a nice 5.10a, a 5.9, and a fun 5.10b. Michi couldn't come because she was busy with a yoga conference, but we ate dinner together at a Thai restaurant.
Cheers,
