Part 1
A few years ago I was going out with a Japanese girl. I met her while she was studying in the UK. She was the first Japanese person I'd been aware of meeting and talking to. Warm and friendly we got on well and continued to talk frequently after she went back to Japan and we slowly fell in love.
The UK and Japan are half the world apart but I got a plane to Helsinki and from there to Tokyo. I spent 3 fascinating weeks in Japan, it's a very different place to my home but with many similarities. We are both island nations at the edge of our continents, we are geographically and culturally quite different from our continental cousins. As a people we generally take a while to open up to strangers but once we do, we are friendly, talkative and loyal.
In the weeks that I was there my lass had to work at least a few times at her part time job and on one of those occasions her "oto-san" (Father) offered to take me somewhere interesting for the day. He, through her, gave me a choice: go to a traditional Japanese castle or go to a mountain.
My girlfriend's father was an amazing man, an icon of Japanese hard work, strength and honour. Solemn but wise, quiet but with a cheeky sense of humour. In his sixties this man left - and I'm certain still leaves - the house for work at about 5:30am, works hard all day at a strenuous job, arrives home five days a week at 10 or 11pm, has dinner with his family and then proceeds to do push ups, stretches and other exercise : what a man!
I've digressed quite a lot but some description had to be made. The choice was a mountain or a castle. I am and always have been absolutely terrified of heights but I timidly asked my then girlfriend "what does your dad want to do? whatever he prefers.. I'll do that". He's from a mountain region, Shirakawa, he loves the mountains and hiking!" she exclaimed while smiling *damn :|* , I thought, having some internal conflict born from abject fear and then quietly said "let's do that that then" my skin paling, imagining vertical climbing with rope harnesses and ice picks for the snowy peaks of the largest mountain ever.
On the big day my girlfriend and I had a delicious breakfast quite early and then she left for work, I told her I'd see her in the afterlife. Later on her father and I got into his car and started driving to Tsukuba-san the mountain on the border of the next prefecture. What I enjoy quite a lot in life is talking to people. Any type, any place, any culture, interests or race, every person is potentially really interesting. What I also enjoy is trying to communicate to people without a shared language or with very basic language. It reminds me of my childhood. I lived in Spain when I was 11 years old and didn't really learn Spanish, the Spanish kids didn't really speak English but we still got on great with our limited vocabularies, I extended this activity, with great enthusiasm to my adult life.
The drive to Tsukuba was full of simple comments and observations, we had the radio on and there was some American music he was rocking his head to "Anata-wa suki?" (you like?) I asked and he smiled and said something complicated which I could not possibly comprehend.
On the way I also saw a modified "Hachi-Roku", one of my favourite cars, the Toyota Corolla 86 which was and is one of the most popular cars for drifting on tracks and also illegally in the mountains. I was joyous to see a real one in Japan and everything about the modifications made my heart leap.
After driving for a while I saw - it - on the horizon, a big blue behemoth shooting out from the land, it got bigger and bigger until we were driving uphill, twisting and winding up the mountain like a snake. We arrived at about midday and looked up at the monster rising above us.
A cable car ascended to the summit to the left of the parking area and "oto-san" gave me a choice pointing to the cable car or to a dusty trail leading upwards. I waved and crossed my arms like one of those air traffic controllers for fighter jets raising my voice slightly and repeating "iie" , "iie" (no!) and beckoned towards the path. The man smiled, it was what he wanted to do too.
I'm a tall man - 6ft3 or 192cm - with long legs, I love to walk fast wherever I go, I started striding up the dusty steps with vigour "hayai!" (quick) her father said impressed with my speed but he motioned for me to slow down, to relax and to take the mountain with grace at a calmer pace.
We rose steadily up the mountain, going through shadowy forested areas with countless overhead branches with millions of tiny leaves leaving little spots of light on the path. Many of the sections of the path were quite gradual inclines but then there were also vertical areas where we had to take huge steps or climb onto large slabs of rock one after the other.
The Journey wasn't too taxing and I spent a lot of time taking photos, the scenery was glorious, the completely different types of plants, unique insects, fresh mountain air and getting to spend a day with this great man doing the manly act of conquering a mountain. Though from the mountains he rarely gets to go to them or to hike, having two daughters and a wife that would much rather stay in the Saitama lowlands that they call home than try and ascend a hill. I could clearly see that he was enjoying himself.
When we finally reached the top a traditional shrine greeted us as well as a congregation of Nihonjin (Japanese people) relaxing and gazing out across Ibaraki prefecture. We settled down at an empty spot and appreciated the view. I was amazed I'd made it to the top of a mountain without dying a horrible death-from-impact. I'd never hiked before that day on the 20th September 2009 what an experience it had been...
...but the day wasn't over.
