Of machines and mountains

Mar 23

Of machines

Saturday was a home day. I did laundry for the first time, and hung it with my pyykkipojat and pyykkinaru on the balcony. I also finally figured out how to sort and take out the trash, vacuumed my room and went shopping.

In the evening, the first times continued: I used a rice cooker for the first time, and made お握り (onigiri) for the first time - lunch for tomorrow, since I want to climb a mountain! The お握り turned out quite ok considering my level of experience.

All the devices here take me so much time to figure out. The stove, the laundry machine, the rice cooker. I mean, they are familiar (aside from the rice cooker), but at the same time different - in the laundry machine you don’t select the washing temperature, in the stove you have to press two different buttons to start it etc. And naturally all the buttons are in Japanese hihii.

Cryptic washing machine. — mm joo kiva kiva

Cryptic rice cooker. — aa ookoo just just

And mountains

Sunday mountain day! Well, 高尾山 (Takaosan) could be considered a hill, it’s not that high. But I wanted to go up there anyway.

I don’t have much to say, except that the weather was great and I loved it. So I’ll just share some photos.

Hiking with people. — Most of the hike was under the trees. It was nice to have some shade, since it was really sunny. There were also a few other people.

Hiking a ridge with people. — I liked these parts with ridges. There was another person here and there.

Hiking with kids. — At this point there was an entire school class in front of me. Like 100 kids with teachers. The kids kept yelling がんばれ (ganbare) at each other. But otherwise, it was completely peaceful.

A tree from below. — This is a big tree. I like trees.

Top of the mountain. — The beautiful view at the top! Luckily, there was nobody else there. Aside from the 2 million people.

Top of the mountain, no people. — The same view minus 2 million people. If you believe a little, you can see snowtopped 富士山 (Fujisan, mount Fuji) on the right. Though the snow blends into the clouds in this photo.

Okay, I must say I liked the way down more than the way up. To the top, it was like a train all the way with a thousand people walking the same path. But, back down, I took the adventure route™ instead of the boring route. It didn’t descent back to the tourist area but to a valley to the north of the mountain. At the time, I wasn’t completely sure where I would end up but I had enough food and water for some hours so I figured it’s fiine.

Hiking down, no people. — On the way down. Oh no, where did everyone go, I feel so lonely. :(

Hiking down, people. — Ok, eventually I bumped into this group of older people. They were carrying little green bags and picking up trash from the path. They were also stopping to look at and photograph plants. Seeing them restored a bit of my faith in humanity.

Hiking down, house. — I came by this old house in the middle of the forest.

Hiking down, shrine. — There was a shrine and a waterfall next to it. I read in some sign that this is a monastery where monks train.

Sakura trees. — Once I arrived to the valley, I immediately saw a bunch of sakura trees.

Highways over sakura trees. — And two literal highways over them. This felt very Japanese somehow, based on my one week of experience here. Something about brutal constructions, advanced technology and nature.

Sakura lunch. — I saw people having lunch under the trees and thought that it was a fabulous idea, so I did the same with my onigiri and bananas.

Valley forest. — I walked through the valley for an hour to get to the closest train station. There were some small forests.

Valley shrine. — And a shrine, in a cherry grove.

Valley houses. — And some houses, next to bamboo trees, by a little river.

Valley blue house. — You'll never guess which house would be mine.

When I got home, I was pretty much smashed. I walked altogether like 9 hours under the sun. After eating, I went on my bed to rest a bit and fell asleep in 30 seconds. What a day!

Closing thoughts for the week

With every passing day I have a stronger feeling that most people at my sharehouse are not here to share. Only to house. There are a few nice people I’ve met in the kitchen, but I almost never see them.

So, this week I’ve ended spending a lot of time alone. But strangely I haven’t felt lonely yet. I guess there have been so many things to do that I haven’t had the time.

Still, I hope I’ll make some friends at uni. It begins tomorrow. Quite exciting.