Camping and Hiking

Greetings readers!

By now you are probably frustrated with our laziness. We were never meant to be bloggers, except maybe Nate.

Anyway, all your frustrations will be alleviated today.

Definition of a term:

Gaijin: (n)
Japanese for foreigner

Last you heard, we were about to go camping with some of the local gaijin. We headed up to the campsite in Nikko, with Mike and Joey. We pitched our tents next to a creek in the shadow of a massive flood control dam, which was made of 3ft (diameter) steel pipe. A ten minute hike up the creek revealed two smallish dams, which comprised the rest of that flood control system.

We returned back to the camp just as the sun was setting. We ran around and grabbed as much wood as we could before it got too dark. Starting the fire was hellish, as it had rained just the day before. With the help of a flimsy cutting board and much flapping by Joey, we managed to fan the fire to life, only to have it die down the moment Joey stopped.

It was well after dark, and all the potato chips were gone by the time the others showed up. Three more gaijin joined us: Mark, Dayne (woot!) and Rory. Mark is the master firebuilder, and within 15 minutes he had a roaring fire going. We tossed potatoes wrapped in foil into the coals and broke out the wine. What ensued was a night of cheap wine, baked potatoes, sausages, and much revelry. At one point we all ended up jumping in the creek (freakin' cold water). Anyway, after much drunken singing and bag o' wine, we all crashed.

The next day dawned cool. We stumbled out of the tents and made oatmeal and toast, and then cleaned up and hiked back to the cars. Mike, Mark, Dayne and Rory all went back to Utsunomiya, and then Joey took us all up to a trailhead.

The area we hiked in was under some very interesting construction. We hiked a ways, past several huge dams, and eventually made it to the site of the construction.

The workers were concreting the side of the mountain. They were piping huge amounts of concrete into enourmous grids on the side of the mountain. A good portion of the mountainside was already covered with concrete. Supposedly this project is to prevent erosion, but Joey has a theory that some politican has a stake in a concrete company.

Once we passed that slightly disturbing, yet very impressive feat of engineering, things became much more natural. We passed several Shinto shrines, and then we came upon a rather eerie sight.

There were probably 100 or so small statues of children kneeling in the forest, clustered around a mother statue. They were carved out of white stone, and all faced the same direction. Joey said that they were for all the children who are stillborn or miscarried. Out of respect, we didn't take any pictures.

The next shrine we came to was the size of a small house, perched on the side of  the mountain. It was of simple construction, but still looked very japanese.

We rounded the corner and came upon a steel bridge that crossed a gorge. We went across and made our way down into the gorge. We had to hop the river several times as the canyon walls got closer together. We made it about 100m up the gorge before the river banks turned into sheer rock walls. Joey pointed out a rope hanging from the side of the very steep bank. We hauled ourselves up the side of the mountain, and eventually made it to the road that the trucks use. After a very balmy walk and a tanuki (similar to a raccoon) sighting, we made it back to the car, starving and exhausted.

We drove down into Nikko, and stopped by Joey's Mother-in-law's noodle shop and had a massive and delicious lunch.

Back at Joey's place, we showered and then all passed out.