Japan – Kamikochi, Day five – Kyle

they slept until 515! we’re almost back to normal.

the plan for today was to hike the japanese alps. the beginning 4ish miles are relatively flat, full of ponds, streams, bridges, forests…perfect for toddler exploration! that is, unless it’s really raining and you only have adult ponchos because you chose to pack magnet blocks instead of buzz lightyear’s raincoat and boots.

this is one of the only places in the area who allow children and they make it clear that there’s no running, no touching, no yelling. in essence: keep your furious balls of destruction in the room.

so. try and entertain said balls of destruction in a room all day or spend the day with them strapped to you in the rain? we chose the rain.

we loaded up the kiddos, backpacks, camera, and ponchoed that shit up. we looked like a colorful disaster. people were pointing. what’s a word for when you look at someone and think, “damn, you dumb?” i think that’s the expression we mostly saw.

and we were dumb. i kept trying to take pictures everytime the clouds parted a bit and inevitably they’d be back by the time derek got the umbrella up and i extracted the camera from under our motley layers of plastic. the bug kept incessantly asking after the taxi and when it would take us back. mouse did not appreciate his poncho and kept trying to dislocate his neck to escape it. but we made it to our destination and to our immense relief there was a covered outdoor cafe and toilets. everyone perked up instantly and we had a mixed picnic/japanese lunch. hunger broke me and i ate some soba with dashi. i once worshipped kurt cobain and he told me it’s ok to eat fish cuz they don’t have any feelings. but i’m still feeling some heaviness about that.

we saw a bunch of awesome rain gear hanging up over a price sign and were extactic! we could get a small women’s windbreaker and let doc use it so he could race a bit on the 4km trek back. derek went to get it down and was immediately stopped by the woman who owned it. turns out it was just a drying station. all of a sudden it was obvious. and it was obvious that we were pretty desperate to get mcqueen some time to run. we fashioned his poncho so he could use his legs and set off.

in the hour we spent chillin, the path back had almost completely washed out. back in the carrier went the bug. mercifully he fell asleep while derek and i accumulated roughly a gallon of water per shoe. now who thinks they’re fancy with their extra padded running shoes? still me.

because we were disgusting when we arrived back at the ryokan the plan was to wrap our shoes in plastic and slink back to our room. however, our filthy wet shoes and socks were quickly confiscated. flummoxed, we resolved to pack damp, gross gear tomorrow to avoid more embarrassing bowing on both parts. (but, to our amazement, those beautiful people washed and dried all our gear!)

the little monsters and i dined in room on bean burritos, cheese, crackers, cheerios, and pocky. not too bad, if i do say so. the man of the house went to brave a full japanese dinner solo. i believe he came back full, happy, and having eaten a fish head.