The Adventure Chronicles

This past week has been full of adventures of the Japanese kind. Last Sunday I went deeper into the wilderness than I've ever been in my life. There's a mountain range about an hour away from my town, the Shirakami Mountains, that are a World Heritage site, so the Nordaas', a couple from church and I decided to go. Japanese roads are quite narrow and windy to begin with (they have convex mirrors all over the place so you can see if there's anyone coming), but this was quite unlike anything I'd ever seen. We were always on the side of a mountain, with lush lush green all around (hiding what a steep dropoff it was). The road was barely big enough for one car (two-way roads like that should be illegal...and then when you add the potholes... I thought we were gonna die). We'd turn a corner, and I thought there was no way possible you could go further, but then 15 minutes later we were still driving. It was slow going on the paved roads at 40km/h, but then it turned to gravel road and we had to go 20km/h. It was not unlike bushwacking in a car.
We finally got to the top and I was very surprised; there were actualy other cars there - we weren't the last people at this end of the earth. After hiking through some meadows (more like sauntering and taking pictures of the lilies and white mushrooms that looked like flowers) we emerged back into the parking lot and there was a bus! I have no idea how that bus made it without tipping off the side of the mountain; we were all quite mystified. On the way down, the narrow paved road seemed so much wider, almost like a luxury. In the words of Bonita, "The Japanese all love nature, but not many venture THIS deep." Well put, I think.
Yesterday I went to a festival at a shrine. Takanosu has the biggest drum in the world, and every year they use it at a festival to call on the harvest gods to send rain or something like that. I actually don't know how to describe this festival; this too was like nothing I've ever seen. There were different sets of dances and drumming routines, for lack of better words. It lasted an hour and a half. But there's nothing like a good festival that brings the foreigners out of the cracks of Japan. I haven't seen that many white faces I don't know for five months; actually just that many white faces. It was almost like culture shock in my own habitat. There were 6 new people I had never seen before, and I have no idea where they came from, but they're definitely not from around here.
Tonight I had more of a domestic adventure. Now that I think about it, it was probably more me just trying to live up to my past reputation. I went out for supper with three people from church and after two of us wanted ice cream. I was kind of full, but I reassured them of my seperate stomaches, and we went to Baskin Robins. This is the last week of the 'buy a double get a triple' deal, so of course I had to "Challenge the Triple" as the poster put it. So I was with three people (granted with asian size bellies) and they shared a small triple. They told me I wouldn't look too piggish if I got a triple too, and so I went to order the small size like they got. But my cup ended up being about twice the size of theirs because I ordered 'regular' (the big size) instead of 'small' (the regular size). Needless to say, I don't think I'll be eating tomorrow.
Oh and that brings me to my next adventure. Tomorrow I'm going monkey hunting. For real. (But with cameras, not guns...I'm not cruel like that).
I guess I'm living up the the motto I adoped way back when I got to Japan, as soon as I learned the word for 'adventure'. It's "Every day is an adventure". (Basically I just said it whenever I did something stupid.) Back then it stemmed more out of my ignorance than anything, but I think it still applies, no?