Oh boy, being back in school has been major culture shock. Yesterday was the official opening ceremony, today I taught three classes... and I am totally and completely exhausted. Of course, a lot of that comes from the fact that it just finally has decided to get sunny and hot again (after about 3 weeks of cool, rainy weather) and that I'm still recovering from my "I tried to climb a big mountain in the pouring rain" cold.

Oh that's right, I didn't ever finish that story, did I? Well, long story short (since as I mentioned, I'm really tired), Tom and I strapped four days worth of meticulously planned food and gear on to our backs and spent at least 4 hours trying to climb Mt. Jonen. When we stopped for lunch, we were completely drenched (literally water and mud in my shoes), and we began to get cold.... fast. We'd paused to decide whether to continue or bail on at least two previous occasions, but hadn't. At lunch we were just miserable, so we called it and quickly headed down. We were so dissappointed!!

(Ok, this is turning into the medium length version, forgive me...) The worst part (worse than being soaking wet for over 6 hours, trying to hike on a trail that was turning into a mudslide, having a 40 pound pack on my back, and both of us wiping out at different spots) was when we reached the trailhead and realized there were no taxis. We'd gotten a ride in the morning because we'd plan to return on train after reaching Kamikochi (a different area) so my car was back in Misato. We had to walk the 10k (that's 6 miles, folks) down road to civilization. The realization sucked, but the last hour (of two) before we finished was just brutal. I wanted to drop my pack on the side of the road and wait for one of the passing cars to take pity on me (but who'd want us... totally drenched and filthy and foreigners to boot!). Every step was sheer pain. The two of us had long stopped chatting except to check vitals. Fortunatley (this might be the high note), "civilization" was a huge onsen (hot spring bath/resort). We dumped our stuff and spent an hour soaking and scaring the locals. It was a nice treat.

So that was the third camping/hiking attempt that we've made this summer that's been called due to rain (not counting Fuji in the rain). What the heck?? Part of our decision to bail was that the weather forecast for the rest of the trip was all rain. Literally, all rain. And it was. Every single day. Of course, now that I'm back in school, its bright sun and hot outside. (not that I'm bitter or anything. Oh well... two weeks from now I'll be heading back up Jonen with the first graders, if that doesn't get washed out!

It took us awhile to recover and regroup and we were rather slothlike for a couple of days. I had a cold and my legs were incredibly sore. On Saturday we'd gotten a bit sick of my place, so Sunday we took off before 7am (wow!) for Hida Takayama... an old, picturesque town over the mountains and in the neighboring prefecture. It was beautiful (even though it poured all day) and a fun field trip. As soon as I figure out how to get my pictures online, I will share them.

On Monday, we went north to Nagano City and I took Tom to Zenkoji, the temple there. We also hit the brand new Starbucks and I bought my very own Nagano Starbucks travel mug. Not to buy into the cult-commercialism of the place or anything, but it really is a cool mug with a mosaic print on it of the Alps, some apples, and Nagano written on the side (bigger than the Starbucks logo!).

And now, I'm back at school. Jaclyn doesn't get back from the states until next Wednesday.. but life is still quickly getting back to "normal". I'm going to Shodo tonight, and we have a party on Friday to celebrate the finish of our sports teams (the boys volleyball and one of the girl judo players went to Hokkaido to compete in the National Championships... and have finally returned).

Can I go skiing, yet?