Ascending Mount Maya

A block away from my host family's house is an entrance to a huge national park. This national park includes three mountains, one of which is Rokko Mountain, another is Maya Mountain. Otousan decided last week that we would climb Mount Maya on Tuesday during the Silver Week holiday. We left the house at 8:00 A.M. because the clouds were threatening with rain. I am grateful for the presence of those clouds, for although they brought humidity with them, they also hid the sun from us. The climb up the mountain was so difficult that I don't know if I could have made it to the top on a sunny day.

The path was uphill the entire way. The hills of lower Kobe may seem steep when I jog, but they are nothing compared to the constant uphill path of Mount Maya. The path up was so steep that many steps were built into the side of the mountain. I just climbed up step after step, all the while trying to inhale as much air as possible and not think about how difficult that was proving to be. I hiked in jeans, which I almost never do, because Okaasan said I should wear long pants to prevent insect bites. I did encounter many bugs during the hike, probably due to the humid air and forested earth. We went as a big group: Otousan, Okaasan, Ryosuke, Yoko, Okaasan's mother, Okaasan's older sister Makiko, Yoko's friend Miyu, and myself. As we walked along the trail, we inevitably split into smaller groups as people climbed at different paces. We picked a few places to stop and wait for everyone. I also took a break or two along the trail on the way up because I absolutely needed to rest amidst so many stone steps. There were such amazing views and places at the summit that I was quite content as soon as we reached the top. You really could see all of Kobe, but the view of Osaka on the far side of the bay was rather limited due to the clouds. We walked to a Buddist temple which was situated on top of the mountain. Along the way we stopped at a fun playground with two neat features: a slide made of rolling pieces that increased one's speed as one slid downward, and a buoy-like object attached to a rope that slid across a wire at a very fast speed (like a hand glider, only one sat on the buoy instead of holding on to the glider with one's hand). Once we reached the Buddhist temple, a few of my family members prayed, and everyone payed two hundred yen for paper fortunes, a common procedure at Buddhist temples.

The descent to my host family's home was quite steep. The stairs were very tall, and we walked back down a lot of stairs on the way home. We also took a slightly different path to reach my host family's home, and it was so dangerously steep. Everyone kept slipping and falling because eventually the stairs disappeared and dirt, leaves, and pebbles covered the very steep, narrow trail. I kept running into trees for support so I wouldn't fall, and I had to inch my way very carefully down the side of the path. By this point my host grandmother had left the group and taken a cable car back down the mountain, so the seven of us continued on. We found some pull-up exercise bars just sitting on the mountainside on the way down, and Otousan, Ryosuke, and Yoko showed off their pull-up skills. I was very sweaty when I arrived home, so I changed, rested, and then Okaasan, Ryosuke, Yoko, Miyu, and I went for ice cream at the nearby Baskin Robbins store, which is called "31" here in Japan. Yoko, Miyu, and I ended the day by going to a karaoke building and singing some tunes for an hour.