Back in September a hiking trip was organised to climb Mount Iwate. At 2,038 m it's Iwate prefectures highest peak. It's also a volcano that has shown increased seismic activity in the last few years, enough so that most recent guide books don't have details about the hiking area as it has been closed. Luckily for me Iwate-san was having a nap this time around and we were able to climb!
The picture of the volcano at the top with the black rock base is actually the remains of a large lave flow that occurred in the 1700's. The flow ran so thick virtually nothing has been able to grow in the area since.
The other guy in the picture with me is Chris, he's from Ireland and also a first year JET. We climbed most of the way together and man was it tough going nearing the top. We made it though, and you can see a picture of where we slept for the night before making the rest of the trek to the summit for sunrise the next day.
After lights out at 8 PM I had one of the worst sleeps of my life and couldn't wait for 4 AM to roll around. We were packed into the cabin like sardines and you'd swear we had set up camp in a zoo with the amount of snoring. In the end, making it to the summit for sunrise definitely made it all worthwhile. I could see for miles and it felt like being in an aeroplane, we were so high. Apart from feeling like I was going to have a nosebleed from the altitude, it was perfect! Here is a link to a live webcam of the mountain as seen from Morioka. - http://www-cg.cis.iwate-u.ac.jp/live_cam/index.html
2 comments:
Hey Shawn!
You have not changed a bit from when we climbed that little mountain in Alsashit! It is awesome to see you are doing great! And this blog thing was a great idea - it's not just for us... it's for you. Admit it! You love your pretty blog. Ok amigo borracho, be good!
Cheers,
Cindy
Wow. Holy breath taking eh? Scenic Vistas definitely isn't the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Japan for me.
It's Beautiful.
THANK YOU for putting this up, I keep wondering what you're up to, if you're enjoying it, what's going on. This is perfect.
We miss you here in Canada, your name definitely comes up Shawners. Especially lately, the story about Jon ordering 4 litres of ice tea keeps finding its way into conversations lately. :)
Write something about your teaching experiences if you have a minute.
Love, Me.
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