Mountain climbing

   Today I wanted to have an adventure, but I was also exhausted, so instead of walking around, I went for a car ride. After consulting a map, I set off towards the mountains. It's a good thing I checked the map thoroughly and have a good sense of direction, because as soon as I got too close to the mountains, my gps got confused.

 

    After driving down a main road for a while, passing farm land and factories, I decided I wasn't getting any closer to the mountains, so I turned off onto a side road that looked promising.

    I hit gold! I passed by some old-timey houses, but couldn't stop to take photos of them. For the first time, I saw people actually working in the fields, too. I pulled over here and got out to take a picture of one of the creeks. I mentioned before that these creeks run everywhere, and I guess there are too many of them for them to be man-made. But they all seem to be managed and well-kept, because they all run between rock walls that definitely are man made. I wonder when they were built.

    The entire road was this winding and curvy. When I stopped here, a cyclist came whizzing past going downhill (he was even wearing a gaudy spandex suit), and once I saw how far up the road climbed, I was pretty impressed that he had managed the road. On my way up, I passed by a bunch of cars that were parked on the side of the road by a little water pump. They had all brought big 2,3-gallon jugs and were filling them up. I guess the water must come from a mountain spring.

   I parked here, because I spotted a little hiking trail on the side of the road. The road was really narrow in most parts, but after an interval it would get wider so that you had space to pull over and let oncoming traffic pass. And at most of the really tight turns, there was a helpful mirror so that you could check if someone was coming around the bend. The road only went up this high, but the hiking trail went up even farther.

 

    The trail was really steep, and when I got near the top, I found this amazing view. Here, I was facing south.

    This is the view to the East, although you can't see it very well. There were lots of flowery bushes and trees, like those purple flowers.

   This is a full-sized photo of the view to the south. If it had been clearer out, I might have been able to see all the way to the sea. That little road that you can see on the left is the road I was driving on, past the tunnel. I continued along it after I returned from the hiking trail.

   Walking back to the car was more difficult than climbing the trail had been, because the path was mostly made up of loose rocks, and it was easy to slip. After I got back in the car and started descending the mountain, I came to a parking lot where the trails began. If I want to go back and properly go hiking, I can park there. I also passed by a park and a shrine on my way home. Both looked worth exploring another day.

   Since it's so hard to find places to park, I'm considering buying a bicycle so that I can tool around and explore more at my leisure without wasting gas. It will also make it easier to stop and take photos. I wouldn't have been able to manage that road from today on a bicycle though. Not without the power-up that a spandex suit gives you, anyway.


   I've been listening to Harry Potter audiobooks for the umpteenth time. I started with Book 4, and I'm already on Book 5. At the end of Book 4, Dumbledore makes a little speech about Cedric Diggory, and he says something like, "There will soon come a time when you will have to choose between what is Right and what is Easy."
   Being in a new country has left me a bit shell-shocked, and I've noticed that I've been making some decisions based on what is Easy, instead of what is Right. I'm not talking about moral or professional decisions; I mean my purchasing decisions. For example, I mentioned that I bought a little mattress the other day. Well, it's definitely better than before, but I probably should have just bought a real mattress. I also bought a "wifi router" from Softbank, which is a little portable internet router that catches 4G waves and beams them to your computer. It's convenient, but it's also pretty weak and unreliable. Normally I would have researched what internet provider was best, but I bought the router without looking into it at all.
   Since my track record was getting a little embarassing, I made an executive decision to put all major purchases on hold until the end of May. At that point, I should be a little more used to life here, and my brain may be able to start making good decisions again.
   I did buy a little gas range that is pretty awesome, though. My apartment didn't have anything in the way of a stovetop or oven, and the rental company I used to furnish my apartment provided me with a little "IH" plate: Inductive heating. You definitely can't use a cast iron skillet on it, so it was useless to me, but half of the pots and pans at the department store are made to use on an IH plate, so I guess a lot of people use them around here. 

  　I learned a useful Japanese expression last night: Doron shimasu! (ドロンします). Here is a picture of the accompanying gesture: http://kunugi.laff.jp/blog/images/2010/08/02/dvc00006_2.jpg (the apologetic expression is also key). Apparently this is something that ninjas say before they disappear in a puff of smoke. But in modern times, people use it, jokingly, when they have to leave a party or meeting before everyone else. So for today, doron shimasu.