Climbing Mount Ja-da-ni-ga-mi-ne

On Saturday (July 28), we went hiking up a 902-m high (or short, depending on your mountain trekking experience) mountain. Together with Candice (who was kind enough to invite us to the trip), Jay, Yuri and Masako, we went with around 15 Japanese hikers up to this lovely mountain on a cooler-than-expected summer day.

Ja-da-ni-ga-mi-ne “what”?

Perhaps from the day I set foot on this country, not a day has passed when I didn’t ask someone about the meaning of a certain word (like “bai bai kin wa dou iu imi?” or “anata wa nan desu ka?”).

It took me the whole day to memorize the name of this mountain, spelled in Roman characters as Jadanigamine. And to my surprise, it seemed that no one but us had heard about this mountain at all. And so for a change, I knew a Japanese word that everyone else, the locals included, didn’t know.

Delayed Train Ride

We were scheduled to meet with the large group at Adogawa Station at 910 am. The trip to the station takes more than an hour so we Osakans (Yuri, Jay, Masako, and me) had to wake up really early, met at Shin Osaka and took the 745 AM train bound for Adogawa.

Everything had been as planned, until an accident in the railway somewhere halted all trains. We got moving an hour later, only to find out that the express train we were on had turned local!

On our way we just studied some kanji from a booklet that Masako had so kindly given me (Thanks a lot. I will study, promise ^^), and then talked about anything under the sun (like pressuring Yuri to tell us about his lovelife, which he spoilsportingly declined).

The Hike

This was to be my first mountain hike since 4 years ago when, with 9 other co-trainees, we hiked up an unknown mountain in Nagano (which can be described as unplanned, frightening and near-death… will talk about that another day).

I must admit that the hike was a lot more exhausting than I had expected. Early on, we were just chatting while we were on our way up. And then slowly as we gained more altitude, my legs seemed almost good to go.

But the energy spent was more than worth it. The trees and sound of the river were so soothing and the breeze cool enough to give us the extra strength our aching bodies needed to move forward. And when we reached the top of the mountain, mine was a sense of fulfillment equaling that which I got when I was in 4th grade, when my Math teacher pinned a ribbon on my chest that reads, “I am a Math wizard.” (I felt so proud I didn’t take it off anywhere I went).

Water!!!

One thing I learned (albeit after the fact) is that in hikes like this, you have to bring truckloads of water. On our way up, we had realized that we were running out.

And so on our way down, you can imagine how dehydrated we were (I’m talking about us the 5 noobs. To the other climbers, this was probably just another day in the office and they didn’t seem affected at all).

We were hoping and hoping that somewhere on this mountain we can find a jidouhanbaiki (vending machine) so that we can grab something, anything, to drink. (This wasn’t, mind you, plain wishful thinking as here in Japan, time and again you’ll spot vending machines in places where you’ll think no one has ever gone before.)

And so just around the foot of the mountain, when we finally found a vending machine from out of nowhere, pandemonium broke loose as we hurried towards the dispenser like our lives depended on it. And you wouldn’t believe it, Aquarius actually tasted chilling good!

(to be continued… pics to follow)