A Walk in the Mountains

Part 1

For a bit of fun Okasan (Mr Sakaki's wife) decided to take us for a walk up a mountain path that was completely populated (1000 in all) on each side by cherry blossom trees. This was on a sunday and the whole area was swarming with people, however it was nice to get away from the village and see a bit more of rural Japan! It began very nicely with lots of carnival type stalls selling various bit's and pieces after which stretched a winding path up the mountain. We all seemed to silently agree that it was our mission to walk the distance of all one thousand trees, bearing in mind that each tree had a number and we were already on 300 after the stalls. So up we go within a constant stream of people, stopping now and again to take the odd picture or look at one of the trees:








Sure enough as we get further up the path the amount of people start to dwindle, but we carry on regardless. Then, even further up, the cherry blossoms start to dwindle and there is only the odd person. Soon there is the odd tree, no people and the numbers on the tree seem to be getting a bit mixed up. One group of people turns up from where we are headed and Okosan speaks to them in Japanese, presumably asking them if it is worth carrying on, presumably she gets a 'yes' because we carry on... for 20 minutes without seeing a soul...The path ends at a road... so we start walking along the road, there is a slight nervous tension but Okasan seems to motion with her hand that the road bends round and that we should carry on. It is now starting to get dark and we have been walking for an hour and a half, for some ridiculous reason I am now leading the way, behind me I can hear Okosan muttering to herself. I can hear the word "Doko" a lot which means "where"!

We are lost up the mountain and it is starting to get dark and cold!!! Luckily a car pulls out of a drive. Okosan flags the driver down and after a lengthy discussion the four of us bundle into the back of the Japanese man's car.

This kind man delivers us back to the car park, The two philipinos use the toilet (one mistakenly uses the female side which slightly eases the tension) and I begin to think about bedtime. But Okosan has other plans...we drive around the mountain for another half hour along strange dirt tracks looking for a cow farmer where another philipino trainee works. This cow farmer turns out to be a Karate teacher with one arm wearing a very 80s style mauve tracksuit with pink trim. I slap myself to see if I'm dreaming... I'm not

PS Can anyone tell me the name of that song that has the words "rock the boat - don't rock the boat baby, rock the boat - dont rock the boat over ... our love is like a drop in the ocean something something devotion" answers on a postcard (or in comments). First correct answer will get a big sloppy, virtual kiss!