Ohdairajuku Pt. II: A Mountain Hike and a Freezing River

After a long hiatus, from this week I will resume this blog chronicling my adventures during the year I spent in the great nation of Japan. For those reading this blog for the first time, which I assume is quite a few given the months it sat untouched, check out the beginning of my adventure here. I'll be resuming my story right where I left off with the rest of the weekend we spent in Ohdairajuku, a 200-year old post town nestled deep in the heart of the mountains to the north of Iida. The town was originally built during the Edo period and served as place for traders and travelers to stop while passing through the mountainside.

As ever, the sun was up bright and early to herald our second day in the mountains. Despite my propensity to sleep late, I was woken up by the rustlings of my traveling companions who didn't share my enthusiasm for sleep. I couldn't complain too much, though, as my professor had risen earlier than all of us and got a start on breakfast. We had bought plenty of fresh fruit from the earlier shopping trip and we also brought what we needed to make pancakes. That coupled with some cold milk from our "icebox" outside got our day started off right.

This day was much less rigorously scheduled and as long as we agreed not to do any crazy base jumping or anything, we were pretty much left to our own devices during the day. Some of our group said they were going to go exploring down south of the camp where there was a small running stream that we could wade and swim in. However, three of us, myself, Joe and Kelly, decided we wanted to go for a short hike deeper in the mountains than our guide had led us the day before.

Armed with a bottle of water each, we set off up the trail, picking up from where we'd left off earlier. For the better part of three hours we trekked through the mountains, taking in the sites from on high and enjoying the animals and colorful plants we found along the way. At that point Kelly and I decided to head back to camp because we also wanted a chance to play in the river and we heard rumblings of a possible rainstorm. Joe said he'd continue on for awhile alone and join us later.

Sure enough, not even a half hour into our return trip, the sky opened up and we were hit with a heavy deluge of rain as if the clouds were overfilled water balloons that had been pricked with a needle. We found ourselves wanting for a couple umbrellas, but I doubt it would have helped just with the sheer volume and intensity of the rain. Luckily, it was actually a short cloudburst, so it rained just long enough to soak us through to our socks and then leave us sopping wet to finish our journey back. We felt even worse for poor Joe who'd have a longer walk back then us.

In a nice little twist of irony, we got back to our campsite, changed out of our clothes, dried off and then got ready to head to the river to get soaked yet again. We had seen the stream the day before so we were able to find the others who were still in the water relatively easy, especially given the fact that we weren't exactly the quietest group of Americans in the mountain.

Much to our surprise, the river was freezing cold, despite the pervasive heat of summer sitting in the mountains. Being so deep in the hills kept the stream running just warmer than ice, almost too unbearable to stay in. But we endured for the fun of it and did some river exploration, finding out where different branches led. In my eagerness to get to the river, I realized I had neglected to put on socks and unfortunately my shoes were not the most forgiving. When wet, they rubbed my ankles raw and it made continuing somewhat painful. However, I realized we wouldn't be in the mountains for very long, so I soldiered on, much to my regret later.

After braving the cold (an odd phrase for summer, no?) for a while, we made our way back to camp for a chance to rest and grab some food. Although like a 6 year old at Disneyland, we couldn't sit still very long and went off to further explore the wilderness.

Next week: The conclusion of the Ohdairajuku saga entitled, "The Bottom of a Suntory Bottle"