Mt. Oser... trip #2

My friend Rachel and her Aunt were wanting to make a day trip up to Mt. Oser (the mythical entrance to hell) and were asking me about it and I decided to go again cause it was such a fun trip the first time!Last time we were at this spot it was kinda cloudy and the water was really choppy and scary... this time is was calm clear and beautiful!


Rice being harvested! I love this time of year!

Big Buddah
These surfer pits are crazy (if you want more back info on the mythical entrance to hell check out my blog entry the first time we went... just go look back through old posts on the left hand side... you'll see it!)
We were right after a festival and the signs were everywhere... a huge pile of pinwheels left for their dead children... very sad
Somebody left flowers and a coke...
and as you are leaving you could try "mugwort (herb)" ice cream! I did not try it... I wish I had

Mt. Eboshi Bike Ride

So I signed up for a bike ride with outdoor rec hoping at least one of my friends would want to go with me and sign up too... but nobody did... but no worries I still went... on the bike ride. It turned out to just be this other little girl (well she was 26) and me... AND WE WERE THE FIRST GROUP TO EVER MAKE IT TO THE TOP! Heck Yeah!

We started the ride at this campground and this picture is for you Dad... this is a game the Japanese play with golf clubs and bad mitten little things... they hit them with the golf clubs into this net thing...There were also a whole bunch of plastic floats painted with different things... this one was my favorite!
Beware of baboon?... nope just a really poor drawing of a bear!
There was apperently some logging going on! cool stacking though!
So this was NOT an easy ride... and I really did not think I would make it to the top! But I had this delicous sandwich I made and every time I wanted to stop I just had to remember my sandwich and tell myself I would not get to eat it unless I made it to the top! and here is my half my sandwich and a HUGE GRAPE! that thing was like three bites! HOLY MOLY!
This is how I ate my sandwich at the top! It was SO worth it!
View from the top, that is Mutsu bay on the left
Other side of the view... looking towards the Hakkoda mountains
There were a ton of TV towers on top of the mountain
This is looking back where we came from... this is maybe 3/4 of the way back down... that mountian is what I rode my bike up... BOOYAH
Random awesomeness
If you look close you can see Kodji (our guide... also the guy who taught me how to surf) and I in the shadow below the waterfall!
We stopped at a farmers market outside of Towada... with Horse Jerky...

Beef & Garlic Festival

Driving to the beef and garlic festival with my friend Erica! the rice is getting big! some of it was already being harvested!
Barn sort of thing the festival was held at... and vans with tarps off the side...
Fish on a stick... classic festival food!
We studied how these Japanese people were cooking thier food to see how we should cook ours... festival workers came up to our grill with a big hunk of beef fat and lubed up our grill and we threw on our food!
We just ate as it became ready!
Erica and I
The festival was a the bottom of some ski runs so after Erica and I drove to the top and took in the view! It was AMAZING!
There was a little shinto shrine that we waded through shoulder high grass to get to!
Erica and her new Christian CD cover
Even the street lights were garlic shaped
Cool vineyard we stopped at on the way back!
the most Ghetto vending machines I have seen yet... home made signs... cinder block leveling... classy

Post Typhoon/ Dead Body Experience

So at 5:30 in the morning I left base to go up north along the ocean to look for glass floats that might have washed up in the Typhoon... I drove about an hour north near the power plant and parked and started walking up the beach...Kona was having a blast running and chasing the birds... she wasn't doing to much swimming as you can see the ocean was still really scary foamy and big from the the storm!
I could tell the Typhoon was really hard on the jelly fish... this is the most intact one I found.. there were mostly little pieces about the size of my hand... EVERYWHERE... like I had to step on them cause you couldn't not step on them... they were everywhere... but all the hanging parts had been ripped off so they weren't stinging Kona's paws. They were mostly clear and pink but I found one aqua blue one and didn't think to take a picture... and I almost wiped out a couple times stepping on them.. they are slippery
As you can see the ocean was still really really choppy... it was white water as far as the eye could see
There was just trash everywhere... apperently this is a really deserted beach so I dont know if it is like this all the time or just after the storm.. I found like two dozen shoes... 3 hard hats... 5 light bulbs off the squid fishing boats (they fish at night with huge light bulbs to attract squid), a toilet seat, an oven... it was crazy... and then eventually a dead body...

I was probably about 10 feet away when I saw Kona sniffing a pile of trash more intently then usual. I looked up to see what it was and saw that it looked like a human... it was laying on its back with a big uncovered bloated belly and its arms up above its head with its shirt and jacket pulled up over its face (I am so glad I didnt see the face)...

so my first reaction was "oh this is for Halloween" I just kept telling myself that and moved on... but after a few min. and the nausea passed and my breathing slowed... I realized I had to find out for sure becuase if it was real I needed to do something about it...

So I went back and got close enough to realize it was real... and I thought "Holy Moly this is real, what do I do know"... I had no idea was to do... so I thought maybe I can just pretend I didnt see it... I ruled that out becuase I had left footprints and Kona had left paw prints and I was sure they would track us down... plus I felt like the burden of this persons death was now on my shoulders and it was my responsibility to do the right thing... but what was the right thing?

my next idea was to take pictures and show the Japanese police... but where are the Japanese police? I had no idea? So then I thought I would take the pictures to the first Japanese person I saw and hope they could help... then I realized knocking on some random house where the chances they speak English are slim to none and showing them a picture of a dead body was a bad idea...

So I broke down and prayed "LORD you have to show me what to do becuase I have NO IDEA" right then my mind cleared and I thought "security forces" (military police)... and I looked down and saw this glass float...
So... I drove the hour back to base went straight to security forces told them what happend... they called the Japanese police, sent an agent and a translator with me and I had to take them all back out to where I found it...
Here they are carrying her (they determined it was a her... but they had to look down her pants to figure it out cause it was so old... the agent with me said she looked like she had been dead for maybe 2 weeks)
And as I looked back from where we came I saw this rainbow stretching over the water... I am so glad my God is with me no matter where I go!

Camping with the 14th

We went camping with a group of people from the 14th, they took us to this awesome campsite that we never would have found if we were not following them! There was this really pretty lake next to the little wooded area where we pitched our tents and then a little further was a river and on the other side was an open meadow

There were gorgeous water lillys growing everywhere... Japan is awesome
Waking up to the mists over the meadow
The sun slowly burned off the mist as it rose and warmed up
WOOD!
Kona really wanted that graham cracker... but she didnt take it, she is so good!

Playing in the river! I think Kona was in heaven for a couple of days!
There were really cool turquoise colored rocks
"There is no trash can in the par in order to protect the environment and not to damage the scenery. (or bears may come down from forest)" .... well that makes me feel so safe... this sign was in the outhouse bathroom!
I guess this is a picture of the bear... It looks like a bear/wolverine/raccoon... thing...