#83 Hiking from Futamatao to Ome, Tokyo

Transcript

Alright, well today is finally a day that I'm going to theoretically stay home. Man, whether it is still just perfect outside. See, this is where there would normally be a little more natural rhythm to going outside and doing stuff or staying home just because of bad weather, you know, just because of it raining or whatever. It just hasn't happened. Every day is just insanely perfect. On this particular trip, but yeah, I had a pain at the top of my leg by my hip yesterday. I don't know what that was. And I just, when I was in the shower, I could feel it a little. Don't quite know what that is. I think I'll just give it, you know, a day. And then who knows after that maybe working it out will help? Regardless, tomorrow, I'm definitely going to go do stuff. I really just wanted it. I want to do the Ome Hills course one more time. I'm thinking of the other Ome Hills course. There's the north one in the south one. I got time. I could do them both. But man, yeah, I just feel that dross so much. Man, it's just perfect outside. I really don't want to stay inside. But I do have a bunch of podcasts. I could edit and stuff. I got things I can do just standing by this little balcony at this Airbnb. But the view is just other buildings. It's not really a view. But I got the slidey door open and everything. That's how nice it is in freaking January.

But man, this does remind me in Fukuoka. I did have a lot more days in 2019. I mean, not this trip where I stayed inside because it was the middle of summer and it was just too hot. So I remember sitting on that balcony and just eating some curry, 7-Eleven noodles and whatever with a little can of coffee. But there I had the most amazing view of Mount Apariyama ever. And that was kind of the equivalent in some ways of rainy or whatever, of bad weather. Was it just being so hot out that it's like, I don't want to go out there. It's unpleasant. Just hang around in the house. I mean, they did that a fair amount. And it was not bad. I had pretty good memories of that. Where this trip I really had been pushing it every day. I just go out and hike around. It's not too surprising that eventually somehow. I mean, nothing specific happened. I don't know why I got a little hurt but something happened. Again, I assume it's just going 650 meters into the air, perhaps. Though it took an extra 24 hours to hit and then it just started to hurt all of a sudden. Near Moomin Valley for some freaking reason. Apparently the Moomins, by the way, they started in Finland and they're very popular in Japan. But yeah, this won't kill me. I can take a day off, man. Just chill, dude. Just chill. I had to break 100 yesterday. So I bought a bunch of family mart meals. I can make it a little microwave here. They got a little coffee pouches here. I'm going to make a little coffee. I mean, I'm sure I'll go outside at some point, to some degree. But just the neighborhood is the plan. I was even thinking maybe I should just find a Starbucks or a Tully's, but it's Saturday.

It's going to be busy. And there's actually none very close. You know, I suppose, I mean, if I just chill out here for another few hours, the sun will be distinctly going down. And at that point, it won't feel weird to be inside. So that's all I got to do.

I just got to get the fucking blinds open. Got the balcony door open. This ain't so bad. Just fucking do some editing. Whatever, man. Chill. It's weird that it's hard to chill. And one thing I noticed at that station way out in Saitama yesterday is one of the trains that was idling was like more of a proper train with, you know, seating and stuff. Must be like a long distance train, but I did notice at some point, something mentioning about that line I was on, there goes all the way to Gunma. That at some point, it stops being electric trains or it connects up with traditional trains. And it's like, oh, yeah, never realized how quiet the trains are here. Because when you have a traditional train, which I don't know what they used to fucking fuel that bad boy, presumably not call into an engine room, but it was loud. It's like, oh, yeah. Subway train, type trains, be they above ground or below ground are pretty down quite, man.

Anyway, that's what's up for today. Fucking nothing. I suppose if something happens, I'll tune back in. Otherwise, we will just pass forward straight to tomorrow.

I guess that's one thing I was trying to convince myself is that maybe this perfect weather isn't perfect. Like, this is pretty hot out. The fact that I got my balcony door open and I just took a shower. So, I mean, I'm just in my underpants and it's fine. It's like, this actually might be a bad day to go hiking. It's kind of warm. Overcast, it'd probably be better. Maybe tomorrow's weather will be worse and hence better for hiking around. 5:00 But that's pretty tough. It's not pretty tough. Man, I mean, no, it's so nice out. I think I have to go, at least go walk over to that vending machine with the Zelda coffee. Just pardon, excuse to leave the house, but not yet. I'm going to edit a podcast first.

But yeah, I got it. I got to go outside. I just have to. It's so fucking nice out.

Oh man, it's like 8 p.m. I did go outside just to go swing by 7-11 and then I went and got a fucking Zelda coffee from the machine.

They have just been inside all day. I had to take a little nap at one point because I was just getting tuckered.

And I didn't really get a ton done, even. Certainly not enough to justify staying inside all day. And man, at this point, man, I feel bad. I feel this real bad stir crazy cabin fever-y bull. Or it kind of just feels like it's weird because it's lack of motion. But it feels like it in motion sickness a bit when you're in a car for a long time. Ugh, this feeling of being indoors. This doesn't feel good, man. This feels bad.

Definitely though I did notice as I was walking around, my leg doesn't hurt or my upper leg by my hip. But it does feel weird. I don't know. Maybe I can isolate it a little more. Now I think it is just a muscle, perhaps. I don't know. It feels like one of my legs is like a little bit too long all of a sudden. I just can't walk normally. It feels weird. So it doesn't hurt today. But it did yesterday. And that's the feeling I get that if I push it, it's going to start to hurt. But I don't know. I don't know what to do. I can't stay inside another day. I'll lose my fucking mind. So tomorrow, I'm just sadly forth and see what happens. But yeah, I'll stay inside nuts to that shit, man. It ain't worth it. It is not worth it. Even if I did just go find a coffee shop or something today, that's what I should have done. You know, still the basic equivalent of sitting at my laptop. And yeah, it would have got less done, quote unquote, if I spent a bunch of time on the subway and whatever. But yeah, like I said, I didn't exactly get a shit ton done as it is. So yeah, just as an experiment. Staying indoors while you're traveling, spending a day inside doing nothing. That's not a great idea. It doesn't work for me. That's for sure.

All right, it's the next day and it's a bit of a dubious start to the day. Still insanely beautiful. I did a little call home yesterday and it felt almost bad because it's like, wow, this really has been a warm winter. And it's like, wow, a new Brunswick. It's still above zero. There's not even snow on the ground. And it's January. Holy heck. That's like, yeah, cool. Let me see. It was 16 degrees here today. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It was like summer here. But that's still good. I wonder what ever happened in Calgary. Because when I passed through there, through the Calgary Airport to come to Japan, it was like minus 12 or minus 13. There was snow everywhere. They got super fucked. But it's safe to say, next time I come to Japan in the winter, I mean, there's a good chance. I'll just go north anyway. But regardless, I think it'll probably be a lot more what I thought I was signing up for, which is like chilly and overcast. This was definitely a lucky year. So the weather's beautiful. That's good. But man, I went to bed just after midnight yesterday. And I woke up today at like 9.30 in the morning. So that's like nine hours of sleep. That's plenty. And I didn't do anything yesterday. I just stayed inside all day. So I didn't even expend energy. It's just kind of a downer that it's like, that's as good as it's going to get. Body. My silly human body. That's more sleep than I normally get. I mean, it's all I can offer. You know, it's like this is the best I can give you. And it didn't matter. Like I'm just tired all the time. I'm always tired and today was no different. I woke up and just like, oh no, I should try to go back to sleep. But it's so hard for me to go back to sleep. I just can't. So I had a Zelda coffee kicking around that I bought yesterday. So I drank that. But then when I was in the shower and I'm just like, just like the nine hours of sleep doesn't matter. The coffee doesn't matter. My eyes are just hurting. And I was like, given my cheeks a slap, like Kevin McAllister and fucking home alone where I'm just like, wake up, wake up. 10:00 I am sick of your shit body. Just wake up. You motherfucker. Like this is insane. You have no right to be this tired. What is happening? But that's just how it is and how it always has been. I remember being in elementary school and wishing I could sleep better. Like it's just how my body works. But it is just kind of a downer that it's not like, you know, I guess I could kind of convince myself it's just a string of days where things didn't quite go right. Oh, I just was up a little too late or this or that happened. Maybe tomorrow. I'll finally have enough sleep. But no, I mean, everything was literally perfect yesterday. It doesn't matter. I'm just a bad sleeper. I'm always going to wake up tired. That's just how it is and it's like, well.

But of course, got to look at the bright side. I mean, we're all going to be dead soon enough. So the upside to this is I do think in a weird silly way. I think this does help with traveling because it's not any different here than it was back home. Like my dad used to say he didn't really like traveling because he could only sleep comfortably in his own bed. So he didn't like being in other beds because then he couldn't sleep. Well, I can't sleep in any bed. It doesn't matter. The last four years of COVID, I was in one consistent giant king size beautiful perfect bed in a nice quiet apartment and it made no fucking difference. I never slept well ever. So the upside to that is, yes, so maybe traveling. It's a little shaky. Maybe it's a little tough to get all rested, but who the fuck gives a shit? It's going to be like that anyway. So at least I can be somewhere different and interesting. Man, though, yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's nothing to be said about it, I guess. Just sleep problems. It's just what it is.

But I guess that makes it additionally important to get up and get out and go do stuff because yeah, I felt very stir crazy and weird yesterday. Like I would have left the house last night at like eight o'clock and just gone for a long walk or something, but I knew I was going to be calling home. And I only have limited times I can do that. So I was just inside almost all day and I didn't feel good. I don't like that. So getting outside and doing stuff feels good just to get outside and to do stuff and the physical activity part just washes away. It doesn't make me not exhausted. I just don't know anymore. It's like I can't tell, which is about the same thing, right? Especially if I'm in the woods walking around, I don't have to interact with people. It's a little tough. Say I was like having to deal with a classroom or something. It would be bad to be all exhausted because it's like, geez, I'm going to get mad at somebody. I'm going to say something, something mean to someone. And you're just in the woods by yourself. Fuck it. Don't matter. Don't matter none. So I predict this will be a pretty cool day because it really is beautiful out. It's just a weird start. But on the super plus side, the reason I stayed in all day yesterday is because I developed this sudden, odd pain in one of my hips that just sort of came out of nowhere. And today I don't feel it. I don't feel it at all. And I assume it's because, because that was a bit of a weird day where I climbed up the big mountain near Ome where I got started a bit late in the day. I was just going to go do recon. I didn't expect to climb all the way up. Then I did climb all the way up, but I was pushing it a little hard because it was going to get dark. And it's like the highest mountain I ever climbed outside of British Columbia. It's like 650 meters. And I distinctly remember the words coming out of my mouth of like, I'm so good at this because I didn't feel hurt. I didn't feel tired. Everything felt great. I just fucking pumped my way up that mountain like my legs were pistons and it was great. But I got to assume that's what made my hip hurt. But even then, I mean, I don't know. If I sit for too long, that causes me pains and problems. And I have to lay on my side because I got this stupid cyst that fills with fluid if I'm in the wrong position. But Japanese beds are hard and uncomfortable. So I mean, it could just be that. That is the side I was sleeping on. Maybe the bed fucked up my hip. I mean, I got to presume it's the mountain hiking, but I just don't know. Anyway, what I'm going to do today is I'm going to do the Ome Hills hiking course because it's like my favorite thing. It's so cool. I got three more days out here on day four. I got to leave and go to Yokohama. So I'm going to go do this course in reverse where it starts at Ome station and it goes five stations west, but the final leg of it is especially mountainous and difficult. So I'm going to go four stations west from there. Start from there. And the beauty of that course, it'll probably take all afternoon. But if my leg does start acting up, 15:00 there are trails to escape the hiking course at each of the stations. It's kind of perfect. And it's just this like fairly gradual, you know, it's got some ups and downs, but none of it's too hard. And it's this walk along a mountain ridge that is just fucking beautiful. All these amazing views of of Ome and it's surrounding areas. And it was the thing where I was like, all right, if I've only got three days left, what do I got to make sure I do? And I mean, that's the one. That's the one I got to do. So let's give it a shot. If anything goes horribly wrong and tried again tomorrow and if anything goes horribly wrong, I can try to get in the next day. But I don't know, I feel fine. So we'll see. But I felt fine two days ago and I went to Moomin Valley fucking park and just started hurting all of a sudden. So who knows, dude, the dangers of getting old when you're young, and you can just listen to let me tell you about about age, young whippersnappers, who even cares, fucking sirens, fuck off. Never mind. When you get old things hurt, who cares? All right, let's fucking zip forward to Ome now.

Harden the idling trucks. Here's a quick little bit of science, a bit of testing I want to do. So I just got to Keita Hachioji station and the train was pulling in this going to Hyjima. So it's Sunday, it's going to be 20 minutes till the next train. So it's like, let's not go in right away then. I had literally just missed the train. Let's just take a moment, go to Kumbini, get like a little cool dessert or something. I did buy for the trip the 7-Eleven, the bag of assorted Japanese sweets, the cost like four bucks. It's my favorite hiking thing. It's so good. It's just a pocket full of these nice little individually wrapped confections that are sweet and sugar-energy. But you know, they're like little buns, but they have a little paste in them, so they're not just really dry like a granola bar. They're just really good. Anyway, I was at this family mart around the corner from the 7-Eleven. I usually just go to the 7-Eleven in the hopes of finding the ginger mackerel, which again appears to have dried up like you did in Tokyo, central, but the fact that I got an extra week of getting to eat those was fine. It's okay. It's just so good, but it's I haven't seen one lately. But I was having to break $100, so I went to family mart for a change of pace, got a bunch of those fancy pants meals. But as I was walking out, it's so cool when you just catch random views. It's kind of like seeing the sky tree or when I saw the Tokyo Tower all of a sudden I didn't know where. These little random views of Fuji they don't expect. I was just walking outside of this family mart in Hachioji, just a random street. And I was walking down the street and I was like, is that fucking Fuji? And indeed it was. It was dusk time. The same time of day that I saw Fuji from Chiba. So I think dusk is an important part of the equation like where there's just this cool band of orange against the horizon. And it really helps you see stuff that is at great distances. But since I got a little time to kill, I'm walking down that same stretch right now. Can I see Fuji at this time of day, which it occurs to me I don't know what time of day it is. It's 11.15 in the morning. Let us see. Or is there something about the brightness in the distance that just makes it wash away?

Because there was a thing like this in BC also. I was at this Airbnb in, oh my god actually since I downloaded the downloadable map of Vancouver for just such an occasion I can actually tell you what the place is called because my memory sadly remembers nothing. Alright so it was between 3 on the way to White Rock. Specifically how that must be at Panorama Ridge. That would fucking explain it. There's a whole neighborhood called that East Panorama Ridge. It was definitely around there somewhere. I suspect that name is not an accident. Anyway yeah I'd walk out the door and just be able to see mountains in the distance and it's like whoa they're beautiful but then for days and days in a row I couldn't see them. Even though it was a beautiful clear day and I don't understand the science of it I don't know how it works. But yeah they just disappeared and it's like how I know they're there. It's like this enormous mountain range that takes up the entire horizon but it's just not there. And then other days didding then it's there. So can I see Fuji at 11 in the morning on a random beautiful sunny clear day. So far no I don't remember though exactly where I was but there was no missing it. You know I was walking down the street and I was stunned for a moment. 20:00 Because I always forget that Fuji is right over there. I mean if I saw it from Chiba you can obviously see it from very far away. But I mean around here I could take a train there and I don't know a couple hours maybe I'm not sure how long it would take. But Japan's a pretty dang small country. Hmm I can see a mountain. But here's where I'm trying to convince myself I'm like is that Fuji? But if you have to ask then it's not Fuji. I mean Fuji's got such a distinctive look, such a distinctive design. Because that's one of the other things I could possibly do while I'm here is try to take the train out to one of those parks around Fuji and just sit in the park and get the full blast Fuji view. But I don't know because that will take a long time. Maybe though I guess I have problems with my stupid leg since that mission would mostly require just sitting in a train. It's not the worst idea. Nope. Cannot see it. Walked the same route and I guess whatever I'm seeing are just like closer mountains. And then Fuji was nestled in between them and further away and I cannot see them today. But yeah sure was cool. Just a random little thing. Fuji is one of those things like I've said I could never see doing the climb. Because it's like 3,000 meters and after 500 I start to really question my life and it's not like a pretty mountain. It's like a volcanic nothing awful mountain. I don't think I would get much out of climbing it. But I also just presumed because of that. I'm like yeah I guess I just don't care about Fuji but that's cool. Plenty of other stuff to care about in Japan. But then once you see it, I don't know. It's just cool. It's like oh shit there it is. Like I wasn't trying to see it. I wasn't going out of my way. But it really is so distinctive and so famous. I mean I guess it's like when Ben Affleck or Michael Rooker came into the coffee shop I worked at or I walked past Natalie Portman once in Manhattan. You know it's like I wasn't expecting to see these people. I wasn't going out of my way. I didn't think I cared. But then you see them and you're like oh that person is fucking famous as fuck. That's what Fuji feels like. That mountain is goddamn famous as shit. I mean is it the most famous mountain? Obviously Everest is the most famous. Fuji though I think you could make a strong argument for it being number two. Because if I'm trying to think of like mountains and trying to like envision their shape. Even Everest I feel like I'm not quite sure what it looks like exactly. As far as silhouettes go Fuji's got to be number one. So yeah you just see it and you're like oh cool. I'm talking myself into it. I'm going to look into that. Maybe I will take the little train ride out toward Fuji. I would love to go to the campsite from the first episode of Uru Camp. Because it's like a real place. They go there in the anime and there's a live action version of Uru Camp where they go to the real place. Because like most of the campsites in Uru Camp I believe are real. But the one in episode one seems very accessible not too hard to get to. And you wouldn't necessarily have to camp if you went there. It's not like a whole campsite. It's kind of a small little roadside area where I don't think it'd be too weird to just go down there and take a picture of Fuji and then get the hell out. But it's on the other side of Fuji. So that's pushing it a little. But there are these parks near there where you can just go there and see Fuji butt bigger. And that might be cool. Ah see being out and about. Just moving. Just doing stuff. I feel so much better already. I have felt a couple little twinges in my leg though so we'll see. We will see. But yeah that killed some time and I'll head back to the station. And the wait for the next train will not be that bad. But yeah to go into the station like literally 30 seconds after the train left that just seems like a bad idea. That's the longest possible wait. So good time to do Fuji experiments.

All right I got off the train at Futamataio station. There's time getting off at this station and man it is it's just a picture dude. It is a picture perfect image of a little unmanned train station in the middle of nowhere. It's fucking beautiful and these mountains man they're just so awesome. Especially from the ground you know I've had you know a middling experiences with mountain climbing. Turns out it's a little beyond my abilities but from the ground my fucking god they're beautiful. They look so amazing. It's just like everywhere. The entire place like 360 panorama is surrounded by these mountains that are covered in trees 25:00 with power towers on the top of them. And they're just so fucking gorgeous. It's just excellent. I was thinking in general too how when I was in the city I didn't take the train very often but I was trying to think of times I took train rides where it wasn't busy and it's very hard to conjure the image. You know maybe it did happen but in my mind I feel like it was always very crowded on every train where one thing I love about being out here. Even at like Hyjima where it's a little bit busy. I'm trying to think of any times that I had to squeeze on to a crowded train and it's like the reverse. There's sometimes when the trains are a little bit crowded maybe I... There's always a seat available but sometimes I'd have to squeeze in so I don't sit down but even that's rare. It's just so calm and so nice and it's so much night... I mean you know I had to wait 20 minutes for the train. I had to keep the Hedge OG at this random little station I was at. But even that's not so bad. I've had worse weights than that in the New York subway in the middle of the night and stuff. Like there's some... Because I guess the New York subway never closes right? I've had some bad times there. I had to wait a long fucking time. So I mean it's not that bad of a weight and it's just so calm and it's just so not bad. And then by the time you get out here this station it was me and like two or three other people. It's fucking great and because today let's get a little scatological for a moment because today's been a bit of a day of my body not quite cooperating with me. And I know from the other time I was on this Ome Hill hiking trail course that there's only one washroom and it's kind of a washroom. You'd prefer not to use if you don't have to because it's a squat toilet porta potty which I was making the argument that maybe a squat toilet's better in a porta potty situation so you don't have to touch it. But I'd still just rather not deal with it at all. But I'm like man I hope that my body doesn't continue to be my opposition today. Just let me go take a nice poop at Futa Matayo station. That'd be great before I go up into the mountains. And it all worked out because you just never know. I mean I don't know I just can't predict what my body is going to do. But yeah it's this super quiet little neighborhood. There's a couple of people on the other side of the tracks but they're like the only people I've seen in the 10 minutes I've been dicking around out here. There's a drink machine across the street which I kind of wish I'd hit up. I got a coffee stashed away in my pocket but a little extra wouldn't hurt. Oh well the point is no one's here and it's a beautiful amazing washroom. And I could just just take a crap and it's like awesome. Now I just don't know exactly how to get into the mountains because from up in that on the course there's of all these you know leave here to go down to the station. And this station in particular there were two routes I passed. The farther one seemed actually pretty decent. And the one a little further east looked kind of frightening and disused. But I'll take either one whatever but I'm just kind of hoping that when I get here that the trail is easily marked. And I do see it looks like like stairways going up into the mountains but it's definitely not clear because everything around here just looks like driveways. This just looks like people's private property.

And everything on that trail was so well labeled that that can't be the right way. So I think what I'm going to do is I'm just going to walk east from Futumataya toward the next station. And if I see a way up into the mountains great. And if I have to walk all the way to the next station and figure it out from there then I'll just do that. That's fine. It's quite a long walk up there on the Ome Hills and with my potentially bad hip I maybe shouldn't be doing this at all. So it really doesn't matter what amount, what percentage of this trail I do. I'll just do whatever I can just whatever. And it is just goddamn, it's so nice out here. I fucking love it, dude. I love the nice quiet countryside parts. Like way, they're way better. Way better than the city.

And let's see if I pass a drink machine because I'm really like this is pretty obscure. I had to take the overpass from the station over to this little road where it's just the train tracks to my right, a little row of houses to my left and then the mountain. There is almost literally nothing over here. If there's ever a place that doesn't need drink machines, this is it. 30:00 Because it's just this little tiny row of just residential houses. Any drink machines would only be for them.

Here's a little road leading up toward the mountains. Maybe I'll just go up this way. Because as far as Google Maps is concerned, they didn't have anything obvious. None of the nice green dots, not even the somewhat suspect brown dots. Well, let's see. So this road on the map leads to ChosenIn CHOSEN-IN. Buddhist temple. And then stops. But let's head up this way.

And see. See if things progress up into the mountain. Because yeah, one of the lessons I've definitely learned, rambling around Japan, is that while the course forward is not always obvious, the course not forward, the place you're not supposed to go, is always obvious. If you don't see a distinct trail or path or sign or something, then don't go there. That ain't the way. There's enough people in Japan, bushwacking their way around, that if there's anything useful or worthwhile to go to, there will be some sign that you can go there.

Ah, see at the end of this road are some signs and a path. See now that is a clear sign forward. No drink machine, but hey, that's fine. That's fine. The coffee I bought, it's like, it's called one day. What brand even is this? Kieran, it's not terrible, but it's not great. Fire one day, good roasted coffee. It's really cheap. It's like 130 yen for 600 milliliters. It's the biggest, silliest coffee. But I figured, since I'm going to be hiking around for the day, 600 milliliters. Let's get the biggest one they got. So yeah, I mean, I really don't need another coffee from a drink machine. This is plenty.

Got my big ass coffee. Got my assorted Japanese sweets. Got a road.

Yeah, this is like one of these big enough for a little teeny car to drive on, type of country roads heading into the woods.

It seems like everything's working out. And yeah, it's a little eerie. My leg does not hurt, but it didn't hurt by movement valley either. Just all of a sudden started hurting. So it's like, hmm, we'll see. Perhaps I should be taking another day off, but I just don't want to. Yesterday was so blah. That I would rather take my chances. Ah, nice. Okay, so there's a little, little gate leading up to a shrine. Then there's the sign back to the station. But if I continue on this road, Karagaki Castle. I believe that's one of those like remains of a castle where the remains are virtually invisible. But I'm pretty sure that's the way I want to go because I believe that's part of the Ome Hill's hiking trail course. So I'm going to give that a shot.

All right, that trail that was big enough for a car turned into a one-person trail. And yeah, now I'm very clearly going up the mountain, going up a just hiking trail. Man, it is like, it's like I'm in another world already. It's been like 10 minutes and I'm just surrounded by trees and it looks like I'm in the land before time. I can't hear the city. I mean, I couldn't really hear the city that much when I was there. It was such a slow station. But there were still a couple of motorcycles and trucks that would go by once in a while. I already can't hear anything. It's insane. It's so, so nice. And pretty much as soon as this trail narrowed down, I saw a jogger coming toward me. So I'm like, ah, perfect. Good. That's someone doing the loop. I'm definitely going the right way. And this guy like, he's all sweating from jogging because it's a fairly long course across this Ome thing. There was a stream there. So he went down to the stream and he splashed on water in his face and gave me a, it's the most clipped Kanichi Y I've ever heard. He's like, whatever. I'll acknowledge you, but I'm, I'm not here to say full, full words right now. But man, talk about living your best life. Just jogging along the mountain ridge, 35:00 down to a stream, splashing it in your face. God damn, I'm so jealous of people that are like legitimately fit. You know, I'm trying my best, but I, you know, I've talked about this before, but one of those things I realized later in life when I was more like in my 30s is that exercise is not easy. I just thought, like, oh, you just lift stuff. You do stuff. It's so easy. It's easier when you're young. That's what I was going to say earlier before the siren stopped me. You know, like my scoliosis and my bad shoulder, like when I look at old pictures, I always had it, but my body just didn't care. It's like, that's so what if you got an eight degree crooked spine? We're not going to cause you pain. Who gives a shit? Your knee is fine. Your shoulder's fine. Everything's fine. And even when I started properly exercising when I was in my 30s, no problem. Lift weights, do all that stuff. Do the pushups. I was actually like, I had like muscles. I have for a skinny guy, you know, skinny guy muscles, but I was in good shape. I was looking all right. But yeah, I wish I'd gotten into that when I was in my 20s when you can just bounce back easier because yeah, then all it took was one significant shoulder injury. I like, I saw stars. I felt like a tearing sensation in my bad shoulder and I saw stars. And that's when I learned, like exercises, actually very difficult. You really got to be careful. You got to modulate what you're doing. You know, you got to ride the throttle or whatever. You got to be careful, but gear you're in to use car metaphors that I don't really understand. If you just push it too hard, you just hurt yourself. Or like I've heard wrestlers say since pro wrestling, you know, it's obviously not an actual combat sport. It's more akin to ballet kind of. You can do it into your 50s and even your 60s, but I've heard a lot of older wrestlers say they can't lift weights anymore. They got to find alternative ways to exercise because it's just too hard on the body. So yeah, seeing these guys jogging and stuff, I'm like, oh, cool. But, well, I tried to get into jogging in Toronto for a while and that's when I realized that my flat feet give me shin splints. Just every little thing, you know, I just got to not push. I really wish I could, I wish I had the wherewithal to do yoga. Yoga is like the perfect thing for me, but mentally it's so hard for me to do it. It's just too static and too slow and my brain just goes crazy. Like we should be doing something. We should be going somewhere. This type of thing works a lot better for me, but even still I still just got to just got to be careful, just got to not push too hard. You know what I just realized though? Is this mystery pain I was presuming it was from going up the mountain, but pretty much all of my injuries and problems so far have all been coming down the mountain. And that totally could have been the case. I mean, yeah, I was pushing myself a bit to go up that mountain the other day, but also to get down. Again, just because I started too late in the day and I was like, I just want to get through this before it gets dark, which was the right thing to do because even just walking along the timber river after that, it got pitchfucking black. Like I didn't have a ton of spare time, but maybe it was going down. I mean, that makes a lot of sense because you just work weird muscles when you're going down. Muscles you don't normally use, so maybe just one of my inner thigh muscles got messed up from coming down the mountain. If I had to bet money, that's the one I would bet on. But I don't know for sure, so I'm still trying to go extra carefully on the up and the down and on everything, even just on the walking normally.

Slower is better, it's just so hard to do. But anyway, seeing this jogger also that did fill in one of the blanks from the other time I was on this course, where a jogger passed me and then I got to that final stretch, west of Fujimata or you can go one more station and that's when it gets real rough and really high up. You go up to a peak that's like 500 meters and the terrain is all crazy and fucking full of tree roots and stuff. Like one of the little reviews described it as, you know, this goes from easy to moderate. You know, it's not actually hard, but it's much harder. And I was wondering like, did that jogger come through here? Because this is suddenly not joggable. Everything else is very joggable. This is a different story and I think this solves it is no, no, they do not. The joggers stop here one step before the end of the course and come down this way.

But yeah, so still on my way up, but this seems all good. And then yeah, I'll go through because this is still this part that I met. Now that I'm going through in reverse, there's the, the couple of stations west of Ome where it's a super, duper easy course, like just the easiest course in the 40:00 world. You could probably bring a baby stroller up here and you could, you know, be a little tricky, but you could do it. Then there's this second half where it's more in the actual woods.

You're not on public property anymore. And it's a little rougher and then the final bit where it's actually rough that I skipped. So today I've got the super woods part first, then the really easy part, which also given my potentially tender hip area, seems like a good way to do it. Start with the just slightly harder part.

bail out if I have to, but if I make it through this, the last stretch is nice and easy.

And man, this is nice. I mean, fuck, dude. Just a bunch of trees on the side of a mountain with a trail leading up through it and the quietness of the dead. I cannot believe how quiet it is here. This is like weird, but I like it.

All right, I'm connecting up to the main trail. I saw some people hiking by above me and going past me over to the rougher part. That's one thing that's funny too. I remember when I came by here, the first time, looking down one of these paths. This is definitely the the gentler one, the less scary looking one. But I still remember looking down and just saying like, why would you go to Futamitaya station? Like what the heck, there's only one more station to go. But I'm seeing here on the side, it is 4.2 kilometers to that final station. It is the longest stretch between stations for sure.

Because it's all twisty and weird and takes you by mountain riding. And yeah, little did I know it was going to be all twisty and weird. You had to go up a mountain.

Geez, yeah, it's a long way because Ome station is only 6.7. So just that final stretch is a huge chunk of this. It's like over two thirds. The distance that it is to get here. It's like, wow. And yeah, it's all difficult and twisty and tough. See, I don't know. It's one thing I kind of like about this podcast is just catching things as I go instead of just like recounting it after like recording stuff in the moment. Because it is kind of like just stepping on a rake. You know, it's kind of funny. Just like, why would you ever bail out here? You're almost at the end. One more station, just go. And then I realized that that final part, it's a whole different world. It's a whole different type of course. And it just spits you out on the fucking highway and you just got to walk it down a mountain road. It's like, oh, there's actually tons of reasons to fucking bail out here. bailing out here is probably what the average person should do. Man, though, the guy at the Airbnb I'm staying at. I mean, there's been the random snorers, but that's no one's fault. There's nothing you can do about that. Besides that, it's been a really great place. Next time I'm in Japan, I imagine. I'll probably stay there again. And the guy, not only very nice, very helpful, bought me a fucking piece of cake on new years. Oh, shit. Wow, this is one thing when you come up this way.