Well, today I went up the mountain again. I got to the top after a lot of shimmying in diagonals and slipping on my arse from time to time. It really was amazing to see just how much the snow had melted since last week; literally two or three feet in places. And there was so much more greenery among the trees. The sara shoots were re-greening and there were lots of leaves on the trees as well, in quite stark contrast to last week. It's not surprising though, since it has been about 20 degrees up there all week.

I got into a bit of a mess on the way down though. I was so busy enjoying myself, sliding down the snow on my red and rosy that I totally missed the turning that led back to the official track. I soon found myself about four hundred metres off track and had to climb back up to get to where I wanted to be. That was not all. I got back to the point where I went wrong and started to descend again, only to find myself even further out of it. I got a bit scared and decided to walk all the way back to the hut at the top of the tree line. From there I could just about find the track, but I managed to create an extra 1km of uphill hiking for myself.

I'm not going to do the mountain again for about a month or so, but instead I want to get a mountain bike and go into the Shirakami mountains just south of Tsugaru. I know a good road to bike on, and it'll be unseen territory for me as well (the only time I've ever done this road was driving at night).

Have a good weekend.