Cue The Epic Lord of the Rings Mountain Climbing Music

On Sunday 27^th November I got up early to be picked up by Keita for a trip into the mountains around Yura to see the autumn leaves. Maggie and I jumped into the car which had Rob in it already and headed to the rendezvous point outside of McDonald’s to pick up another girl who was joining us, Yuki from volleyball. We drove for half an hour past my school up into the hills to the end of the mountain road where a hostel stood. I'm pretty good at mountains especially really steep climbs and was out in front by 50 metres or so for most of the way, stopping at major points (like the 3/6s point) to wait for the others.

At the 3/6th point. Just a little bit further til the halfway point.

Halfway into the trek I hit a cordoned off area where a landslip had occurred. I was not happy. I did not go all that way to be told I couldn't go further so I slipped past the barrier and carried on. Towards the top the others started to catch up to me as I was losing energy rapidly and couldn't eat my onigiri until I made it to the top so I slowed right down to an almost stop near the top. The Eventually I did make it and even did a Rocky victory scene at the top which the Japanese people who were eating their lunch already on the top, found hilarious. From here the views were pretty awesome, but what was more awesome was the fact I got to eat, and even my meagre rice balls tasted amazing.

The beach at Yura from the top of the mountain.

I should have taken into account that the steep and slippery slope I climbed to get up to the top was going to be just that going down, and worse. We pretty much slid back down the clay areas with the others slipping over several times, but of course it took half the time. We then headed to Keita's friend's cake shop in Yura in Kunda. These cakes were the ones we tried at the sake distillery tour we did with the NZ Association several months back, but because I was in futile delusional diet mode I had water, like a true born again for the umpteenth time dieter. The cakes looked good though.