Up the mountain

Friday, Miranda and I spent the day in Nagoya, which is about an hour and a half drive away. She spent most of her adult life there before moving to the states, so there were a few places she wanted to go and see and do some shopping etc. Kris stayed at home with Obaachan (Grandma).

We stopped for a late lunch and made a few other stops at some stores on the way back. We were both completely beat by the time we got back around 4:00 p.m. but said we were going to try to stay up and beat the jet lag. But when we got back, Kris was struggling to stay awake herself. We got some food in her then she crashed. Miranda was out like a light by 5:00 p.m. and Obaachan had retreated to her room to let us rest. I held out until around 7:00 p.m. doing some reading and recreational coding, but finally gave up and went to sleep too. At around 10 p.m. Kris woke up with a bloody nose. We took care of that and the girls went back to sleep. I stayed up until around 1:00 a.m. and then hit the sack for the second time, hoping to sleep past 4:00 a.m. By 4:20, Miranda and I were all wide awake. Kris stayed sleeping. I went out running at 5.

For this run, I went in the opposite direction, towards the mountains to the north. Where we are staying is on the western edge of a foothill to the south of the mountain range. Running north for a quarter mile up hill got me over that hill, where I could then go down into the valley between it and the southernmost mountain. Running through the village of the main street of the valley, I finally found a break in the houses which led to a path into the mountain. It was paved, but narrow and very steep. A lot of runoff also made it very slick and slippery. I ran a good ways up, but obviously needed to stop and walk quite a bit. Took a few side paths, but these all eventually ended in very tight paths overgrown with bamboo. Huge spiderwebs blocked the way in spots, and I was worried about wild monkeys (no lie), so I turned back and kept going up.

Eventually, the narrow path gave way to an actual street. I kept going up and at the peak of the slope of that street there was an opening in the trees and I was awarded with a stunning view of the valley and plain of the town below. It seemed like I was about half way up the slope of the mountain, but I have to guess that it was significantly less than that.

After the peak, it was a serious downhill run back into the valley. Even trying to brake myself, I hit a 6:30 pace. Then back out of the valley and to the old homestead. It was only 4 miles – I had planned on doing 5 or 6. But it was such an awesome run overall that I felt I had done much more than that.

When I got back home, I found that Kris had finally woken up but was not feeling well. Thirteen hour jet lag has a way of doing bad things to your stomach. At least that’s my experience. Seems to be the case with Kris as well. She’s doing better now, but we postponed our plans to go to “Sea Paradise” today. Will just do some stuff around the town.

Pics from the run: