Mountain Climb Number 2

10th June, 2007

As you all know I love outdoor activities so any opportunity I get to do it I definitely take it. I was very reluctant to wake up this morning though due to my BIG night the previous night but I forced myself to get out of bed at 7am to go and conquer this mountain. I tell you what I wasn’t feeling very ‘genki’ that’s for sure. For those of you wondering ‘genki’ means healthy/fine. We had to sprint to the train as we were running a little behind schedule and we just made it by 2 minutes. I definitely didn’t need to be using the little energy I had to sprint to the train. Anyway we got the Kobe station and got off and went to find Paul the guy we were meant to be hiking with. Anyway we couldn’t find him. Marie left her phone at home, I didn’t have his number so we were off to a very bad start. We eventually managed to ring Steve to give us his number and we rung him. We told him we were outside Mister Donut waiting for him. Well when 15minutes had passed and we still hadn’t heard from him we rang him again. He told us that he was at the wrong Mister Donut. So we waited a while longer. We then get a phone call from him saying that he was at Mister Donut and that we were not there…….we were both confused for a while until he finally asked us which station we were at and we figured out that we were at the wrong station. He told us where to go and we were on our way again. We finally made it to the right place and found Paul, but geez that was an effort. So much of an effort in fact that Paul had to stop and have a coffee before we started our climb.

We eventually got to the right place to start climbing by about 10am. It was only the 3 of us as everyone else bailed out for one reason or another. Just as well Marie and I were still able to make it. We bagan the climb up Mount Maya which is the other side of Mount Rokko. I am still yet to see Rokko by the way, but I will make it my business to see it. The climb started out steep as we had to walk up what seemed like a million steps. I couldn’t wait for them to finish but they just went on and on for ever and ever. Eventually they stopped when we got to a beautiful waterfall. I could have sat there for ages just looking at it. There were lots of things to look at along the way of the hike apart from the amazing scenery. Some of the things included a big lake and an awesome bridge. We then reached a Herb Garden which was filled with beautifully presented herbs and plants. There was also a fantastic view of Kobe from here. We had a wonder through the glass house and then realised that it was pouring with rain. It was such a shame because the morning was so fine. We decided to head to the cafeteria where we ordered scones and caramel lattes to while we waited for the rain to settle. Well it didn’t look like it was going to ease off. So Paul rang his friend who we were meant to be meeting at the top of the mountain to come and pick us up in the car. I was slightly disappointed that it started raining but at the same time I was kind of glad because I was feeling very tired.







It took a while to meet his friend but we eventually found him and he drove us to this place where we could eat our bento lunches. What is a bento lunch you may ask?? It is a Japanese style lunch box which includes rice, usually veggies or some sort, sometimes fish or meat – there are many types of bentos that you can buy in Japan. After we ate lunch Paul’s friend drove us to the train station and we called it a day as the rain was on off for the rest of day. I am really glad that I decided to go ahead with the climb – it was so beautiful. I definitely want to go back there again and have another go. It wasn’t actually too difficult but because I was tired to begin with I think anything would have been difficult! I can’t wait for my next climb.