Hiking @ Minoo no taki
Mood:  bright
I went hiking at Minoo to the waterfalls with another wonderful family: Yoshie, her daughter, Miki, and her husband, Takemura-san. The new Japanese maple leaves were glowing light green in the sun. It's a marvelous thing to see leaves that are just unfolding - so clean and fresh. The chlorophyll hasn't done its thing yet, and so the leaves are almost yellow turning into green. We had a yummy lunch prepared by Yoshie. Sitting on rocks next to the creek in the shade we enjoyed the view, which included the appearance of a harmless looking monkey who sat staring off into nowhere land for quite a while. I took a few camera shots of him while he posed aloof up on a road above us in the shade. Slowly, as we ate, he managed to move closer and closer. Before we knew it there silently appeared a second monkey. Then, before we knew it, they both were meandering towards us still rather "uninterested" it seemed to me, when all of a sudden Miki had a monkey hanging off her back! Dad kicked it off her while we all tried to stash our food as quickly as possible into our packs. While we were struggling with food scattered all over, i discovered that one of the monkeys was at my back and another in front of me. Thanks to Takemura-san who positioned himself back to back with me, we were able to gently kick (and maybe not so gently drop-kick) them away. This is an experience that i don't care to repeat.

Today's hike was an easy stroll with food stands and beer stops along the way. Kids were playing in the stream. It was a comfortable day. Not so hot and definitely not too cold. The waterfall was magnificent. An amazing new phenomenon for me is that I seem to attract "older" gentlemen lately. Maybe it's my gray hair, i don't know. A cheerful interesting "young man" of 83 caught up to our group and began talking to me in some pretty broken English. His enthusiasm was genuine and contagious. We ended up hiking back down with him to the train station with a stop for coffee along the way. He called himself an amateur photographer but when he opened his case and pulled out a German made Leika and a rather impressive assortment of lenses, he looked rather professional to me. He gave us all some tips in how to frame pictures and helped Miki, Yoshie, and i do some shots with our digital cameras. What an inspiration to be hiking these trails carrying a fairly heavy pack at 83. He says that staying challenged and always learning is his secret to long life and health. I believe him. What a blessing it is to discover such a gem on the trail! The Takemura's were so gracious to share a day of their Golden Week with me. What a pleasure and a gift.


Sunday, May 2nd
Bloomsday

Frankie and i just HAD to run Bloomsday this morning. We took off from our apartment and ran to the Shukugawa and down to the ocean and back again. We visualized every mile along the way as if we were actually in Spokane. Frankie's Mom followed us on a bike. Gorgeous, warm day. Typical Bloomsday weather. Came back and had hearty whole wheat pancakes with fresh pineapple, yogurt and maple syrup with Frankie and her Mom. Back at my apartment there was still something missing so i called my girlfriend, Margaret. Margaret and Terry have had a Bloomsday party after the race every year for the last few years and i was missing the after-race glow of visiting with friends all dressed in our new Bloomsday t-shirts. Surprise, surprise, Margaret was having a PRE-Bloomsday-carbo-loading party and so i got to visit with her and her husband, Terry, and my "Ex" who was the last to leave the party! What a surprise. Now the day's complete. Well, except that i didn't get a t-shirt this year, but I feel like I finally finished first this year (about 17 hours early!) Sylvia sent me a description of the t-shirt later - she says it's my virtual Bloomsday t-shirt.