Drag Me Up A Mountain
I don't know how he did it, but last weekend Riccardo persuaded me to climb a friggin mountain. Most of my faithful readers have veiwed Tsukuba-san on this blog before. It's hard to forget since it's the only mountain visible from my city. It pokes up from a rice field abyss. It's fa
irly common to climb this sucker, in fact most people in these parts have done it... but then, I'm not most people.Frankly, I'm no climber of mountains. I made this clear
to Riccardo before our ascent. I also made it clear that he should expect a fair amount of complaining. Yep, I'm a true whiner.I'm pretty sure Riccardo had his fill of my whining within the first 20 minutes of our little hike. He later admitted that for the first half-hour or so he was ready to pitch me over the side of the mountain
(what a nice boyfriend I have!) Thankfully he refrained from any pitching, and instead offered moral support and encouragement...
"you can do it, you can do it, you can do it!"
ha. I knew all along that I would reach the summit of damn Tsukuba, I just wasn't sure in what year I'd get there. Aside from being qui
te steep at times, the trail was well, rough. We alternated between stair-mastering grillions of tiny stairs (apparently made for asian steps, which must be smaller than the western variety) to scaling boulders. With Riccardo behind me enjoying the view of my sweaty ass, I felt semi-sure that I wouldn't slip a
nd die (it had rained for days before and the mud was slick).My technique for mountain climbing basically involves taking six steps, stopping for a break, taking six steps, stopping for a break, and so on. The 90-minute hike ended up taking us just over two hours. Riccardo likely
could have done it on his own in about an hour. Actually, we were passed at least twice by a man who was running up and down the trail at full tilt... training for something, I imagine.At the summit of Mount Tsukuba are several eateries and shops (all offering frog paraphenalia, the mascot of Tsukuba). If one was not nearly dead from the hike one just
completed one could venture to make a wide circle of the mountain top in an additional hike that takes approximately an hour. This one opted no. Instead we sat atop a revolving restaurant and soaked in the panoramic, and quite smoggy, views.The thing I don't get about climbing Tsukuba-san is that there
are other options. I mean, really, why climb a mountain when you can take a cable-car or a tram instead?!?! haha. We took the cable-car down the mountain, as most climbers do, (because the trail, especially downwards, especially slick with mud, is 
trecherous) and arrived safely at the bottom once more. I am glad that Riccardo dragged my ass up this mounta
in. It actually wasn't THAT bad. My thanks to him for putting up with me and my tomatoface. Unfortunately, my conquering Tsukuba-san has prompted Riccardo to attempt to convince me to join his parents and him in ascending Fuji-san. Besides Tsukuba being under 900 metres, where Fuji is over 3000, understand that his parents recently returned from a quick hike up Kilamanjaro! Um, no.
Next time do not try to run up the first 30 minutes so you will have more breath for the rest of it ;o)
By the way - I like your sweaty ass, why did you not put THAT picture on your blog...?