「上ろう！！！」

I need to get going to Komabasai (school festival at our campus) to help with Chabashira's booth soon, so here's a suuuper-fast (maybe) update .

Thursday involved some SURPRISE RAIN (not in the forecast) that in fact lasted all day. It also included Francesco, Alden and I splitting a Windows 7 burger (seven large, greasy, largely tasteless meat patties) at Burger King in Shibuya. Oh man.
Thursday night was William's (a Japanese guy with a western name - not AIKOMsei) birthday party, which included some embarrassing (for him) gifts, lots of dancing (it was in the Common Hall, it was more AIKOM than not, and Hanika was present, so it was inevitable), and then chatting afterward in the MSC room.
I stayed there a bit too late, so I woke feeling very tired on Friday when my alarm went off. Because of Komabasai preparations, there were no classes, but the second official AIKOM field trip was scheduled such that it was necessary to leave fairly early.
I thought, waking up, (Urrrrrrgh,) Am I sure I really want to go on this field trip?
No.
Okay... Will I regret it if I don't go?
Probably.
Okay, guess I better go.

And, in typical grand AIKOM fashion, the group took forever getting together and ended up 20 minutes late to Takaoguchi station, but we ended up not the last to arrive, so it was fine. I was happy to see Mike-senpai there again, but actually never really got a chance to have a chat all day. Ah well~

And so, we hiked up Mt. Takao, which, on the ascent path, was thronged with shockingly energetic and healthy Japanese retirees. And it was really, really beautiful, and I was really happy that I had come. Looking one way was Tokyo, stretching to the horizon, the faint sillohette of some busy district's skyskrapers fading into blue. On top of the mountain there were many shrines and a whole temple complex, which was also quite beautiful. And in the other direction, mountains and mountains.

We also hiked up to another peak, then down the other, much less tame side of the mountains, then down into a valley, then up... It was a very tiring day, but filled with amazing scenery. Like finding that you're getting excited by seeing not-actually-particularly-large patches of forest out the window of the train, another effect of living in Tokyo has to do with sound. I didn't realize it until we were going down the back of the mountain, where we we were totally alone, but in Tokyo there is just about never silence. After about seven weeks of living here, I felt the silence in a physical way I never have before. It was wonderfully serene.
The time of year was just right, so the famous Japanese maples were beautifully red and the weather was gorgeous. And as I explained to several people, being from occasionally hilly but quite mountain-free lower-peninsula Michigan, mountains are a big deal to me. XD
And best of all I had many a really great chat, both fun and interesting. Dinner afterward was also quite fun, and I think I got to know Sho a lot better. +) Fantastic trip, all in all.
I ought to upload them to Picasa or something, since Facebook resizes them to be so small and in this case it really doesn't do them justice, but for now, many photos of the day are here.