I am spending the last of my three day weekend at home. I didn't really do anything special out yesterday either. But it's rainy and I have been tired. A week with 140 twelve year olds will do that.

It was 4 days and 3 nights with the seventh graders from Tahara JHS. It doesn't seem like a long time, but when the schedule maintains waking up at six and going to bed at midnight with a flood of activities in between, exhaustion is inevitable. I was told by one of the teachers that the purpose of the activities was to make the students so run down that they couldn't make trouble at night. It worked.

One morning, the students started their 17 kilometre treck through the area. Teachers only had to go partway. Bobbi and I took the first half - a stretch of 10 k's. It was really nice. The landscape was incredible. It was still in our prefecture of Aichi, but the mountains were so beautiful. I wasn't expecting it at all.

During our hike we encountered a baby monkey. It was fascinating to just see a wild monkey up close. The first time I had seen one in its natural habitat was in Malaysia, but I was in a moving car and it didn't really sink in. This was different, although it seemed very surreal. I guess that's how I would describe so many of my experiences here.

I do not want the memories of my life to pass away like remnants of a dream I once had.

Copyright H.Krebs 2000