Vicarious Japanese: Winter Break Day 1

I may be cheating death by writing this. My computer charger has a little rip in the cord and needs to be adjusted for about five minutes before it decides to work. Well, upon examination of the charger, it's getting really hot and I fear it will spark, set my sheets and, by extension, me on fire. If you notice a strange trail of letters, just picture me trying, with my last effort on Earth, to communicate with you - and know if they are something like "911" or "SOS", please contact someone with international connections. Maybe "SOS" is inappropriate because that may be only maritime but you get the idea.

Yesterday I went on a hike but I only kinda expected it. My friend said we should go for a hike or walk around the harbor. Assuming she was referring to the harbor-area, I ignored the "hike" part and made my way happily to Kobe. When I got to Sannomiya station, I was informed that we would be hiking up a mountain. Although she said the mountain was not that big - how much does that matter? Yes, I am aware that I am not climbing Mt. Fuji but this is still going to be a steep, breathtaking (literally) excursion! People do these things recreationally. This may have been the first plan of Shuko's (my friend) to kill me. I was not dressed properly, I wore the antithesis of hiking shoes and I am not in, what you would call, mountain hiking shape. So while doing my best impression of someone unaffected by walking straight up, she wanted to play a word game. We started with a Japanese word...the next person had to begin their word with the last letter from the previous word. Note: this game can be ended by using a word ending in "ん”(n). Words in Japanese end in this letter but no words begin with it. My strategy, although effective, was no accepted and we continued on. After half of the mountain was below us, we switched to English. I figured at this point, my brain would recover...nope. Shuko knows a lot of English words but wanted to learn new ones, so I had to think of (and then explain) about fifty new words - mostly ending in "ous". Our game continued until we got to whatever the summit was. I think she just decided to turn around and go back at some point - which was strange because if I was going to bust my ass going up - why not go all of the way?? The only reason I can fathom now is that after she killed me physically and mentally, she was attacking my spirit. Don't let any of my desperate rehashing fool you, Shuko is cute and I was happy the whole time - even if I was externally a sweating, struggling dude in a sweater vest. Oh, so once we hit the sweet, sweet ground..."why don't we go up here to look at the view?". I am convinced this suggestion was an improvisation to her plan - I didn't die, the first time...let's go back up the mountain. Great!

Since I've established my martyr act, I am also worried about my manliness. The other night, I waited outside at a train station for my friend, Chieko, to pick me up. As it turned out, she was stuck at work so I stood there for about thirty minutes before walking to her school. But, I was freezing! Granted, I was wearing a sweatshirt with no hat or gloves but it was only about 30..and then whatever effect the wind had. But still, I gave Gino such a hard time because he'd lost his ability to handle cold - is this happening to me? Is my blood thinning?

Stay tuned, tomorrow I am headed to Universal Studios Japan. I'll write back soon!