Torture vs. Adventure...?

Well, not exactly, torture, but yes, my thought process went something like that after today's walk, so I'm back at the hotel in the city by the train station. Part of me was like, already? You're giving yourself a break after only two days of walking again? No, but this time, I really had to pay attention to my body and my gut. Yesterday was a good walk, but today was a really hard hike up another mountain-and it was cold and pouring. It hadn't been long enough since hiking Temple 12 to want to climb a mountain like that again. Oh　and I was so mad-no more like pissed off hiking today, it was so much! I would half cuss at the trail and half laugh at myself thinking, what if someone was nearby? The trail wasn't as long as getting to Temple 12 but the path was not as clear (many times it was just mud) and it was much steeper. I would be hiking up for a while, make a turn only to see another (freakin) mountain of steps. Pretend like you're looking at the very top of a 10 story building-ok, that's how a steep hike up looked. It was raining, it was cold and I was sweating! My glasses kept fogging up because of my breath. It was already raining when I started, but I thought the rain would go away since the previous days had been nice. But no, it started raining harder on my way down and it made the walk down even more difficult. On my way down this guy caught up to me, his name is Eric and he's from Altadena. Hi! Where are you from? I'm from America. From the US? Me too! (This part about being from "America" and being "American" reminded me of another discussion/rant I talked about elsewhere. I'll post that one up after this). I'm from La Puente! Wow! It was a trip to find ourselves here on this same trail so, so far away from where we call home. He was the first non-Japanese person I had seen and young person, too on the trail. He was wearing a Bruin hat and a UCLA engineering sweater (uh...let me guess, you go to UCLA??) it reminded me of a friend (Eligio) that I would almost always see wearing some sort of UCLA gear. Eric had just graduated.　(Jeanette, he was a total Phelps you would have loved him). We started walking together and he had decided to take the ropeway up to the next temple (I had planned to hike it) but at that point I was coughing, shivering and pretty soaked from the rain, so I decided to walk a few more kilometers and take the ropeway with him. It was an incredible view. Too bad it was still pretty cloudy so we couldn't totally appreciate the forests but still, we were at least able to sit and look around and not watch out for every step; there was something serene about going up in the cable car and seeing all the trees and rivers below. Everyone in the cable car was quiet looking down, so was I, but I was also amused at watching everyone else- what were they thinking? Where did they come from? Why did they decide to come today?

Anyway, by the end I was really tired and I was drenched (I had water in every crack you can imagine) and my feet were soaked and I felt a blister forming on the back of one of my heels from the wet socks. My cough was getting worse. That's when I decided to go back to Tokushima (the city I'm in now) and go back to the hotel I was staying in a few days ago; at least I could count on free meals, free coffee, free internet and a washer and dryer here! (geez, am I spoiled, or what? Can I not live without a few amenities for a while?) I parted ways with Eric and I went back to this hotel- familiar places are comforting. I'm going to stay here two nights, since it's also going to be raining tomorrow. That's the nice thing about this trip- I was given the time and money. I can be adventurous, but not at the expense of my health.

*Tip* Wet/damp shoes? Stuff some newspaper in them and the paper will soak up the water.