Went mountain climbing on Sunday, on the border of Iwate and Akita, and while we couldn’t make it all the way to the very top, we still got to see Tazawako Lake sparkling in the distance. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey… Plus (geek mode) this place looked kinda like the last area of Shadow of the Colossus, and I imagined I was standing on a cliff at the end of the world, with my only friend dead and a huge mammoth creature to kill before I could rest. Perhaps I’ll be able to conquer that mammoth insecurity of mine in this place, someday. It already feels like it’s getting smaller day by day.

A small flower in a place they affectionately called Moomin Valley. A couple hours later I was soaking in a hot spring the color of emerald, the rusty smell of the sulfer surrounding me. I always think before climbing a mountain, “yeah! this’ll be awesome!” but when I’m actually climbing, I always whine to myself, “why the eff did I think this would be a good idea??” By the time I get to the obligatory onsen afterwards, I always manage to think, “Well. That was awesome.” Doesn’t everyone who climbs mountains occasionally feel that way?

“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” - Edmund Hillary

(Yeah but it’s not like I climbed this thing by myself…)