Last Monday (February 9th), I went to Mt. Nagi for a snow hike with NEO student M-san.

We left M’s house at 7am and we expected to arrive around 9am, but there was a lot of snow on the roads the closer we got to the Tsuyama area. Last Sunday there was heavy snow across the whole country. Even Okayama City got some rare snowfall.

We got stuck behind several accidents and traffic jams, so we didn’t arrive at the mountain until around 10am. Also, we couldn’t get to the hiking trail parking lot because the snow on the road was so deep. Even M’s big truck with massive snow tires and 4-wheel drive couldn’t get through. So, we had to park about 800 meters down the hill and park on the side of the road.

We strapped on our snow shoes and started walking through knee deep snow. It took about 45 minutes just to get up to the trailhead.

Our original plan was to do a six hour hike to the peak of Nagi-san and follow a different trail down the mountain. It was quickly apparent to us that this would be an impossible task in the current conditions. So, we decided to just hike a little bit around the lower part of the trail. We also took a side trail to a pavilion that overlooks a small waterfall.

The old trail through the snow was totally covered in fresh snowfall, so we had no choice but to blaze our own trail through the fresh snow. If you have ever tried to walk through deep powder snow before, you know that it is a tiring task to be the lead hiker. We took turns walking first, but even a few minutes was tough and I was sweating hard even after taking off my hat, gloves, and unzipping my jacket.

We weren’t able to follow our original hike plans, but the scenery on this hike was truly fantastic. We were walking through undisturbed snow-covered forest and absolutely everything was pure white and beautiful. In less than 3 hours, we only covered about 3.1 km, which means that our 6 hour plan would have taken over 10 hours if it was even possible at all.

We wrapped up the hike earlier than we thought, so we went to M’s favorite teishoku restaurant on the outskirts of Tsuyama and had a gargantuan lunch. It was a wonderful day out in nature.

When I was a kid, I loved puzzles. While I was eating breakfast before school, I always flipped the newspaper open to the comics, immediately followed by the Jumble* or crossword puzzle. Some mornings, I would steal that page and try to finish the puzzle on the school bus.

Recently I came across a series of maze books that I used to like. The author, Rolf Heimann, designed some of the most challenging and unusual mazes I’ve ever seen. Sometimes, it’s difficult even to figure out the rules of the maze, or what kind of path you should follow.

In this particular book, every maze starts on the left middle and ends on the right middle. There is also a key hidden on each page. If you can find the key, you’ll get a hint on how to solve the maze.

Try solving the fish maze above! It’s relatively easy.

*If you’re not familiar with the Jumble, you can try it for yourself here.

Yesterday NEO was attacked by a scary demon three times. However, our brave students threw beans and fought off the demon. We hope that you all had safe and enjoyable Setsubun.

We held our annual New Year Party last Saturday night. About 16 students and teachers gathered together at a restaurant downtown and enjoyed great food and fun conversations in English and Japanese. After 2 hours of feasting, about half of the people carried on to a second party at Pinball Cafe for a few more hours of fun. Thanks for coming out everybody, it was great!

A-san traveled to Canada to meet her son, who is living and working there. They enjoyed spending the Christmas season together, went skiing and did some sightseeing.

T-san traveled to Egypt with her husband. They saw the pyramids and the Great Sphinx. At the Grand Egyptian museum, they saw the famous Mask of Tutankhamun.

These both looked like fabulous vacations!