takeshi_hinai’s blog

My Car

I knew that winter had already come. However, I didn’t remember how hard it was. Then, today, I realize that winter is a hard season to survive!

It snowed very much today. It lasted for a whole day. Before evening, it stopped, though. Since I wanted to buy food for dinner, I went out to drive to a grocery store. However, it ended up to take me a long time because I had to excavate my car. It was a sort of work out. Before I got to the grocery store, I got exhausted.

It snows very much in my city, Sapporo in Japan. The snow fall amounts to eight meter in each season in average. The city government spends a hundred million US dollars for each winter. It certainly is big problem for our local government. However, it is much more serious problem for me that I got sore muscle to remove snow!

At the summit of Mt.Bourgeau

rocky(adjective) 1. consisting or full of rock or rocks (quoted from dictionary)

I like hiking mountains. I started hiking, when I was university student. I used to be in a climbing club. I was into it very much. I hiked mountains mainly in Japan. I didn't know there's that beautiful sceneries within this country, since I thought it is so small country and densely populated that natural environment that remain until nowadays is very poor. However, the assumption isn't correct. I saw incredible sceneries, which I could have never seen, if I hadn't hiked mountains. Since I had long vacations as a university student, I took trails usually for two weeks in summer vacation and the similar duration in winter vacation. My colleague and I spent Christmas day and sometimes even new year day in mountains camping in atmosphere below -30 degree Celsius. Since I graduated the university, my enthusiasm to hike mountains haven't changed until now.

This year, after ten years after then, I get a chance to hike Canadian Rocky Mountains. I had 4 days for hiking around national park. I must say it was amazing mountains.

 Along the border between British Colombia and , there were serial national parks, which were adjacent to each other. , , and are there. In addition, is very close to them. Furthermore, and are adjacent to them. It’s safe to say the region is the world best place for hikers and climbers. I was really happy that I could stay in . Every day, I hiked mountains. Since, unfortunately, I couldn’t have enough information about backcountry camp grounds in advance, I gave up camping in backcountry. Therefore, I took daytrips four times. I stayed hostel at or . Then, I rented a car from there to trailheads, since there was no public transportation to most trailheads. Route 1, so called Trans Hwy, go through , which is built along . You can see various forms of mountains in both sides of the road. It’s enough beautiful to be satisfied.

Canadian mountains are so different from Japanese ones. I guess, although I’m not sure, it’s just that Canadian geography is basically formed by glaciers, which are compressed ice which regularly flow like river. Glaciers scratch mountains and engrave valley, then since glaciers tend to flow lower place, a lower places are engraved deeper and deeper. In , you can see geographies, which were formed by glaciers only near the top of mountains. However, they are never the same as Canadian ones. Canadian geographies were huge, dynamic and, I should say, literally rocky. They are immense rock itself. I imagine glacier scratch mountains and removed soft part of them, then only hard parts, made of rock and stone remained. So they are huge, huge stones.  As you can see the pictures, they are very steep, mostly it’s almost vertical. If you are rock climber, is definitely your place. I grantee you could never climb all in whole , even if you spent whole your life. Another specific feature was lakes. There were a lot of lakes up in the mountains, which color was like emerald green or blue. The color attributed to remnant of engraved mountain stones, again made by glacier. Since the water reflected light very well, the reflections of mountains on the lake water were sooo beautiful.

Hum, looking back the pictures I took, I can’t stop sighing. I absolutely want to go there again. It was a battle field between glacier and rock. And the battle is continuing right now. As a result of the war, Canadian Rocky got rocky. What a romantic.

I traveled  to Canada last two weeks. I have came back home the day before yesterday.Now, I should say it was soooo nice!

I have studied with the linguist this six month. In this trip, I realized that my English was really improved and it makes my trip much more enjoyable than before. I talked to a lot of people from various country, since I deliberately chose the accommodations or transportation, which I must share with another people and communicate with them. Sometimes, it was really hard because I must spend time with native speakers of English, who are so fluent and speak so quickly that I couldn't understand. However, even this sort of experience made nice memory for me.

the view of beautiful vancouver from crown mountain

Among them, one of the best memory is visit to the office of the linguist!  It was l located in west Vancouver. I straied hostel in down town area. So I started walking from there along seashore, where many people walked, run or just lay down on the lawn. It's really tranquil and relaxing atmosphere. I think , for sure it is one of the most beautiful city in the world, even thought I have not visited all cities all over the world. I suspect that what makes beautiful is its unique geography.  As you can see on the left photo, the down town is located root of peninsula. And the areas are surrounding the peninsula along seashore. Therefore, from most of the areas, ten minute walk take you seashore. Anyway, I walked from down town. I ended up to reach Stanly Park, which was a huge park and located in the end of peninsula.Suprisingly enough, while it was very close from Down Town, It had lakes and mountain trails. You can walk, run, ride bike, rollerblade and so forth. Since I like hiking mountains and general outdoors activitys, it was so nice that  I really envy residents in this city.

Stanly Park

Afterwards, I went across the bridge, which you can see on the right photo. Then, I took bus to west Vancouver.  Finally, I arrived at the linguist office. When I faced the door of office, I was little nervous, since it was combined office of the linguist and Steve’s lumber company. I considered about how to greet them and ask to see Steve or Jill in English. However, despite my worry, when I opened door, Steve was there. The office was really decent, in which wood was used for various part of interior, which was spacious and quite different from my office in Japan, where many people work in narrow space without partition.

Then, I was introduced to several staffs of the linguist and Steve's lumber company. One of them was Kate, who is very familiar to me, since I had listen to the content hundreds of times, where Kate and Jill talked about cooking and chocolate. It was wonderful experience, since I had wandered who is Kate, although I was really familiar with her voice. Then, I actually met her. It's as if I met movie star or something. 

The very world headquarter of the linguist

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I chatted with Steve, Jill and Mark at the porch, from which we could see the sea. What a nice atmosphere ! A office with scenery of the sea from porch or through windows? Incredible!  I envied them that they could work this nice office. Anyway, I was so happy to get there finally. I enjoyed talking with them very much. I was so satisfied that I can understand them and convey my thought to them. It was so nice that I realized that I had done right thing. I mean I have kept studying English so far. Afterward, Jill kindly gave me a ride to , where you can ride ferry to down town. I love this ferry, since it's not only a tourist attraction but also every day transportation for resident in this city. I used to ride this ferry a few times, when I visited this city before.

This night, they hold the linguist dinner at down town. They kindly set the date during my stay. I was really thankful for them. I could meet other learners. I talked to the learners, who immigrate to Vancouver. The talk was so stimulating for me. They had great personalities. The food was nice. The beer was nice. I was really happy, truly happy, totally happy ! Now, I have come back to Japan. I work at messy office, where I can't see nice scenery from the window. I think the reality is harsh. The trip was like dream. Was that a reality or a dream? I'm not sure. It seems that I need a rehabilitation to adapt  myself to the reality of my life now.

The scenery of Down Town from ferry

Lastly, I would like to appreciate Steve, Jill and Mark to give this chance for me. In some sense, these experience was a reward for me for having studied English. On the other hand,  it gave me a motive to study English even harder, since sometimes I struggled to explain what I thought. I should say this trip strengthen my commitment to English and the linguist. I am much more eager to study English.

Thank you very much!

Scenery from train in Vietnam

There is a well-sold text book of English in Japan. It introduces the way to practice English pronunciation, in which you try to sing a song in English. It's called The Parrot Law! In this method, First, you simply listen to a song one hundred times.Then, you listen to the same music with written lyric another one hundred times.Finally,sing another one hundred times. Therefore, you listen to the same music three hundred times. Then, go forward to another song. I first tried this several months ago. I felt it was boring. I gave up .

Last February, I traveled Vietnam from northern city, Hanoi to southern city Saigon by train. I took a sleeper to transport from Hanoi to Hue, which located in central part of the country. The compartment had three beds vertically and each side of the room. Therefore, a compartment had 6 beds each. Since I traveled alone, I had 5 strangers in my room. The train had a music facility in each room on the wall , which had a volume bottom and  speakers. Late at night, they were still enjoying the Vietnamese pops music. It was annoying for me. However, Since, even though I had studied Vietnamese language for a year, just once a week, I couldn't speak Vietnamese well, I didn't know how to say turn off the music. It had bothered me very much, disturbing my sleep for a long time. Then, it might sound strange but in vague awareness, with half sleeping mind, I heard really impressing song! I had remembered this song until now.  Then, finally, I found this song in itunes music store today. Although I remembered the melody clearly, I remember only short part of the lyric. The lyric was "one thing.......". That's it.  I'm not joking! Incredible enough, thanks for internet search tecnorogy, I found this song from clue of "one thing......" The name was " Nothing gonna change my love for you" I downloaded the music, which Delroy Willson sang. Even though the singer was different from I listened in Vietnam, maybe Vietnamese singer recovered original one, please tell me his name, if someone know the name, I will listen to it three hundred times. Then, after that, I will show off my song to my friend at Karaoke! You might ask me I am crazy. No, I am not crazy. As Steve said, nothing is useless to learn language, I am not sure he truly said so though. I will exploit the chance to enjoy English.

I am in the planning stage of my summer vacation in September.

I really like to climb mountains. I have been to various mountains all over Japan,  and visited even Nepal to see the highest mountain in the world, Mt.Everest. Therefore, it was natural for me to think about hiking mountains in Canada.

First, I heard about  the West coast trail  from Jill, which is located on Vancouver Island. I sought information on the web. Some articles said that it takes usually 5 to 7 days. I'm confident that I am good at hiking. Even though I gain weight lately, it's serious problem though ,  I can still hike at 50 to 80% of the course time .(In Japan, you can get a series of maps which have average course times. It's popular for  hikers.) So I thought that I could go there for five days. However, the more information I get about it, the more I realize my initial estimate was wrong. According to my calculations, it takes 8 days, but in case of bad weather,  I'd better expect one or two more days. Although I have two weeks for this summer vacation, if I consider time to get fuel , transport and so forth, it's not enough time. I will run short of time.

Furthermore, it seems a harsh trail for solo hiker. Especially to me, crossing a river seems very dangerous. What if it floods? What if I tumble?

There are many mountains which don't have any trails in Hokkai-dou prefecture where I live. To climb such mountains, we go along a river, since the other part not near the river are coverd with dense bush which you can't walk through. When I used to be in a clubing club, I often went for such a climbs. It's somewhat dangarous climb. You could sometimes have to climb waterfalls, cross rivers which flow very fast or pass narrow cave-like places. Thus, I know about the danger of rivers in mountains. Futhermore, in some sense, I am scared of rivers, since I lost some acquaintances in such place. Again, furthermore,  We often used a rope which, if I travel alone, is useless. Without a rope, the danger must be increased.

Well,well,well, there are many problems for me. However, none of these is  major problem. My major problem is I haven't gotten flihgt reservations yet. I'm still on a waiting list !! Oh, no, if I can't get reservations, I even can't go to Canada! If so, I'm doomed.     

The Tokachi peaks are in Hokkaidou prefecture in Japan, which is northernmost part of Japan. The main peak is Mt.Tokachi, which is a dormant volcano although it somokes all the time.
I went to climb the mountains last weekend as a three day, two night trip. I got a suntan since it was very sunny. I am happy now remembering the scenery I saw during this trip.

The first day, 1 July 2006

I started my trip from Bougaku-Dai near the town of Kami-Furano. It is located near the center of Hokkaidou island. The first day, I was planning to stay near Mt.Biei-Fuzi. Biei is the name of a town and Fuzi means it looks like Mt.Fuzi, which is the highest mountain in Japan. Actually, since Mt.Fuzi is very popular for Japanese, as it's the symbol of Japanese senery. There are many mountains all over Japan, which are named after real Mt.Fuzi, which is located Kantou area near Tokyo. Because the Tokachi peaks are designated as a national park, camping is basically prohibited. However, camping is only permitted in designated areas which are usually around an evacuation hut. For this reason, I headed for Mt.Biei-Fuzi in which one of the designated areas is at the foot. When I arrived there, I saw beautiful sunset.
I must prepared to sleep by packing all the food I carried, since bears live there. You have to careful about this if you have a chance to visit this peaks.

The second day, 2 July 2006

I headed for Mt.Oputatgesike, the name of which is originally from the Ainu language. They are the indigenous tribe who have lived here in Hokkaidou since before the Japanese immigrated from mainland Japan.
When I woke up, I realized that I had a terrible hangover, since I had had too much drink night before. I couldn't start early in the morning. However, I barely started walking later. Since It was a rare chance to be there because the peak was far from the nearest base, I wanted to take advantage of the chance. I was happy I managed to do so. It was a good season to see high mountain flowers, and there were many places where snow still remained, which let me get water easily. However, in summer, you can't get water at all, so must carry all the water you need during the whole trip.

The last day, 3 July 2006

This was the last day of my trip. I went down to the town via Mt.Tokachi. Mt.Tokachi is a completely bizarre mountain. The closer you approach, the more bazaare scenery you can see. There were many craters, some of which still smoke hard. You might feel like you are Mars or planet of the apes! It was hard to walk on the sand-like ground.

After I came back to the base where I had left my car, I felt satisfied having successfully walked the whole way of this trip. Simultaneously I felt somewhat sad because my trip was over.
Then I went to a Ramen restaurant, a sort of noodle, to reward myself and commemorate this trip.