Watch out Eboshi! I'm back, and this time my car has snow tires.


Regular readers of Avoidinglife may recall the story of my failed attempt to scale Noheji's Mount Eboshi. The journey sadly ended with a flat tire, a lost hubcap and a dejected Jamie. Well I waited out the long snowy winter and now it's time to rescue my long lost hubcap and kick some Eboshi ass. Was I successful? Here's what went down...

...

Watch out for bears on Eboshi Mountain they always say. Sadly I never seem to find any.



What is this? I never expect to find hiking trail signs in English, let alone ones that are almost grammatically correct! Most impressive.




The road up the mountain is sketchy to say the least. It changes every few metres between pavement, gravel, mud, and sharp pointy tire piercing rocks.



Every mountain needs a ghost story...




...and a ghetto cement outhouse. Hey, at least it has toilet paper!



Eboshi's hiking trail is the red line. Every year students and teachers from Noheji High walk the 8km from the school to the top of the mountain and back down again in some sort of primitive bonding ritual. I've managed to weasel out of it two years running. Wish me luck this year! (The browish line is the "road" up)




The only other cars that ever use this road are these yellow numbers belonging to some sort of telecommunications company. Better hope I don't run into one of these bad boys along one of the many narrow stretches of road.



About half way up the mountain I spot something... could it be???




It is! Mission 1 accomplished. Now to finish what I started last fall... lets get to the top!



At about two thirds of the way up it became clear that getting to the summit wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. Guess I'm gonna have to hoof it from here.




The remaining section of road was quite steep and snow covered, but I was determined to get to those cool looking towers at the top.



Still no bears.




Almost there! Wait, what is this? If Eboshi is still 0.2 km away, then what have I been climbing for the last hour?



I guess it just means the peak is 0.2 km away since it looks like I've finally made it!




Yes Mr. Mountain, your ass has officially been kicked.



The view from atop Noheji's Eboshi Mountain in Luke Winn-o-Vision.




The don't call this place Aomori (Blue Forest) for nothing.



On the way back down I decided to save some time and bypass the zig-zaggy road and take a more direct route through the trees and snow. This proved to be a bad idea, and I have the soiled pants to prove it.




The mysterious Eboshi Mountain power lines to nowhere. Is there someone living inside the mountain? Domokun perhaps?




It was past 7pm when I finally got back to civilisation, yet still not one teacher had returned home from work yet. It sure does suck to be a teacher in Japan unless you are a JET. The end.