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As I was about to leave the zoo, Tara's voice rang in my ears: "You should hike up the mountain while you're there, it only takes about thirty minutes..." Although I had already cycled forty minutes in inhospitable heat to get to the zoo, my body temperature was back to around normal and I felt pretty good so I thought - ok then!
Maruyama is not a very big mountain, it does only take a little less than half an hour from bottom to top, but it is nevertheless a mountain, and as such is pretty tall. So even though it's a pretty quick hike, in the sweltering heat it turned out not to be the wisest thing I attempted last week. At times on the path I thought "I'm bloody glad I'm not running into anyone because I'm sweating like a bastard and my heart may try to make a run for it, separate from my body..." When I got to the very top though I met some people and one guy looked a hell of a lot worse than me. The little old ladies all looked fine, but then they were all stacked to the gills with hiking gear.
Despite this I'm glad I made the effort because if I hadn't I would've missed out on stuff like this:
And that is some good stuff. At the top the view was really nice, and it seems a lot less of a touristy viewpoint than Moiwa or Asahiyama which are just a little south.
Oh and here's a picture of some dude that I took because he framed himself so nicely amongst the rocks and branches:
Mountains are awesome, and I want to go up some more, but I need the temperature to drop severely before then.
What the hell's been happening?!!?
I know, and I can hear those two exclamation marks hiding between the double question marks of your cry. No need to get pushy. With all this time and still no blog posts? Alex, are you really that much of a mess?
Well, yes and no. See the end of my contract has coincided with summer finally arriving in Sapporo. Until now it was like rain for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now it's heat, hotness and a sizeable side order of sweltering. I don't function very well in the heat. Scratch that - I hardly function at all in the heat, and I'm very lucky to live in Sapporo where this season is relatively brief. Also, my new appartment, stoked though I am with it, tends to turn into something of a furnace in the afternoons when the sun comes roaring in. So, in the heat my brain doesn't work, and when my brain no work I no writey-writey the blogs.
However I'm still doing some stuff! Like going to the zoo! This is the second time I went to Maruyama Zoo and it looks a lot better in the summer than it did while the snow was melting away in March or whenever I went last time.
This time I learned the following:
Tapirs used to fight underwater duels with giant fish that were so terrible even tigers cowered whimpering on the land. At least, I think that's what this is about. I didn't bother trying to read it. Also you can put your face where the fishes face should be and pretend like you're having a battle to the death with a Tapir. If your face is really tiny. Oh, like a child! Of course.
Tigers are pretty much big pussy cats. Until they eat you.
This crow swooped in like... like a crow to steal a seal's lunch from off a rock where he'd left it. Evil! The last laugh went to the seal though, because the crow promptly put the fish on the next rock and it fell into the water. Can crows swim? Not as well as seals that's for sure!
This mynah bird was brave enough to eat from anyone's hand, and I thought I remembered that mynahs can speak and was about to ask the bird-lady when she started to explain that mynahs can speak to some kids. They tried to coax it into saying hello, but no dice.
