Step up

I have been devoting the majority of my free periods at work to Japanese study the past two weeks, thus the lack of recent posts. Signed up (and paid $60) to take the the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (3rd level) in December. No idea if I can pass the thing, but if I do I will have the equivalent of an elementary school reading, writing, and grammar comprehension level.

Below, some pics of a beautiful hike I did with my friend Mark last Sunday, to the top of Kurikoma-san, the highest mountain in Miyagi prefecture (I think). A warm-up for what we hope is a late-season assault on Fuji-san in two weeks, assuming the weather holds and that we can figure out the buses from Tokyo to the trailhead.