Rain...

We had originally hoped for a week in the mountains, but the weather forecast was now for 3 more days of solid rain, and this time we both believed it (and it turned out to be correct). The wind and rain were rattling the walls of the hut so the decision to descend was easily made.

As we were trussing ourselves up in plastic, an announcement was made to the effect of the bread being ready. At first we had no idea what this meant, but then James remembered the time we had arrived at this same hut at about 11am, and had marvelled at the existence of a maple pecan danish pastry at the little eatery. Off he charged, rucksack and goretex flapping, and nabbed just about the last one, along with a cup of coffee. With little incentive to head off into the rain we enjoyed this delicious second breakfast, somewhat horrified at how horrible it made the first breakfast that we'd consumed 30 minutes previously seem (I can't remember precisely but that first breakfast was probably seaweed, rice, soup, a handful for beans, a sliver of fish, salt, salt and some more salt with green tea to wash it down).

Then it was off into the rain, which varied between light drizzle and so heavy that it felt like hail piercing our goretexes. We overtook many on the way down, feeling smug that we had not only enjoyed one more maple danish than them but also an hour less of rain. Once down the nice steep mountain it is a bit of a trudge along the valley to Kamikochi, but at least the wildlife was fitting to the conditions. Got the bus out around 3pm and three or four trains later we were home, at about 10pm.