赤兎山 Akausagi yama

On Sunday we went to a mountain near Katsuyama called Akausagi yama. That directly translates to Red Rabbit Mountain. It was a beautifully sunny day, and perfect for hiking. We had about 15 people in our group. As you can see below, most of them thought it was necessary to cover every inch of skin that would be exposed to either the sun, bugs, or strange mountain plants. Despite the hot weather they had about a million layers on, however Lesley and I showed up in a tank top and a t-shirt, and of course politely declined their offer for thin white gloves. They thought the gloves were absolutely necessary, and insisted we at least put them in our bags in case the need should arise while on the mountain. It never did.
At the top!! :)

1626 m high (although I'm pretty sure we drove up for most of that)

My students and our trusty walking sticks, which i must say came in handy when we were scaling up steep muddy inclines. We also passed little sections of snow that were still layered on the mountain.

After successfully making it to the top. We had a lovely picnic. And then made our way down the treacherous path. Somehow down was much scarier and dangerous than going up.

On Monday I had a great, but extremely tough yoga class. Sometimes I feel like the teacher is punishing me just because I CAN do almost every move, doesn't mean that i WANT to do them to there fullest intensity. Now i hurt, but it is a good hurt.

Today was perfectly sunny. I spent the morning tanning and reading my book outside. And definitely took a long lunch to enjoy the outdoors.