Mt. Dread.

The three gaijin wake up early. We wait downstairs for awhile, and even start eating some breakfast, but Masahiro and Shiho won't get up. In normal circumstances we wouldn't really mind, and in fact, we hardly did at this point, but we had made a plan to get on the road early so that we would have time to check out the mountain, Osorezan.

So, we did what any good friends would, we wrote a "wake up" rap song... in Japanese.

Once we go over it a few times, we slowly sneak up the stairs and place ourselves in front of their door. I start out the song by providing the beats; Kevin and Mike follow.

If not a bit surprised, Masahiro responds with a mix between an "okay" and a grunt. Looks like our job is done!

The rest of the morning is spent cleaning up the house and loading the vehicle for departure.

We drive north, bound for Osorezan, legendary mountain filled with spirits and myth.

As we climb the mountain, shamisen music blaring in the car, we are greeted by many shrines and statues along the roadside; obviously this place has got some spirits clinging to it.

We spring out the mountain road and onto one that follows a lake. Not long after we park the Monster Mobile and head through the gates of Osorezan's shrine.

Despite the ancient mantle of evil the place holds, the area is beautiful, and is a combination of 

mountains, trees, statues, rocks, and mineral deposits. Words would not do it justice.

Along the path, Masahiro tells us of some of the legends sorrounding this place. One particularly comes to mind.

First thing you have to understand, is that all around the area there are piles of rocks, big and small. They are not naturally occurring, passers by stack the stones up. There is a reason for this of course.

In Japanese mythology there are many different kinds of hells, and many different ways to spend the afterlife in eternal misery. One of the sentences was that you must make stacks of rocks. And every time you would finish the stack of rocks, an oni (demon) would knock it over so that you would have to start again. Pretty fiendish huh? 

Well anyway, the reason people who 

come to Osorezan may the piles of rocks, is that they believe when they make a pile, it frees one of the damned souls from torture.

That's one example.

There's really no good way to describe walking around and looking at things, but you can take my word for it that it was amazing, I even have a couple pictures.

After a few hours of exploring and taking in the sights, we knew we had to get on the road, so we loaded back into the van.. but not before I picked up some triple flavor ice cream from a stand outside the shrine!!

The group headed straight back to Misawa, where we unloaded our things and immediately saw Masahiro (who had some business in Tokyo) and Shiho (who was going home to Yokohama) off to the train station.

Once the two rascals left, it was left up to the three America-jin to fend for ourselves. So, we did what we do best; eat.

Kevin, Mike, and I went to our favorite restaurant in Misawa. It has the very unassuming name, Ankur.

As you might have guessed, it's not Japanese food. In fact, it's Indian food, and it's all you can eat. We don't know why it's so good, but we don't care. We go and stuff ourselves silly with the delicious nan and saucy tandoori.

I can't remember anything else happening that night, so there you have it.