The Grand Sleeping Bag Misadventure

I'm packing for my trip to Sado this weekend. I'm so excited! This is my second trip to see Earth Celebration. (http://kodo.or.jp/ec/en/). The first was back in 98 when I flew in with a pack of friends from Kagoshima. Kagoshima and Sado are VERY FAR apart in terms of transportation. To give you an idea, multiple trains, planes, taxis, ferries and buses were necessary. Okay, okay, I admit that is because I was in charge of transport arrangements. Okay, okay. That is because I booked the bus and the plane on different days. Still, even if everything had gone smoothly, we would have used multiple planes, buses, and ferries. As it was, we had to take a slow train from Osaka to the port in the North of Japan. Then a ferry to the wrong side of the island. YES, that was also my mistake. Then a bus from the wrong side of the island to the right side of the island. And did I mention that I forgot the concert tickets back in Kagoshima? Moving on.....

Let's hope this trip is a bit smoother going. Maybe I really SHOULD get packing. The reason I'm writing this is because as I pack, I pulled out my sleeping bag. Which led me to this blog thought.

Last year I decided I wanted to go hiking in the Japanese Alps on a solo trip. The truth is, I didn't particularly want to go alone, but none of my friends in Tokyo are the least bit athletic. Or interested. So I decided to go it alone. I actually enjoy solo trips a lot.

This one started in typical Meghan-manner with a typhoon. Literally, the morning I left Tokyo, the typhoon blew in. But I was determined not to waste my days off. So I bused up to Hakuba and was picked up by Sakiko who owns a youth hostel there with her NZ husband. http://www.hakubabackpackers.com/englishtop.htm




I had met them a month earlier when I went to Hakuba for an adventure race. I went with my friend Isa who I always say has the heart of a lion and body of a hamster. In spite of being the slowest team in the field and not actually finishing the entire course, we won the female team event. The other female team was so slow they dropped out.



We raced in the pouring rain. In fact, the rain started when we arrived in Hakuba. It continued steadily for that day. The night before the race, the god who lives upstairs stood up and took a good long piss down on earth. Good and long. And hard. For the entire day.



By the way, I'm going again this year. http://www.evergreen-outdoors.com/english-adventure-quest.htm This time I'm have two male partners. Andrei and Andreas. If only my name were Andrea. When it was just Andrei, who is from Russia, I thought our name should be Bearing Straight. Get it? Because I'm from Alaska and we share the Bering Strait. But Andreas is Swedish or Norwegian. So we need a new name. Something to do with the Arctic Circle, I guess. Any ideas?

Sleeping bag. Yes. In preparation for this trip I wanted to pack light. So I asked Daisuke if I could borrow his divvy sack. He agreed and also recommended I take his sleeping bag. According to him, it was "much smaller and lighter." Sounds good, doesn't it? So I borrowed that, too. It was securely wrapped in a cinch stuff sack.

There I was in Hakuba, facing a typhoon. The first day I admitted defeat and hung out with Sakiko. We had a great time together. She took me to an onsen and we met some interesting people at the restaurant next door. The next day the meat of the big daddy typhoon had passed, so I was determined to go. Some of the road in were washed out, but we persevered. Some of the chairs leading into the mountains were closed due to high winds. We perservered. Was someone trying to tell me something? I found a lift to take and said goodbye to Sakiko. Would I ever see her again?

As I hiked that morning, I was accompanied by something marvelous. When I saw the double rainbow, I felt that that dude upstairs had put on his groovy sunglasses that reflected those two arcs down on me.

But in the afternoon it started raining again. Raining hard. So instead of snuggling up in my divvy sack on a patch of hard ground, I decided to sleep in one of the huts they have up there. Even though they provide bedding, I was a bit chilled. So I decided to use Daisuke's trusty sleeping bag. As I pulled it out of the stuff sack I gave a sturdy tug, expecting a long snake-like bag to come hissing out. Instead my hand jumped up like a band conductor's. And hanging there was a very small, light... down jacket. Size L.



This time I'm making sure I have my sleeping bag. But there is still ample room for error on this adventure. For one, I am traveling up alone. Meeting a coworker who i don't know well and her friends who I've never met. Sharing a tent with them. But she tells me they have coffee for the campfire. So how far wrong can things go?