Just after 8am, I issued the cancellation announcement due to rain.
But I thought it would be my fault if people showed up anyway, so I went to Oawa-yama at around 9am.
Woah!
There were six people there… most of them “sick”…! (addicted to the forest!)
I phoned one more guy, Mr. Miyamoto (originally from Ehime, now in Tokushima due to a job transfer), and he said “I’m already at Michi no Eki!” (ha ha)
I guess we can’t get enough of forestry management.
So, we struck out on a hike!

We walked around the mountain and wound up at Karin’s artwork at the cinnamon tree, so we took a picture to commemorate the occasion.

There’s always someone who wants to get silly, no matter where you go.

We’re trying to lift up Karin’s artwork.
From the left, Mr. Higashidani, Mr. Iwamaru, Tsuyoshi Higuchiyama, Mr. Fujimoto, Mr. Miyamoto, and Mr. Mori from Cotton Fields Campground.

Of course there’s no way we could lift it!
Take a good look… these guys are really getting into it. Here’s a closeup. (ha ha)

But at the end of our walk we returned to the top of the mountain and there’s Emma, standing in front of her beloved car.
Emma-sensei! What are you doing?

Aaah! She locked her keys in the car.

…Emma, where’s your spare key?
…I have three, but they’re all inside the car…
All three, inside the car?
…what!?!!!

Emma-sensei… what do we call this in English?
…stu-pid… (she didn’t think that was very funny!) (ha ha)

Well, we regained our composure and headed to the bazaar at Josai High’s Kamiyama Branch School.
The teachers, Mr. Nakano and Mr. Yokohata, who are always helping out at forestry management, snagged us some seats in the Japanese-style room on the first floor of the school and paid for our lunches too!
Thank you Mr. Nakano and Mr. Yokohata!

The darling female students brought us our food. Thanks!

We had kitsune udon and oden.

After lunch, we went and had another look at Pat’s installation, bought some poinsettias, and brought some yakisoba home to Chan.
The teachers gave us the yakisoba for free. Thanks!

I thought this would be the end of our day, but the masters of the forest said that they wanted to do some work since it wasn’t raining anymore. Mr. Ominami came and chopped some branches too.

When I went to go home, someone (I don’t know who) had left some yuzu and yuko citrus fruits on the seat of my truck. That’s so nice!