I am Sam-urai!

So how do you follow climbing a country's highest mountain? By doing another one the weekend after. This time however, rather than scaling another three thousand plus metre behemouth, I decided that a more leisurely ramble at just over three hundred metres would be enough. This was my 'local' mountain, Gifu City's Mount Kinka, sporting a reconstructed castle at the summit which in it's original form, was of key strategic importance during the warring states period.

Despite being a much smaller undertaking than Mount Fuji, it wasn't exactly undemanding on the old body. This was largely due to the fact that I'd decided to walk out from the city centre to the top of the mountain. That's sounds like a long way, but really as Japan continues to become more and more cluttered with buildings and roads, it's quite easy to walk from cityscape into the 'countryside' in a matter of minutes； depending on the city of course. Anyway the real hardship came from the sweltering heat.

Nobody had warned me before my arrival that barring Okinawa, central Honshu is the hottest part of the country. Anyway leaving in the late afternoon, I figured that I would have avoided the worst of the sun. Of course, I was wrong, as usual, and I found myself hugging the walls of buildings trying desperately to remain in the shade until I reached the heavily forested area at the foot of the mountain range. My skin still hadn't fully recovered from the Fuji sun burn so I didn't want to make it any worse, I now know what vampires must feel like.

There are several trails up through the woods around Mount Kinka, this part was a lot of fun, there was something of an 'Indiana Jonesness' to this place but I wished that I had brought my running shoes instead of my flip flops. Although I was flip flopping and not running, by the time I reached the summit, I was absolutely soaked, rather disgustingly so, to the bone with my own sweat. Luckily the vending machine is never far away in Japan, and after a bottle of the now world famous 'Pocari Sweat', I had all the electrolytes I needed to enjoy the stunning views from the castle's panaromic balcony.

This place is on my shortlist as one of the world's best beer gardens



I decided as the last of the day's light was fading, to take the ropeway (cable car) to return to the bottom. I felt like Roger Moore in 'Moonraker' except for the fact that I wasn't having a desperate fight with a seven foot monster of a man with metal teeth. Taking the ropeway also rewarded me with the opportunty to pose as the famous shogun, Oda Nobunaga, although all the pictures which came out were somewhat dubious.

The Samurai who lost his puppy.

The slightly simple and mischievious samurai who probably has some learning difficulties.

And finally full samurai sporting a big pink third leg (I'm sorry, that obvious knob gag was a bit crude) .

As the knee injury I'd suffered prior to Fuji-san and Kinka-zan began to heal the following weekends have been largely about of making the most of my chance to train at the local Mixed Martial Arts gym. I must admit, it feels quite nice to be the big strong guy here. But in terms of technical skill I'm happy to say that I'm being taken apart. In Russia it was to a certain degree, the other way around. Don't let the appearnaces fool you this little guy has muscles on his muscles. And the reason I had pictures taken here and not a video, is that I can hide the fact that he is clearly kicking my arse, although I've just told everyone so it kind of negates the idea of doing that.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, between training and poorly prepared yomps up various mountains, I've probably sweat more here, than at any other time in my life. And given that I don't drink here really, coupled with the healthy Japanese diet, there can't be a toxin left in my body.

That's all for now. Until next time...