ChanomiTalk

On Oahu, located on the windward side called Kaneohe, the mountain range has formed some majestically high cliffs. Always caressed with passing clouds, a place called Stairway to Heaven can be vaguely seen above Haiku valley. Leading our expedition of 8 , we were lucky to have one experienced hiker among the rest of us novice hikers. Even back in the 70’s, it was difficult to get permission to hike there, since it was on Forrest Reserve land and the Coast Guard Omega Antenna Station. Periodically they would host an open house.

Our guide suggested that we bring lots of water, lite lunch snack with candy bars, gloves padded to protect hands from getting blisters, a wind breaker jacket in case it rained, and comfortable rubber padded shoes (no leather slippery soles), sunglasses to protect eyes, camera for panoramic view, sunscreen, all this but keeping your pack light. Nothing to be carried by hand, since both hands were needed to be free for this hike, and definitely no handbags or wallets, just an ID.

It was best to start as soon as they opened cause it took approximately 3 hours up the mountain and an hour down, running and sliding with hands on the bars. Including, four catch your breath breaks used for scenery appreciation which were amazing at that elevation. The air gets thinner as you go up so it makes breathing difficult. Before we started, there was a waiver to be signed,saying that the place was not responsible for any accidents or deaths, which was a good way to discourage any amateurs from trying this hike.

The first part of the hike (30-40min) was normal till we hit the first ledge and rest stop. From there we saw a ladder, like those on children’s play gyms, except it went straight up the side of the mountain for seven feet then a ledge footing to rest then more ladders. Now we knew why we had to have gloves and hands free!

By the second rest stop, just a third of the way up, one girl in our group decided she could not go any further so she said she’d wait there till we came down. We didn’t want risk her to going back down by herself, without someone helping her. It was pretty much a buddy buddy system with the person in front helping the person below when they needed help. We let several groups go ahead of us since they were faster and in better shape than we were, despite the fact that we were only in our 20’s-30’s.

It took 2 hours to almost reach the top of the ridge. The higher we went the harder it was to breath, the slower we moved. But we noticed some military men in groups of 2 literally running past us. It seemed like they were on a race or daily exercise and ran non-stop as if to break some record to get up there and down, they were having so much fun laughing and talking, while we were huffing and puffing, struggling just to get up there. Once on top, it’s about 40 mins of winding walkways with single guard rails on both sides which we clung to for dare life, to reach the end. Makes you feel much safer than Koko Crater Rim hike, where the rim is about 6 inches wide and crumbly like gravel, with so many small loose rocks that you have to crawl on all 4’s to cross the dangerous narrow areas and no guard rails. Koko Crater Rim Hike was considered for Intermediate Hikers, but to me it seemed like it was for the advanced, too scary.

Now for the fun part, going down! It was more fun and much easier and faster. Just hanging on to the rails with 2 hands and sliding down each 7 ft. ladder at a time with both feet on the outside of the rails.

By the time we hit bottom, my hands were blistered even though I had gloves (not the right kind for bars), my arms were aching from using it to pull myself up each bar, (should’ve practiced pull ups and chin ups), and my legs felt, okay just a little weak, but not falling off like my arms. Once we hit level ground we began laughing and partially jumping for joy that we had finished this feat. That was great! But let’s not do it again for a while. The blisters, aches and pains took a while to go away.

Today the place is closed to the public, ever since vandals in the night tore off several segmented ladders and threw them down into the non accessible terrain. The cost was too much to replace them and there was no need to, for repairs and checks could now be done by helicopter. Back then technicians had to climb up there. Recently groups of people tried to get funding to fix and reopen the place,but failed. So until then, the “Stairway to Heaven” is lost to memories……..for now!

引越しに向けて、パソコンのインターネットを解約しました。
引越しさきである実家はインターネットをひいていないので、先週、iPadminiを購入しました。
でも在庫切れなので商品が届くまで待っています。
現在美智子さんとのSkypeレッスンは、iPhoneで行っています。
iPhoneでも十分音はきれいです。それに、美智子さんが語尾のt,dなどの音が言えてたり言えてなかったりするのがよくわかると言ってくれます。
日本のとある携帯会社では、iPhoneとiPadminiを一緒に使うと割引が適応されるキャンペーンが行われています。
わたしもそれに乗っかったのです。
日本には携帯会社が4社ほどあり、競ってサービスやキャンペーンを行っています。
テレビのCMもとても凝っています。
何年か前に、アメリカの女優、キャメロン・ディアスが出演したCMが話題となり、それからどんどん売り上げが伸びた会社もあります。
会社が競争すると値段が安くなるので、消費者としてはありがたいです。

「. . .元禄６年１１月（市川）団十郎は上京し、翌年９月まで京で芝居した。」元禄時代の歌舞伎事情を述べたこの文章を読んで、一瞬、ん？？？　しばらくして、明治維新までは上京と言えば京都に行く事だったと思い至りました。読んでいるのは、なぞの浮世絵師といわれる写楽について書かれた本ですが、浮世絵と歌舞伎役者は切っても切れない関係にありますから、かなりのページが歌舞伎の歴史にさかれています。ところが読み進んで行くと、「歌右衛門は文化５年に上京して江戸の人気を一気にさらい. . .」との文章にぶつかりました。この上京は明らかに江戸へ行った事をさしていますから、著者の誤りとしか思えません。

重箱の隅をほじるような真似はさておき、飛行機や新幹線を利用しての旅が普通になる前は「上京」という言葉には一種のロマンがあったような気がします。九州からですと、上京するとなれば夜行列車に乗って翌日東京着といった具合で、その夜行列車のベッドも２段か３段作りで最上段は列車の天井すれすれといったものでした。あのころは駅弁ももっとおいしかった。。。。

一年前に私はナコスに電話を初めてしました。そのサービスを依頼する理由は、ジェットプログラムの一週間後に迫っているCIR面接に合格することでした。しかし、実は、無理でした。その時代の能力は、役に立ちませんでした。特に、私の聞き取りは、だめでした。それから、驚いたのは、ナコスの担当者は、共に努めることを提案しました。もちろん、気に入りました。そして、日本語しか何も話さないで、聞き取りや話す力が強くなりました。というものの、日本語の発音はあまり進みませんでした。それまでずっと独学で勉強をして、直せる人が誰もいなかったので、悪い癖が付いていました。

最近、ナコスさんはその癖に集中して、直そうとしてくれました。私にとって大変な努力です。正しい言い方と間違いの違いは、始めは全然聞こえませんでした。そして、私の発音を直すことができないで、挫折でした。今日は、口の形の図を見ながら、よく練習しました。考えずに、聞いたことを何回も繰り返しました。ロボットになった気持ちでした。しかし、結局、ナコスさんは「いい！」といってくれて、安心しました。おそらく、この進歩が続けば、今回の面接で、良い印象を与えられるようになります。