August 20, 1988
Miimii, what happened to your face?>>>
When I returned from Korea, Miimii and I visited Tokyo>>>click to see Tokyo where she shared a small apartment with her father(born Katsuo Yamoto on May 19, 1937) and sister (Yukari, September 18, 1969). Her father worked for the railroad, and she claimed her family was very wealthy. Her mother (born Tamiko, born June 23, 1943), a nurse, lived in Niigata, on the opposite side of the main island of Honshu, about 125 miles away. She and her father and sister moved to Tokyo for her father's work. I never met her father or mother(I met her sister 12 years later).

My friend Paul Foster, Miimii, and I decided to climb Mt. Fuji. I had met Paul in February 1988, and we hung out together a lot. He was a complete idiot, and I was an incomplete idiot, so we got along well. I knew my role in his life was to stop him from accidentally killing himself; he’s living proof that common sense isn’t common.
The morning of the trip, Miimii tried to sabotage the trip by calling me at 6am to say they'd closed Mt. Fuji because of rain. I believed her at first, but Paul he was suspicious. He called a co-worker and got laughed at over

the phone. I suspected Miimii wasn’t being totally honest, so I called her back and told her I didn't think the mountain was closed, so perhaps we should go anyway. She went berzerk on the phone...it was pretty funny to listen to, a screaming Japanese lady. I pulled the phone away from my ear and chuckled. I finally told her that Paul and I were going with, or without her, so if she didn't show up at the train station properly dressed (I was afraid she'd show up in a dress and high heels to ruin it) we'd be going without her. After about 20 minutes of screaming, she calmly said she’d go. I later found out that she tried to stop the trip because she was afraid her hair would get wet. I also later found out Mount Fuji wasn't the only time she'd lied.

So, she was there, and cheerful as ever, so we all had a great time. Paul drove me crazy though. He kept messing around with the food and drinks, which got more and more expensive as you got closer to the summit, and he kept stepping on my poncho and just goofing around at a time no one wanted to goof around. Because of Miimii's sabotage, we got there four hours late and couldn't see the sunrise from the summit...but that's okay. It was one of the most fulfilling trips I've ever been on...I had climbed a mountain.
P.S. I'm not fat; I was carrying Miimii's back pack on my front.

****Miss Paul has requested her face not be shown to protect her identity***

Gumby>>>
On the side of Mt. Fuji...Miimii and I. This was the day I became known as Horse. It was a few minutes before this picture was taken...a Japanese gentleman had been calmly riding a horse on the lower parts of Mt. Fuji, and then the horse got out of control and started bucking and then took off down the mountain, right past us. Miimii giggled and said,”He’s just like you! You’re a horse!”

AND NOW YOU KNOW

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