The Man Who Walked From the Sea to the Top of a Mountain

People who know me well know that I will rarely pass up the opportunity to do something possibly adventurous. I did not set out to do this on purpose, but this is what I ended up doing the first weekend I was here.
On Saturday, it snowed. This is, I guess, not uncommon, but we actually got a bit of accumulation which I was told is kind of rare. I decided to stay in on Saturday, but I was ready to see the sights on Sunday. The place where I live is called Rokko Island. It is a "man-made" island, so it is essentially flat as a pancake. I had a map of the island, so I was curious to see what the various areas were like. I live in the center part of the island, so I decided to walk (South) to the edge of the harbor. Passed a park where it looks like some industrious kids had made some snowmen the day before. Went by a club where they had an outdoor but covered soccer field. Nice! They had a sport shop there, and I decided to buy a wool cap because it had been pretty cold the day before. Didn't figure I would need it because it was now sunny and I actually decided to wear a lined raincoat instead of my wool overcoat.
A little further along I came upon a big group of buildings, which turned out to be a college. Very nice. Saw another group of guys playing soccer. Basically the "field" was sand and not in great shape considering the snow the day before. This campus is right next to the harbor, which is pretty cool now that I think of it. There was no beach, just a sea wall, but I could imagine going down there to fish if the weather was nicer. Little snackshack down there, so imagine this must be a nice place to cruise in the summer. I was kind of surprised, though, to see rather close-by a huge container ship. Guess I should not have been surprised since Kobe is a big port city, but I have only over the last couple weeks come to grasp how extensive the port operations are.
Before I came to Japan, I had heard people compare Kobe to Seattle because of the climate and the harbor. Then here, I heard someone compare it to San Francisco because it is on the coast, but the city is squeezed between the harbor and the mountains which are not too far away. I've never been to Seattle, but I could see the similarity to SF. I never saw any snow when I was in SF, though.
On to my next destination for the day: Mount Rokko. This is a small mountain (3000 ft.?) to the north of Kobe. There are apparently a lot of things to do up there, including a small ski area that relies on man-made snow. I figured out how to get there with my trusty guidebook and rode the train from Rokko Island station to Rokko Station (at the foot of Mount Rokko). Once I got off the train, though, I was totally baffled as to where to go. (I hope Mary Ann is not reading this because she thinks I know how to get around anywhere!) I was supposed to catch the #16 bus, but only numbers 1-14 were adjacent to the station. Rats. Fortunately, I had written down the kanji symbols for "Rokko" so I found a bus stop with those figures and a group of gringoes, er, I mean Gaijin. I could chat with them in English and we were indeed going to the same place. The bus ride up the mountain was amazing, as long as you are not prone to motion sickness. The road was so narrow that at times the bus would stop to let cars go by because we had to swing a little into the oncoming lane. Really interesting, also, to see how they had a series of dams in one of the canyons to control water run-off. Wish I had pictures!
I was told by the gaijin (foreign devils) at the bus stop that this bus was going to the top of the mountain, but it dumped us off in a parking lot that was at an intersection between cold, really cold, and cold and snowy. Oh there were plenty of signs, but nothing I could read! I saw a sign that pointed up one road that had a Pokemon-like character wearing skis, so I decided this was the way to the ski hill. I thought one of the gaijin on the bus spoke Japanese, but when I asked her when the last bus down the mountain was, I got a deep blank stare. Hmm.. lights-on, nobody home. I looked around and I thought the sign at the bus stop said last bus was 6 PM. It was now 4 PM. 2.2km up to the ski hill. No problem, right? Started off on the 'sidewalk' but that evaporating in about 200m, so I started following peoples' tracks in the snow. In my sneakers. I had had at least enough sense to put on my newly purchased wool cap by then. Did I mention that it was considerably colder up on the mountain, no sun, and windy up there? Yeh. After another 100 meters or so, the trail in the snow evaporated, so I was on the road. The same narrow road where the buses round the corners with caution because the road is so narrow. Maybe adrenaline helped to keep me going despite the cold. I thought it would take 20-30 minutes to walk up the mountain. Try an hour with all the crossing the roads, standing by the road hoping cars were not going to hit me and jumping periodically into snow banks. Whee! Shoes getting wet.
By the time I was near the top of the mountain, it was in a cloud and snowing intermittentlty. Not a lot of fun in just a raincoat. Passed what I think was the ski hill, but couldn't really tell because of the fog/cloud. Marched on further and reached the top. Yes!! Giftshop, couple of cafes, and a restaurant. Guidebook says this is the "$10 million dollar view" of the city, harbor, etc. Actually could briefly see over to Osaka, but by the time I got my camera out it was mostly fog. What to do? Time for a cup of coffee or a cocktail, right? Then I saw the line for the shuttle bus to go down the mountain. I calculated 2 things: 1) if I took this bus, I would definitely not make it down to 'base camp' by 6 PM, and 2) if I had a cup of coffee I would not be able to hold it down to base camp. Hmmmm... not many options. So I started to march back down the mountain. Yeh. Repeating the fun of walking in the road, jumping off the road, etc. Sneakers now really wet and getting cold. Believe it or not, arrived at the base camp bus stop with all of five minutes to spare! Celebrated with a well deserved can of coffe and bathroom break. Thank God for those Japanese vending machines, they even have hot drinks!