"She'll be comin' round the mountain..." ???

Well. Despite preparing for the past couple of months for the big mountain climb, it's looking highly doubtful that I'll climb Mt. Iwate on Saturday. *shaking head and frowning*

Two reasons:

#1. The typhoon. There's no need to worry because I'm in good hands here, and everything really is okay, I promise. But it's been extremely windy and rainy ("torrential downpours" is an accurate description), non-stop all day long, and the school day was even shortened because of it. I felt like I was going to blow away when I stepped outside this morning, and my umbrella comically turned upside-down into a bowl shape. I was immediately drenched. According to Yamadate, the weather is going to get even worse tonight, but tomorrow will be a "fine day." We'll see.

The mountain climb this weekend hasn't been officially cancelled (yet), but I'm thinking that even if it's not raining on Saturday, the conditions of Mt. Iwate will be muddy and probably pretty dangerous.

#2 My back hurts. Again, everything is fine ("diajoubu," as we say here), but I was in a bicycle accident on Tuesday. I was riding my bike down the sidewalk on my way to school, when a car suddenly appeared from a side street right in front of me. I almost hit smack into the car, but veered right and hit a pole instead. I flew off the bike, landing on the pavement with a thud. I was really lucky that I didn't break anything and could immediately get up and move just fine, but I do have a few bruises and there's still a bit of pain in my back. I went to a chiropractor for the first time ever yesterday, and while the massage felt good, I feel like it didn't help much. I know for sure that climbing a mountain with a backpack on would definitely not help.

The lady in the car who almost hit me felt very bad about what happened, and even offered to pay to fix my smashed-up bike, which is incredibly nice of her. After the incident, she drove me to my apartment so I could get my car and drive to school. I even made it on time!

So yeah, even though I had this personal challenge/promise to myself to conquer Mt. Iwate, I unfortunately have to cancel.

Or, a more appropriate choice of words...I have to take a rain check.