The last 5 days we have been cruising through the Japanese Alps and I`m actually surprised we made it out alive.
At first things were going quite well in Takayama and in Matsumoto, but when we arrived in the tiny village of Ohara where we stayed at a Youth Hostel the shit really hit the fan. After we checked-in the first thing we got were these little bells to put on our backpacks. According to the nice little old lady who managed the Youth Hostel these were a bare necessity because of all the bears roaming the forests and the mountains (or at least we thought that was what she meant). Being the goody-two-shoes John and I are, we put the damned things on our backpacks. When we went hiking the next day we made the Big Ben sound like a lullaby.
At our first hiking trail there were posters of bears with a lot of Japanese signs on them, so we figured the lady was right. While we were happily jingle-belling along we heard from time to time these snorting noises (and no, it was not John sleeping) and we got the feeling we were being followed. After some time we decided to start tiptoeing to stop the clinging of our bells so we could listen better what was going on around us. Some minutes tiptoeing later the snorting stopped and altogether disappeared.
Relieved John and I started walking Big Benning along and met up with some other, Japanese, hikers. They were totally aghast at us wearing the bells and told us to get rid of them instantly. Of course we wanted to know why so we asked for an explanation. To make a short story long… 
Apparently there is this new hip trend in Japan which is called `hugging-the-bear-losing-your-life`. A Japanese company is cashing in on this trend by selling backpackbells for hikers. These special bells, instead of scaring the bear away, attract the bears like honey does bees. The company is appropriately named `Bell-a-Bear and Lose-a-Life`.
It seems the nice little old lady was not quite up to speed with the latest trends and gave us some bells which probably some young Japanese hipster left after being disappointed that he didn`t attract a bear during his hikes.
So there you have it. The story of how John and I almost lost our lives in Japan.
A very true story. That is, if you take `true` in its broadest sense of the word and still believe in Santa and the Boogeyman :-)
More photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_dude_in/sets/72157602603265104/
You can also take a look at John’s blogpost on the Japanese Alps:
http://www.oldenhuizing.com/2007/10/26/japan-japanse-alpen-en-omstreken/
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[...] post: http://jeroenuittenbogaard.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/bell-a-bear-and-lose-a-life/ Tags: japan, japanse alpen, kiso fukushima, matsumoto, reizen, [...]
Lieve Jeroen, we zien dat het goed met je gaat! We hebben het idee dat je je werk erg mist… haha, niet dus! Geniet maar lekker. De foto’s zijn mooi, de rest zien we later thuis wel. Zelf hebben we het druk. We zitten nu bij Mir & Ed en zojuist zijn we gebeld dat ons huis verkocht is !! 20 december oplevering, dus trek die verhuiskleren alvast maar aan, want jij zal wel goed uitgerust zijn! NOg veel plezier en alvast een goede reis terug. Groeten pa & ma.