I COULD have been a hero

The most important take-away you can get from today's post is: don't get lost in our village while searching for wild vegetables.

Just after the customers left from the most exhauting one-week trip we have ever had yesterday (I ran up a 2,000 mter mountain in 1.5 hours that usually takes 3+ hours to hike - but that is a story for another time.) (And the story about the TV crew that followed us everywhere is also for another time but even more exhausting).

So, anyway, I thought I would have a day of rest (means working in the rice field or cleaning up around the house), but just before I passed our from exhaustion that night, there was an announcement on the intercom that someone has been reported missing in the mountains. As a volunteer fireman I was on call to go and search. At first I was thinking to beg out (I did have *some* real work and appointments that day), but the whole point of volunteering is to be there when someones life is in danger.

To make a long and fascinating story short (you will have to come visit us to hear the whole story) I spent the day bushwhacking through mountains with 200+ volunteers and professionals.

The highlight of the day was when about 100 of us were lost in a river valley with an injured volunteer fireman who needed an ankle sprint. I was kicking myself for that instant in the morning when I was throwing on my uniform and grabbing my bag filled with camera, lunch, and water. I almost took a moment to search for my topo-map of the area, but, as I was late, figured that they *must* have maps of the area.

I COULD have been a hero if I had brought that map, because I would have been the only one there with one! There were two instances where it would have saved huge amounts of time, and one was as night was closing in and 100 of us were treading down a river wondering if we were going in the wrong direction. In the end it all worked out, and we were in the right direction, but I will have daydreams about if *I* had been the one that saved us from the forty minute discussion about where we "might" be.

We did not find the lost person, so the search continues tomorrow. My section is off duty for that day (although I would go if I didn't have another appointment). If they don't find him again, I get to go climb more mountains the day after.

I leave you with a photo from nearby Yudanaka, taken early in the morning nearby our tent, as I waited for our customers to awake at their nearby inn.