A Slip in Time

But wait! There is more, and it's not so good. So, I was gathering photos and could not believe my good luck. A door had slammed shut and a much better one had opened. And then it happened. The light was fading, the monkeys at times playfully interacting with each other, making grunting sounds, and I said, time for me to get out of here. Got a bus to catch and then reverse the whole chain of trains all the way back to Fussa and Yokota AB. And I hit a patch of ice in the shadow of a small shack. Holding the camera with the heavy telelens attached, my weight was slightly shifted back, and my right foot, that was behind me, slipped out from under me. It could not have been worse. My knee slammed into the ice and my lower leg folded back. Then my upper body hit the ground, on my back. Pain shot through my right quad and I was laying on the ground. I perceived my camera hitting the ground as well. I lay there in pain and wondered if I might be able to get off that mountain. "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up", but no red button, and the nearest people well over a mile away, down the mountain, and no one knew I was up here. I carefully moved my leg out from under me, and the pain was brutal. I straightened the leg and just lay there, sorting things out, and little feet were punding the ice and snow all around. Monkeys, not giving me a second look, scooted right by my head. I had to laugh - and grimace. I needed to get up and start walking. I figured at best I had a bruised knee and a severely pulled quad muscle, at worst, a muscle tear. It really was getting dark, and I did not cherish coming off that mountain in the dark in my condition. I finally got up and could only limp. I figured that it had to get better after a while, and it did. It was a painful hobble down the emply mountainside, but before it got totally dark, I saw the lights of the entry area with the parking lot, restauarant and souvenir shop. I knew I would make it. Only another half a mile to the bus stop. By the time I got there it was pitch black. A bus just left as I hobbled up to the area. The next bus was 35 minutes out. The old lady who ran the bus stop showed me her waiting room and how to turn off the light when I left and then she got into her car and drove off. The bus came, wonderfully warm, taking me back to the station. I remembered to turn off the light and close the waiting room, and then, back at the Nagano station, reversed the whole process to get to back Fussa. I never looked at the schedule. I had it all in my mind. Once in Fussa, it's about a 20-minute walk from the station to the base, and about ten minutes from the gate to the lodge. I did not have any idea of what I got on camera until that night. Seeing everything on the tiny screen on the back of the DSLR gave me some idea, but as it turned out. I got more than I expected, and probably, except for the slip and fall, a way more interesting and intimate experience with those critters than probably 95% of all of the tourists who go there. They arrive, are confined to the viewing area, and then immediately return back down the mountain. Hardly any of them will have a one-on-one with the monkeys, because the monkeys don't enter that area below the entry hut until all of the people are gone and the mountain is theirs again.