Mountain No Match for Erik

Murakami-sensei, his son Souichiro and his daughter Karen celebrate their amazing climb with Erik.

-- YASU, Japan

It had been over a year since he had even thought about trying to climb a mountain again.  (See this related ENN Special Report).  And it took an awful lot to get Erik out of bed early on a Sunday morning.

"Erik," Murakami-sensei explained over the phone, "we'll give you a free lunch."

"I'm there," Erik said.

And moments later, he was climbing the largest mountain he had ever seen in his neighborhood, "Mount Omi-Fuji."  It actually as a real name which is much harder to pronounce, but the locals in the area call this mountain "Fuji" because it looks a bit like Mount Fuji, the highest peak in Japan.  When asked if he was going to climb the real Mount Fuji, Erik replied, "What do you mean, 'real Mount Fuji?'  This one is the original.  Who needs the 'real' Fuji.  I already climbed two mountains in this fricking mountainous country.  That's enough.  How many mountains have you climbed??"  At this point, Erik threw his free lunch in the face of the ENN reporter.

When asked if his butt was rock hard, like it was after climbing the mountain in 2001, Erik would only say "Check for yourself.  OK -- no more questions."

Accompanying Erik on his journey to solidify his posterior was the amazing Murakami-sensei from Ritto High School, along with his family.  "Erik was a pain in the butt," Murakami-sensei's daughter was reported as saying.  Erik said that the family was amazing, and a lot of fun to climb with.  He hopes they can do it again sometime!

Stay with ENN for more mountain news as soon as it becomes available.