A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by a co-worker to go climb a nearby mountain. He was taking several students (and some of mine) too. Neither he nor my students had ever seen me kilted, but I figured.. Meh... What the hey, they've gotta find out sooner or later. So we set out to climb Mt. Mizugaki (2300m) with me wearing my recently-altered Hunting Stewart (if you all remember, I wrote about that in my Kiltmart review -- I had my local seamstress sew down the pleats).

It was perfect attire for the climb -- kept cool when I was supposed to be cool and warm when I was supposed to be warm. The hike lasted almost 8 hours and I was sure glad for my trekking poles.

I'm sure you're all wondering -- reactions? Well, neither my co-worker nor my students didn't make even so much as a peep about what I was wearing... And on the way we encountered other climbers, one of whom asked me whether I was Scottish. I told him that I was, in fact, Canadian and that in Canada people sometimes wear kilts too, which seemed to satisfy him well enough. A group of young women insisted on taking my picture, and an older couple remarked: "Ah. Igirisu sutairu da!" which literally would translate to: Oh! He's dressed English-style. No, I wasn't about to correct their geography, but they obviously had at least some conception of where what I was wearing originated.

At the summit, a complete stranger offered me a swig o' scotch -- an offer not lost on me and one I gladly accepted. All in all, a very good day. We got back to base around sunset and drove home in the dark. I don't think I'm quite ready to climb Kilimanjaro kilted yet, but in a few years -- who knows?

Here are some pix for you all -- some with me,and a couple views from the summit. The entire gallery is freely accessible on this site: http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/drinka...Mizugaki2300m#

On the way up:


A view from the summit with my wife:


Me, at the summit, contemplating our descent:


Looking up:

BTW, that photo was taken with my built-in cellphone camera (5.1MP) -- I'm very impressed with what it can do.