Posted by Peter Nankai-noKyofu Dowden on August 20, 1997 at 10:08:48:
Hibarako is a lake about 300 km north from Tokyo as the crow flies. The similarity of this lake to Ransome's Lake in the North
is uncanny, but the best feature must be its very own Wild Cat Island, complete with Secret Harbour and several Lighthouse
Trees. Last year the ARCs visited the island but camped at Dixons Farm, but Mr Dixon, a very friendly native , reckoned
camping on the island would be okay. Accordingly, we set off last Friday morning, two of us leaving Tokyo at 4 am to avoid
the native chariots on the causeway and the remainder travelling by native rocket-powered train, to the lake. The advance party
consisted of Omori Sencho [-Captain] and Peter Nankai no Kyofu [Terror of the South Seas] [I have taken this alias in
preference to Squashed Fly]. We met Matsuzaki-san, whom we call Dixon-ojisan ["Uncle Dixon" or what Mr D is called in
Japanese]. Dixon Ojisan lent us a small fibreglass dinghy and gave us a bottle of fine German wine to perform the launching
with due ceremony. After struggling with the rigging for some time, and using the cork from the wine to provide a bung for a
drain plug, we allowed Dixon ojisan the honour of naming the ship "Nezuko-go" or "Ratty". [Ratty is the faithful mascot of the
Death and Glories and his namesake is well-loved by some ARCs here.] Sencho and Peter sailed to Wild Cat Island,
Yamanekojima in Japanese. We found a good place to camp and made some small preparations for the following four fellow
campers. When they arrived we set off to the Island, our youngest member was given the honour of first ashore [if you dont
count the advance party that is] and we pitched camp and set to camping in ernest. Everyone had an oppurtunity at the helm of
Nezuko-go and we dined on pemmican, chocolate, apples, scrambled eggs, potatoes and all other delights from Susan's
repertoire if island cooking. One member swam around the island, re-enacting John's epic. We found a cahce and added our
names to it, leaving it for the Amazons due to arrive in two weeks time, Great Aunts permitting. We buried some treasure on
U-no-shima [Cormorant island; u is a very short word for the rather longer English Cormorant.] Two of our party gained the
qualification of Able Seaman. Polly's cage was destroyed in an earthquake. We removed some native archaeological evidence
[from the Polystyrene phase of early Japanese society] and took it to the mainland. Then it was time to leave, singing Supain no
Shikugo we travelled in a native war canoe back to the bus stop where four explorers left on a native chariot to their
rocket-powered train and the two remaining rode away by their own slower conveyance. They were captured by a naked
band of savages, stripped of their clothes and boiled alive, only at the last minute leaping out of the hot water when the savages
were distracted by having to look for the soap. These two then drove through the night to escape the naked cannibals and
arrived back in Tokyo around midnight. We left Polly at Shinjuku station to share a bit of cardboard with some other homeless
folk.