S’mores and Japanese

Sunday, we woke up to a gorgeous snow that had fallen all from the last night. It was quite heavy–about 6-8″ of fresh white snow piled on cars, benches, and the rooftops. It was so nice, so we decided to head back into the valley to make s’mores :) We got all our supplies, and then went to a general store to get some charcoal for our fire. There, I noticed a Japanese man trying to communicate with a Taxi driver and store owner–the owner was being very rude. We got our supplies, and headed out.

As we were getting into the car, I felt bad for not offering my ‘gift of language’ to not help the guy, so I went over and asked him in Japanese, is everything ok? Turns out that he had just arrived from the Fresno airport, and wanted to see Yosemite for a day or two before he had a meeting back in San Francisco Monday evening. He had taken a cab all the way from the airport, through the mountains to this store, and now was being told that the taxi couldn’t come into the park any further without chains. So, the fiasco was, does he buy chains to get to his hotel? Give up? and if he does buy chains, what to do with the Taxi driver? Turns out the taxi driver said, if we go to the hotel, we need to find out if there’s an extra bed, and I’ll stay with him and drive him to san Francisco. A taxi from Yosemite to San Francisco?? I couldn’t tell if this driver was trying to take advantage or be helpful, so Joe and I offered to the Japanese man to take him into the valley, where he could find transportation from his hotel to an amtrak station the next day. Plus, I got to use my Japanese during our drive which made me happy.

Turns out that the Japanese man was a chief of a group at Geography Information Systems, Japan’s leading Mapping software company. He had just one day to see some sights and was just about to give up before we arrived. He was so thankful that we picked him up to bring him into the valley to see some of the scenery.

After we arrived at the Yosemite lodge, we got him set up with transportation to his hotel and a tour the next morning. He bid us farewell and we headed into the lodge for S’mores. When Joe came back from the car with the hershey’s, graham crackers, and marshmellows, he said, you’ll never believe what I did. What? :)

Locked the keys in the car!

Joe got on the cell phone and tried calling the towing company and as he was telling them where we were, the phone started beeping–low battery! He tried telling them, but it was too late. So we made a few s’mores and then he went to a payphone to try to get it settled. While I was making s’mores, the Japanese man wandered by, and we started to chat again–telling him the mishap! He said, in Japanese there’s a saying– If it happens twice, it’ll surely happen again–

Thankfully, the service was quick, and Takashi had to head for his bus to his hotel. We bid farewell again, and we continued on with our s’mores.

The snow started falling harder with BIG flakes, so we decided to walk the grounds some before dinner. It got dark quickly, but walking in the snow was so nice–the silent whisper of the flakes hitting the ground always brings such calmness. We then headed to dinner and had a nice NY Steak. After dinner, we headed for another walk and then started our journey back home.