两年前的假期我破例没有回家探亲而是去了日本南山登山，一起跟我感受一下爬山的艰辛吧。

Todd: Every year my company gives me three weeks holiday, in summer, in August, and usually I go home and I see my family, but two years ago, before I went home, I took a hiking trip in Japan and I went hiking across the "Minami Alps", uh, "Minami" means "south" so they're the Southern Alps in Japan. It was a really good hike. The hike took me five days. Before I went on the hike I needed to buy some gear so I bought a tent, a backpack, some hiking boots, and a good map of the area I was going to traverse. When I did the hike it was really, really hard. I was not prepared for how difficult it was going to be. Each day I had to hike about 12 hours, and the hardest part about each hike was having to carry lots and lots of water because you're walking all day, you have to drink lots of water or else you'll get dehydrated. The mountains were really steep, but once I got over the first mountain, it was just beautiful, really, really beautiful, and I met lots of really nice hikers, especially elderly hikers on the trail and I just had a great time. I just remember the beautiful views from the peaks and at night I could see the stars really clearly, probably more clearly than I ever had before. I was a really really good trip.