Tokyo is a megacity of steel and glass, a massive shining metropolis with a huge port, smoggy skies (if it hasn't been raining) and several intensely busy "centers" marked by gatherings of tall reflective skyscrapers. Each of these hives of activity has its own character. Shinjuku may be the busiest of all with a rail station the size of a small town. Here the worlds above and below ground merge. The clean white-walled subway system, blazes with light, hums to the sound of rapid trains arriving and departing every few seconds, and swarms with busy commuters who spill through wide, doorless entryways into giant shops ringing with the welcoming calls of happy store attendants. Making our way into the outdoors, we found a blazing world of neon signs, often in long vertical strips down the sides of tall buildings, forty-foot outdoor TV screens, strong primary colors indicating the discount electronics stores, and a frenzy of pedestrians and traffic.

Although we looked different we felt invisible. No-one took a second glance. Even when we tried to walk through the wrong turnstiles on the subway, and set off buzzing alarms, nobody paid us any attention. Everyone is polite and respectful here. Occasionally, while staring intently at a chaos of Japanese symbols on a map of the city's rail system, wondering where we were, someone would ask (in English) if we needed any help. We might have been lost for hours without them. Though a lot of English -- often amusingly mangled -- is seen on business signs, magazine titles, and advertisements, often this only fools you. A typical advertisement outside a restaurant might have the words "Menu -- Lunch Special" at the top, that draws you in. Looking below these words however, you will find nothing but an incomprehensible array of Chinese Kanji characters some of which the Japanese take 20-plus years to understand.

At the climbing gym, we met a tight-knit community of climbers, many of whom had traveled hours to get there. It is normal in Tokyo to spend up to two hours negotiating trains and subways to get from one part of the city, or suburb, to another, either for work, or for pleasure. Lisa learned to sign her name in Japanese "katakana" characters (a phonetic alphabet used for foreign names and words) on signing cards, chalkbags, T-shirts, even pant-legs and climbing shoes. Since everyone seemed to know about Lisa's Hello Kitty tattoo, and with Japan being the birthplace of Hello Kitty, Lisa received lots of cute Hello Kitty gifts. And it wasn't long before Lisa was asked to reciprocate by drawing Hello Kitty faces for other people, next to her signature!

During a break between rounds at the comp, Lisa did a climbing demonstration that kept some of the children entertained for about half an hour as they tried to repeat the problems she had set the day before, for adults! The children were incredibly cute, and the tiny boys were amazingly dynamic, but on the second problem they still couldn't make the big spans. The children were very appreciative and one of them drew Lisa a picture to present her as a gift. Even the adults effused thanks to Lisa for climbing with them. Lisa, meanwhile, who had little opportunity to warm up, and was still feeling a bleary from jet-lag, shook her way to the top and looked more likely to fall than several of the local competitors!

The following week, we managed to escape from the city. With Mr. Koji Suzuki and his wife Rei, we traveled to Ogawayama, a major, historic, climbing area about 4 hours' drive from Tokyo. It is a heavily forested and mountainous region, with towers of granite and flanks of cliffs rising in ridges around a valley. After a freezing cold night -- the altitude is high -- we met a group of climbers who had come out to join us for a day of bouldering among the yellow-leafed aspens, which were just beginning to turn to their fall foliage. There are many interesting, classic problems where edges, shallow pockets and slopers combine on the same section of rock. We only saw a tiny sample of the bouldering here and would love to return for more. After climbing, we stayed the night at the lodge there, as a guest of Mr. Nao Naito, of the Pump climbing gym, enjoyed a good soak in the huge hot baths -- one for women, one for men -- and stayed in a traditional tatami-mat room with futons and low table.

The next day, we headed out to another bouldering area called Mitzugake that, as yet has no guide and few visitors, even though the rock quality is just as good as at Ogawayama, and the setting equally spectacular. There is potential here for development of a lot more bouldering, though the boulders tend to lie on slopes rather than on flat ground. Another wonderfully peaceful area.

After a day of sightseeing and shopping, back in Tokyo, we took a train out to the suburb of Hamura to meet Mr. Nobusuke "Buzz" Tokunaga, and his wife Harumi, who had invited us to stay with them and their two children at their house, which had been imported from Oregon. They picked us up in a giant bright-red Suburban. The house was a meeting place for climbers from around the area. There was a climbing wall in the garage that at times, they told us, would provide workouts for up to 20 people. Such a set-up is a rarity in the Tokyo area, where a garage is a luxury. There is so little space due to the density of the population, that people wishing to buy a car must first get a police-stamped certificate verifying they have a place to park it.

Buzz's local bouldering area was Mitake -- also Tokyo's nearest area -- about half an hour away, by car, and this was our last taste of rock before we had to catch our flight out of Japan. The rock was excellent, there was a great crowd of friends, and again, we climbed some superb problems in a pleasant setting beside a wide, fast-flowing river.

Looking back on our time in Japan, the most amazing, and memorable aspect of the visit was the incredible politeness, hospitality and friendliness of the local climbers -- thanks to all!