Quantum Leap - Vol. 2 Exile Island (formerly Till Death Do Us Part)

C009 Rest

Kagome's mother, Mrs Kuwahara, still continued to prepare our bento lunch boxes with an assortment of mouth-watering delicacies every single day. It was as if she was treating me like one of her children or maybe as one of her in-law. I thanked her profusely every time I received her well-prepared bento box early in the morning before heading for school. 

As usual, Kagome and I would be walking to and fro school together, just like a couple should be. Ahem..! Ahem...! Just like a blossoming relationship.

We would eat together at the basketball court, on the same table, discussing the exam papers that we had earlier sat and even compared our results together. In fact, we nearly spent our time together as much as possible that the other boys and girls in our group knew where we were almost every day during recess time.

After exchanging our answers, we found little margin for errors and discovered almost identical answers for all the questions that we faced. We had a whale of a time and during our recesses, I managed to gather more information about the Kenzo whom I had exchanged body with.

I had decided to concentrate on my academics for the whole week and had spoken to the Store Manager that I would be taking a leave of absence. At least when the original Kenzo had taken over this body back, at least I would not be abusing his body and mind too much and of course, his results would not be too shabby too. Coupled with the memories of Kenzo's mind, I managed to scrape through the ordeal.

The Store Manager was kind and understanding enough to let me stay off work and concentrate on my exams and thus giving me an opportunity to have a fresh mind and body on the next following day.

Every day and every exam papers had been accomplished without many hitches and after the last exam paper had been submitted to the invigilator, we sighed a HUGE relief that the arduous torture had finally ended. We all looked forward to our papers to be assessed and this means for the next 3 days excluding the coming Saturday and Sundays we all are going to have a short break before getting the results on either next Thursday or Friday. 

We got a whole 5 days of a break after taking the exams and that means the whole 5 days would be spent in jubilation - visiting karaoke joints, drinking and playing cards for sure...! We whooped in joy and the classroom became rowdy once again like before as the students all prepared to perform the spring cleaning of their own respective classrooms.

Everyone was feeling exhilarated as they knew that they had prepared long for the exams and no one would do shabbily in terms of the results. Upon completion of all tasks at hand, the students all marched out of class, ready to leave the schoolyard and to celebrate. 

"YES... We all earned to celebrate right after the exams when it has finally ended." The thoughts of the results would not mind that much as the first thing in our minds was to raise a toast for the end of the ordeal.

"HEY! Kenzo... You coming with us for the celebration right after our exams, eh? You had missed the whole celebratory feast that we had planned for some weeks in the end and now there is no other reason for you not to join us for some time and relax with us. Bring your Gārufurendo along, alright? Don't you worry about the bill, we know both of you are small eaters and drinkers so you would only pay for what you both eat and drink, alright?" 

One of the guys highlighted and most of them guffawed aloud while Kagome held her hands to her face to hide her embarrassment. The one who spoke up and suggested was named Itaru. "Sure, why not? Let's have some barbecue and bring your own girlfriends along too." I replied as I waited for Kagome to stop blushing and hiding behind her hands when she heard me replying to the guys confidently.

Both of us were wearing jogging track pants, low hiking shoes, a thin sports tee-shirt, and a light fluorescent windbreaker. We looked quite a matching pair, walking together to school with our cumbersome camping gear in tow. Kagome insisted to use a folding trolley to haul her camping gear instead while I had mine across my back. 

As for Kagome, she did not buy a tent as she finds it cumbersome so she had bought a hammock instead and a tarpaulin that could be used to cover the top of the hammock in case the weather turns bad. I joked to her saying that if it rains, she could join me in my 2 men tent instead as I am afraid of the dark. Hahaha.

"Don't harbour such thoughts, alright? You know I am not that kind of girl. Furthermore, we do not stay together in the camp with the boys, so there's a separate section for us girls."  Kagome retorted as she punched me in the shoulder lightly.

Well, a relationship takes time to bloom especially the pinches and kicks would soon follow by hugs and kisses later. Yup... I am sure of it as it was just a kind of foreplay in a friendly relationship.

When we reached our school's yard, there were quite a number of students from my class waiting for the rest to arrive and assemble. The yellow school bus had already been there and teachers were ushering them to go up into the bus at the same time to maintain orderly with the students.

Since it's now the start of a long break for us, definitely everyone was excited to go on an adventure trip as well as spend some time with nature as there were a few red coloured igloo boxes on the ground and were being loaded into the baggage area of the bus. It would contain food and other beverages to sustain us for the 4 days and 3 nights into the wilderness. And with the sacks of charcoal and other stuff, I am sure that we would be having a barbeque on the first and second night and then we would be getting replenishment from our school in a few days time.

Seeing the familiar faces within the group they clamoured into the bus and took up all the rear seats as possible. "Kenzo, I've reserved a seat for you here! Come sit with us or you would like to go and sit around with your sweetheart instead?" Itaru shouted on top of his lungs as he poked his head and almost half of his body through the open windows at the back of the bus. 

"Hey, you two...! Hurry up...! We still got a few minutes to go before we leave!" Einosuke bellowed out as he shouted at my direction and immediately closed the window of the bus. Since it's a fully aircon bus, the windows had the options to be opened or closed, most probably for the students who wished to sneak a smoke while travelling on long trips such as this one.

"Yeah...I am coming for you guys later...Just watch out, alright?! "I hollered back and subconsciously pulled Kagome's hand along with me as we board the bus. Kagome didn't let go of her hand and she sheepishly followed and boarded the bus along with me. Our baggage was brought up by our assisting teachers into the cargo hold of the bus since no other stuff except for hand carry-ons were allowed into the bus so it would not be cluttered, unlike those tourist buses where there were some overhead compartments to stuff their other belongings.

Our teachers made a final headcount and made sure that everyone was present. After all the students had boarded the bus and accounted for, a teacher excitedly announces that we are going to move out in a few minutes. Roars of applause erupted in the bus and were told by the announcer that the trip would take between 5 hours and 30 minutes to 6 hours if we were to travel non stop.

Judging from the distance and duration that we would be travelling, we were definitely in a place far away from our town and school and this excites the rest of the students as they made several guesses of where the campsite would be if they were travelling for 6 hours non stop. 

However, the teacher announced that they are going to make intermittent stops so our journey most probably takes up more than 6 hours. The teacher checked the time and announced that it's time to move out at exactly 9 am. The students applauded the welcoming news once more and whipped out their phones as they took selfies and group photos even when the bus had not even moved...! The students were simply ecstatic...!

Throughout the journey, all the students were very happy and took out their smartphones to take tons of photographs of themselves, the group or simply the sceneries around them as the bus whizzed by. We made some stops at Satsu Satta Pass Observatory also known as Satta Toge Observatory Deck for a short break of 30 minutes to stretch our legs as well as to sneak a puff and get the opportunity to learn about the history behind the outcrop that faces the sea.

The name Satta Toge Pass comes from the "Satta Toge Jizo" which is a Buddhist image that was pulled up off of Yu-no-hama beach using a net during the Kamakura period (1185~1333). "Guys...! We found a lot of tangerine and loquat fields and there are unmanned fruit stalls here. Do we need to pay for them and take as many as we can? Sensei...! Help us over here, please. We want some tangerines that we can peel and then mix them with some salt and sugar to make some treats...!"

"The leaves of this tree could be made into tea as well...!" The girls were screaming in delight as they discovered the unmanned stalls and also the bunches of tangerines and loquat displayed prominently on the table. The Sensei came to their rescue and placed a few yen on the table and asked the screaming girls to take some of the fruits instead. Since there would be no facility for the girls to prepare the tea even. 

For the next stop, we arrived at "Shizuoka-shi Tokaido Hiroshige Museum" where we took an hour off to have a quickened lunch after we had made a short tour inside the museum. There was a river inside it and several tortoises can be seen sunning themselves on the flat rocks.

The whole place was like a leap back into the past where samurai used to be common during the era. The beautiful archway, the single-storey buildings, and the serene surroundings were indeed pleasing to the eyes as our phone cameras clicked away endlessly.

We made another pit stop later at the Yuikitada District for a meal at Soba Noodle Shop. The swarm of students made the little quaint shop to be overly crowded as the proprietor was busy whipping up small bowls of ramen which was their speciality. It took us 3 turns before the proprietor managed to feed us all. As the bowls were rather small, some of the students had the opportunity to take seconds even though they were advised against doing so. It was out of pity for the proprietor as she was a sole operator for the tiny noodle shop.

The rest of the journey continued without any stops except for stopping at some R&R areas to freshen up. We were too full and too comfortable to leave our seats so most of us remained seated on the bus and continue their snoozing instead.

After travelling for more than 6 hours, we had finally reached our destination and the clock already showed its past 6 in the evening. Since there was nothing much to do for the rest of the evening, we unloaded our baggage and assembled in the parking area. The place was very well maintained and there were not many visitors in the park yet.

There were several Barbeque pits surrounded with wooden benches and tables, some open-aired dining area, numerous single-storey dainty houses, a few large duck ponds with man-made fountains controlled by pumps. The ground was clean and not a speck of litter could be found and above all, there weren't much visitors except for us. I guess you would be able to imagine the whole camping ground by now. There was also a clearing for those who want to rough it out and pitched tents outdoors instead of staying inside the outback houses provided with all the amenities such as beds and showers.

After our guidance teachers assigned us our accommodation and explain about the do's and dont's of the campground, the students were quickly divided into 2 sections - the boys and the girls. As there were no plans for a Barbeque at this period, the teachers allowed us to mingle around and explore the campsite. 

There was even a small convenience store in the middle of the campground...! This means that hunger was not a question for those who stayed in the campground. Some of the students decided to stick around and investigate the convenience store and to their dismay, the proprietor was alerted in advance not to sell any cigarettes and any kinds of alcoholic beverages to the students. Boohoohoo...! 

We stayed outdoors till about 10 pm before we all headed towards our respective so-called cottages. Mine was 0012 and was close to the main dining hall with several Barbeque pits around it. There were several water basins provided around the Barbeque area as well as I do not know what was the use of those basins for.