2011/10/31＊Takuro

「The night before the extra edition of the tour begins/A deer encounter」

The bonus shows of the tour start tomorrow! Playing with us is MAXIMUM THE HORMONE! We arrived at Hokkaido together and were holding a party up until just now. From tomorrow, we’ll be staying in Hokkaido for a while which is a first for us, so I’m looking forward to that as well as the shows.

We arrived at Wakkanai at about noon and since we had some time to spare, I headed out for a walk by myself. I realized that it was too late to go to Souya Cape as it’d already be dark. So, I instead started heading for the tower I saw on our way from the airport. I was thinking that by the time I got there, it’d be that nice time of the evening where I could have a good view of the streets of Wakkanai.

But, to skip right to the conclusion, the tower was closed and thus my plan to admire the evening would take a setback. It was closed all along, it’s just that I didn’t know about it before I got there. I didn’t look into it or anything. I was walking ahead, looking at all the shrines and memorial stones on the way, thinking “it’s further away than I remembered…” (I was walking by myself). When I was finally starting to get close, I sensed a presence. There were deer. Four deer, the mother and its three offspring. I don’t think the male was there.

For how long I know not, but I think that after the tower’s closing,  it’d become their territory. They were observing me closely, but since I kept my distance, they didn’t really do anything. I was surprised, too, and took several pictures. Stepping inside their territory a bit, I thought I’d just descend the mountain — I’d seen Wakkanai well enough even without climbing the tower. But as I was about to, this time a lot more deer appeared. There must’ve been around 12 of them. They were a pack. There was a male amongst them, too, with really elegant horns. I’m uploading a picture of that moment. I released the shutter from far away.

Deer are peaceful animals. There were offspring that were still tiny, hopping about. Occasionally they’d make sounds like “hyurururu” or “kyurururu“. Deer make sounds, too. The 12 of them, living in the wild.

It’s silly, but I’ll take that to be a good omen. The tour will definitely be good. Now then, tomorrow is the first day! Why don’t we put off the arrival of winter just a little bit by the hot air generated at the show! With it kinda being a weird climate everywhere, no one would be surprised by something like that. With that, later! See you soon.