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The next day, we climbed Mont Blanc – not on foot but by the elevator. There was an outside observation deck from which we had a 360-degree view of the Alps. The door to the deck had a warning that said ‘It’s extremely cold beyond this door.’ I thought it was exaggerated to entertain visitors and casually opened the door. Instantly, I found that the warning was dead serious. It was late March and I chose the wrong clothes for this entire trip to begin with. I was out on Mont Blanc in a sweatshirt and a miniskirt and experienced a below freezing temperature for the first time in my life. I thought I would die there. The view was literally too breathtaking for me to leave right away, though. It was as if I was looking at whipped cream icing on a gigantic birthday cake all around me. Before we left Japan, my father had borrowed an 8-millimeter movie camera from my uncle, as a small video camera was yet to come. Enduring the murderous cold, he shot the view with it while I helped him by taking static photographs. When we were busily moving around the deck to get back to a normal temperature as soon as possible, I noticed that one of my friends in the same tour group was standing quietly on the edge of the deck with his aunt. He was a junior high student, otherwise a disco king, formerly a geeky king, who traveled with his aunt. He was usually upbeat, but there, he was looking out the view with a solemn expression. He had a big bouquet in his arms. As I was wondering what he was doing with a bouquet at Mont Blanc, he threw the bouquet over the deck to the mountains. He was crying. After having fun with him for over a week, now I realized he had a special purpose for this trip. I left there near freezing and feeling a little bit sad. My family talked each other that we would take time to enjoy the spectacular view on the 8-millimeter movie in a warm room after getting back to Japan. It only would become known back in Japan that my uncle’s 8-millimeter movie camera had been broken long before we borrowed it and all rolls of film we shot during the whole trip were entirely blank…
