Mount Fuji on a Monday - or 12,397 feet sure does seem a lot this early in the morning!

Ayako was a Japanese exchange student who came to live with us in Chevy Chase, Maryland, when my sister and I were very little. I don't remember much about her except that she was very, very nice and that when she arrived she brought an ENORMOUS suitcase full of presents.

That's the kind of thing that sticks with you. Especially with the seven year old you.

Apparently when she wasn't traveling the world, making the youth of Japan look good by lugging gi-normous suitcases full of gifts for strange and probably undeserving American children she was climbing mountains. 12,397 feet of mountains. That's a lot of mountain.

It's Monday morning here in NY. I don't think we're awake yet, but I wonder where Ayako is now and if she's climbed any other mountains. Hope so.