Japan! The things we do for a place to sleep

       We arrived in misty Hakone with nothing but the name of the place we were meeting Molly and the gang. We took a taxi up the mountainside, our ears popped on the way up. Nearly thirty minutes into the ride, I looked out the window and caught the familiar and SAS popular panda hat. Barry! I pressed my face against the window and he motioned for us to stop.

       In a whisper, “uh hey! You guys made it! Follow me.”

       We followed. We followed him into the woods. Jonny and Austin were ahead of him.

       Jonny turned around, “whoa! Who is that? Who’s here?’

     Austin nudged him, ‘hey let’s just keep going’

     Meena and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders: c’est la vie.

     We were now creeping, still on a steep incline, past windows and through the yards of small homes. We stopped. We were looking at a window. Molly came to the window!

      Barry turned to me. He quickly and quietly explained, “Listen, so the lady that runs this place is a Nazi. She won’t allow more than four people to stay here.”

      I stared at him blankly. Then looked at Molly and her worried expression. The boys were talking frantically, pointing to different things and moving their bodies to make their separate points.

      Jonny came to my side, “Kate. Okay. We are going to jump through that window.”

      “But, Jonny that’s a second story window.”

     Meena laughs. Austin is standing on the edge of the ledge that drops the two stories down to a night-black bottom.

      “I have a big bag though!”

      Jonny takes it off my back, hands it to Barry. Barry throws it towards the building. Austin has somehow already made it inside and has caught our bags. Barry goes next; he jumps from the ledge and gracefully lands in the window frame like a cat ready to pounce.

     “This is crazy, this is absolutely crazy.” Meena just laughs again.

      My knees are weak as my toes try to grip the ledge. Jonny gives me a tap. I look over my shoulder; he grins wide and gives the thumbs up.

       I jump. I am now clinging to the window frame. My exhausted body hanging down the side of this lovely bed and breakfast. I roll my eyes; this is such a stupid, stupid reason to go to jail. I try to pull myself up. I squeal, this is such a stupid, stupid way to die. Brian and Jonny pull me in. Meena makes it in much easier.
       Now all nine of us are sitting in the room plotting the morning escape. I look around; the room reminds me of the bedrooms in the movie, My Neighbor Totoro. There is one long and wide mattress on the ground with several blankets. We agree that the five of us will try to sneak out at six am. Another early morning!