Frozen Blank Mont Blanc

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…

Episode from

The Japanese Family Goes to Europe by Hidemi Woods

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