KinugasaYama Park and Heat Stroke

We've been to Kinugasayama park one time before with the hiking group.  It had a pretty cool playground and some fun wood animals so we decided to go one morning with my parents before Tucker had to go to school in the afternoon.

Here you can see a picture of the kids playing on one of the wood statues.  There were tons all over the place, some only about an inch big.  I planned to take more pictures of them but things did not go according to plan.

We left in the morning but we did not leave early enough, it was still way too hot outside.  We wanted to first go up to the lookout spot and then walk down to the playground and then back to the car.  We never really made it past the lookout spot. 

When we got there we saw a sign pointing to the castle ruins, it was pointing down a bunch of steps and we had never been that way before but we thought it would be worth checking out.

I left the stroller with everything in it, picked up Calista and headed down.  Long story short we walked down steps forever!  It felt like they were never going to end.  Then we crossed the highway and went up a ton of steps, the whole time it was extremely hot and humid outside and I left our waters in the stroller. 

We eventually gave up and started to go back.  It was disappointing because I'm sure we must have been very close to the castle, of course I was thinking we were close for like 30 minutes.  On the way back up the stairs I started to get really tired and passed Calista off to my dad.  Then Leon told me his stomach hurt, but I thought he was just hungry.  After a minute of no Calista and me not walking I wasn't able to catch my breath, in fact I started to really struggle.  I had to lay down in the dirt right on the path.  I've never had to do that before, this heat was no joke.  Next thing I knew Leon was throwing up!  He was having heat stroke and I wasn't sure I would be able to make it back up at all. 

We let Tucker go ahead and he wasn't really aware of what was going on.  The girls were doing ok, so my dad slowly kept going with Calista, Penelope, and Scarlett.  My mom stayed to help Leon.  After about five minutes I felt better and came over to help Leon.  He was still throwing up and not able to walk even when leaning on my mom and I.  We quickly laid him down and even had to roll him on his side so he didn't choke on his vomit.  My mom had her water and a hand fan, so we gave him a capful every minute and fanned him.  He was completely red and felt super hot.  It was scary. 

After what felt like ten minutes I could tell he was doing better and I sent my mom to keep going up.  I wasn't sure how everyone else was doing.  She went only a little bit farther and found my dad and the girls resting.  Tucker then came back down to them because he was at the top for a while and wondering what was going on.  They filled him in on the situation and so he carried Calista up and my mom went up with Penelope and Scarlett.  My dad came back down to check on Leon and I.

Leon seemed much cooler, so we decided to start walking up.  We honestly didn't have a choice.  We had no phone and there wasn't anyone around to ask for help.  He was able to walk and actually started acting much more like normal.  We still stopped and had him lay down once or twice more just to be cautious.  When we got closer to the top everyone else was up and the kids ran back down to us with our water.  I was grateful for everyone's help and that we made it to the top.  If Tucker hadn't came back down and carried Calista up I'm not sure anyone else could have at that point.  It felt like he saved the day.  My parents and their water bottles probably saved the day as well.  Looking back Calista had fallen asleep on me and she was pretty out of it.  I thought it was just her nap time, but it really could have been because of the heat as well.

Here we are before heading down the path.

We did not go to the playground but just back to the car.  Where we drove to McDonalds on our way to taking Tucker to school.

The whole thing was a lesson to me as to never leave my water, and to probably turn back sooner when we start feeling fatigue.  And to just stay home when it is that hot outside.  I am so glad it isn't that hot in japan anymore.  Japan had a record high heat wave this summer that they declared a natural disaster.  Over 80 people died from the heat.

Now that this scary experience is over and the weather has cooled I want to go back and try again.  I'm not happy that we never found the castle ruins and I'm sure with the right equipment (water, and baby carrier) and mindset (expecting it to be long and stairs the entire way) I'm sure we could do it with no problem.