"He finds the mansion here" -- Mishima

[A haggardly-etched sentence takes up the entire header of the first page. Judging from the clear, undisturbed pencil marks, as well as hindsight of the message, it was likely written long afterwards.]

HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID?

4/2 6:12AM: Why did I have to go hiking that day? I watched the weather report on TV, but there's no way anybody could predict it would get that bad. Could I not wait one more week to go on vacation?

I woke up as a mound of snow folded my tent's supports and buried me. I had to shovel what I could with my bare hands because I took them off when I went to sleep. Thanks to Mother Nature, I'm cold, wet, and I only packed one extra lunch which must be frozen by now.

To my horror, I look around and find the whole trail's covered up, let alone my footprints, and I don't know the way back because I set up camp at the base of the mountain range. Now I'm trapped AND lost.

I do the first thing any lost hiker would do and call emergency services. Lo and behold they tell me it's going to be a long while before they can attempt a rescue and advise me to look for shelter.¹ Great.

This is when true fear began to set in. I've seen the stories. Missing, stranded hikers who soon become forgotten. I could be one of them. It might not even be the cold that does me in, but a bear or something. All I got to defend myself are a bunch of matches and my trusty hiking stick. Good luck Me.

Yet I'm Hokkaido-born through and through. What's a little more snow but an extra challenge?

I had two options: go down and risk falling down a cliff, or follow the lady's advice¹ and see if there's another base camp of some kind. I chose the latter.

2:40 PM: God am I tired! But I don't care about that anymore, because I found shelter! Safety! A reprieve from the cold! An escape from death!

Ironic to write this now while I'm huddled up to the fire as, when I stumbled upon this place, I thought I had died and went to Heaven. At first it seemed like a marker of sorts--a small amateur monument from guides to let fellow hikers know which path was right--but it turned out to be far better than I could have ever hoped. Off in the distance was an exquisite castle! A beautiful, exquisite four-story mansion MONSTER with a gold-tipped cap placed on top. Gazing, my aching WHERE ARE 3 & 4??? hand grasped the steel knocker and pulled, and I was welcomed inside by a stunning maid with a look of concern on her face as the enticing heat coiled around my hands and brushed against my cheeks. I ran inside.

I don't know who lives in this mansion, but I must thank them. The maid didn't say a word, but there would be no end to mine, for my body was blue and she gave me a hearth.

¹[Standard protocol refutes this. Dispatch instructs stranded civilians to NEVER wander off as it makes them more difficult to find. To further note, while several distress calls were received on the 4th of February, none were geolocated within the Hidaka range.]