Foggy Bottom or "Don: Didn't you realize that it is rainy season?"
This photo pretty much speaks for itself. Look carefully and you can see the ghostly outlines of the tiny handful of Half-Fast riders who actually braved the torrential rains, turbulent winds, wickedly slippery tarmac, bellowing sulphur clouds on Mihara, and the English pea soup of a fog. Hello!! (From right to left: Brian, Naoko, Mike, Sumie, Peter - this picture is taken at the lava-flow emergency shelter at the highest point on the pass; these shelters do double duty as bus stops, as Mike was kind enough to explain to me later, that's Mike by the way in the middle in his cool "safety yellow" REI Goretex raingear)

                               
Wet Oshima