This is the day I made Haro (my older brother, who always beat me at machismo games) proud. I'm not sure how I even ended up at the top of a 50-foot water fall (looked so much higher standing up) but when Randy took off his t-shirt for the climb, I knew that my manhood was challenged.

In Randy, I saw Haro, and thought, crap, I might have to jump. When we reached the top, to my relief, Randy sat down and was the first to say, "I don't know about this." Like a little Rooster, I thought here is my chance, and urged him on, knowing full well that I wouldn't jump. Our "instructor", who had a mysterious long scar on his face, helped our case by telling us that jumping off a bit to the left or forward would land us on the nice and shiny rocks. To top it off, we couldn't even see the water below, had to jump through tree branches, and to acrobatically kick our legs up as soon as we hit the water (too shallow apparently, nice).

The rooster in me kept pushing the envelope. To my horror I found myself convincing Randy / Haro to jump. I took my shirt off and held my breath, trying to at least match Randy's cut pecs and hoping that I might at least scare him away. It didn't. I approached the slippery edge of the cliff, looked at Atsuko (who seemed very small at this point), kissed her and our yet to be born daughter goodbye (man, I'm such a sucker for drama), and took forever to jump. Then, I jumped. Free fall sucks, and the impact (close your legs), really hurts.

I hoped Randy / Haro wouldn't follow, so I could be the only bona-fide Rooster. But alas, Randy followed, hitting the water pecs and all ; ) What a day and what a rush. Wouldn't have done it without Randy. No machismo here, but I did wonder if Haro would have done this jump. I just wanted to face my fear and see if I could do it. Plus, it was our five year wedding anniversary on that day, and Atsuko was cheering me on ...