ホテルの人の「ここが24時間営業の食堂になってますんで、お腹がすいたらいつでもどうぞ」という説明を聞いて「山小屋のロビー（というか土間？）が食堂と兼用なんだ〜、ほ〜」と思う間もなく速攻に夕食のカレーが出てくる。「5時間20分の山登りをしてきてから5分と経ってないのにカレーが喰えるか！」とキレるゲンキもないので大人しくノロノロと頂く。高山病にかかってしまった人はこのカレー（どこの山小屋でも夕食はカレーらしい）に手を付けられないそうなので「あ、ゲンキなんだ」とちょっと喜ぶ。
相棒とKがカレーを食べ終わったのを見てバイトの青年が「寝室にご案内致します」って。「ワタシがまだ食べ終わってません〜」「相棒とKはこれからビールだって飲みたいんだから〜」と言ってみたもののバイト青年は落ち着かない様子。サッサとカレーを食べ終えて寝室に案内だけされてみる。バイト諸君「出来るだけ早く客を寝室に誘導するように」とでも上からキツく言われているのかな。
寝室（食堂扉の一枚向う）に行ってビックリ！話には聞いていたけどスゴイ！大きな二段ベッドにズラーッと並ぶ小さめの枕。バイト青年が「1人、枕ヒトツ分のスペースです」と言いながら、ワタシ達のスペースにはみ出して眠っていた男性を「1人、枕ヒトツ分のスペースなんで、すみません」と揺さぶり起こす。なんという世界に来てしまったのか。で、良く見たらワタシ達の枕は隣同士が重なりあってる。つまりワタシ達の1人分スペースは枕約0.8個分。二段ベットの下も向かいの二段ベットもガラガラに空いているのにナゼなのよ。写真撮り忘れた自分、どうしたのよ。
相棒とKがビール飲んだり、山小屋のおじさんと楽しく話したりしているうちに21時。歯ブラシは持参してましたが水がないのでハミガキは出来ずに、ストレッチ体操して足にバンテリンを塗って21:30に寝る事に。寝る場所がどのくらい狭いかというと、仰向けに寝て両手を置く場が無い事に気が付き悩んでしまうくらい（およそ幅35cmX長さ200cmx高さ130cm）。腕を組んで片一方の肩を相棒に乗せたり、または横向きになってみたりして、やっとウトウト・・・でも2つ右隣りで寝ていたオバさんの豪快なイビキで全く眠ることが出来ず。被害者は多数。でもオバさんの仲間はなぜか皆様熟睡。
寝ようと思っても眠れないし、横になっているとドンドン気持ちが悪くなるので01:20に起床。相棒も横になっていると気分が悪いらしい。意識して深呼吸しないと酸素が肺に入ってこない感じ。食堂に行って見ると入り口のドアが開けっ放し。寒い。従業員も「さみーッ」なんて言いながらブルブルしてるので閉めない理由を聞いてみた。しばしのシンキングタイムの後に「お客が入りやすい様に」との事。なんだか下界の感覚では理解できないルールがあるよう。ツアー客がやって来ると
食堂（兼入り口）は満員に。
The hotel worker said: 'This area [the entrance of the hut] is also used as a restaurant. We serve food for 24 hours'. It made me laugh a bit. I wasn't ready for dinner yet as it was only five minutes after I had been climbing for over five hours, but the curry was served immediately (apparently, all huts serve curry for dinner). I couldn't believed it! But I just started to eat it. Lots of people can't eat this curry because of altitude sickness. So it was nice to know that I was still quite healty.
A young worker saw that C and K had finished their curry, and said: 'I'm going to take you to your sleeping area'. But I hadn't finished eating yet and C and K were thinking of ordering beers. Somehow we imagined that his job was taking customers to their beds as soon as possible. So we didn't go to bed yet, but we decided to check our sleeping area.
I was so surprised to see the sleeping room next door of the restaurant! I had heard that it would be a very tiny space, but it was much smaller than expected! There was a huge double‐decker bed, lined with many many little pillows. The young worker told us to use 'one pillow width per person'. When he saw that the guy who would be sleeping next to us was using a bigger area, he woke him up and told him 'one pillow width per person, please'. Oh no! Why were we here? And we noticed that our pillows were even piled up a little bit, so that our space was only 80% of one pillow width! The bottom of the double-decker bed and the other side of the room were completely empty! Why did we have to sleep like this?! And how could I forget to take a photo of the bed?!
After C and K had their beers and talked to the old man from the hut, it was already 21:00. I had brought a tooth brush, but I didn't have water for brushing. I did simple body stretch exercises and I put some anti-muscle-pain medicine on my legs, and we went to bed at 21:30. Our sleeping space was about 35cm wide, 200cm long and 130cm high. I lay on my back, but I didn't know where to put my arms because there was no space. So I folded my arms and put one of my shoulders on top of C and sometimes lay on my side as I tried to sleep. But there was a middle-aged woman sleeping two places to my right and her loud snoring woke up many people. Her friends were all sleeping, though.
C and I couldn't sleep and we both felt altitude sickness when we lay down, so we got up at 01:20. I had to breathe consciously, otherwise oxygen wouldn't come to my lungs. When we went to the restaurant, the entrace door was opened and it was freezing. The workers were also saying 'COLD!...' but nobody was allowed to close the door. So I asked the reason. After a little pause, the guy said "It's easier for customers to come inside if the door is open". The place was completely empty and it seemed like the rules of their world were different from ours. But suddenly a large group of customers arrived and it became
packed.
