August 6-7, 2008: Climbing Mount Fuji

We spent the morning of August 6th preparing for the climb of Mount Fuji. We were all very excited and a little bit nervous for the climb as none of us have extensive climbing experience. We wanted to be prepared for everything so each one of us was equipped with: at least two sweaters, two pants, a hat, gloves, scarf, rain jacket, warm socks, water, an apple, a banana, 6 granola bars, 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a hard-boiled egg. Ken also had 2 oxygen tanks with him.

We left Ken’s house around noon to take a few trains, and busses to the mountain. We met up Ken’s friends Kotoy and Kimiko, two Japanese ladies, along the way who were going to join us for the climb. The trains and busses ended up taking more than 7 hours to get to the mountain, so by the time we arrived it was already dark outside!! We were all equipped with flashlights, but I did not want to hold a flashlight while climbing, so I bought a headlight. We all bought walking/climbing sticks to help with the climb. To help our muscles, we did a group stretch on the ground, and then started off on our way!

We were surprised with the number of people climbing at night!! The trail was pretty full of people, lots of tourists in addition to the numerous Japanese people. It was almost a race with nature to the top because we wanted to be at the top to watch the sunrise.

The higher we got, the steeper it was, and the harder it was to breathe the air. After a few hours of climbing we started taking oxygen every 15 minutes to prevent altitude sickness. On the trail we could see vomit on the rocks (from people with altitude sickness) and at one point there was someone vomiting in front of us and another vomiting behind us. The higher we got we kept seeing more people turning back and climbing down, either to rest stops lower in the mountain or all the way back down.

There were rest stations every few hundred meters, and each rest station had a sleeping area where, for about $50, you could sleep on the floor on a thin mattress or in a sleeping bag for a few hours. Our original plan was to climb until we were a few hours from the top, sleep in a rest station, and then wake up at 1am to finish the climb so we could be at the top by sunrise. But since we arrived so late we knew that sleeping was not an option if we wanted to see the sunrise from the top.

After about 8 hours of climbing in the dark I was starting to feel very weak. The air was very very thin and I was exhausted. I was less than 400m from the top, and sunrise was coming soon. I knew I could not go on any further, even though I knew the end was so near. I stopped at one of the rest stations and took a 3 hour nap while everyone else continued to the top. At the rest stop there were rows of sleeping bags.

When I woke up the sun was up and the view was beautiful. It was the first time I could actually see my surroundings!

I looked up towards the top and I could see the flag, it was so close!! But I knew I just could not make it any farther. Ken, Fieke, and Steph came back down shortly after I woke up. The last 400m took them 3 hours because the trail was so packed with people rushing to get to the top by sunrise! They described the experience as a mad house where everyone was so tightly packed together and people were pushing each other trying to get by.

The climb down was much more enjoyable than the climb up. The view was incredible! The mountain itself is not very pretty though. It is all covered in red, blue and black volcanic rock and there is almost no vegetation.

Climbing down still had its challenges, the path was on a steep downward angle and it was covered in loose rocks. It was so easy to slip and slide down the path and we saw many people slipping on the rocks. But the most amazing part for me was walking through the clouds. Since Fuji is normally covered in clouds, we had to climb through them for most of the journey down!

We finally made it to the bottom, completely exhausted, and hurting all over. Everyone was in pain, a lot of pain. Our feet and ankles were all swollen and our leg muscles were almost numb. And we still had a long bus ride ahead of us!!

We all slept on the bus, and ended up going to Ken’s friend Jessie’s house because it was 45 minutes closer than going all the way back to Ken’s house. We fell asleep the moment we arrived at Jessie’s house (around 6pm) and slept until 8am the next morning with only an hour break to eat dinner around 10pm.

When I woke up in the morning and stood up I almost collapsed in pain when I put pressure on my legs. I was so sore, I could barely walk.

Climbing Mount Fuji was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. The climb was extremely hard, especially in the dark, and the lack of oxygen was debilitating. But it was an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget, and I am extremely happy that I did it!

August 5, 2008: Atami

On Aug 5th, after visiting the thermal baths in the morning, we thought we would take a trip to the city of Atami. Atami used to be a big tourist attraction for Japanese because it’s a city right on the water, with a beautiful beach surrounded by mountains and cliffs. Now it isn’t as big an attraction because most Japanese travel outside of the country instead of within it while going on vacation.

We made our way to the base of the cliff and took the gondola to the top. This particular cliff was used in the movie Godzilla; he was pushed off this cliff. I haven’t seen the movie, so I didn’t recognize it, but I’ll take Ken’s word for it!

At the top we could see a view of the entire city!

Also at the top we saw the Atami Castle. We decided not to view the inside because we wanted to save our money for bigger and better castles. The outside was still very beautiful.

Once walking around the castle, we decided we would spend the rest of the day on the beach, so we took the gondola back down the mountain and proceeded to the Atami beach.

Atami’s beach is very beautiful, but that is because they imported all the sand, and they have cement barriers in the water to help stop erosion and to lessen the force of the waves. The beach was completely covered in Japanese people!!

We only spend about an hour at the beach before going back to the train station and then back to Ken’s house. We spent the rest of the evening packing and preparing for our Mount Fuji climb the next day.

August 4, 2008: Traditional Japanese Food

On the night of August 4th, after returning from Sempu Castle we decided we wanted to try an Onsen, which is a traditional Japanese thermal bath with water from the natural hot springs. The Onsen we wanted to try was in the city of Ohito, about a 45 minute train ride from Ken’s house. We thought it would be really relaxing to go at night, as it is open 23 hours a day (closes from 9am-10am). We (Fieke, Steph, Ken and I) left Ken’s house around 8 or 9pm and hopped on the train. By the time we had reached the half way point we realized that we would be stuck in Ohito for the night because the trains stop running around 10:30pm. We revised our plan, and since we were already on the train headed towards Ohito, we got off the train at Kannami (the city where Jessie lives) which was only a few stops before Ohito.

We decided to spend the night at Jessie’s house and visit the Onsen early in the morning instead. When arriving in Kannami, Ken was very hungry and he wanted us to experience a traditional Japanese meal. We stopped at a restaurant and ordered Okonomiaki and Yakisoba. Okonomiaki is a Japanese dish consisting of cabbage, eggs, cheese and some veggies. Each table had a Japanese style grill in the center, used to cook our own food. The dish was served in a bowl with all the (raw) ingredients inside, which we mixed up and poured on the grill to cook. It created an interesting looking pancake. Once it was finished cooking, we put some sauce (which tasted similar to steak sauce) on top. It was quite tasty!

The Yakisoba is a Japanese noodle dish which is also cooked on the grill at your table. It comes with noodles, some veggies and eggs.

The Japanese eat eggs with almost every meal! Almost every dish found in a restaurant has an egg in it, either a sunny-side-up egg on top of some pasta, or egg mixed into the dish. They even put eggs on top of pizza and hamburgers! After eating we went to Jessie’s house slept on mattresses on the floor.

August 5, 2008: Japanese Thermal Baths (Onsens)

We woke up at 6am to take the train to the Hyaku-no-waraiyu onsen (the Japanese thermal bath). I was very excited for the onsen because I have been to thermal baths in Budapest and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I was eager to spend some time relaxing in the hot water! I continued to be excited until Ken mentioned that bathing suits were not allowed, and everyone must be nude to enter the baths. He assured me that the men and women were separated, but the idea of relaxing naked in public was a terrifying idea to me!! Being raised in Canada where nudity is not publicly embraced, I was not comfortable with the idea of being naked in public. I almost decided right then and there that this Japanese experience was not one I was interested in having.

By the time 6am came around I had somewhat gotten used to the idea of being naked in the baths and I thought I’d give this traditional Japanese experience a shot. If the Japanese have been this for centuries then there must be something good about the experience!! I was right.

The baths were separated into two areas, the female area and the male area. We each undressed and were given a small towel, a little larger than a face cloth, to cover ourselves with. We then proceeded to the bathing area (with the tiny town strategically placed over our important areas, of course). Each person is required to wash their body and hair before entering the baths. There were about 7 or 8 different baths, all different temperatures, and with different features. One was a salt bath, another a sulfur bath; some were boiling hot, and others were very cold. We alternated between hot and cold baths.

The baths ended up being one of the best experiences we had all had since arriving in Japan. It was a very liberating and relaxing experience! By the end we had all come to terms with our bodies and realized that this was a cultural experience that was well worth the embarrassment of being naked. After the experience, we all decided that a daily thermal bath would be the ideal way to spend the rest of the trip in Japan!

August 4, 2008: Japan - Kiyomizu Temple, Sumpu Castle and more!

On August 4th Steph, Jessie (one of Ken and Caelan’s friends) and I went on a day trip to see a few sights. We took the train to Otowa-cho Station in the Shizuoka Prefecture to see Kiyomizu-yama Park and the Kiyomizu Temple.

The park is located on a small mountain covered in trees and bamboo.

We took a trail to climb to the top, thinking we would find the temple up there. Unfortunately once we reached the top all we found was a small flat area covered in grass and some benches. We asked a Japanese man (who was taking his cat for a walk on a leash) to point us in the direction of the temple. He was not much help and told us it was very far away.

We climbed down the mountain and decided we would walk around it to search. We came across a cemetery with a small temple. We were so excited and thought we must have found the Kiyomizu Temple! The gravestones were so close together, one behind the other. I’ve never seen gravestones that close! The temple was not open, so we could not see inside. We decided to head back to the train station and make our way to our next destination.

To get to the train station we continued walking around the mountain and we came across another temple! This one had no gravestones, and it consisted of a few different buildings. We realized that this must be the Kiyomizu Temple that we had been searching for! Unfortunately the temple was not open, and there was no information available about the different buildings. It was still very interesting to see buildings in the traditional Japanese style. Hopefully we’ll find more information the next time we visit a temple.

Once we had thoroughly explored the temple area we hopped back on the train and traveled to Shizuoka City to see the Sumpu Castle Ruins and Sumpu Park. The Castle, which is located within the park, dates back to 1585 when Ieyasu Tokugawa started construction. The park is surrounded by an outer moat and a large, high wall. We could not enter the castle, but we were able to pass through the gates of the castle to take a walk around the park. The park is quite large and contains a few benches, children’s playgrounds and gardens.

We really wanted a photo of the three of us at the entrance to the park, but every time we asked anyone to take it we wouldn’t be satisfied with the outcome. So we set up the camera on the ground, propped up with our purses, and we used the remote to take our photo. It took us a few failed attempts, but we ended up satisfied in the end. This was our final result:

After this day of exploring we took the train back to Ken’s house where Fieke (one of Ken’s friends, visiting from Amsterdam) had just arrived. We hung out for a while and decided on our plan for the night and the following few days.

August 4, 2008: Japan - Trip to the beach and fireworks

Yesterday morning was very hot, hotter than any of the other days so far. And the extreme humidity it made it even worse. So we decided it was the perfect day to go to the beach!! The beach is normally a 20-25 minute bike ride from Ken’s house, but thanks to my inexperienced biking skills it ended up being a 45 minute ride!

The beach is different in Japan than what I’m used to. The sand is full of rocks which make it uncomfortable (and a tiny bit painful) to walk on, but the water was so nice and refreshing!! The beach was crowded with Japanese people windsurfing!! They are so good, and they go so fast!! We were amazed! There must have been 20 windsurfers shooting back and forth along the beach in the water!!

After taking a dip in the water we decided to further explore the beach. So we biked (in our wet bathing suits) along the beach to another area. We found a small restaurant and stopped to have a snack. The menu was in Japanese, of course. Luckily Ken can read some Japanese and we successfully ordered a cold snack of shaved ice with syrup.

Before arriving in Japan I had heard to beware of Japanese with tattoos because they are supposedly associated with the Japanese Mafia. When I arrived, I heard the same thing from Ken and Caelan. So imagine my surprise/nervousness when a good looking Japanese man with a nice big tattoo on his arm started chatting with Ken! He came up to us while we were trying to order and complemented Ken on his Japanese skills, and then he talked to us again while we were sitting and eating. He ended up buying us all a round of beers and gave Ken his business card and told him if we ever got into any trouble or had any problems to call him!!

After eating, we decided to go for another dip into the water, and then we thought we would head home so we would have enough time to shower and change for the fireworks that night. As we were mounting our bikes a group of guys came up to us and asked where we were from (a very very common question as everyone still waves as us as we walk by wherever we go). Then they asked if we spoke Spanish. It turns out some of them are from Peru and they moved to Japan to work on the ships! I was chatting with them (in Spanish of course) and they were telling me that after all these years of living in Japan they still aren’t used to the change in culture.

They invited us for some beer and meat by their barbeque! The conversation switched between English, Japanese and Spanish depending on who was speaking. They were so happy to find some Non-Japanese, Canadian-Latino people and all of them took out their cell phones so Ken could save his phone number in them! We cut our visit short when we realized it was getting late. We said goodbye to our new friends and we hopped back on our bikes to ride home.

Once we got home we quickly showered and got ready for the fireworks show! The fireworks were amazing!! I have never seen fireworks as cool as these Japanese fireworks!! There were so many of them, and they lasted about an hour non-stop. A lot of them were the standard circular shape, but some of them were in really cool shapes like a happy face, cherry and Japanese cartoon characters faces!

All in all it was a very interesting and good day! It seems we’re always doing something, we’re always busy and we just keep having adventures!! I love Japan!

August 3, 2008: Japan - Kappore Dance Festival!

Last night we all went to the Kappore Dance Festival held in Shimizu. The festival consists of tons and tons of people separated in groups, each wearing a different Japanese outfit who all dance on the street to the same choreographed routine. We danced as part of Ken’s group, which was the group representing his English school here in Shimizu. Our group consisted of the English teachers at the school and their students. The kids were absolutely adorable!! We each had to wear a Japanese Happi, which is a shorter version of a traditional yukata and kimono.

The dances were pretty interesting, and not very easy to follow if they weren’t learned in advance. Unfortunately I hadn’t learned them, so I looked pretty ridiculous trying to follow all the dance moves of the people around me! Ken was probably the best dancer of the whole group! The dancing was supposed to continue for 3 hours, Steph and I only lasted about 1.5 hours, and decided to spend the rest of the time in search of some food with Caelan. We ended up eating some hot dogs on a stick (which we got for a nice discount… I think it was the foreigners discount!!).

After enjoying our hot dogs, Steph and I paused for a rest and a Japanese family approached us and took our photo!! And then they asked us if they could pose with us for another photo!! They looked so amazed to see non-Japanese people!!

So all-in-all a very interesting and fun night!!

August 2, 2008: Japan - Our Adventure to Find Sushi!

Today, while Ken and Caelan were at work, Steph and I had the whole day to hang out and explore. We decided to take a little walk and try to find a sushi restaurant!! Easier said than done… especially if you don’t speak Japanese!!

We ended up getting completely lost in the small town and didn’t recognize anything around us. We went into a convenience store to ask for directions. Unfortunately the ladies working in the store spoke no English and our Japanese is extremely minimal. We knew there were some sushi restaurants close to the harbor, so we tried pointing to a drink and making swimming motions in order to get our point across. The ladies were so nice, they ended up running to the store next door to try to find English speakers to help us out!! At that moment, Steph and I decided we would never leave the house without our phrasebook. We also realized that if we wanted to be successful in this country we needed to listen to many many more “Learn to Speak Japanese” podcasts!!

Finally, with the help of a map, we found our way towards the water. On the way there we came across a little street festival with Japanese dancing. All the dancers had layers and layers of make-up, and they had on traditional Japanese clothing and were dancing with hats. It was pretty cool!

We made our way to a sushi restaurant that was in a mall right by the water. Everything is so high-tech here!! You don’t place your order with a waiter, you place it on a computer screen at your table!! There was a touch screen (in Japanese of course… with no English) where you could pick out and order your meal! Luckily if you clicked on the Japanese word a photo of the dish would pop up, so finally, with some struggles, Steph and I were able to place our order. It was only after the meal arrived that I realized I had actually ordered a kids combo! It came on a Winnie the Pooh plate with a Hello Kitty cup and Japanese jello!!

 

The most interesting thing came with my sushi. Rice came with my meal rolled in plastic-wrapped seaweed. So I had to unwrap the seaweed from the plastic. Interesting!

It was all worth it in the end, the sushi was absolutely amazing!! The fish was so fresh and tasty!! I’m hoping to eat sushi at least once a day!

August 1, 2008: I Arrived in Japan!

So I am finally in Japan!!! The whole trip starting at the airport in Toronto all the way to Ken’s house took a full 21 hours… with no sleep!

I’ll start with the plan ride. I arrived a few hours early for my plane and I had a chance to hang out at the airport, buy some Tim Hortons and muffins and walk around before my 13 hour plane ride. I made friends with a really nice girl named Mikaela who was going to Japan for a 2 week vacation. But the most exciting part of my plane ride was that the Brazilian Olympic team was on my plane!! The athletes were unfortunately all seated in first class (which was about 5 rows in front of me) but their coaches were scattered around the whole plane! I couldn’t understand what they were saying though, as they were all talking in Portuguese.

The plane ride wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. Each person had their own TV with a touch screen on the back of the seat in front of them. We could use the menu to pick out TV shows, movies, games, music etc. I watched 4 movies: Fools Gold, Vantage Point, 21 and Stop-Loss. After my movies I listened to a bit of Japanese on my iPod. I also tried sleeping, but the seats were so small, and I couldn’t stretch my legs so I was pretty uncomfortable. I didn’t sleep a single minute!

When I arrived in Tokyo I had to go through customs. I’ve never seen security like this: they copied our passports, took our photo AND took fingerprints of each person arriving in the country! Ken had given me very detailed directions for how to get from the airport to his town. They included 3 train rides, and then a phone call to him which would decide if I would a) be picked up by him or b) have to take a taxi and then walk.

The first train took me from the airport right into Tokyo (about an hour). Once in Tokyo I had to find another train to take me to Shizuoka City. There are two types of trains in Japan: the fast ones (shinkansen) and the slow ones (normal train). By shinkansen the ride would be 1 hour (but more expensive), and by normal train it would be 3. I picked the fast train. Once in Shizuoka City I needed to catch another train to take me to Shimizu-ku. I did all this with two heavy carry-on bags, a purse and a very large overweight luggage!

I finally arrived in Shimizu-ku absolutely exhausted and I needed to call Ken. Unfortunately all the payphones at the train station were in Japanese, with not a single word of English on them. After struggling with the phones for a few minutes a very nice Japanese lady came over to try to help me. She also couldn’t get the phones working so she used her cell phone to call Ken for me. She was very worried about me and invited me back to her house so I could rest and eat. She told me I looked so tired and hungry!! I thanked her graciously and convinced her that I would be fine and that Ken would arrive soon, which he did!

He came to pick me up with his friend Steph, who is also from Toronto visiting him. He didn’t have access to his car though, so we walked about 20 minutes with the luggages to get to his house!! At that point I was so exhausted that I didn’t feel tired anymore. It was about 8:30pm (Japan time, which would have been 7:30am Canada time) and I hadn’t eaten since our last meal on the plane (around 11am), so we all went out for dinner at (don’t laugh) an Italian restaurant!! It was the closest, cheapest place to his house.

So right now it’s the morning of August 2^nd. I slept through the night, but woke up at 6am. Everyone is still sleeping here. Tonight we’re taking part in a dance festival going on in town. Apparently we’re dancing and I have to learn the dance before tonight! Tomorrow night we’re going to another festival where there will be fireworks. On Monday Ken’s other friend is coming, she’s from the Netherlands I think. She’ll be joining us for all our travels around the country!

I really love it here so far!! It’s so different to look around and see nothing you understand!! Not many people speak English and not many signs are in English either. On all the trains I went on yesterday to get here I was basically the only foreigner! It’s crazy, because they watch you…..! Last night at dinner these Japanese kids were so excited to see a group of foreigners that they were waving, smiling, and pointing at us!!

Anyway that’s about all for now, I’ll write another update soon :) Take care everyone! I miss you all!!