Cookie Trays

I'm loving this "hardcore-ness" at work. Means I'm dead tired every night and have a lot less time for my Panama homework. But hey, I'm in Japan.

Everytime anyone visits the lab or anytime any one from the lab goes somewhere else (for vacation or conferences or what not), they bring back a tray of "souvenirs"... generally edible goodies.

Meaning, at least 90% of the time there is a box of cookies behind me. Nom.

Tim Soo

That's new...

I spent a lot of the night putting Friends episodes on Maciej's ITouch. He was really sad about going back to Manchester and returning to work. As a fellow Friend's addict, I thought it was the least I could do.

We woke up around 8 and wanted to eat one last ramen.

Dramatic right?

Maciej in the morning, bummed to go.

Stray kittens we saw on the way.


Japanese people put out filled water bottles around their house to keep stray cats away. Apparently the reflection or something scares the cats so they stay away. There seems to be a superstition against cats in Japan... care to enlighten us anyone?



Meow

Grr. You point camera at me. And you no bring food.

Well unfortunately nothing is open in the morning (odd right?) so Maciej said we could just grab a burger at McDonalds. Poor guy couldn't catch a break. It was the breakfast menu. Which wasn't really bad, but sooo not worth it. All of their breakfast sandwiches have pancake-like bread filled with syrup... I'm sorry but I'd rather have my bacon egg cheese BISCUIT... not waffle.

And it came with a much too unprocessed hashbrown (what's with the fresh fast food? lol) and a drink the size of a small thumbtack. The world seemed to also mourn at Maciej's departure.

Mmhmm. Wait, food's gone? I don't remember eating.

After our morning snack, we gave our hugs and said our goodbyes and I went back to my room. Nope, not our room anymore. *sniff*. My room

Haha, okay so it wasn't that dramatic at all. More like a "cya, later" and then I went to work. But what fun is it if you don't milk it for all its worth?

I haven't been able to sit down much at work. I got to work a little before noon and have been at it non-stop doing a couple experiments (after my talk with Kanami-san, I want to make up for lost times) at the same time. It's awesome. I get to interact with everyone and they're all at different speaking levels.

There are some people in lab who don't try to speak at all and I just occasionally say a Japanese phrase or something to them. Concerning those I interact more often with, there is a tier of English abilities. Hashimoto-san trains me solely in Japanese, though she's gradually increasing the amount of English she's comfortable with using. I think I learn the most comprehension from her. Granted I generally have no idea what words she's saying and can't really dissect the sentences, but I rarely do not understand her. Goes to show how much of the Japanese language is just intent. After that, I'd say Reiji (who went back to the army) is about the same in ability, but is much more vocal about what he knows. I didn't interact with him too much, but he was quite humourous. Nakamura-san is the one I work most closely with and probably the one I learn the most words from. She lived in the states for one year as a child, and it seems that was enough to give her a decent grasp on the language. With my limited Japanese and her limited English, we can communicate relatively easily. Hire is the other half of the funny duo with Reiji. When he speaks, he barely has any accent at all and it seems he knows a lot more English than he attempts to use but he generally can understand everything I'm saying. With Kanami, it's pretty much just like speaking to anyone of you. She's fairly fluent and the fact that she learned from an Australian person means her thick Aussie accent knocks out what would have been her Japanese accent in her English. It's quite funny though when she switches from Japanese to English. When she speaks Japanese, her voice is audible only to dogs and radios but once she speaks English her voice drops to that of an alto. It seems to be a subconsciously added accent to add to the "Hello-kitty" kawai image.

It's been a long day though and I can't wait to get home. I still have another hour or more here, but hopefully it will pass by soon. :)

And I keep buying grapefruit juice. It's really good and really fresh and is really good with the pulp. A liter has about as much sugar as an ice cream does, but meh, grapefruits are supposed to be healthy right?

Don't want to leave but can't wait to leave at the same time,

Tim Soo

Maciej's Departure

All good things must come to an end.

Maciej and I couldn't really sleep (having woken up so late) and ended up being awake for most of the night (sans 30 minutes sleep) on Sunday. Unfortunately for me, I still had to go to work so I ran off very little sleep for the entire day at work.

At work, I did some confocal (Japanese lab equipment is wicked cool. I mean it's the same as in the states, just cleaner and more organized), which wasn't too successful, but then again it wasn't really for my own project anyways.

I also had a talk with Orihara-san (Kanami). When I first came to the lab, I was told I should probably focus only on my own project and not ask to join in others' work. Kanami came up to me and as it turns out, they were all wondering why I was only focusing on my own project and not just jumping in on other people's projects. I explained and it seems there was a bit of miscommunication between lab members but all is worked out. We'll make the best of these last twenty days!

After the long day I went home and slept for a couple hours. Tonight was Maciej's official going-away gathering so I had to wake up. Even more people this time (people had brought friends and some new people had moved into the building) were on the roof and just in general having a good time.

Chris (the one I mistook for an American) I found out grew up on a boat. How wicked is that? Most your life is spent on a boat traveling from place to place. Anyways, shortly into the night I went back to sleep and woke up to the sun. Now at this point I've had a 30 minute restless nap the night before, then a 2 hour nap, and then another four hours of sleep, but I felt okay. So after chatting with some people I just went off to work catching the second bus of the day (7:11 AM)... and was the first one at work. That was a new experience.

I'm frantically trying to write these 14 single-spaced pages of summer homework before I get back to the states while trying to become more involved in lab. My brain's racked. :) But it's a good feeling.

Mata ashita.

Tim-san

Updddaaattesss

My titles are becoming less creative.

Friday was kinda sad since my cells weren't working out too well. Turns out it'll all still be okay for experiments and it was just a mishap in communication. Apparently, some of the instructions we were given to grow the cells were not correct, but error has hence been corrected.

Two other experiments also didn't work out that day. Not mine, but still. Seems like a bad experiment day.

The weekend was kind of a blur. Thursday night I was tired of eating Japanese food so I made chicken tacos... which tasted vaguely close to the actual thing but still ended up tasting Japanese. Then Friday was the day of bad experimenting. (I'm not entirely sure about the events henceforth, but I'm guessing). Maciej and I went for ramen and I think I fell asleep at one point. The weekend was filled with lots of light sleeping... it wasn't a good weekend for sleep.

Anyways I woke up around 12 AM and we were looking around to see who was up.. but everyone was asleep (like around 12:00... people work on the weekends b/c when you teach English, you work when the Japanese aren't working) and we were being silly in the hallways with our Mt. Fuji sticks (swinging them around like samurai warriors)

Every once in a while it's good to have an immature moment right?

I had a thing of milk (I hadn't properly had milk since I've been here) and well that was a mistake. I used to be mildly lactose intolerant so skim generally is the best for me. They don't have to concept of skim milk here. It wasn't pretty.

Oh sidenote. At work Friday I was on instant message with three different people, using Spanish in one, English in another, and Japanese in a third. Twas wicked hard, but awesome. (Japanese still needs a lot of work...)

After I had conked out and woken up and run around with sticks, Maciej and I went to the grocery store (they open until one) and I got myself some grapefruit juice, Japanese yogurt, and maybe something else. I can't really remember. Then we watched some Russell Peters on my computer. Called Ben, answered facebook wall posts, pretty much an uneventful night. But one I needed from the stress of research... :)

Maciej and his Humping Dog

Well, 'cause we stayed up so late, Maciej and I woke up late on Saturday. We then caught a long train to Akihabara and bought.. you guessed it "Humping Dog". Maciej wanted it. That really was our only goal for going to Akihabara. Lol. Most stores were actually already closed (there was a fireworks festival that night and we didn't feel like going) and by chance we happened to find it at one of the 24 hr Anime/Manga/Cosplay/Accesories store. I'm not really sure what else to call it.

You can dress up as Alice, Goku, or Ichigo!

Naruto Headbands. I so wanted to buy one... but then I realized I wasn't a ninja. *sigh*

We had ramen at the same shop we had ramen at w/ David a month ago, and it's the best one we've had yet. (And the least oily).

We took a faster train back and then there was a gathering of people on the roof. I took a nap first but joined them later on (around 2). It was lots of fun. The most people from our building I've seen together at one time I think. We played cards, chatted, shot BBguns at cans, and lots of other general merriment. When the other half of the building showed up from partying all night (and having a bit too much to drink), I took that as a sign and went back down. Sleep came very slowly and I slept on and off for about 12 hours. My sleep cycle's getting mad at me but I think it'll be reset come Monday.




The sewer caps in Japan are especially designed (by some dude, I forget) to represent their purpose along with some other descriptions in the design (not really sure). But I took a picture of a couple along with some ground designs I saw in Akihabara.



Sunday we woke up and after initial awakening, went for... you guessed it Ramen. Well I say we go for ramen but I've long become tired of it (Maciej still loves it) so I order different things every time. There's this fried rice type of thing that is really good. They give you cooked rice and the ingredients with a raw egg on top and serve it to you in a big black pan. You then cook it yourself and eat, giving the rice a bit of crunchiness where you've let it sit longer. Nom.

Tonight I had the noodle equivalent and it came with a bowl of soup. Yum.

As we came back, we ran into Sally who asked us if we wanted to go for Mexican food. And we didn't have much else to do so we said why not. We met up with her friends Mara and Bryan (from GABA, a English teaching school) and went to this Mexican place, which turned out to be like a Mexican-American place (somewhat like a Chili's that's run by a Japanese manager). No matter what the portions and food always turn out Japanese. I ordered enchiladas and they were very Japanese size (maybe 5-6 inches long) and there were two of them. Normally it wouldn't have been enough but I had just eaten dinner so twas okay. I was surprised by the fact that the ginger ale had free refills. We laughed, ate, chatted late into the night and got back around 1 (it was about a 35 minute walk away). To where we are now. I think Maciej and I will head to the 7-11 to get some ice cream (and grapefruit juice for me... it's really good!) and then sleep... if I can.

Happy Humping..... Dogs that is.

:)

Tim Soo

So...

My cells are dying. Or rather, they're dead. Not sure what happened, we followed everything down to a T... and they died. Great eh? At the end of the 9 weeks they want me to present on my research and results, but uhh... it's not really going too hot to be honest. We'll see how it turns out.

Tim Soo

Last Night

Unfortunately, we're losing Reiji to the army. He's an army captain (a joke that Hire loves to play off of) and has to return to duty after this week is over. As Japan isn't really in too much of a need of an army right now, he'll still be able to visit every once in a while but he's moving to Sendai and is engaged to be married (as of last week).

Here are some pictures from our goodbye dinner festivities.


I particularly like Shu-he's face in the back with the chopsticks which I found out were called waribashi. The dictionary came in handy last night when we were trying to translate odd words... like urn, grain wine, etc.

Oh and to add to the list of odd food that I've eaten, pretty much throw on any part of a chicken you can think of... and I've eaten it. Okay maybe not all. But chicken liver, chicken stomach, chicken breast (thank goodness that one was normal), chicken etc etc etc. There was a yakatori plate with every part of the chicken. I think that's how they get by without having too much meat... by eating every part that they do have. And if I would have imagined what liver tastes like... that's what it tasted like. I must say it wasn't too pleasant on my palette. Much like a dry fleshy paste. Yum.



But we had fun, they treated me again. (B/c I was a student... they wouldn't even let me pay when I said it's technically my school paying for it. *sigh*). And as Japanese gatherings go, it went late into the night and it was 11 by the time I arrived at home. Oh and the train stopped partway... much like the bus did before, though I had an inkling it might because there was a kanji for UP added to the blinking message on the train (when it normally just carries the name). No worries though, I wasn't far from home so I just walked. :)

Earthquake

Friday was fairly uneventful. Though I did find out that the cells that we had clones of cells that I had been waiting for so long... ah well. We stayed up Friday for the day ahead...

Oh and as you'll read, I just experienced my first earthquake ever (that I was awake for, I've slept through about 3). At least that's what I can assume it was. The entire building and floor beneath me shook. Twas cool.

That last post also took me pretty much the entire day. I came to work today forgetting that today was a national holiday. Well I remembered, but wasn't sure if we had the day off and no one picked up when I called. Better safe than sorry right? Well I finally finished the post at 9:20 PM. Hope you'll read it.

I'm going home. :)

Climbing Mount Fuji: A journey to remember

"You are wise to climb Fuji once and a fool to climb it twice"

That's a popular quote about the Mt. Fuji climbing experience. After having climbed and returned, I completely and totally agree.

This will, my friends, be one of the most epic posts of this blog filled with more pictures and videos than probably needed. But this was my journey, my story... and it deserves to be told.

Okay so maybe not that dramatic. But it's a day later and I can't walk. We'll start from the beginning...

This has nothing to do with Mt. Fuji, but the other day I was kicked off the bus (the bus for some reason finished it's route midway rather than going all the way back...) So I walked back home and saw this hair salon... Black baby...


Okay sorry. Back to the Fuji story. Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan. At 3776 meters high, we'd need much prep work to manage. We had stayed up late that Friday so we could sleep in as late as humanly possible on Saturday. We would need the rest. We ended up waking up around 2 PM on Saturday and began our preparations. Maciej went to Harajuku to buy a jacket, I went to go buy supplies and rations.


We each brought with us 7 onigiri (pictured above), winter clothes, extra change of clothes, 2 liter bottle of water and some other trinkets (lights, money, etc.) Our backpacks were full. By the time we were both back and packed, it was around 5ish. Unfortunately, we got distracted. Maciej's jacket had some Japanese on it and we had no idea what to make of it. So we slowly translated it (took about an hour) just to find out it was a tongue twister. In English, it said Oil Album. In Japanese, it was Abura Arubamu. Now try saying that 10 times fast.

After a few fits of laughter and such, it was after 6 and we were late. The bus to Mt. Fuji we wanted to catch was at 7:50.

Pre-sprinting for the Train Station. This marked the beginning.

Oh. And we saw a kitty. It was funny.

Without thinking, I ran to the way I normally get to Shibuya and by the time Maciej pointed out that there was a much faster way to Shinjuku (where the bus was) it was already too late. So after a sprint to the train station (about 400 meters), we headed to Shibuya and then to Shinjuku. It was only then when we got off the train that we realized neither of us had any idea where the bus stop was... in the biggest train station in Japan. The same station that had 9 exits are more buses than one could count. And all we knew was... we had to go West.

It definitely did NOT help that the train was packed.

We're sweating, but still high in spirits. We were going to climb Mt. Fuji!

We searched the bus terminals for a long time with no luck as we closed in to 30 minutes before bus departure. I frantically looked for the number to the English Help Line but hadn't thought to bring it. By chance, we came across a bus map and found out we wanted bus fifty and got an idea of the general region where it was. And again by luck, Maciej directed us to the correct bus station.

To bring more trouble, the bus area was full of similarly backpacked and ready-to-travel Fuji-climbers. We had had some idea that it was popular, but had no idea it would be that difficult. It would be awhile before we figured out most people made reservations for the bus ticket to Fuji. But we went to the ticket counter and prayed there was space on the reservation-only buses. And there were seats... two.

After we were home free, had tickets, and 5 minutes until departure time.

By this point we had only ten minutes until the bus was scheduled to leave and we finally got our tickets... on separate buses, yes. But hey, we had a way to Fuji-san.

Relieved that we were on our way...

Now this is how it worked. There are 9 "stations" on the way from the bottom to the top of Mount Fuji. The bus we were on takes you to Kawaguchiko Station Five at about 2300 meters high. Kawaguchiko was the name of the trail we were taking up the mountain. There are many trails, but this one was the most popular to take by night because it was the side that the sun came up on. It seemed everyone wanted to seem that sunrise.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful. I sat next to a Korean girl named Yuki who had been here for a year. Talking was VERY difficult because our only "common" language was Japanese. I whipped out my dictionary and struggled to tell her who I was, how long I had studied Japanese, etc etc. The basics. I was much relieved when I talked to a brother Matt and sister Megan sitting behind us from Canada, though they both seemed to have the perception that all Georgians had ridiculously unintelligible accents and was fairly unpopulated. Ah Canada.

I spent the latter half of the ride wondering about life, death, ambition and other things that you think about when your mind wanders. It was a peaceful experience.

Arrival! Everyone got ready.

Only 1 in 100 Japanese people climb Mt Fuji. Granted that's a lot of people, but there were still a lot more. It seemed half of the people there were tourists.

Open all night long...

We arrived after a 2 and a half hour drive to find only a couple places open. After waiting for Maciej's bus, we met up and went into the store to get a couple walking sticks. From our internet guide websites, these were apparently a "must have."

We seem so happy... that would change. The mountain made sure of it.

Things were more expensive on the mountain. The general idea was the higher up you went, the more expensive it got. At the fifth station they also sold oxygen by aerosol cans for 1200 yen. It seemed silly at the time, so we declined with the limited money we had... a decision we would regret.

And then we were off.

We actually weren't too sure which way to go. We just figured... follow the masses. This idea seemed good at first, until it had been a half of an hour and all we had done was walk down hill. Were we going the right way? So we said 15 more minutes and then we turn around. A French couple even stopped us to ask the same question. No one seemed to know. Yay majority...

Confirmation.

Yay! We were going the right way. After going down hill for a while there were two paths. One went further down, and the other was a rocky trail up (that smelled a bit like horse dung). Fortunately and unfortunately, we went up the (horse-dunged) trail up the mountain.

Now the beginning seemed okay. We were walking uphill and it was very difficult to talk between the heavy gasps for air (it was a steep incline) but the conversation was still light enough for the occasional joke. And soon enough, we had reached the sixth station. That wasn't hard. Piece of cake. Only four more treks like this and we were good... right? Wrong.

Yay. We reached the six station! Still all smiles.

The walking sticks worked like this. As you went up the mountain, there would be people with branding sticks stuck in coals to burn a stamp onto your walking stick, marking your achievements as you went up the mountain. We couldn't really find the guy at the sixth station and only saw a guy sitting around a barrel. We'd find out later that that barrel was filled with hot coals and the guy was the stamper dude. We missed the 6th stamp.

The "sixth station" marker.

Maciej and I were also handed maps for the mountain that gave a bit of safety info and estimated times. We had to depend on Maciej's though, because they gave me the Japanese one. Even though we were walking together...

To get to the sixth station, it was mainly a long horizontal walk across the side of the mountain with an incline, but one that was not too difficult. After the sixth station, that changed.

There was a fork in the road. We couldn't see the sign. So we took a picture of it. And we still couldn't read the sign. Yay...

After the sixth station, it was pretty much a zig-zag slope that continually went upwards. It had to be at least a 30 degree incline. Maciej and I aren't olympic athletes, but we weren't exactly unfit either. And we had to stop to breathe about every two slopes. The slopes were rocky so every once in a while you'd slip and depend on the walking stick for balance. Not to mention it was nearly impossible to see clearly even with the headlight. It was actually easier to see w/o it to just let your eyes adjust to the moon.

This was taken 37 minutes after we reached the sixth station. It was cold out, and yes those two bands on my shirt are sweat. Twas rough.

At this point we could see some lights of huts and things high up in the sky. At first it was only a collection of dots that seemed to be coming from one building. Later we would learn that that was the seventh station.

The trek between the 5th and 6th station was the merry-go-around and the trek between the seventh and eighth was sky-diving... without a parachute. To be completely honest, I knew it was going to be difficult, but I would have never imagined this. And I would have turned around eventually if I could, but this trail was only safe going up (if you went down, you'd probably fall and die) so we had no choice but to press forward... and we weren't even at the seventh station yet.

I read a blog about some guy who climbed it and said getting through to the seventh station was a cinch. I'm going to go find that guy and beat him up. He lies.

We reached the seventh station!

Another hour passed since reaching the 6th station and we were at the seventh. This really doesn't sound like much (an hour walk, piece of cake right?) but it was all uphill, non-stop, and after having already walked 3 km.

After reaching the seventh station, we left our troubles behind and were just happy to reach the ball of lights... which turned out to be about 10 or 11 separate huts. But our spirits were once again at a high. We had done two, we could do more. Grr.

Maciej reading the guidelines for climbing.

Yep there were rules. Perhaps the most annoying one was that you kept all your trash, which was perfectly understandable (and it kept the mountain remarkable clean) but annoying nonetheless. You run out of places to put it all.

The restrooms were by donation. Please donate 100 yen so we can keep them clean. And most people did.

It was amazing how well people followed the rules in Japan. It seemed to me the only people I saw ignoring these rules were foreigners. It was cool though. We met a bunch of different people along the way. A large group was from the JET program (English teaching program), many French people, Chinese tour groups (oh the stereotypes), some Indian groups, and of course, the Japanese.

It's at the 7th or 8th stop that most people stop to sleep for 3-4 hours before continuing on. Maciej and I of course were part of the group planning to trek it all night. It was beginning to get more crowded though as those who had been sleeping were waking up to rejoin the journey.

The seventh station and all its stops. This is where we got our first stamp. The guy looked puzzled at how we were at the seventh stop and managed not to have the sixth, so he left a gap in between our fifth and seventh stamp so we could go back for it later. Or in our cases, have an empty gap on our sticks to remind us that we forgot.

Inside a place that did stamps, most were outside. This guy was smarter.

We also got a stamp marking the year that we climbed. It seemed wise to get. There were tons of other ones too, but it cost 200 yen per stamp and it didn't seem worth it to get 20 different stamps saying virtually the same thing in a language we couldn't read anyways.

It began to get crowded... By the way, at around this point Maciej and I started feeling miserable; the cheery smiles in the videos from here on out are completely fake. Turn off the camera and we were back to hating life. Okay, so maybe not THAT bad... yet.


Just getting through all the huts at the seventh station took a while. It wasn't a station so much as a bunch of little shops that went up for a while. Most of the people who run these shops stay up there for weeks and months at a time and go down every once in a while to get supplies. Thus they have every right in the world to charge 300 Yen for a drink. It got more expensive as you went up.

There were a lot of shops though. And it took another 30 minutes just to get through it all.

The view, however, was quite magnificent. The headlamps made it seem like there was a very organized group of fireflies that went all the way up the mountain and all the way down the mountain. The moon was at it's brightest and the shops shown very beautifully. None of my pictures turned out too well though. I might be able to include some of Maciej's.


Oh and it hit 12:00 around the 7th station. Happy Birthday Maciej! This would be a very memorable (albiet horribly painful) birthday.



"This is how many people are here, at 2 in the morning."

So it wasn't really two in the morning yet. But hey, it felt like it. We had only really been walking for about 2 hours. We'd have another 5 ahead of us. It was very crowded though.

Maciej beat me up there and took a picture of me arriving.

Believe it or not, it got remarkably easier (in terms of tiredness) from the seventh to the eighth, at least part way. There were so many people that you couldn't do much except go slowly, instead of working at a steady but rapid rate as we had done earlier. At the point the picture below was taken, another hour and half had passed since we had reached the start of the seventh station and we needed nourishment.

Onigiri time! (Wiki it if you don't know what it is)

We had been eating onigiri steadily on the way up, but for some reason it was at this point we hit the late night binge. We ate all but one of our onigiri's (we'd be too tired and sick to eat anymore later) before continuing up the mountain.


We had fun with slow shutter speed while we took a break. It's supposed to say "we rock." And we do rock.

1:34. Still goin...

2 AM. Too cold for comfort. Getting Dressed

I had been climbing without a jacket for a while now. It was about 50 degrees but it was fine as long as you kept moving. Around 2 AM, it was no longer possible. The wind chill was picking up and well, it was just pretty dang cold. We threw on our pants and jackets and had to keep going. The eighth station was getting closer...

Reaching the eighth station!

Between the seventh and eighth stations, two things started happening. Along the side of the trails you'd see people passed out, not just taking breaks. Taking breaks was normal, healthy and recommended. These people just couldn't take it any more and had opted to fall asleep on the side, because you couldn't go back down and you had to keep going. You had little choice but to fall asleep. It wasn't just kids and older people either. All ages. Around this time we saw a few kids getting sick into bins because of the altitude sickness. Even our heads were starting to feel a bit woozy. It was very unsatisfying to breathe in and receive less oxygen than you expected. The second thing that happened between the 7th and 8th was that my legs started giving out. As in every once in a while I had to stretch or else I would pull a muscle/get a charley-horse. If you've never experienced these, it's when you feel your muscle pull and then experience extreme pain for about 2-3 minutes, and then goes away leaving your muscle feel sore. Normally I'd just let it pull and keep going. Unfortunately, it was almost every muscle group in my leg. Calves, Hamstrings, Quads. It hurt.

Beating my leg with the stick after stretching stopped working. It was the only way I could keep walking.

We'd lost the urge to even smile. Kinda.

Spirits are high... for the wrong reasons.

In that video it seems like we're very happy. And we thought we had reason to be. It had only been 35 minutes and we were at the 9th/original eighth station. The ninth station used to be the eighth station but they built another one in between so this became the 9th or original eighth station. It had only taken 35 minutes when our guide sheet estimated 80 minutes. Man we were fast. Keep reading folks, it gets depressing.

The moon was gorgeous, emanating brighter than I've ever seen it. It almost made all the pain worth it. Almost. (Taken at 2:45 AM)


Passing through... something. I have no idea what this even was. A little help Maciej?

2:55 AM. We think we're almost at the top. Keep in mind folks that my voice is completely fake. I'd jump off the mountain to end it all, but I don't think my legs could have jumped.

Depressing-ville. At 3:15, we reach a station. The TRUE original eighth/ninth station. And it did take us about 80 minutes. Seems the sheet knew what it was talking about. I sound like I'm enjoying the irony, but trust me, I'm not. It's freezing (there is snow along the side of the mountain next to us) and we are not amused.


We got our stamps... and moved on. These "stations" were very deceiving. Two of our stamps on the stick both said eighth station in Japanese. However one eighth station was a full 100 km higher up. I need clearer definition!

Somewhere along the way, my legs just stop feeding off fat and carbs and started burning pure protein. Survival mode. I think I could have kept going for a long time (in pain of course) after that. My legs stopped threatening to pull, but at the same time were just constantly burning.

3:40 AM

Past the first hut on the ninth station, it became so incredibly packed. We could only shuffle a little bit at a time. And it was also tempting to just walk outside the marked path... if we wanted to die that is.

Sunrise was scheduled at 4:30. At 4:10, the sun started coming up (the video above) and we had had enough. Seems everyone else had the same idea and stopped to watch the sunrise. We didn't make our goal to reach the top by sunrise, but I don't think either of us cared.

In all seriousness, I gained a respect for those who don't break under torture. I always wondered how people could give up their country, their families, or anything when under torture. Now I can't compare the magnitude of that to my own journey, but on a mild level, I no longer cared about our goal, about being strong and continuing on, about watching the sunrise (what we had climbed for 5 hours thus far for)... all I wanted was to go back to my bed. Had my head not been throbbing in pain and in complete exhaustion, I would have stopped and just cried. In retrospect, I think "what a journey." But it really was that hard.

Maciej, who had not eaten anything all day since he woke up on Saturday except for those few onigiri, finally put his foot down and we stopped for ramen. It wasn't that great, but it was warm and it was food. It was around 2 degree centigrade with the wind chill and we had had enough.

Food. Glorious Food.

To actually go into the shop (not even sleep there) cost 3000 yen. We only had enough cash left on us to buy the ramen, I had started the day with 10000 yen. No idea that climbing a Mountain would be that expensive.

Happy Birthday Maciej. You got your ramen.

The lady who worked there spoke remarkably good English. It seems they all have to learn if you're going to work in a place where half the people are tourists. I just wonder what the foreigners who don't even speak English do.

From here on out there are going to be lots of scenic pictures. As the sun came out, the lighting improved for my camera... so lo and behold. Much more pictures. I took a ton but only a small percentage. Enjoy.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the video where you can't even hear my voice b/c the wind is so fast that my voice didn't even carry.

Just to give you an idea of what we were walking on, see the picture. In the picture it actually looks solid because of the camera's flash, but I promise you... it's all loose. It's amazing I didn't break an ankle.

One of my favorites. Ground, Snow, Grass and Cloud all in the same shot.

We're almost there. Almost there

The last stretch of probably 100 km vertically was probably only 10-12 zig zags of 100 meters each... but it was rocky and packed. Meaning we were moving at a rate of a foot per 10 seconds.

Which meant... plenty of time for amazing pictures. This is all done with my 6 MP point and shoot camera. Nature's awesome isn't it?

Just to give you an idea of the queue to get up...

Take a look around.

I don't think I've ever been this high above the clouds and not been in a plane.

See the white thing? We're almost there..!!!!

Maciej and I are in dire pain. But we can see the finish. It's keeping us going.

Almost there.

I can't believe I climbed this just a day ago. Doesn't seem possible. And yes, that's me singing horribly. I'm kinda delirious. It's 6:20 in the morning. And it's been an 8 hour journey.

Just looking at this picture, I get emotional. Maciej is also in a similar state of disbelief. I still can't believe we pulled it off. We made it. To the top.

No idea what this says, but people kept taking pictures of it so it must be important. We were there. We got our stamps (this time not burned, but hammered in with red ink).

Beautiful.

Tons of people were sleeping at the top. They too had made the journey.

We can barely walk. Our original plan was to walk around the crater at the top but after taking a quick 5 minute break (the first time I've ever seen the individual rods and cones in my eyes move around... i.e. I was seeing things) we started to walk around... and we had lost our resolve. The highest point in Japan was on the other side, only a half an hour walk away. And we couldn't do it. All we wanted to do was go home.


With all the luck it took to get us up there, it seems karma was paying us a visit. We could not have had any more obstacles getting down the mountain and home. We had been looking forward to the jog down. Across the mountain on the way up we could see people walking down the mountain briskly. Secretly I thought, well we could just jog that and we'll be down in no time. The guy with the blog that I mentioned above made it in two hours. This is another reason to beat him down.


It wasn't walking, to get down faster the incline was sharper so you had to ski down in your shoes. Unfortunately because of the way up, my shoes had lost all tread and now had a couple holes in them, meaning every few zigs and zags I had to empty my shoes of dirt. The trail (and mountain) was just all lava rocks. They were brittle enough to break with your hands but solid enough to roll out under your feet. Great, eh?

Your feet would continually slip out from under you and there was no way of telling if your next step would be firm or hazardous. Remarkably Maciej and I managed never to fall completely, either bearing down on our walking sticks (it REALLY came in handy then) or on each other.

In the beginning, we had to stop every few minutes out of complete exhaustion and lack of desire to continue forth. We had thought the descent to be easy, and when we realized it was anything but, we had no desire to move. And I have never had that huge of a headache in my life. But I just ignored it as much as I could, making conversation with Maciej, talking of jokes and life... and kept going.


On the descent, we had to depend on my Japanese version of the map to get down because I had lost the English version somewhere along the way (I would later find it in the jacket I had long put away). And we needed it because the trail split multiple times depending on where you wanted to end up on the bottom of the mountain. Luckily, I could match Kanji decently well.

After too many breaks, we decided we couldn't stop until we got back to the fifth station. No matter what. True to our word, we started flying down the mountain.


Oh and the views, if possible, got even more beautiful. The green and blue went well together.


I think what made it the most difficult was the fact when we were walking into the wind (half the time), the dust came up from peoples' feet and landed in our eyes, mouths, faces.. well, everywhere. So half the time I had my eyes closed. Not a smart move when going down a mountain, but there wasn't much other choice.


And we finally reached bottom. Remember that 3 km trek we had to do in the beginning before we started going up? Yeah we had to do that again. Except instead of being downhill like it was in the beginning... it was uphill. But it was all still very surreal and gorgeous.

And no, I wasn't really feeling better. Just trying the whole mind over matter thing. Worked for a while.

On the way, we reached cloud level. For me it was a dream come true. As a kid, I always had this dream of catching a cloud with a grocery bag and taking it home with me. And this was the first time in my life I literally could see myself walking down into the cloud and see it physically brush past me. And sorry to break it to you, but it IS different than fog.

On the way we passed the 6th station again. And saw a funny sign. How do you get to the top of Mt. Fuji? Arrow points down, sir. If that's the case, then Maciej and I seriously did it wrong.


After all that dirt, we're a bit dirt-y. Heh. heh. Oh and I found a beetle in my hair. Wonder when it got there.

We made it down in three hours. It was 10 AM and it had been nearly 12 hours since we started our climb up. We had finished.

Now this is where the pictures and videos end, but far from the end of our story. After we got back to the fifth station, we had to figure out how to get back. This is where karma really kicked us hard. It had only taken 2 hours and 30 minutes to get there. The journey back took much longer

Maciej bought some souvenirs and we cleaned up a little bit. We then tried to find the bus. I found a bus schedule posted somewhere but we had no idea where the stop was. The same small one shopped place from before had become a huge village of everything imaginable. Including 100+ buses.

We had to take a break though. Neither of us could see straight much less think straight. So we stopped and took a breather drinking Vitamin Water (and hoped the vitamins would help). Finally we found the information desk and bus stop just to find out it wouldn't be until 1 Pm that there would be a free spot on the bus to get home the same way we got to Fuji. So we opted to find another way. (By the way, as I'm writing this sentence, there is an earthquake going on and I'm on the top floor of my building.)

We found the local bus, but that would be here for an hour, but that was our only option. So we waited. The bus was supposed to arrive but hadn't, two other bus lines schedule to come after our bus had already come and gone. It seemed our bus wasn't coming. Finally it showed. There was major traffic getting up the mountain so it was taking them a long time.

The sold-out buses that took us straight back (the ones we came on) had also arrived and this group of obnoxious American guys harassed the poor Japanese attendant to let them on and take the spots of the people who didn't show up. I felt bad for the drivers and information desk guy. They were just being very polite and didn't know what else to do but say "okay." I was not going to get on a bus like that.

But it seemed for every piece of luck we had getting to Fuji, there was a piece of bad luck stopping us to get home.

After the buses finally came, a huge mass of people had arrived to try and get on it. I had a run in with a rude Japanese man (I don't blame him, after that climb I wasn't too nice either) angrily said "You two get in back. There a line. You have get in back. You can't just step in front." To which I responded "Sir, my friend and I have been here for two hours," we had only been there for one, but still. I continued, "we've been here before there even was a line and have been waiting patiently for the bus to arrive. I promise you that." Then a French chick backed me up (or at least I think she did, I couldn't really understand her.)... to which the Japanese man made a wondrously intelligible response of "uhhh......."

The crowd was pushing like crazy as they fought to get on the bus and it took everything in me to shout Polish curses (Maciej taught me) and tell them to back off. After the buses' seats were full, I got on and was worried Maciej wasn't going to get on. I said to the driver "Tomodachi desu" and pointed to Maciej. It seemed he was going to get on anyways because they packed the bus as much as they could and we were off. We weren't really sure where to, except we knew it was a train station. We later found out it was Kawaguchiko station.

We couldn't sleep just yet b/c we had to stand. So for the hour and a half ride down, we stood still with throbbing headaches, lack of sleep, and were sweating hard (which was not good for our bodies after having been in 2 degree weather only hours before). We finally got there and had no money at all having spent the last of our PASMO money on the bus ticket and the last of our change on the Vitamin Waters. But we had to get home.

The train station HAD to have an ATM right? Nope.

Then at least they would have to take credit card, C'mon it's Japan! Double nope.

Some of the huts on the mountain even took VISA and this train station did not. So after figuring out that the fastest way would be to take the express bus to Shinjuku (a two hour plus ride) we started walking to the nearest 711 to go to an ATM. Granted it was only a 200 meter walk, it was still tough in our condition.

When we got back there was only 1 seat left on the Shinjuku bus and there were two of us. So we waited the 35 minutes for the next one to come. I changed into some other clothes and wiped off as much dirt as I could (it seemed to be reproducing on my skin) and waited.

A phone call to a friend brought my spirits up a little, but I was still dead tired and couldn't think properly. And there was a creepy guy next to us trying to talk about our trip. I tried to be polite, Maciej ignored him. I wish I could have been like Maciej... because man I wanted to use my walking stick for evil.

Finally at 1:10 the bus came, we got on and before it even left both Maciej and I were asleep.

It was the fastest bus ride I've been on, because when I opened my eyes, we were in Shinjuku. I guess a 12 hour climb has its uses, eh?

Our luck turned a bit here. We caught the Keio line to the Setagaya line trains just as they were arriving at the station so we didn't have to wait at all.

Finally we could see home. Our original plan of getting ramen afterwards? No way. After a quick stop at the grocery store to get fluids and healthy recovery nourishment (and a stop at the bakery to get some nom nom's), we were home. The last stretch WAS very hard.

We threw off all our stuff. And just rested. We couldn't sleep yet. Our bodies didn't remember what it was to TRULY sleep. So we rested, then showered and finally a bit after four, we fell asleep. Woke up around midnight, and around 4 AM, went back to sleep. It had been a 26 hour day, most of which was spent climbing uphill.

If you ever do decide to climb Mt. Fuji, power to you. It's an experience. Oh and bring suntan lotion. Turns out at the top of the mountain there is pretty much no atmosphere to protect you from the sun. So we both got fairly burned. It's something one should do in their lifetime. But whoever said that quote is right, you're flipping out of your mind if you do it twice.

The trip did teach me a bit though. In addition to what I've already mentioned, I've learned to have faith in the human body. It can be put through a lot. A lot more than I ever thought it could handle. God made us pretty dang well. Now granted, the amount of recovery time is directly related to lengths of which I tortured by body... I'll be feeling this for a while.

And I'm sore in muscles I didn't know I had. I had climbed over 1 km vertically. But it was a great experience. I wouldn't take it back... but I'll never do it again.

By the way, the panoramic pictures at the top and bottom are pictures we took. Click on 'em. It's gorgeous.