My buddy Fudge was out from Vancouver for the last few weeks and to end his trip he really wanted to climb Fuji. Because I had already done it last year, I wasn't that interested but his incessant whining eventually wore me down.
Mt. Fuji is 3,776 m high, and last erupted in 1707. There are several routes you can take from different points around the mountain, and the one we were taking started at an altitude of 2,200 m. Fuji is high enough that many people experience altitude sickness, and I had it last year, ending up with a booming headache, that being one of the reasons I didn't really want to climb it again.
We had planned to start early Friday evening but when we arrived at Kawaguchiko, one of the bases for the climb, the weather was cloudy and it was raining on the mountain. They told us, however, that the weather for Saturday was looking clear. So we changed our plans, and got a room for the night, and then took a bus to the 5th station (the start point) at 7:30 in the morning. We started climbing about 8:30 and reached the top around 2 in the afternoon. The one downside to this was that we did not see the sunrise from the peak, but this was more than offset by not having to spend 7 or 8 hours hiking in the dark and the rain and the cold.
This was the last weekend of the official season, so the mountain was quite busy. There was a really big group of Americans from the Military base near Yokohama and probably a quarter of the people on the mountain were Westerners, which was weird for me to see, because where I live I see very few foreigners.At the top of the mountain we saw this tori (gate) in the middle picture, covered with bells on ribbons, left there by hikers over the years.Partway up the mountain I saw this European guy carrying his mountain bike up! He was going to the top so that he could ride down. Very impressive.All in all, Fudge had an awesome time, and I enjoyed it also although near the top I could feel my head starting to throb, and by the time I reached the base again, it was a splitting headache, leading me to vow to never do Fuji again! Although I'm sure next summer someone will sucker me in again.
I just got back from a festival that was being held in the park beside Trev's place. Wakako made us some sweet Thai food for dinner and then we walked across the street to the festival that the neighbourhood holds every year to celebrate Obon, a huge part of the Japanese culture where they remember the people from their families who have died.
Dancing is usually a big part of Obon festivals, and this one was no exception. They had a big stage set up in the centre and people were dancing in big circles around the stage. There was a guy playing a big Japanese drum on the stage. Most of the people dancing were old women and children, most of whom were wearing yukatas.
There were also a few games for the kids, and in the top picture you can see Noah (well, Trev's doing the work), using a small net, made of thin paper so that it dissolves quickly, to try and scoop little balls into a bucket. You have to move really slowly, or the paper tears and the net becomes useless. Noah ended up with 3 balls.
Trev's place is very close to Oono elementary school where I teach at a few times a month. So as I was walking around, I would see kids all of a sudden get a surprised look on their face and gasp, "Jason-sensei". The braver ones would approach me and say hello. Unfortunately, I've only taught each class twice so far, and with the classes being around 70 students, for a total of over 400, not surprisingly I can't recognize most of them yet. So any kid that showed any sign of recognition of me, I just assumed that I teach them. The two girls in the bottom picture go to Oono and kept trying to get me to dance. However, being uninterested in making a complete fool of myself, I declined. Unfortunately, Trev had to get in the picture and pose and ruin it.
Last week I went on a day trip to Takamatsu, a small city on the island of Shikoku, just across the Inland Sea from Honshu (the main island of Japan). Even though it's only an hour by train, I had never made it there before.
Shikoku is a very beautiful island, and even though it was pretty cloudy in Okayama when I left, it was all sun all the time in Takamatsu.
I met up with my friend Jo who lives there. She gave me the grand tour and took me up one of the really tall buildings where you can get a great view of the city and the many islands just offshore.
Afterwards, even though Takamatsu is famous for its udon (thick, salty noodles), we went to her favourite Indian restaurant, where I had the best butter chicken I've had in years, along with some unreal cheese naan. Good times!!
Takamatsu is also famous for Ritsurin Koen, supposedly one of the most beautiful landscape gardens in Japan (although it doesn't rate in the top 3). It was very beautiful and surprisingly deserted. I was there for about an hour and a half and only saw 20 or 25 people.
The garden was built over a period of 100 years beginning in the early 17th century, and is the largest garden in Japan.
I know I don't get out much, but I've never seen a dog wearing headphones before. This old guy walked in front of me, pushing his bike, and his dog was chilling in the basket, kicking back listening to some gangsta rap. No, I have no idea what the dog was listening to, but I saw the mp3 player in the basket and I could hear sound coming from the headphones. I thought people in Canada were nuts over their pets.
Some of my students have even told me that in Japan it's not that unusual for people to have their dogs wear pyjamas at night. I'm not even gonna say how ridiculous I think that is.
Hot girls in skimpy clothes. Enough said. This girl was so hot, I had to give her her own post. Seriously. Drop dead gorgeous.
By the way, I think she was THE ONE, Mom, and I let her slip away. I guess that means I'm never getting married. So much for me ever giving you grandkids ;) Tee hee hee.
Check him out, ladies!! He can dance, he's got the body, he's got the threads, and he's definitely got the moves!! Let me know if you're interested, and I'll put you on the waiting list.
Fireworks are a huge part of the Japanese summer festival culture. Every weekend in the summer, especially in August, there are hundreds of fireworks festivals throughout Japan. They're always a lot of fun, and one of the highlights (at least for me) is that most of the younger women get all dressed up in their yukatas (summer kimonos) and do their makeup and hair to perfection. Very nice.
Anyways, my friend Mariko and I went to watch them last night along the Asahi River. They lasted for an hour and a half, and although I've been told there are better shows in Osaka and Tokyo, it was the best fireworks display I've ever seen. It was pretty incredible. We were lucky to get a really sweet spot, although we had to stand and have people bump into us constantly. I couldn't believe how many people there were, because normally Okayama is a very quiet city, but the streets were just packed.
The display in the first picture was called Niagara Falls. They had some kind of fireworks strung along a bridge, and they changed colours, I think from red to green to yellow. It was pretty cool.
It's all part of the Momotaro Festival, and today there's supposed to be a big parade and some groups dancing, so I'm going to go check that out later this afternoon.
As a bonus, here's a little Japanese lesson for you. Fireworks, hanabi in Japanese, is written with 2 Chinese characters,花, read hana, meaning flower, and 火, read bi, meaning fire, so it translates literally as flower fire.
My buddy Fudge was out from Vancouver for the last few weeks and to end his trip he really wanted to climb Fuji. Because I had already done it last year, I wasn't that interested but his incessant whining eventually wore me down.
This was the last weekend of the official season, so the mountain was quite busy. There was a really big group of Americans from the Military base near Yokohama and probably a quarter of the people on the mountain were Westerners, which was weird for me to see, because where I live I see very few foreigners.
