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So I started writing this 3rd part of my Japanese blog while I was staring down the last few days of a 6-week summer holiday last August. I finished writing it on the 10th December. So don't let anyone ever say I am not prolific at writing blogs!
Back at the end of August, I was still quite looking forward to getting back to teaching, but not the lesson planning part as that's a bit irritating. I was looking forward to teaching the students again though, plus I was to start at a new school so that meant I would teach at 6 schools from September, as opposed to the 5 I taught at up until July.
My new school is called Washizu Elementary School (ES) and it's the biggest ES in Kosai. It is also the closest school to where I live, so I am expecting to recognise a lot more students from now on, when buying beer from the local 7/11!
So I wrote the last blog in the middle of July just before my summer vacation started. Since then I have been pretty busy. I spent a week on holiday in Korea, I hiked the tallest mountain in Japan, Mount Fuji; I watched a fireworks display at Fukuroi, I drove across to the other side of Japan to Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures. I've seen Rob Walsh, an old school friend. I've spent time with Maki, a girl from Nagoya, and hiked around a beautiful mountain range called Tateyama, I've even obtained a Japanese driving license….
So without further ado, let me bore the pants off you and go into detail about my summer holidays….
I spent a week in Korea during the last week of July, and that was good catching up with old friends. I also got to see my old principal Mrs. Park, and my old co-teacher, HeeJin, as well as the girl who replaced me, who was very nice.
It was a little strange going back to Korea but it was good fun. I definitely miss having the bigger group of friends, only a subway ride away, and sometimes I miss living in a big city too. It does make things easier, and the social aspect was great in Korea. I didn't do much in Korea other than "eat - drink - sleep - watch Breaking Bad" for 7 days, but it was still good fun.
I still can't decide which is better, Korea or Japan. Japan is definitely quieter and cleaner. Japan is on the whole, a little friendlier towards foreigners too. People are friendlier in shops and restaurants for example, but Korea is definitely cheaper for food, drink and transport, and it definitely has a superior party and social vibe to it, and working at one school does allow you to make a stronger connection to the students and teachers.
After I go back from Korea on August 1st, I still had 4 weeks' vacation left so the next big thing was to tackle Mount Fuji on the 5th August with my American friend Dylan, who also lives in Kosai. Now I'd never hiked before really (apart from Sereoksan in Korea) so I wasn't sure how I would get on tackling Mount Fuji. I'd heard some stories that some people struggle hiking Fuji because of altitude sickness, and I'd certainly never been that high before without the protection of a plane.
I had no hiking equipment but as (at the time) I had no intentions of hiking ever again in Japan, I didn't want to go buying loads of expensive equipment I'd only use once. Ideally I wanted to hire equipment, but it was too late to do that by the time I got back from Korea.
First off I needed to find some suitable hiking shoes. I couldn't find any hiking shoes in my size (UK size 12, Japan 31cm), but amazingly managed to find some ACIS running shoes in size 30cm, which I thought would be okay and provide suitable grip. I bought a few other, cheap pieces of equipment like hiking gloves, cheap waterproof clothes etc and planned for the day of the hike.
Now for those that don't know, Japan is split into prefectures much like the UK's 50 odd British counties. There are 47 prefectures in Japan of varying sizes.
I live in Kosai City at the western edge of Shizuoka prefecture, and Mount Fuji is in the same prefecture but on the eastern edge. Still myself and Dylan thought it can't be too difficult to get there by public transport, hell you can even see Mount Fuji from my apartment on a clear day!
We were very wrong however. It took 6 hours from the moment I left my apartment until the moment I got to the starting point of the hike, a combination of 4 trains and 1 bus ride with a heavy bag full of stuff, at the height of a Japanese summer. I felt pretty tired and sweaty before I'd even started hiking.
For those of you not all that familiar with Mount Fuji (Fujisan); it is the tallest and most famous mountain in Japan at 3776 meters (12,355 feet) tall. To compare it to a mountain in the UK, it is approximately 3 times taller than Britain's tallest mountain, Ben Nevis. It is actually an active volcano that last erupted 300 years ago. Everyone says, it is overdue another eruption, so here's hoping that it doesn't happen while I am here.
Tackling the mountain, there are 4 different trails you can undertake, with 10 or so stations on each trail. Station 1 starts at the bottom of the mountain, and then station 10 is always the summit.
99% of all climbers start at station 5 for any of the trails, as there are paved roads up to the 5th stations, and therefore bus and taxi access is possible as far as station 5. You can start at station 1 of course, if you are serious climber, but these parts of the trails are not really monitored or used all that much, and it would make your ascent extremely long, not to mention very tiring. I read that someone recently broke a new time record for climbing from the nearest beach, all the way to the top of Fujisan in one go, just so he could officially climb from sea level I suppose. It took him 22 hours one way without any breaks….I decided I'd leave this particular challenge for another day.: -)
Our plan was to hike Mount Fuji overnight, and get to the summit before sunrise. This is very popular, as Fujisan is often shrouded in cloud and the best time to catch it with no cloud is at sunrise apparently. They don't recommend you climb straight through, as they advise that it is tiring and dangerous to hike up and down the mountain in one go with no sleep. There are huts positioned at the different stations 5-9 where you can get some rest and acclimatize gradually to the thinner air, if you so wish.
We decided we would climb it all the way through though. We started hiking at about 7:30pm just as it started to go dark. The conditions were very grey and wet with lots of low hanging cloud. There weren't too many people about either at the 5th station of the Fujinomiya Trail. We ate some カレーライス "Ka-Re-Rai-Su" (say it fast and it will make more sense) which is a traditional food for Japanese people to eat before they hike mountains. Basically it's like the old chip shop curry you used to get back home in England, coupled with boiled rice. It's not at all spicy, but it's quite nice and filling.
I also purchased two Mount Fuji wooden climbing sticks too, to help me with my hiking as I didn't own any proper hiking sticks at this point. I must admit I was a little concerned that I was about to undertake a serious hike, and yet I was a bit ill-prepared without the correct hiking shoes, or hiking sticks, or hiking bag. I was missing a few items that I would definitely really recommend to other people to make sure they have, if they were ever to hike Fuji. I have since purchased the proper hiking equipment (now that I have become a born again hiker!), but I wish I had purchased the equipment before I hiked Fuji.
So back to the hike….. We set off from station 5 of the Fujinomiya trail at about 7:30pm in the dark and rain. We made a bit of a f*** up straight away as we missed the actual trail and started walking up something else that was incredibly draining on the legs. I was pretty much ready for turning round before we had even started, as it was punishing and ridiculously difficult and there were no ropes or signs to say where the trail was leading or what direction we should head in….
We then saw some headlamps of hikers over to the left of us and we realised that we weren't actually on a trail at all. We'd gone off the grid straight from the off, so we followed the lights and got on to the actual real trail.
It turns out we had been walking on one of the access paths that these big CATerpillar earthmover type trucks use to carry supplies up the mountain to the mountain huts, and so the earth below our feet was wet volcanic soil that had been turned over many times, hence why it felt so heavy underfoot. Needless to say, I was very happy to get on to the proper trail with rock and stone underfoot, and other hikers and ropes guiding the way…
Getting to the 6th stage is pretty easy and lulls you into a false sense of security, as you think this is gonna be a "piece of piss" as we say back in England, but as you carry on, it starts to get harder, especially because you get to station 7, only to find out that this is actually the "old" station 7, and then you hike a lot more and then get to the "new" station 7. Something similar happens when you get to station 9 and think you only have one more station to go (station 10 - the summit!) but actually you realise they have sandwiched a station 9.5 in between.
All the while as you get higher, the temperature gets lower and the wind gets stronger. When you're hiking, obviously you're sweating a lot as you're carrying a big bag with lots of water and extra clothes and stuff in. However as soon as you stop for a rest, the wind is very chilling and your wet, sweaty clothes start to feel horrible against your skin.
By the time I got to Station 8, I didn't feel too tired but I started to feel really cold. I put on my extra layers, but my teeth were chattering and I decided I had had enough of seeing people come out of the accommodation hut at station 8 to go for a ciggie, looking all toasty and warm…so I made it clear to Dylan I was gonna go into the hut and pay the 5000 Yen charge, irrespective of whether he wanted to! Knowing how much Dylan hates spending money, then I think it's fair to say he didn't want to pay that much Yen for a few hours warmth, but I was freezing at this stage, and didn't care about the cost.
The hut was like a giant wooden cabin, literally full to the brim with people huddled asleep. Strangers lying on wooden shelves next to each other wrapped in blankets. Though it sounds pretty crap, it was actually warm and pretty comfortable. The blankets were like wrap-around duvets and to quote Homer Simpson, I felt like a toasty cinnamon bun….
It was probably too comfortable to be honest, as after just 2 hours sleep and rest, it was pretty difficult to wake up and get out hiking in the cold again. By the time we got hiking again at about 2:30am we had 2 hours to make it to the summit in time for sunrise at 4:30am. Unfortunately we had a load of other hikers ahead of us now, and the trail obviously gets narrower the closer you get to the top, which creates a bit of a traffic jam….Hiking Fuji is definitely not a lonely experience.
The last part of the hike was pretty tough going I must admit. The trail gets steeper, the air gets thinner, obviously your legs get more tired, your body overall gets more tired, the temperature gets much colder, and all those jolly Japanese hikers, who were smiling and talking to you at the start of the hike, are the same ones now sat down at the side of the trails, with faces of utter anguish and pain, primarily because of the lack of oxygen in the air.
It's like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan at times, with lifeless bodies just strewn across the trail, all sporting agonised expressions. It doesn't half make things more difficult. Add to this, Dylan is now being sick constantly, as we make the final push to the summit, and then needless to say there were times when I felt like turning round and giving up.
The only thing that kept me going was seeing the Japanese people in their 70s keep going up the mountain, and the children younger than 10, not moaning or whining, but plodding on behind their active, over-eager parents. It makes you realise that giving up after getting so far is not really an option, and one likely to be regretted later.
So after doing the honourable thing, and leaving my climbing partner behind retching on the mountain, I decided to strike out for home on my own as I was fed up of seeing the summit in the early morning light, but still not quite reaching the top. I was about 60 minutes too late for the start of the sunrise, but by this point I didn't care….I was just happy to be able to say I made it!!!
I must admit at that point when I reached the summit, it did all become worthwhile. I know it's such a cliché to say it, but you look out on the sun rising, and you feel like you're on top of the world, and all of the tiredness and fatigue just seems to ebb away for those moments. You sit at the top and drink it all in and it feels truly amazing. You know it was all worth it, as the memory of the view will last a lifetime.
However, getting back down the mountain is a massive pain in the arse. It's not as tiring on the body, but it requires more thinking as in where to put your feet and it is much easier to fall over going down than it is going up. I didn't fall down once climbing up the mountain, but I fell down too many times to remember, going down the mountain. It was pretty annoying, and it seemed to take forever to get down, even though it was now light.
When we finally made it back to Station 5, I was very happy to be back on tarmac and level ground again, but the happiness was short lived as I knew we had to do the 1 bus and 4 trains back to Kosai in our sweaty clothes, with little sleep, at the height of the Japanese summer.
I've done some "journeys of shame" before as I have had done many a nights clubbing back in England, back in the Gatecrasher days, wearing my space age cyber clubbing clothes, and then had to walk through train stations at places like Sheffield, Birmingham and Bristol wearing ridiculous clothes, a little (AKA a lot) worse for wear, navigating over-crowded British trains on Saturday and Sunday, in the company of the general public…*shudder*
Some of those journeys were truly awful, but I still think this journey back from Fujisan to Kosai was probably the most arduous journey I have ever done….probably not helped because I was stone cold sober this time! ;-)
All in all, I think it was probably just about worth it, despite the moaning at the time. I keep thinking about whether I would tackle it again next year if I am still in Japan in the summer. The old Japanese proverb says "you'd be a fool not to climb Fuji once, but you'd be an even bigger fool to climb it more than once." So we'll see what happens, though if I am still here next summer, then I probably will have another crack at it, though I definitely would drive as close as possible to the mountain next time, and I would plan it all a lot better too.
So as for the rest of August, what did I do?? Well I got a Japanese drivers license, but thankfully didn't have to do the actual driving test which was nice.
I watched a pretty decent fireworks show at Fukuroi, near to Hamamatsu which was pretty good and much better than the Bentenjima experience when the fireworks all disappeared into the cloud! I did a lot of sleeping in, watched a lot of Breaking Bad, and sweated constantly in the oppressive heat and humidity of August in Japan…... Jogging was very difficult in August!
I visited an old school friend, Rob Walsh, in Kanazawa-ken in mid-August. I had not seen him in many years as he had been living in Japan, so I drove up to see him and his wife, while I was on my way to Toyama-ken to see Maki.
We ate and drank a lot and sang karaoke which was cool. Hopefully he will come to my area one day before I leave Japan.
So when I went to Toyama, I met Maki and we went camping and hiking up a mountain called Tateyama which was really cool. I still didn't have the hiking shoes at this point, but I had the hiking sticks and a hiking bag and more equipment this time. The hike was actually more interesting than Fujisan as it had parts where we had to go over permafrost, and also scrambles over rocks too, which was cool if a little scary at times. The view at the top of the mountain was beautiful. There was a Shinto shrine there too, and the Priest did something that seemed cool at the time, but I didn't have a clue what it actually was! Amazingly you could also see Mount Fuji from the top of Tateyama, which is a good 70 miles away!
Myself and Maki also saw a meteor shower at night, and lots of shooting stars which was great, and we soaked our bones in an onsen (Japanese natural hot spring) which was relaxing. We also went to Kurobe Dam (the largest Hydro-electric Dam in Japan). It was interesting learning that the Dam had taken 12 years to build in the 1960s and 70s, and 171 people had died during its construction!
We also visited the tallest waterfall in Japan, Shomyo Falls, though I must admit they weren't as impressive as I thought they might be. I think in my head I was expecting something more like Angel Falls in Venezuela.
The weather was beautiful and the scenery around that part of Japan is truly stunning. I would really like to go back there again at some point, though it will be without Maki next time (though that's a story for another day!)
So now we are up to September and the end of the summer holidays, then I feel it is a good time to leave it here and I will get writing about my autumn here in Japan, when I had a few family and friends visiting form abroad.
Until next time
Jonny
P.S. My Autumn 2013 Blog will probably be finished by about autumn 2014!
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Pete and Sue Gaskell As great as usual mum and dad