Japan summer

Here's me when we were about level with the clouds atop Fuji-san. The sun was already shining brightly but the fast moving dense fog and mist made the sunlight ambient. I am so tempted to climb Fuji-san again because I now know how I could make the climb enjoyable.

After another wine tasting at Suntory winery, I had a yummy dinner with my sensei's family. The next day, my lab held a hand-rolled sushi lunch party for me. Later that evening, my dorm had a summer bbq. Here I am with some of them- after dinner, we held a makeshift dance club and rocked the dorm :)

Saturday, I went to Shosenkyo (the mountain ridge looming just overhead my dorms). Perhaps nothing spectacular, but I enjoyed it- quite the relaxing and imaginative walk along a river gorge sprinkled with huge boulders naturally shaped into various Japanese figures (e.g. a basking sea lion here).

Friday night, my lab took me out to a karoake bar. We ate, drank, and sang and dance Japanese and English songs. It was a fun experience for me.

Wednesday, I returned to Yokohama. After chatting with local chinese merchants in chinatown and sampling their boiled chestnuts and pearl milk tea- very different from american chinatowns i'd say, I checked out the maritime park and yokohama shoreline complete with their famous ferris wheel overlooking the yokohama bridge and big retired boat. I met up with Jenny for dinner at a nice rotating sushi restaurant.

Tuesday, I walked along the Torii gates seen here. I liked the long tunnels lined with red dori, each timestamped by a local merchant. The stone statues of foxes and lesser gods and goddesses I also liked. The surrounding noises were wicked cool- pigeons cooing, crows cawing, men yelling, babies crying, people murmuring, babbling brooks nearby, etc. After that meditative journey, I hopped down to the local sake breweries :)

Monday, I walked around Kyoto. I saw 5 maiko-san. They remind me of Disney characters walking around as tourists and locals alike stop to take pictures at these rare maiko sightings. I picked up quite a bit of souvenirs.

Sunday, we went to nara for the latern daimon festival. I need to find a better camera for night pictures- because the night was just jaw-dropping beautiful with thousands of candles lining and filling the park. Here is the opening ceremony for the daimon bonfire- seconds later much bigger pyres from atop a nearby mountain was lit up in the shape of "oki" or "dai" meaning big. The big buddha was absolutely spectacular with candle-lit laterns and the deers were still awake and friendly.

after my unsuccessful capsule hotel night, i zip to kyoto for a morning company visit to nict. I then spent the day shopping in nara and stayed up to watch the olympics opening ceremony at atr. Saturday, I went with the atr interns (aka "the massive" pictured here) to osaka. We checked out sony tower (well- we are techies ;) and starbuck's green tea frappucinno. We walked many circles around dotonbori...just chillin'.. true.. true.

whew- what a travel week... it all started last thursday with me visiting Hamada-san and Siio-sensei at Tamagawa Univ. in the morning and Akihiko-san at Keio Univ. in the afternoon. The evening I zipped over to Shibuya and met up with Todd and Lisa here at the famous Hachiko statue for a all-you-can-eat shabu shabu dinner- yummers!

last evening, my new college friends took me out to dohtonbori- a restaurant where you grill your own okonomi-yaki (japanese hotplate pizza). how fun and how yummy!

Saturday, after another morning of grass weeding at my dorm (a monthly community service), I check out yamanashi's museums of art, literature, and crystals. Then, I stopped by a cafe named "Sarah Vaughan" for lunch and to wait out the rain downpour. None of Sarah's music but it was jazz, and the curry tasted Indian (northern) instead of Japanese to me- which was a pleasant surprise.

fuji climb

...so what did happen up on that fuji climb? one word- rain! We did the night hike... which would have been beautiful because there was a full moon that night. But with the typhoon-ish rain downpour we got all night, visibility was about 2 feet with a strong flashlight (which I brought along- but it died at the 7th station). Quick recap: we ride the bus from the mt base to the 5th kawaguchiko station. The rain starts. We make great time (even with a group of 11) and pass the 6th and 7th station in 2 hrs. I am dishearten because it seems the rain also prohibits stamping of the fuji souvenir climbing sticks. The rain is getting cold, but my body heat keeps me warm. When I stop to rest, I start to freeze. Most of us stop for the night predicting that we have plenty of time still before sunrise and staying outside will only result in hypothermia. A few of us brazenly continue up (me too). One of us does get hypothermia and altitude sickness, so we rest up for a while. My buddy and I (yes- we were smart and set a buddy system- no way is climbing alone this night not dangerous) continue upward. The hike now is enjoyable as the storm breaks a bit. We are still shrouded in heavy fog and lite drizzle. We pass 8th station, and reach a jinja dori and a lookout point (which of course we see nothing). We are level with the clouds now and daybreak starts. The sun peeps out from the fast moving misty fog for a few seconds of cheers and photos. That was a high, but then we reach our low- a wall of gail force winds surely to blow me off the mtn literrally. A few people try running under it but retreat back down a minute later. Weather is downright nasty, and freezing rain and white snow starts falling. The clouds aren't breaking, so I see no point going further (or seeing for that matter). I did manage to get one stamp from the 8th station. My buddy is pissed at this climb by now (as am I) but I declare it a success. We decide to hike down. The descent was so nice- the trail was easy (no scrambling), I could actually see the volcanic rocks we're walking on and various vegetation as we near the halfway point back to the bus station. *sigh* I was all stoked about the climb, and I was prepared for the cold rain. I was not prepared for the cursed wind plus rain. I might try again or I may try the many other cooler things Japan has to offer...

...and three cheers for us group of climbers who braved the windy rain downpour (courtesy of a typhoon that just hit Japan) up on Fuji that Friday night...

...and from the fine local wineries- i picked up strawberry wine and a yummy white wine.

so how was the friday night climb up fuji-san? ... right after these messages from... monkey mountain by lake kawaguchiko- a petting zoo of monkeys, rabbits, chipmunks, etc.

...and here's a gorgeous closeup view of mt. fuji from the train station after our weekend.

After walking up close to 300 steps up Mt. Minobu to a buddhist temple last Sunday..and forgetting my camera :( ... I was prepared this weekend to climb Mt. Fuji...

For dinner, we students went to a rotating sushi bar- and I mean long rows of many sushi plates.. it was impressive and quite cheap.

Japan summer

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Saturday, August 07, 2004

fuji climb

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Monday, July 26, 2004

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