Monday September 15, 1997: 10:10am
Rain. Of course it must be raining. It had better stop before we leave!
6:45pm: 6th station of Mt. Fuji
OK, so the rain didn't stop, so we started our trek out to the Toyoda station decked out with the cheesy vinyl brollies. We were a bit behind schedule, having taken too long eating pancakes. We got on the train and we're off! Off to climb Fuji-san! We will conquer.. uh.. yeah.
So within, I dunno, 2 or 3 stations, we realize ALL the things we've forgotten... like everything that has to do with Kamakura (where we plan to go directly after our descent of Fuji-san). Oh well, just another bad omen to add to the rain...
Ok, on me: one pair of spandex running pants (long jon's being in Indonesia...), one pair o' white sport socks, one pair o' jeans. One shirt, one wool sweater, one rain jacket. And boy, was it ever hot.
Anyways, it was pretty darn cloudy out - we couldn't see much.. but we could see the mountains (not Fuji-san) and they were stunning! Just becuase there were clouds half way up the mountains, in between the mountains.. and all around us. Very very cool.
We left the Toyoda station at 1:20 pm and we arrived in Kawaguchiko at 3:20 pm. Not bad, 2 hours. So right away we go to the bus ticket place to inquire about the first bus up to Fuji-san. So I ask.. and... what?!? No more buses today?! The last one was at 1:30 pm or so. Oh - perfect. BUT, the lady said we could take a cab. Ok, that'll have to do cuz I am CLIMBING this volcano!
OK, so we didn't want to go up to the 5th station right away so we walked to Lake Kawaguchi, which, as always, is *so cool*... the clouds were getting lower, so we could see the top of the mountains above them. Neat-o. So we walked around a bit - bought some postcards - and then made our way on back to the station.
It was 4:30 pm when we got in the cab. And we started the drive up.. and up.. wow, unlike last weekend, we could see the other mountains peeking through the sea of clouds. I was impressed, to say the least.
40 minutes later, and Y12,300 ($140) poorer, we reach the 5th station. Oh wel, it had to be paid, and at least it wasn't $140 each! At the station we bought our walking sticks, and then iquired about renting a locker. That's when we find out that there ARE NO LOCKERS... contrary to all those guide books. Well, the guy behind the info desk was nice (it was a different guy from last weekend) and said that he would keep it behind the desk for free. Wow!
So we took some pics (fab. view) did a "before-the-climb" print club (a must-do Japanese experience), took our washroom break, added on double socks and extra clothing, checked the temperature (10C) - and we set off! 6:12pm.
And the rest is trivial.
Tuesday September 16, 1997: 11pm
We got to the Toyoda station sometime around - oh - 11 - and of course it was raining. This was perfect because not ALL of our clothes were soaking wet yet [see climbing Mt. Fuji], so now we could truly be thouroughly drenched. We dropped by the apartment, dumped a load of laundry into the machine, and headed right back out the door, back to the Toyoda station. Oh yeah, we got on some warmer clothes while we were at it.
So after ahwile (maybe 2 hours or so) we arrive at the Kita Kamakura station. Gee, this is some hick town it seems... Jon must feel right at home (tee hee!). We stare at a few maps for awhile, and then set on our way to Kencho-ji, or Kencho Temple, not too far away.
It's still raining, although not so hard.
We get there and go in (Y300 = $4) - pretty neat place. Big funky gates (2 stories!) and some _really_ neat trees. It's also got one of those ponds "shaped" in the form of the chinese character for "spirit/heart/mind". And just like the last 2 times, I could't see the ressemblance whatsoever. Oh well.
Next we started to go to Hachiman Jingu... on the way we saw a sign for the archery festival that we knew was being hel today (that's why we'd decided to do Kamakura the day after Fuji-climbing) - and it said that the festival was being held AT the Hachiman Jingu. Cool! I hadn't quite expected it to be so easy to find the festival...
So we get to the shrine, which is really huge. Well, the shrine itself isn't so large, but the grounds are. I got to see a ginko tree, so now I know what my calligraphy sensei was talking about last week. And wow, this tree was huge! Huuuuuge!
So about this festival - we found out that the archery part of it was over, but there were still a few other things going on, so we hung around. There were these guys banging on big drums, in unison (even their arm movements were in synch) which sounded and looked pretty neat. And there was also a singing concert going on - old fashioned Chinese songs just like the guy in Osaka sang [for that story..]. Strange sounding - definitely a Japanese thing!
Also at Hachiman Jingu are lots of nice gardens with ponds and stuff. Oh, the water lilies in these ponds were huge! Like, I always thought water lilies stayed on the surface of the water (so frogs could jump on them, right?) but these ones were tall! Sometimes as much as a meter above the water!!
We each bought a fortune - in Japanese. I'm going to translate them later when I have my kanji dictionary hangin' around. I know that Jon's says something about Mt. Fuji (!!) and that's I'll have to choose a doctor. Uhh huhhh...
So now it was probably around 4:30, and we had a couple more places we wanted to go... so we wet off on foot to find the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha. Of course, we dont' have a map, and the only directions we have are for taking the bus. But hey, we're out for an adventure (as if climbing Fuji earlier on today wasn't enough). Plus, it seems as though Kamakura is well prepared for tourists, with signs in English everywhere.
So we start off.. take a couple of back streets... a nice old man helped us (in English) to find our way... but we got sidetracked by the some-name-I-can't-remember-please-help-me-out-Jon temple, a temple that Jon had wanted to see because it doubles the value of your money. So naturally, we were a tad curious as to how we could get in on this...
Now we had gotten sidetracked by a sign for the temple that said it was 600 m away. But the next sign we came to said 900m... then we had to take a couple of turns, etc etc etc, then another sign said it was 900m.. I've come to the conclusion that Buddhists can't count (sorry)
We get there just as it's getting dark (still raining) and wander around a bit. It's a neat little temple... a couple of caves, a mini (mini) waterfall, origami hanging from the walls... anyways, we never DID figure out how to double our money, but we chucked some coins into the pond, which we think may have been right. Don't ask me how throwing my money into a pond is going to make me richer...
Next up was the Daibutsu, our original destination. We got a tad - um - lost along the way, so we got there at 5:50 - and the guide book said it closed at 5:30. But, it was wrong, we got in fine. Hey, tha'ts a cool Buddha dude. 11-some metres high. Kicks the butt outta my Buddha down the street.
Oh, one cool thing is that he's outside. I guess he used to be in some kind of shelter a long time ago, but a tsunami (biiig tidle wave) washed it away. Woah! I gotta catch one of those tsunamis! So after that we tried to go to Hasa Dera (Hasa Temple), but it had already closed. We peeked in through the gates though and wow! The garden looked so beautiful! Too bad...
We headed back to the train station and bought our tickets to Toyoda. Man, were we ever beat. We'd been up since yesterday morning, and since then we'd climbed Fuji-san and wandered through Kamakura. I think we both slept a bit on THAT train ride!
When we got home I got a phone call from Bianca... she told us the news that... that... we'd climbed Fuji-san in the middle of a bleepin' TYPHOON. She said that it's a particularly bad one, and it had been in the news for days - were we crazy? There were people dead and floods everywhere - what on EARTH were we doing climbing Fuji-san? No wonder the weather was so bad! I can't believe that we did that. Crazy. Insane. A darn typhoon. I won't forget this for a loooong time.
Wednesday September 17, 1997: midnight
So everyone at work today didn't believe that we'd actually CLIMBED Fuji-san during a typhoon. They had all been so sure that we wouldn't go. Of course, since I hadn't checked the news or the weather report for a good 2 days before the climb, I hadn't known. [ed note: if you plan on climbing Fuji-san ever, CHECK THE WEATHER REPORT!!] Anyways, I had quite the story to tell, and quite a few shocked co-workers. Ha ha!
Ok, so today I was obviously at work, and Jon was taking the day to explore good 'ol Hino. I phoned him at around 4, and we agreed to meet at the Hino Post Office (close to Epson, 20 mins from the apartment) at 5pm so that we could go to my calligraphy lesson together.
So at around 5 I am standing outside the P.O., waitin' for Jon to get here. I was pretty sure he wouldn't get lost. But then it was about 5:15 and he still hadn't shown up.. oh oh.. so I started to walk home along the same route he would be taking. I'm expecting to meet him around half-way or something... you know, cuz for sure he'd only left late or something.
I walk.. and walk... and soon enough I'm standing outside my apartment building and now I'm thinking that for SURE he must have just fallen asleep and is, like, in my apartment. So I go up - open the door - nope. No Jon to be found. Okeedokee... where could the bugger be? What should I do... so I decide to hang around for 15 mins or so - and when he still hasn't shown up I left to walk back to the P.O., leaving a note just in case he went back. I get to the P.O., but no Jon. Now it's about 6pm, and I'm getting a tad worried. I phoned Sensei from the phone booth there (I don't think my phone is working because whomever I call, whenever, the line is ALWAYS busy) and told her that we may not make it to the lesson because my friend is - umm - lost.
So I go home, put on some music nice and loud, and wait for Jon to find his way home. Sure enough, at around 7, the door opens.. there's Jon. As it turns out, he took a wrong turn quite early on - and by the time he had figured out where the post office was it was already 5:30 and he was pretty sure I wouldn't still be there (he was right) so he went to the Hino station and waited there, thinking I would still go to my lesson. Ah well. SO, we headed out to my lesson, a bit late but no matter.
He told me about his day on the way. Neat, sounds like he got friendly with Hino. Oooh, he kinda took part in a Buddhist ceremony at the temple by the river, lucky bum. He spent a lot of time there. Oh yeah, and he said that Hino's got a LOT of hills... he was using my bike for the day so riding up the hills with one whole gear proved to be difficult. Heh. No kidding.
So when we got to Sensei's place she was already teaching 2 students, so we chatted for awhile - it was funny cuz even though I'd just told Sensei that Jon spoke no Japanese, she was asking him simple questions and stuff. Our conversations were kinda like Sensei speaking to Jon through me. But it was fun!
So Sensei set me up with my calligraphy, which was "haiku tanka", you know, a haiku being a Japanese poem of 7, 5, 7 syllables, and a tanka being a poem of 32 syllables. Cool.
At first Jon just watched for awhile, but after maybe 10 or 15 minutes, Sensei asked if he would like to try. He said sure, so we decided that he should try "Nihon" (Japan) cuz hey, that's where he is, and also it's not extremely difficult. Ok, first Sensei had to teach Jon how to draw a "yoko" and "tatte" (horizontal and vertical line, respectively) - the 2 basic strokes. I think he was having some difficulty at first, but he got the hang of it. Once he got them down, she got him started writing Nihon and I think he did pretty well, considering he's probably never written a kanji in his life. Oh, and once he'd finished a good one, she taught him how to write his name so that he could sign his calligraphy. Cool.
Even though shhe was speaking Japanese, he could usually understand what she was saying, so that was good. Even caught a joke here and there too.
When I was finished MY calligraphy, Sensei went and made tea for Jon, the 2 other students there, and I. We sat around eating treats and chatting for awhile, it was fun. Sensei even commented on Jon's hair colour, hee hee.
We left her place pretty late - like around 10:30 or so - so we only got back to Hino at 11:15. Long day. Hey, Mom phoned to hear my story of climbing Fuji-san in a typhoon. (I'm not going to get over this anytime soon) and she told me that the typhoon had been big news even in Indonesdia! Woah!
Mmm.. and for dinner (at 11pm!) we ate kuri gohan, or chesnut rice, which Sensei made for Jon and I to take home! Neat. See, she remembered from last week when she was talking about autumn foods (kuri gohan being one of them) and how I'd said I'd never tried it, wow that was so nice of her! And it was good. Yummy yummy!
Thursday September 18, 1997
Sheesh I am really really tired. 5 hours sleep last night - definitely not enough! I went to work again today so Jon was on his own. I didn't do much, while he explored Shinjuku (in the rain). Since I don't have much to say about MY day, I'll just talk about his then.
Shinjuku. Cool place. Raining. Rain sucks. He actually brought along the cheezy vinyl umbrella, but after awhile it just doesn't matter - you're gonna be wet anyways. So in the morning he did the tour of the West side - went to lots of observatories at the top of highrises, etc. Oooh - he went to this really great Van Gogh exhibit - I'm so jealous. I haven't been yet, but I fully intend to go as soon as possible now! He saw Shinjuku Chuo Gardens, and the massive Seiko clock, and the other West Side stuff. In the afternoon he did the East side - saw the huge screen, walked through the red light district, went through some underground shopping mall, saw the huge bookstore, and best of all he walked through Shinjuku Gyoen (Shinjuku Park). He said that it was a really amazing place, and from the sounds of it, yeah! Actually, Hirabayashi-san once told me about it as well. I should really go sometime.
One impressive thing is that Jon did NOT get lost in the Shinjuku station. Way to go Jon!
We both got home at around 6 - it was POURING rain. Geeze, I feel sorry for the guy - it has rained every single day since he got here. Ewwee.
So we cooked up some stir fry and then I sat down and started the task of translating Jon's fortune from Tuesday. Woah, it's CRAZY. The very first part says "You cannot see the summit or the skirt of Mt. Fuji because of blowing snow and appearing clouds" Woah! I am NOT joking! Spooky..
The rest was pretty cool too. It took awhile to translate because of all the kanjis, and because I have such a LOUSY dictionary... not like I'm bitter about that or anything...
When I finished translating his, I began to do mine, but I gave up pretty soon. My dictionary just didn't have ANY of the words. Argh.
Then after that we sat down and figured out what tomorrow's plan is. I'm taking the day off to go and pick up a shipment that my mom sent me. For some reason it's causing LOTS of problems, which is NOT making me happy. Anyways, I have to go to customs, and the warehouse, and customs again... yuck. BUT, before I do that, Jon and I are going to the Tsukiji fish market, which is in the same area. Since the fish market is an early morning thing (and half-way across town) we must sleep now!
Next Episode -->
<-- Last Episode
email me at: amsharp@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca