Since I've now used a Madonna lyric as a post title I must destroy this blog. However, before I do that, I'm going to Kyushu on vacation. Hence the celebration.
I leave ridiculously early tomorrow morning, and fly into Fukuoka around 10am.
I'll spend Monday and Monday night in Fukuoka/Hakata, then head down to Nagasaki on Tuesday morning, spending the rest of the day there. On Wednesday I'm heading out to Unzen, where I will hopefully climb to the peak of Fugen-dake, the peak of Unzen-dake that erupted in 1991. I'll return to Nagasaki on Wednesday night, spend most of Thursday wandering around Nagasaki some more, before heading back to Fukuoka on Thursday afternoon and flying back to Tokyo on Thursday night.
It's going to be a crazy busy few days, I've got a list of food my students have recommended I eat: Hakata ramen, mentaiko (cod roe), castella and champon, to name a few.
My accommodation is quite cheap - in Fukuoka I'm staying at a youth hostel (VERY cheap), while in Nagasaki I'm splashing out and staying in a ryokan. All up my accommodation for three nights will come to less than ¥10,000, which means more money to spend on delicious regional food!!
Anywho, I'll be back in a few days with many photos (and possibly a couple of extra kilograms).
----------------
Now playing: Fiona Apple - Waltz (Better Than Fine)
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Sunday, 16 September 2007
ugh...
The only consolation for this is the prospect of John Howard crashing and burning in the upcoming election, which is looking increasingly likely every day/leadership squabble. (Thanks to Chris for the heads-up. And for the awesome postcard.)
In other news, Matt Price is great.
In other news, Matt Price is great.
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Climb Hard 3 - Climb Hard with a Vengeance
The final thrilling installment in the long running saga of our trip up Fuji.
I left off last entry with me waking at 2:30am. Normally I get to bed at this time. Anyway, I was surprisingly alert - I pretty much being deeply asleep (to the point someone had to yell at me to wake me) to being wide awake.
The view downstairs as the climbers prepared for the final trek.
We left our 8th station hut at around 3am, freezing our fingers off. Well my fingers were frozen - I hadn't properly dried off my gloves from the previous night, so I had to alternate the hand I was carrying my walking stick with with the hand in my warm pocket. Also, the ventilation material on my jogging shoes, ever so handy when you're running, was letting an awful lot of cold air into my shoes, meaning for the first hour of our climb to the summit I could only feel one toe on each foot. A very strange feeling. I was also slightly hampered by the fact that my 420 yen headlamp purchased from Daiso the night before decided to stop working after 20 minutes - this works out to a cost of 21 yen/minute. You call that value for money? Curse you Daiso!! It was useful however in keeping the hood of my rain jacket (*grumblegrumble*) up, thereby stopping the wind from freezing my head.
Another group passes us while resting. Their lights captured using the night mode setting on my camera look like those time-tentacle things in Donnie Darko!
We'd been told that sunrise was due at around 5:09am, a little later if there was cloud. We were still walking with the rest of the tour group, and we were a little concerned with the number of rests we were having we would miss the sunrise (well, not really miss, since we were on the east side of the mountain, but still - the whole point is to see sunrise from the top of Mt Fuji, not the side). We could already see the first rays creeping over the horizon.
The first glimpses of sunlight, along with a climber's cool looking time-tentacle.
After a third break however, our guide gave everyone permission to walk at their own pace. Not wanting to miss sunrise, I bolted.
The torii at the 9th station under which we passed - I couldn't help think about that terrible Roman Polanski/Johnny Depp movie The Ninth Gate. This ninth gate, made of wood and not doing much at all, was much more interesting.
The path between the 9th station and the summit was considerably more rocky than much of the path further down the mountain. I was very grateful for my hiking stick.
Nearly at the top!
Finally at around 4:45 I reached the top. The gate at the 10th station:
Many people already there!
Sara and I at the summit, just before sunrise.
Gabriel from the UK.
Sara plants the flag to annex Fuji in the name of Japan. I didn't have the heart to tell her they already owned it - she seemed so proud.
Just before sunrise
Almost there!
The sun peeks through the clouds:
Many people up the top!
More clouds... lots more clouds...
After viewing sunrise, we went for a 2 hour tour around the crater.
Some shots of the top of the volcano:
Looking into the crater - not a great photo I'll admit, but it gives you an idea of what is inside the crater. This crater last erupted about 2000 years ago.
Looking over at the other side of the crater... It really is quite wide.
The colours were so intense - the landscape really is like nothing I've seen before.
A shot of the little village at the top of the mountain.
A torii at the top - there were many. This one was covered in bells from people's walking sticks (it was around this time I discovered mine had fallen off at some stage).
I thought this chunk of dried lava was amazing.
This is the crater from the last eruption of Fuji in the early 18th century. Each time Fuji erupts it is from a different part of the mountain.
I was trying to be artistic in this shot by capturing the sun in the middle of the torii - not sure it really worked.
A view of the highest point of Fuji - this is actually the highest point in Japan.
Sara commented that these rocks look like the vertebrae of a dragon - made me think of Bjork :)
A shrine at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately since it was outside the official climbing season everything (including the shrine) was closed.
This is some sort of "sacred pond". Looked more like a puddle to me, but I didn't want to argue :)
Overlooking the Izu peninsula
Clouds fill the crater...
The huge shadow of Fuji on the surrounding landscape - a very impressive sight.
A creepy figurine we found.
More clouds - cause they look so perrtty! And yes, I did have "Bouncing Off Clouds" in my head the whole time I was at the top...
Three Japanese guys who were part of our tour group - really friendly guys, they didn't speak a huge amount of English, but it well and truly put my Japanese to shame. I ended up walking down the mountain with them.
Me posing with Nishizono (the middle one in the photo above) - he seemed especially interested in me, asked me so many questions all the way down. Not sure if it was interest interest (and well, who could blame him - did you SEE my rain jacket?), or just interest in another person cause they're from Australia, but really does it matter? I'll take whatever interest I can get :)
Breakfast! The long yellow things are some sort of guppy type creatures... and at 8 in the morning, after you've just climbed down from the top of Fuji, it is very appetising... I guess you'll just have to trust me on that!
The track back down the mountain was a quite gradual zig-zagging slope, made up of about 40 zigs (or is that zags?) - I guess to stop people from gathering too much speed and face-planting it into the volcanic ash making up the path (as Gabriel did on his was down to the 8th station - I have it on good authority that volcanic ash does not taste good).
Success!! At the bottom of the mountain (well, almost at the 5th station), looking back up.
Back at 5th station - is there something wrong with this pic? 3 Japanese people with me, and I'm the only one making the peace sign!
We got back to 5th station at around 10:30am on Wednesday. After some lunch with Zono and his friends, we got back on our disco ball-less coach and were taken to an onsen on Lake Kawaguchiko, one of the Fujigoko (or Fuji 5 Lakes) - a very relaxing way to spend an hour after climbing to the top of Japan's highest mountain!
Unfortunately due to the approaching typhoon (the people who started climbing as we left weren't able to make it to the summit, I found out a few days later) the views from the lake weren't that stellar.
Didn't stop me from getting another photo of the clouds on the surrounding mountains as we drove back to Shinjuku!
So that pretty much covers our adventure! An absolutely amazing experience, and I recommend it to anyone who lives in Japan for any extended period.
Thanks for reading these - I promise not to post another picture of clouds on my blog for as long as it is in existence.... :)
edit: Okay, since Dave requested another cloud photo, here is a video of the clouds filling the crater:
I left off last entry with me waking at 2:30am. Normally I get to bed at this time. Anyway, I was surprisingly alert - I pretty much being deeply asleep (to the point someone had to yell at me to wake me) to being wide awake.
The view downstairs as the climbers prepared for the final trek.
We left our 8th station hut at around 3am, freezing our fingers off. Well my fingers were frozen - I hadn't properly dried off my gloves from the previous night, so I had to alternate the hand I was carrying my walking stick with with the hand in my warm pocket. Also, the ventilation material on my jogging shoes, ever so handy when you're running, was letting an awful lot of cold air into my shoes, meaning for the first hour of our climb to the summit I could only feel one toe on each foot. A very strange feeling. I was also slightly hampered by the fact that my 420 yen headlamp purchased from Daiso the night before decided to stop working after 20 minutes - this works out to a cost of 21 yen/minute. You call that value for money? Curse you Daiso!! It was useful however in keeping the hood of my rain jacket (*grumblegrumble*) up, thereby stopping the wind from freezing my head.
Another group passes us while resting. Their lights captured using the night mode setting on my camera look like those time-tentacle things in Donnie Darko!
We'd been told that sunrise was due at around 5:09am, a little later if there was cloud. We were still walking with the rest of the tour group, and we were a little concerned with the number of rests we were having we would miss the sunrise (well, not really miss, since we were on the east side of the mountain, but still - the whole point is to see sunrise from the top of Mt Fuji, not the side). We could already see the first rays creeping over the horizon.
The first glimpses of sunlight, along with a climber's cool looking time-tentacle.
After a third break however, our guide gave everyone permission to walk at their own pace. Not wanting to miss sunrise, I bolted.
The torii at the 9th station under which we passed - I couldn't help think about that terrible Roman Polanski/Johnny Depp movie The Ninth Gate. This ninth gate, made of wood and not doing much at all, was much more interesting.
The path between the 9th station and the summit was considerably more rocky than much of the path further down the mountain. I was very grateful for my hiking stick.
Nearly at the top!
Finally at around 4:45 I reached the top. The gate at the 10th station:
Many people already there!
Sara and I at the summit, just before sunrise.
Gabriel from the UK.
Sara plants the flag to annex Fuji in the name of Japan. I didn't have the heart to tell her they already owned it - she seemed so proud.
Just before sunrise
Almost there!
The sun peeks through the clouds:
Many people up the top!
More clouds... lots more clouds...
After viewing sunrise, we went for a 2 hour tour around the crater.
Some shots of the top of the volcano:
Looking into the crater - not a great photo I'll admit, but it gives you an idea of what is inside the crater. This crater last erupted about 2000 years ago.
Looking over at the other side of the crater... It really is quite wide.
The colours were so intense - the landscape really is like nothing I've seen before.
A shot of the little village at the top of the mountain.
A torii at the top - there were many. This one was covered in bells from people's walking sticks (it was around this time I discovered mine had fallen off at some stage).
I thought this chunk of dried lava was amazing.
This is the crater from the last eruption of Fuji in the early 18th century. Each time Fuji erupts it is from a different part of the mountain.
I was trying to be artistic in this shot by capturing the sun in the middle of the torii - not sure it really worked.A view of the highest point of Fuji - this is actually the highest point in Japan.
Sara commented that these rocks look like the vertebrae of a dragon - made me think of Bjork :)
A shrine at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately since it was outside the official climbing season everything (including the shrine) was closed.
This is some sort of "sacred pond". Looked more like a puddle to me, but I didn't want to argue :)
Overlooking the Izu peninsula
Clouds fill the crater...
The huge shadow of Fuji on the surrounding landscape - a very impressive sight.
A creepy figurine we found.
More clouds - cause they look so perrtty! And yes, I did have "Bouncing Off Clouds" in my head the whole time I was at the top...
Three Japanese guys who were part of our tour group - really friendly guys, they didn't speak a huge amount of English, but it well and truly put my Japanese to shame. I ended up walking down the mountain with them.
Me posing with Nishizono (the middle one in the photo above) - he seemed especially interested in me, asked me so many questions all the way down. Not sure if it was interest interest (and well, who could blame him - did you SEE my rain jacket?), or just interest in another person cause they're from Australia, but really does it matter? I'll take whatever interest I can get :)
Breakfast! The long yellow things are some sort of guppy type creatures... and at 8 in the morning, after you've just climbed down from the top of Fuji, it is very appetising... I guess you'll just have to trust me on that!
The track back down the mountain was a quite gradual zig-zagging slope, made up of about 40 zigs (or is that zags?) - I guess to stop people from gathering too much speed and face-planting it into the volcanic ash making up the path (as Gabriel did on his was down to the 8th station - I have it on good authority that volcanic ash does not taste good).
Success!! At the bottom of the mountain (well, almost at the 5th station), looking back up.
Back at 5th station - is there something wrong with this pic? 3 Japanese people with me, and I'm the only one making the peace sign!We got back to 5th station at around 10:30am on Wednesday. After some lunch with Zono and his friends, we got back on our disco ball-less coach and were taken to an onsen on Lake Kawaguchiko, one of the Fujigoko (or Fuji 5 Lakes) - a very relaxing way to spend an hour after climbing to the top of Japan's highest mountain!Unfortunately due to the approaching typhoon (the people who started climbing as we left weren't able to make it to the summit, I found out a few days later) the views from the lake weren't that stellar.
Didn't stop me from getting another photo of the clouds on the surrounding mountains as we drove back to Shinjuku!
So that pretty much covers our adventure! An absolutely amazing experience, and I recommend it to anyone who lives in Japan for any extended period.
Thanks for reading these - I promise not to post another picture of clouds on my blog for as long as it is in existence.... :)
edit: Okay, since Dave requested another cloud photo, here is a video of the clouds filling the crater:
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Mt Fuji Episode II - Attack of the Clouds
Before I continue with the enthralling tale of my adventures, just letting you know we're currently being "attacked" by a typhoon. Walking home from the train station was not fun, but my poor housemate is walking home from two stations away (on the other side of the river) as our train line stopped running. Here's hoping our shack stays up through the night and doesn't fold like the house of cards it so resembles.
Anyway, continuing from last night.
Koko, our guide, told the non-Japanese people to stay up the front with the elderly and other special people. Made us feel very special. Honestly though, some of the climbers were so inspirational. One couple, from Okinawa, would've been in their early to mid 60's, and they made it to the top.
We set off around 11am. Pretty much the whole time we were walking we were either just above the clouds, or surrounded by them.
Since we were in a large group (about 50 people), we kept stopping after about 30 minutes of walking. Sometimes we'd stop for 5 minutes, sometimes for 20. This was somewhat annoying, as every time we'd stop we'd lose our pace, and the clouds that had previously been below us:
... would then catch up to us.
This wasn't particularly a problem at the start, but by the time we reached around the 7th station it had started raining (not heavily, but enough to be annoying and cold), so that every time we escaped the rain, we'd take a break and the rain and clouds would surround us again. Ultimately though, I think the breaks probably helped us, as they stopped us from wearing ourselves out, allowed us to acclimatise ourselves to the thin air of the high altitude, and gave us a chance to eat and keep our energy up.
Looking up at the 6th station huts:
The queue up the mountain:
The inside of one of the 6th station huts:
A man at a 6th station hut branding my walking stick:
This was the old descending route - it was changed many years ago due to an accident in which a number of high school students were killed by falling rocks.
The side of the mountain:
More clouds. Yes, I took many photos of clouds. But they were just so pretty!
But sometimes rather threatening.
Sara looking rather cold and damp. But happy.
At this stage I was only wearing a t-shirt and long sleeved shirt, with my rain jacket over the top. I say rain jacket, despite the fact that the label on the packet said rain suit and had a picture of a man wearing both a rain jacket and rain pants. When I pulled the rain suit out of my bag I was dismayed (hmm, not sure that really captures what I was feeling) to find out it was only a rain jacket. Jeans are comfortable, but not really the warmest of pants, especially when damp.
Finally we reached our hut at the 8th station at around 6:30pm. Shelter, warmth and food - what more could we ask for.
Many people choose to do Fuji all in one go - starting the climb at 5th station at around 10pm, and walking through the night to reach the summit by sunrise. This is certainly a very cheap way to do it, one we had originally considered, and assuming you bring enough food, is most definitely possible. Unfortunately, once the climbing season ends around the end of August, buses up to the 5th station are much less frequent, and cost a bit more as you have to take two separate buses, one from Shinjuku to the town at the base of the mountain, Kawaguchiko, and another from Kawaguchiko to 5th station. So Sara and I decided to book a package deal which provided us with the guide, and allowed us to stay at a hut, with dinner and breakfast the next day provided. I'm so glad we did this - it was nice to have a break after 7 hours of climbing, and to have a hot meal, and to be able to change into dry tracksuit pants when my jeans were a bit too damp to sleep in (for a price of course - 500 yen).
After dinner, I pretty much went straight to bed, as I was quite tired and wanted not to be tired when we were to wake at 2:30 the next morning to head for the summit. Been a loooong time since I've gone to bed at 7:30pm. And well, it didn't really work for me, I woke up at 10:30pm and couldn't get back to bed so went outside to look at the stars. It was the first time I'd seen the stars since arriving in Japan - they were so beautiful. The clouds that had surrounded us (literally, we couldn't see more than about 10metres in front of us) on arrival at 8th station had since descended, and we had a clear view of the moon shining down on the clouds below us. Such an incredible sight, and one I was unable to capture with my camera.
I managed to get back to sleep after a little while (taking off my watch seemed to be the key), and woke up at 2:30. Despite the fact that I'm usually a very light sleeper and people had been moving around packing and talking for half an hour, it took Sara yelling my name at 2:30 to wake me - guess I was really tired. Then again, I seem to have slept through every major tremor we've had in Tokyo, so maybe I'm not that light a sleeper!
And that's where I'll leave it tonight. I'm meeting up with Verity and Lauren in Shibuya tomorrow (assuming my train line is working again in the morning - hopefully it will be as it will be my only chance to see them before they head to Nagoya), so I'd best be off to bed.
But for now, here's another photo. This is the enormous shadow Fuji casts on the surrounding landscape.
----------------
Now playing: Philip Glass - Morning Passages
Anyway, continuing from last night.
Koko, our guide, told the non-Japanese people to stay up the front with the elderly and other special people. Made us feel very special. Honestly though, some of the climbers were so inspirational. One couple, from Okinawa, would've been in their early to mid 60's, and they made it to the top.
We set off around 11am. Pretty much the whole time we were walking we were either just above the clouds, or surrounded by them.
Since we were in a large group (about 50 people), we kept stopping after about 30 minutes of walking. Sometimes we'd stop for 5 minutes, sometimes for 20. This was somewhat annoying, as every time we'd stop we'd lose our pace, and the clouds that had previously been below us:
... would then catch up to us.
This wasn't particularly a problem at the start, but by the time we reached around the 7th station it had started raining (not heavily, but enough to be annoying and cold), so that every time we escaped the rain, we'd take a break and the rain and clouds would surround us again. Ultimately though, I think the breaks probably helped us, as they stopped us from wearing ourselves out, allowed us to acclimatise ourselves to the thin air of the high altitude, and gave us a chance to eat and keep our energy up.
Looking up at the 6th station huts:
The queue up the mountain:
The inside of one of the 6th station huts:
A man at a 6th station hut branding my walking stick:
This was the old descending route - it was changed many years ago due to an accident in which a number of high school students were killed by falling rocks.
The side of the mountain:
More clouds. Yes, I took many photos of clouds. But they were just so pretty!
But sometimes rather threatening.
Sara looking rather cold and damp. But happy.
At this stage I was only wearing a t-shirt and long sleeved shirt, with my rain jacket over the top. I say rain jacket, despite the fact that the label on the packet said rain suit and had a picture of a man wearing both a rain jacket and rain pants. When I pulled the rain suit out of my bag I was dismayed (hmm, not sure that really captures what I was feeling) to find out it was only a rain jacket. Jeans are comfortable, but not really the warmest of pants, especially when damp.
Finally we reached our hut at the 8th station at around 6:30pm. Shelter, warmth and food - what more could we ask for.
Many people choose to do Fuji all in one go - starting the climb at 5th station at around 10pm, and walking through the night to reach the summit by sunrise. This is certainly a very cheap way to do it, one we had originally considered, and assuming you bring enough food, is most definitely possible. Unfortunately, once the climbing season ends around the end of August, buses up to the 5th station are much less frequent, and cost a bit more as you have to take two separate buses, one from Shinjuku to the town at the base of the mountain, Kawaguchiko, and another from Kawaguchiko to 5th station. So Sara and I decided to book a package deal which provided us with the guide, and allowed us to stay at a hut, with dinner and breakfast the next day provided. I'm so glad we did this - it was nice to have a break after 7 hours of climbing, and to have a hot meal, and to be able to change into dry tracksuit pants when my jeans were a bit too damp to sleep in (for a price of course - 500 yen).After dinner, I pretty much went straight to bed, as I was quite tired and wanted not to be tired when we were to wake at 2:30 the next morning to head for the summit. Been a loooong time since I've gone to bed at 7:30pm. And well, it didn't really work for me, I woke up at 10:30pm and couldn't get back to bed so went outside to look at the stars. It was the first time I'd seen the stars since arriving in Japan - they were so beautiful. The clouds that had surrounded us (literally, we couldn't see more than about 10metres in front of us) on arrival at 8th station had since descended, and we had a clear view of the moon shining down on the clouds below us. Such an incredible sight, and one I was unable to capture with my camera.
I managed to get back to sleep after a little while (taking off my watch seemed to be the key), and woke up at 2:30. Despite the fact that I'm usually a very light sleeper and people had been moving around packing and talking for half an hour, it took Sara yelling my name at 2:30 to wake me - guess I was really tired. Then again, I seem to have slept through every major tremor we've had in Tokyo, so maybe I'm not that light a sleeper!
And that's where I'll leave it tonight. I'm meeting up with Verity and Lauren in Shibuya tomorrow (assuming my train line is working again in the morning - hopefully it will be as it will be my only chance to see them before they head to Nagoya), so I'd best be off to bed.
But for now, here's another photo. This is the enormous shadow Fuji casts on the surrounding landscape.
----------------
Now playing: Philip Glass - Morning Passages
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