I'm home. The past four months were unforgettable and amazing and I have no regrets. I did and experienced things that I never imagined myself doing. I have grown as a person and widened my horizons. It was spectacular. Enough mushy stuff. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm home, safe and sound, and happy with my life and the direction I'm going.
<3
Monday, August 1, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Farewell Party
Had our farewell party. We all wore summer kimono called yukata. It was sweet and sad and I cried. Anyways, I gotta finish packing so I'm just going to post pictures.
Sorry for any format errors. It's quite late and I've just spent the past few hours doing last minute packing and cleaning. Be home 10pm Easter time July 30. Good bye to all my friends in Japan, I will miss you dearly and wish I didn't have to leave so soon.
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| I spy a creeeeeper! |
Sorry for any format errors. It's quite late and I've just spent the past few hours doing last minute packing and cleaning. Be home 10pm Easter time July 30. Good bye to all my friends in Japan, I will miss you dearly and wish I didn't have to leave so soon.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Getting Ready
Packing. Cleaning. Packing. Cancelling my National Health Insurance. Packing. Cleaning. Paying bills. Packing. Cleaning. Cancelling my bank account. Blah.
Few more days and I'll be home.
Few more days and I'll be home.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Mount Fuji Adventure
Monday was a holiday here in Japan, so Steve and I thought it would be a good idea to take a trip and climb Mount Fuji. Let me tell you, we BOTH underestimated this mountain. It is the 35th highest mountain in the world. It took us about 11 hours to climb (the path was about 4.6miles). You climb at night in order to watch the sunrise in the morning.
And by climbing, I mean literally climbing. This is no paved or packed down trail; no this is gravel carved "road" in the side of the mountain created by a bulldozer. Oh and then there planks placed vertically to prevent the gravel from sliding down and eroding the trail. These planks make wonderful TALL stairs that you're navigating in the dark while slipping and tripping on rocks and gravel. Oh, then comes the actual climbing sections, where it was too rocky to actually make a path and it's just rocks you have to climb. Did I mention this is all done in the dark? If you don't bring a flash light be prepared to spend over $10 on a tiny one that will run out of batteries half way up the mountain. (This is, unless you're the tiny old Japanese man that had the balls to climb up alone and in the dark and a remarkable pace).
11 hours of huffing and puffing up the mountain, and it was all worth to see the most beautiful sunrise. Unfortunately, Steve and I made it 50 meters from the summit (that's elevation, the path was about a kilometer long) because my asthma decided it didn't like the thin atmosphere. I think it was better to watch the sunrise from where we stopped, because there wasn't much of a crowd and the clouds were all above us.
Then came back down. Now, the path on the way down is 3.7 miles of a slippery gravel bulldozer path that is used to take supplies to the "hotels" (see ridiculously expensive huts) up at the top of the mountain. Needless to say, me in my clumsiness, ended up slipping and falling halfway down the mountain and then had to walkthe rest of the way on a sore, buckling and swollen knee. Joy. It took us about 4 hours to get down (that's not including the nap Steve and I took halfway down on his towel). The trip was still worth it though.
Most of our trip, however, was spent at a train station. We left around 6am Sunday morning, and took a 5 hour bus to Kawaguchiko train station. We then had to wait until night to take another bus to where we started climbing. We were there for about 6 hours doing nothing but buying the supplies we needed to get up the mountain and sleeping on benches. Oooh, we did buy some delicious white peaches from a nice lady outside. The next day, after we got down from the mountain, we ended up waiting from around noon to 5 for our bus home. We slept some more and bought more peaches.
All in all, it was a great trip. And here's the part I know you were all looking forward to. Pictures and the video of sunrise.
And now for the video. Sorry for the blue line at the end. My camera apparently can't handle filming sunrise above the clouds.
And by climbing, I mean literally climbing. This is no paved or packed down trail; no this is gravel carved "road" in the side of the mountain created by a bulldozer. Oh and then there planks placed vertically to prevent the gravel from sliding down and eroding the trail. These planks make wonderful TALL stairs that you're navigating in the dark while slipping and tripping on rocks and gravel. Oh, then comes the actual climbing sections, where it was too rocky to actually make a path and it's just rocks you have to climb. Did I mention this is all done in the dark? If you don't bring a flash light be prepared to spend over $10 on a tiny one that will run out of batteries half way up the mountain. (This is, unless you're the tiny old Japanese man that had the balls to climb up alone and in the dark and a remarkable pace).
11 hours of huffing and puffing up the mountain, and it was all worth to see the most beautiful sunrise. Unfortunately, Steve and I made it 50 meters from the summit (that's elevation, the path was about a kilometer long) because my asthma decided it didn't like the thin atmosphere. I think it was better to watch the sunrise from where we stopped, because there wasn't much of a crowd and the clouds were all above us.
Then came back down. Now, the path on the way down is 3.7 miles of a slippery gravel bulldozer path that is used to take supplies to the "hotels" (see ridiculously expensive huts) up at the top of the mountain. Needless to say, me in my clumsiness, ended up slipping and falling halfway down the mountain and then had to walkthe rest of the way on a sore, buckling and swollen knee. Joy. It took us about 4 hours to get down (that's not including the nap Steve and I took halfway down on his towel). The trip was still worth it though.
Most of our trip, however, was spent at a train station. We left around 6am Sunday morning, and took a 5 hour bus to Kawaguchiko train station. We then had to wait until night to take another bus to where we started climbing. We were there for about 6 hours doing nothing but buying the supplies we needed to get up the mountain and sleeping on benches. Oooh, we did buy some delicious white peaches from a nice lady outside. The next day, after we got down from the mountain, we ended up waiting from around noon to 5 for our bus home. We slept some more and bought more peaches.
All in all, it was a great trip. And here's the part I know you were all looking forward to. Pictures and the video of sunrise.
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| Apparently someone took a picture of me sleeping on the bus |
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| Japan is beautiful |
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| Such a pretty green |
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| Mount Fuji really faint in the distance. |
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| Farm Market Potato |
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| Pretty lake. |
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| They turn everything in to Mount Fuji |
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| Weird statue on a clock outside a bank |
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| Outside the building next to the bank. |
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| Train cars at Fujiyama Station |
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| Can you tell we're running on about 4 hours of sleep and are going to now climb a mountain? |
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| FUJI! |
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| The starting point! 2000 meters high |
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| About half-way up. I look horrible! |
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| The start of sunrise |
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| Ready to head down. Exhausted. |
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| We were covered in this red dirt by the end of our trip. It was gross |
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| Fuji Pebbles |
And now for the video. Sorry for the blue line at the end. My camera apparently can't handle filming sunrise above the clouds.
Hope you all enjoy. <3 Love & Miss you <3 I'll be home in 10 days.
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