As many of you may know me as the outdoorsy type that i am, I made it my mission when i decided to come to Japan to climb Mount Fuji. I figured i needed to start accumulating some personal goals at some stage in my life, and why not start with the highest mountain in Japan?!
Climbing mountains to the Japanese, is a means of paying homage to God and climbing Mount Fuji (FujiSan) forms part of a very important pilgrimage to some. Traditionally, the pilgrimage climb starts at the base, with shrines the whole way up and can take a few days to complete. As i had seen enough shrines to ensure Business Class into heaven, I would start half way up the mountain, at the fifth station, where all the sane people are. Initially, my plan was to climb to the seventh or eight station on the first evening, stay in one of the mountain huts and climb the remainder to the summit, during the night, to be there for the sunrise.
Nice idea, shame i hadn't done some proper research into that task before i left Tokyo. Mount Fuji is roughly about 100km west of Tokyo and when i finally got to Kawaguchi after 3 hours, i was a little more than disappointed to hear i'd missed the last bus for the day that would bring me up to the fifth station. Also, the official climbing season was to start on July 1st and as this was June 27th, the Japanese girl in the information office told me i wouldn't be allowed climb it anyway, with out official documents. To say i was disappointed and perhaps a bit rude, was an understatement.
Alos, getting any sort of concrete information about climbing it was really difficult, this ambiguous, shady mountain was not making life easy for me and my 'goal'. (Mountain 1 Farrier 0)
I stayed in Kawaguchi for the night and had to forgo my idea at climbing it at night and was hoping when i got to the fifth station, i might meet some other climbers. The previous day i'd met Liz and Dan, this deadly American couple who were planning on climbing it too. I bumped into them again at the bus stop and they nicely let me tag along with them on their climb. New friends and company! What do you think of that Mountain?!
(Mountain 1 Farrier 1)
We started out hike from the Fifth station at around 1030am. The weather was pleasant although I'd been told there was still snow at the top. The hike to the seventh station was a long, meandering incline that seemed to go on forever. Imagine the highest level on a treadmill.I figured i was somewhat fit from all the walking i'd been doing ,not to mention the pounds I had been pushing with the Beast, to be fit enough to do this. I think after the first hour, when my lungs felt like they were been physically wretched out my neck, it occurred to me that i might not be able to do it at all. I felt tears coming on and I was about to knock the whole idea on the head only Liz was having none of it and got me up to the seventh station in one piece! Nice try mountain. I also realised that i was probably talking a bit much, when i shut up, it got a little easier.
(Mountain 2 Farrier 2)
It was cloudy and cold at the seventh station, we stopped for some food then set off. Here the climb got rockier and much steeper. I really enjoyed this part, it was quite physical but it meant we had to go at slower pace, which suited me fine! Here we encountered the first of the mountain huts, as it was day, we would be completing the climb in one go, we didn't go into any, just stopped for little rests and off again.
When we reached about 3000mm, we came across the first snowy sections of the mountain. Fuji is shaped like a perfect cone, and some madzer was snowboarding down the side, another one on a mountain bike! It was shortly after this that the air started to get a bit thinner.....
Dan and Liz, at this stage, were complaining of minor headaches, it was difficult to know if our shortness of breath was from the altitude or just the general physical exertion. Oh dear.. (Mountain 3 Farrier 2)
Fortunately for me, my sister had provided me with a shocking amount of drugs for any circumstance before i left, so i took some altitude sickness pills earlier on in the day before we started ascending. Unsure if i'd given them anough time to start working, i hoped they'd kick in soon enough.
They did, i was fine! (Mountain 3 Farrier 3)
It was getting colder as we got higher, our breaks became more frequent and when we reached the 9th station, we met some people descending, that encouragingly told us we only had roughly another 1.5 hours to go. We'd been climbing for 3 hours by now. I don't know where i managed to muster the energy for that middle section of the mountain, probably from all the food I'd eaten in Tokyo. Dan was flying on ahead but Liz and I were finding it tough.
Finally after 4.5 hours, we heard clapping and cheers from shorlty ahead and knew we were near the summit (3776mm) It was cold and windy and after a short walk around we found the grater and it was spectacular. I'd never been inside a volcano before, it was about the size of a very large football field and went down roughly about 1000mm i'd say. Many before have fallen into it and died, which isn't suprising, it's quite dangerous. I'm very brave you know. Extra point for me for being so brave i think!
(Mountain 3 Farrier 5)
After getting out picture taken with some excited Japanese ladies and had some food we started to descend. This took about 3.5 hours. It was pretty tough as you were forced to run in parts on loose gravel and were using the complete opposite muscles to the ones you'd been flexing for the past few hours. We met a troup of about 100 Japanese climbers on their way up, all decked out in the brighest, newest mountain gear imaginable, everyone of them saying Konnichi wa, and bowing their heads as we pasted. Kind of strange but touching all the same.
It started to snow on our way down, a dirty trick on the mounains behave, but within the rules. Concilation point for the mountain i suppose
(Mountain 4 Farrier 5)
As we'd missed the last bus to Fujiyoshida, where we would be staying for the night, there was a possibility we might have an additional 4 hour walk, in the dark when we got back to the fifth station. Thankfully, Liz flagged down a taxi and we jumped in, just before the rain started.
(Final Score Mountain 4 Farrier 6)
After a lovely junk food meal of burger and chips with my new American friends, we went back to their hostel and i managed to get a room for the night. Possibly one of the best days of my life, i loved ever second of it. I'd like to take this oppertunity to thank Liz and Dan for letting me tag along on their climb, amd my sister for giving me the drugs and hiking boots necessary for the task!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
More tokyo
A brief synopsis.....
I ended up staying in Tokyo for a full week, more than i stayed in any other place. There was so much to potentially do and if you factor in the time for getting lost and distracted by what it has to offer in just walking down the street, the days start to clock up. Ask Lina, she was supposed to leave on a Friday and didn't leave until the Sunday, just about making her second flight and narrowly missing an eternal slagging from me for being such a tokyo booze hound!!
However, I won't do that because Lina, being the top notch friend that she is, sat me down and pointed out the ridiculous,self-inflicted logistical tug of war i was evidently having with the Beast. In one selfless action that has changed my travelling experience by almost 5 kilos i reckon, she took home the doubles i had of everything and lightened my very heavy load. Again Lina , I am sincerely sorry for not telling you about the knife and any subsequent embarrassment, man-handling and general abuse you received at the hands of the Japanese Police and Narita Airport Security. I really am.
Tokyo wasn't all bright lights and fried tempura thought, it did have a dark seedy 'underbelly' (Lonely planey description, not mine). Aside from the fettish joints, prostitutes and weird reptilian Manga porn, they have cockroaches. And big ones at that. The last hostel we stayed managed to bring down all previous asian hostel standards I'd experienced in both China and Japan. We stayed for two nights but should have seen the warning signs with the monster of a cockroach we met on arrival. Lina, having lived in New York where they have cockroaches the size of buses, was even appaled at it's size. It set an ugly precedent for the rest of our stay there, resulting in us practically getting flung out the door on the last day for not checking out on time.
Saying goodbye to Lina, i left Tokyo, and set out on my way to climb Mount Fuji. I didn't mind being by myself again, but having company in Tokyo, expecially Lina's, made the experience all the more worthwhile. It's most certainly the sort of place best enjoyed when you can share the excitement of it's craziness with another like-minded Tokyo-obbsessive.
Good work Team Tokyo!
I ended up staying in Tokyo for a full week, more than i stayed in any other place. There was so much to potentially do and if you factor in the time for getting lost and distracted by what it has to offer in just walking down the street, the days start to clock up. Ask Lina, she was supposed to leave on a Friday and didn't leave until the Sunday, just about making her second flight and narrowly missing an eternal slagging from me for being such a tokyo booze hound!!
However, I won't do that because Lina, being the top notch friend that she is, sat me down and pointed out the ridiculous,self-inflicted logistical tug of war i was evidently having with the Beast. In one selfless action that has changed my travelling experience by almost 5 kilos i reckon, she took home the doubles i had of everything and lightened my very heavy load. Again Lina , I am sincerely sorry for not telling you about the knife and any subsequent embarrassment, man-handling and general abuse you received at the hands of the Japanese Police and Narita Airport Security. I really am.
Tokyo wasn't all bright lights and fried tempura thought, it did have a dark seedy 'underbelly' (Lonely planey description, not mine). Aside from the fettish joints, prostitutes and weird reptilian Manga porn, they have cockroaches. And big ones at that. The last hostel we stayed managed to bring down all previous asian hostel standards I'd experienced in both China and Japan. We stayed for two nights but should have seen the warning signs with the monster of a cockroach we met on arrival. Lina, having lived in New York where they have cockroaches the size of buses, was even appaled at it's size. It set an ugly precedent for the rest of our stay there, resulting in us practically getting flung out the door on the last day for not checking out on time.
Saying goodbye to Lina, i left Tokyo, and set out on my way to climb Mount Fuji. I didn't mind being by myself again, but having company in Tokyo, expecially Lina's, made the experience all the more worthwhile. It's most certainly the sort of place best enjoyed when you can share the excitement of it's craziness with another like-minded Tokyo-obbsessive.
Good work Team Tokyo!
Japan
Tokyo = So great it requires bullet points to ensure nothing is omitted
Tokyo is amazing because.......
- they have high tech vending machines that sell cold milk coffee and 10% alcohol whenever you require it.
- When you get lost, which is inevitable because of their ridiculous street adressing system, Japanese people will automatically help you out in a way that also doesn't make you feel like a total dimwit
-you can spend an unbelievable amount of time in their slot and pachinko arcades staring wide-mouthed at the grown men betting on plastic horse races.
-such arcades also have photo booths where you and your friend Lina can spend many a happy hour, taking preposterous photos of yourselves...over and over
-they have an entire area in Asakusa dedicated to kitchenware. Here Lina found her Meca amoungst the hundreds and hundreds of plastic food displays, gently and lovingly handcrafted by artisans trained in the ancient fine art of food replication. A costly but rewarding souvenir.
-Food food food, as Lina is the authority on this matter, i might let her explain how amazing the food we ate was. Personally, as long as it was battered i didn't mind. When i get home, i am getting me a deep fat fryer
-Shibuya and Shinjuku are the craziest places i've ever seen in my life. They come alive at night and are home to some of the worlds weirdest fettish joints. Bizarly, or possibly not, from the outside they all look like you could bring your five year old in to see Barney.......But's probably Barney for business men, if you know what i mean.
The place is all lit up, creating your typical Tokyo postcard image and close to Shinjuku is an grid of alleyways called the Golden Gai where you can hangout in a bar called Ghetto, the size of a shoe box and drink until the early hours with the semi-famous japanese actor owner.
-It's a city that never seems to close, after leaving your new local you can jump on the metro and go to the early morning fish markets and eat fresh sushi for breakfast, this is if you manage to make it through the markets without loosing a limb. The markets are actually fascinating, really intense as there's giant frozen tuna the size of yourselves been flung through slicing machines, high speed buggies bombing it around the place and lots of guts and blood and dead gross looking fish things. It was fantastic.
-They have this alley way in Shinjuku called 'piss alley' where all the business men go and have noodles before they stumble home to their wives. We met up with Shinya, an ol Japanese Bodytonic faithful over there through a friend of Lina's and he brought us by the hand to eat in Piss-alley. We went to this one place that only seemed to sell skewers of chicken bits. Shin ordered for us and also excitedly informed us the cook was in the mafia! If i remember correctly, we had skewers of chicken meat, chicken skin, chicken heart and chicken cartiledge. Then after our food had settled, we went to hit a few baseballs in a cage right smack bang in the middle of the city. I thought my previous Under 15 Rounders Connaght final experiecnce would stand to me, but the 80km pitched balls were too much for me and my girlie swing. I managed to hit 2 balls out of about 25.
-They have Harajuku kids! I went to Harajuku on the Sunday but unfortunately it was raining heavily. They were still out in force but my camera was dead. In someways this was good as i think i am so eager to take photos sometimes i forget to stop and take in what I'm photographing. I have to say i thought they boys were a bit more stylish. All of Harajuku is a teenagers dream, with clothes shops and trinket shops and fast food joints. Imagine Adhoc's the entire length of Georges St. (For anyone that doesn't know, Adhoc's that tacky shop in Templebar where all the Emo kids get their piercings and glow in the dark tongue rings)
-Electric Town!! A whole area with hundreds and hundreds of shops selling usb leads and cables and cords of all kinds! I spent an afternoon here in one building called Radio Hall. This place is just plain weird. On exiting the train station, the first thing i meet is about 50 girls dressed in french-maid outfits, handing out flyers. This could be a new approach for any promoters reading. Radio Hall has about 6 floors of gadget shops, manga stores and manga toys. There is one whole floor with just doll parts. If you're inclined, you can customize your own doll, ranging from very small to very large. I found the eye section particularly unnerving. Floor to ceiling displays of doll eyes?!
As i'm running out of adjectives now I'm going to take a break, read a thesaurus and finish another time.
Tokyo is amazing because.......
- they have high tech vending machines that sell cold milk coffee and 10% alcohol whenever you require it.
- When you get lost, which is inevitable because of their ridiculous street adressing system, Japanese people will automatically help you out in a way that also doesn't make you feel like a total dimwit
-you can spend an unbelievable amount of time in their slot and pachinko arcades staring wide-mouthed at the grown men betting on plastic horse races.
-such arcades also have photo booths where you and your friend Lina can spend many a happy hour, taking preposterous photos of yourselves...over and over
-they have an entire area in Asakusa dedicated to kitchenware. Here Lina found her Meca amoungst the hundreds and hundreds of plastic food displays, gently and lovingly handcrafted by artisans trained in the ancient fine art of food replication. A costly but rewarding souvenir.
-Food food food, as Lina is the authority on this matter, i might let her explain how amazing the food we ate was. Personally, as long as it was battered i didn't mind. When i get home, i am getting me a deep fat fryer
-Shibuya and Shinjuku are the craziest places i've ever seen in my life. They come alive at night and are home to some of the worlds weirdest fettish joints. Bizarly, or possibly not, from the outside they all look like you could bring your five year old in to see Barney.......But's probably Barney for business men, if you know what i mean.
The place is all lit up, creating your typical Tokyo postcard image and close to Shinjuku is an grid of alleyways called the Golden Gai where you can hangout in a bar called Ghetto, the size of a shoe box and drink until the early hours with the semi-famous japanese actor owner.
-It's a city that never seems to close, after leaving your new local you can jump on the metro and go to the early morning fish markets and eat fresh sushi for breakfast, this is if you manage to make it through the markets without loosing a limb. The markets are actually fascinating, really intense as there's giant frozen tuna the size of yourselves been flung through slicing machines, high speed buggies bombing it around the place and lots of guts and blood and dead gross looking fish things. It was fantastic.
-They have this alley way in Shinjuku called 'piss alley' where all the business men go and have noodles before they stumble home to their wives. We met up with Shinya, an ol Japanese Bodytonic faithful over there through a friend of Lina's and he brought us by the hand to eat in Piss-alley. We went to this one place that only seemed to sell skewers of chicken bits. Shin ordered for us and also excitedly informed us the cook was in the mafia! If i remember correctly, we had skewers of chicken meat, chicken skin, chicken heart and chicken cartiledge. Then after our food had settled, we went to hit a few baseballs in a cage right smack bang in the middle of the city. I thought my previous Under 15 Rounders Connaght final experiecnce would stand to me, but the 80km pitched balls were too much for me and my girlie swing. I managed to hit 2 balls out of about 25.
-They have Harajuku kids! I went to Harajuku on the Sunday but unfortunately it was raining heavily. They were still out in force but my camera was dead. In someways this was good as i think i am so eager to take photos sometimes i forget to stop and take in what I'm photographing. I have to say i thought they boys were a bit more stylish. All of Harajuku is a teenagers dream, with clothes shops and trinket shops and fast food joints. Imagine Adhoc's the entire length of Georges St. (For anyone that doesn't know, Adhoc's that tacky shop in Templebar where all the Emo kids get their piercings and glow in the dark tongue rings)
-Electric Town!! A whole area with hundreds and hundreds of shops selling usb leads and cables and cords of all kinds! I spent an afternoon here in one building called Radio Hall. This place is just plain weird. On exiting the train station, the first thing i meet is about 50 girls dressed in french-maid outfits, handing out flyers. This could be a new approach for any promoters reading. Radio Hall has about 6 floors of gadget shops, manga stores and manga toys. There is one whole floor with just doll parts. If you're inclined, you can customize your own doll, ranging from very small to very large. I found the eye section particularly unnerving. Floor to ceiling displays of doll eyes?!
As i'm running out of adjectives now I'm going to take a break, read a thesaurus and finish another time.
Boat to Japan
After three very relaxed days hanging out in Shanghai with the Cassidy's, i set off on my vogage across the South China Sea to Osaka.
I have to say i was really looking forward to getting the ferry, depite the fact it was going to take two days and i was going to be by myself for the first time..eek! I also was so ridiculously excited about going to Tokyo at this stage that perhaps two days of rest was needed for me to establish some respectable social moderation that is required when speaking to humans who don't know you and how much you can't wait to go to Tokyo. Nothing of much intersest happened on the boat, i made friends with some Australians who have nicely offered to take me out in Melbourne when i get there and i watched some really badly dubbed movies in my private room (no less) . I'd been holding off reading Pappillion (thanks DLT) until now as i figured reading it at sea might add to the atmosphere. Thankfully, my sea crossing was calm and without any encounters with lepers, indians or cannibals. I was missing having the laugh with Lisa and Aoife though, I'm pretty unamusing by myself.
The best thing about the boat was the Japanese style baths they had on the top deck. They are seperated into male and female for obvious reasons, and i was chilling out in my bath, all alone looking out at the sun setting against the oily black sea, musing about how great everything was....until after about ten minutes when the heat started to make me light headed and the whole room started to spin and i had to jump out and into a cold shower. I stopped sweating and spinning about an hour later.
I went straight to Tokyo on my first fast train when i got off the boat and arrived exactly on time in Tokyo station. Here was my first of many many experiences wandering around stations in Tokyo, totally confused and looking like a spanner. I first had to find an ATM which would take my stupid foreign credit card. The Beast was on top form, ripping into my shoulders and causing me to stoop over like an ol woman. It took me an hour and a half of near tears with the beast to finally find an ATM, and when i got to my metro stop, it took me a further hour walking around, trying to first decipher where the hell i was and where my hostel was. When i did joyfully find it, i dropped that beast like a tonne of potatoes. The noise of the beast hitting the deck startled another backpacker out of his internetting and he came over and intoduced himself. He was from Dublin, Yay! We ended up going for a few badly needed beers which ended in us playing drinking games with some crazy Swedish people, where i exhibited some rare drunken moments in making a holy show of myself. I some how managed to haul myself out of bed the next morning and get to the airport to meet Lina off her flight! She said i smelt amazing.
I have to say i was really looking forward to getting the ferry, depite the fact it was going to take two days and i was going to be by myself for the first time..eek! I also was so ridiculously excited about going to Tokyo at this stage that perhaps two days of rest was needed for me to establish some respectable social moderation that is required when speaking to humans who don't know you and how much you can't wait to go to Tokyo. Nothing of much intersest happened on the boat, i made friends with some Australians who have nicely offered to take me out in Melbourne when i get there and i watched some really badly dubbed movies in my private room (no less) . I'd been holding off reading Pappillion (thanks DLT) until now as i figured reading it at sea might add to the atmosphere. Thankfully, my sea crossing was calm and without any encounters with lepers, indians or cannibals. I was missing having the laugh with Lisa and Aoife though, I'm pretty unamusing by myself.
The best thing about the boat was the Japanese style baths they had on the top deck. They are seperated into male and female for obvious reasons, and i was chilling out in my bath, all alone looking out at the sun setting against the oily black sea, musing about how great everything was....until after about ten minutes when the heat started to make me light headed and the whole room started to spin and i had to jump out and into a cold shower. I stopped sweating and spinning about an hour later.
I went straight to Tokyo on my first fast train when i got off the boat and arrived exactly on time in Tokyo station. Here was my first of many many experiences wandering around stations in Tokyo, totally confused and looking like a spanner. I first had to find an ATM which would take my stupid foreign credit card. The Beast was on top form, ripping into my shoulders and causing me to stoop over like an ol woman. It took me an hour and a half of near tears with the beast to finally find an ATM, and when i got to my metro stop, it took me a further hour walking around, trying to first decipher where the hell i was and where my hostel was. When i did joyfully find it, i dropped that beast like a tonne of potatoes. The noise of the beast hitting the deck startled another backpacker out of his internetting and he came over and intoduced himself. He was from Dublin, Yay! We ended up going for a few badly needed beers which ended in us playing drinking games with some crazy Swedish people, where i exhibited some rare drunken moments in making a holy show of myself. I some how managed to haul myself out of bed the next morning and get to the airport to meet Lina off her flight! She said i smelt amazing.
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