Sayonara sojourns pt 1. On board for boarding to alleviate boredom

So it has finally happened. I have made the epic several thousand mile journey all the way back home. I don't quite know how I feel about it, and I'm getting a bit fed up of being asked if I'm honest but i'll have to bear with it for a month, but for the time being I'm just a bit spaced. I'm not sure what will happen to this blog but I do know that I still have a few stories left to tell from my time in Japan so I will at least be posting those. I'm going to start off with talking about the epic journey I went on in my last few weeks.

Before that though a little bit of boasting. I am know the proud owner of a level 3 qualification in Japanese language proficiency. I'm still not sure exactly how I passed, with full marks on one of the sections. I guess as usual luck was on my side ey.

Anyway boasting aside time to tell you a bit more about my travelling. My first stop was back off to Shikoku, specifically Ikumi beach for another surf trip. I've been there a few times and I've written about it before but it is a wicked place and the people are so damn cool. In fact this time around it was even better because now I could understand and talk to everyone.

It was not the most relaxing of holidays, not that I truly expected it to be. Between the 5am starts and the 12pm finishes I came out of it exhausted. That being said it was an amazing rest for the soul. There is something very therapeutic about just sitting about waiting for a wave to come, it gave me some much needed clear thinking time so that as well as being able to have a great time with friends I was also able to think through some problems I'd been having at work.

So have I gotten any better? Well not so much though I did manage to get standing a few times, I think all of that snowboarding and skating over winter and spring paid off a little bit haha. What was heartwarming though was finally being able to talk to our hosts, good friends of my girlfriends, who run a rental shop down there, Lani house for the record if you ever need to rent gear or find out the craic whilst in Ikumi.

It had been almost two years since I'd met them. Even back then I could feel a vibe that these guys were truly excellent people and know I could one hundred percent confirm it. One comment I seem to get all the time is, "Wow your Japanese has gotten really great so fast." I haven't noticed it and I think I've still got a long way to go, but for these people I guess I have gone from not speaking a word to having ill blown conversations in the time we hadn't seen each other so I'll let them off. For me I think I was inevitably going to learn the language. I just like talking too god damn much.

Another thing this trip reminded me of, I am most definitely a sea person. Growing up so close to it and with my dad having been a lighthouse keeper in his youth I think it was inevitable. 5am may have been early but the waves were perfect and the temperature just right. It was quite nice not to have to wear wet suits and just dive right in. The sea around Ikumi, coming up from the south Pacific, is also gorgeous, albeit with a few jellyfish floating about waiting to sting the unwary. I can't think of a much better way to spend free time than lolling about on the beach with some friends, it is something I've missed being way up on the mountains.

I would have loved to stick around a bit longer, especially as there was a nationwide surf tournament about to start, but alas I had a hospital appointment to get to, as well as other people dotted around the country I needed to see. I'm going to miss all the people at Ikumi, and I do promise to get back there, or Osaka, or meet everyone somewhere else in the world (Bali? Hawaii?) to say hey once more. Well I guess that is true for everywhere I went in my last few weeks. This was definitely the start of a long period of goodbyes.

Ja mata née

Tokyo Day 3 - to the future

 

Another post and another little insight into my five day sojourn to the capital with the parents. Oh how I do love to travel. I’ve been amazingly lucky the past couple of months that work has slowed down a little, giving me more time to stretch the old adventurous legs. Though what the next couple of days reminded me is just how much I also love meeting up again with old friends.

I’ve met some wicked people in my time here and I’m amazed at how fast some of my friendships have formed. Non-Asian ex-patriots in Japan constitute less than 1% of the total population so I think it’s easy to see why ex-pat communities form so quickly. Also generally you find that such people have a lot in common, at the end of the day choosing to spend a chunk of your life in another country, especially one so different from the west as Japan, is a huge decision and those who undertake it likely have some underlying character traits.

 

With that being said the person I met up first is in fact an old Japanese friend from Osaka. She helped me out a huge amount when I first moved here and had recently moved out to Tokyo for work. Crazy though her schedule is she had a bit of time off so asked to Join me and my parents in some sightseeing.

We started out in Shimbashi heading towards Hamarikyu gardens (浜離宮恩賜庭園

) an impressively large Japanese style garden right in the middle of a bustling business district. On the walk over we came across a rather elaborate clock tower, more than slightly reminiscent of structures from Howl’s moving castle and the like. As luck would have it we passed by just as it was begging to chime the hour, something that only happens a few times a day. As it started up I could understand why. Wonderful though its whirring, clicking and clanging was I could see it being quite a nuisance to those trying to work in the high-rise offices nearby. Still it is a wonderfully quirky addition to the somewhat stiff and business like atmosphere of the area.

The park was also another stark contrast. For a start when so many giant buildings surround you it’s easy to lose track of what is going on in ground level. The park is like an island of flatness in the gargantuan landscape, with nothing inside taller than the trees. There were quite a few people about taking respite from the hustle of the big city within its calm environs, engaging in all kinds of activities, from taking their dogs for a stroll, photography, simply chatting and in the case of a pair of old dears we came across, painting watercolours.

I’d say the central feature of the park, though as it’s designed with a careful balance like so many things in Japan it’s hard to assign a centrality to it,  is the medium sized teahouse plonked right in the middle of a pond. This was in fact the whole reason we’d come here as my mum really wanted to sit down to some traditional match at some point. Well sit and drink we did. It was surprisingly nice actually, much less bitter than my previous experiences.

 

The park faces out onto Tokyo bay and is one of several stops for the various transit ferries carrying people around the area. Our next goal was Odaiba (お台場) a large artificial Island just a little way into Tokyo bay so setting out from the garden was the easiest way to go. Maybe it’s just years of ferry trips across the Mersey when I was little but I do love them, so many pleasant memories.  The ferry we took was pretty cool and futuristic looking, the seating area set very wide and low so as to minimise pitching. In fact I’ve recently found out that the designer of these ferries is the man behind none other than the epic anime space opera “Space Battleship Yamato” so I guess I shouldn't be too shocked by their design.

So what is Odaiba? As I mentioned it’s a giant artificial Island situated in waterfront of Tokyo Bay. Originally developed as the a military strong hold in the Meji period  to defend against potential attacks from the sea it has now been transformed into a centre for leisure and technological development..

When you come in off the boat the first thing you are confronted with is a giant artificial beach. Yup a beach right in the middle of an urban metropolis. Why not I guess and the funniest part is, it’s not the only one. The beach itself leads to a massive a massive entertainment complex called Decks. This thing houses many shops, restaurants and the largest amusement arcade in Tokyo, and possibly Japan. Sadly no time to go in, but I’m sure I’dve spent a fortune if I had.

After a nice lunch, it was time to part ways with the parents as they were knackered bless them. I really wanted to head out to miraikan, a museum dedicated to innovative technology coming out of Japan so we proceeded to traverse the Island. Now aside from the supermalls and giant buildings Odaiba is pretty flat. I reckon it would be a great place to skateboard or cycle.

Well mostly flat that is besides a scale replica of the Statue of liberty and a giant Gundam statue. Well if there is a giant robot floating about I kind of have to get a picture with it now, it is traditional. In fact this is just one of the many quirky things on this rather modern Island, apparently there is a teleport station though I’m not exactly sure what that entails.

In the end most places were shut, it was after all a Tuesday? Anyway we decided to head back towards Tokyo for a bit more of a wander as Odaiba, whilst interesting, is not the most scenic area of Tokyo.

We took a monorail and then the subway to the ritzy Ginza. I always feel so out of place there, it’s far too stylish for a scruffy pleb like myself. Still it is nice to walk around as the architecture is really stunning. I always found it interesting that many of the really incredible buildings are built by just a handful of Japanese architects. There work is a amazing though. I should probably learn a bit more about them at some point.

The main reason we came was to check out the new Kabukiza which had finished being refurbished just a week or so ago. You can always tell when you are nearing a kabuki theatre as the streets become packed with old dears. I should really try and go to a show, or at least an act, before I leave I guess.

We finished the night by grabbing a coffee at what is the first Starbucks to be opened in  Japan. Apart from the plaque you wouldn’t really know to be honest, it doesn’t look much different and the coffee is still rubbish. Anyway the time whiled away as myself and my friend had a good old natter about life, Japan, overtime, you know the important things. I won’t bore you with the details.

Well that's it for now. Sorry I know I promised clowns but they are coming I swear.

Mata neee.

僕の町で迷っている- Getting lost in my town.

Once again it’s been a long time between blog posts sorry. I think as I get more and more used to things here the trivial differences have become, well, just that. It also has a fair amount to do with me being knee deep in data analysis and after having your eyes glued to a computer screen all day the desire to write is somewhat diminished.

I had originally planned a post about Christmas in Japan, how and why it sucked, the soul sucking commercialism of the whole event and blah blah blah. Looking back it wasn’t so awful. I mean it was rubbish but the New Year made up for it. That sums it up better than any ranty tirade I can think of.

Instead I am going to take you on a journey. A journey through time and sp… sorry bit of a Boosh moment there. Anyway I regularly listen to1 a podcast called “The Forum” from the BBC world service. It has many interesting discussions, check it out, but one interesting segment is “60 second ideas to change the world.”. On one such show one of the panellist recommended spending a day getting lost in your local area. I hadn’t intended on it but that’s just what I did, and I came across quite a few cool things.

My goal for the day was to buy a new tin opener, my old one broke, and a new laptop cover, my old one broke. I think you can see a pattern here. I’m really bad at keeping things nice, always have been. With that in mind I left my mountain home and set out to my local City, Himeji (姫路) incidentally It means “Princess street”.

Now I don’t want to sell it short, historically Himeji is very interesting. It has the largest Castle complex that  maintains much of it’s original construction, it is the most visited castle in Japan. This would be wonderful but sadly it’s in a box at the moment. Nearby is Mt. Shosha and the Engyoji temple complex, a very ancient Buddhist site as well as the setting for some scenes in “The last Samurai”. It is the second largest city in Hyogo and I’m sure there are many other things it’s famous for.

Here is the thing though Historical also means old. The price you pay for keeping such things well preserved is that you can’t do much renovation and renewal. There isn’t much of a night (or for that matter day) life in Himeji. For a city there isn’t a whole lot going on and with Osaka and Kobe so close I guess there is no real reason to bother.

Back to Sunday. Now I like most people am a creature of habit. My first thoughts for my shopping trip where to head to Miyukidori, the main high street of sorts. However for some reason when I left the station my body was telling me to go left not right. Sometimes it’s best not to argue so left I went.

Now one thing I really love about Japan is that it is really strong on boutique culture. The big name brands are of course about but they have no where near the presence you would see in high streets back home. For somewhere as homogeneous as Japan it is really amazing that so many niche and quirky stores can make a living. But they do just that. The fashion tribes rule the youth subcultures and it’s a consumer jungle out there so it lends itself well to these odd little stores.

First random encounter of the day was a café that specialised in all things soy. It was a tiny little thing with a Tudor style interior, very old school looking and quite incongruous in the surrounding concrete jungle. The place catered to all things bean, with fresh dried beans, home made soymilk, soy lattes on the menu ad even soy ice cream. I was more than a little happy. I bought some of said soymilk, made about 5 minutes from the till and I have to say it was worlds apart from the stuff you get at the supermarket, delish. The lovely old lady that owned the place assured me that their lunch menu was tasty also so I guess I’ll have to go back.

Returning to my pavement pounding with no real goal other than to find an electronics store I pressed further west. As I approached a bypass the roads started to widen and I was soon surrounded by nothing but car outlets and family restaurants.  It is of course at times like these that Japan likes to throw a quick spanner in the works.

As I crossed the next traffic signal I spotted a mini cooper. It took a second to sink in. A min cooper. In Japan! It’s been almost two years and I hadn’t seen a single one up until this point. Not only that but it was a classic none of this new fangled little big mini cooper nonsense. After the shock subsided I noticed another, and another, and in fact I was outside a mini cooper speciality garage. They even had a mini cooper pick up truck, not entirely sure when it would be useful but cool nonetheless.

 

After a few photos and nearly getting run over in the process I stumbled upon my next surprise. Out in what I can only really consider the middle (ish) of nowhere was an art museum.

Called the Enzan memorial museum of art it is a privately run establishment that specialises in showcasing traditional arts and crafts, including various methods for looming Obi (Japanese sashes) and bamboo weaving. The two curators looked a little nervous when I walked through the door but as soon as they realised I could speak a bit of Japanese they visibly relaxed and kindly demoed some of the techniques for me. It still amazes me a little just how timid Japanese people are about their English ability. 9 times out of 10 they know much more than they think they do and can communicate at least.

The second floor of the museum was a gallery with some wonderful displays of paper craft and intricate Noh masks. At times like this more than others I lament my inability to read Japanese. I really would have liked to know a little more about what was on display but alas I was lost in a sea of unknown symbols. This also meant my trip round the museum was considerably shorter since I wasn’t stopping to take notice of the signs. I did take a few moments to take in the wonderful garden at the entrance way though. The simple aesthetics of Japanese gardens are definitely a sight worth seeing.

And there ends my little detour. It was a nice reminder that life can still surprise even when partaking in the seemingly mundane. I encourage anyone feeling a bit humdrum to go and get lost in their local environs, just see what you can find. As for my shopping, well I at least found the tin opener. That's something.

Mata ne.

Into the Bush, Byron and a bit of surfing

Reunions are usually fun and seeing my cousin for the first time in a fair few years was no exception. Whilst we hadn’t really spent huge amounts of time together in the past, the age gap seemed much bigger when we were younger, I’ve always thought (and been told) we were pretty similar. At any rate he and his girlfriend made me feel so welcome at their home and I had a really chill couple of days.

Before I continue though, what a home! If my memory serves me my cousin was always a bit of a hippy and that whole idea of being in tune with your environment is something reflected by his current abode. It’s right in the middle of the Currumbin Valley and is pretty much surrounded by the forest on all sides. All the house water comes from rainwater and I’m pretty sure he said that the electricity and heating were solar powered. The toilets are even eco friendly, rather than flush they just go straight to compost.

My favourite thing though? If any of my rubbish was biodegradable I could just sling it over the side of the balcony into the forest for the local beasties to munch on. It was far more fun than it should have been.

So speaking of beasties there was an abundance of them around. Aside from my cousins dog there were also possums, bush turkeys and kangaroos weaving their way through the bush, though in the case of the former I only heard a pair scrapping in the wee hours of the morning. This being Australia there was also all manner of creepy crawly things flitting about. I’ve never been overly squeamish anyway but Japan has certainly hardened me to bugs.

Being the big nature geek that I am it is no real surprise that I was excited to experience some of Australia’s weird and wonderful wildlife. To that end my cousin kindly organised a trip to a nearby wildlife sanctuary for myself and some friends he had staying over.

Currumbin wildlife sanctuary is run by the national trust of Queensland and is one of the oldest of its kind on the gold coast, originally founded way back in 1947 by a beekeeper. Now it is of course a much grander affair and it even has a wildlife hospital attached. As a general rule I’ve avoided things like this whilst in Japan, the Japanese animal welfare policies are pretty abysmal making most zoos very depressing. The sanctuary was a breath of a fresh air however and made me reminisce of times long gone spent playing in Chester zoo. The enclosures were nice and spacious with plenty of nooks and crannies for the critters to tuck themselves away from prying eyes should the mood take them.

Aside from the usual animals; koalas, kangaroos, dingoes e.t.c, I managed to get through most of my checklist of weird Aussie wildlife, including echidnas and Cassowary; the worlds most dangerous bird. Sadly not platypuses (platypi?) at this sanctuary, they are apparently unbelievably rare. The wombats and Tasmanian devils were sadly a no show but that is just incentive for a second visit.

To round the trip off we watched a bird show sponsored by Air Asia. It’s a bit weird really to think such a massive global company would be sponsoring such a trivial thing but I guess all publicity is good publicity. I suppose it would be nice to think they are just trying to give something back, that’s what the less cynical part of me keeps saying at any-rate.

In fact this enviro-centric notion seems to permeate throughout Australia, from water saving toilets, through the large amount of recycling points all the way up to issuing massive fines for interfering with native wildlife. It’s clear to see that there is a big push to fight the wrongs of the past here. This reverence of the natural world is, I believe, very admirable and I hope it’s a growing trend.

There are similar ideals requiring this respect of the natural world in Japan, however it’s always seemed a bit shallow to me. Preservation does occur but, in general, only reserved for things of beauty or areas that can be considered aesthetically pleasing. Some of the older generation of Japanese people seem to be very proud of this but to me it just seems, like a lot of things in Japan, more about outward appearance than anything else.

Once we were all Koala’d out it was back to my cousins jungle retreat to chill for a bit. I really do mean just for a bit as well. With everyone having early starts the next day, my cousin is usually up at 5am to go surfing and his girlfriend has an almost 2 hour commute to work, bedtime was about 9am. In fact since the sun rises at about 4am and it’s too hot to do anything by midday, daily life there is shifted forward a couple of hours. Everything is really laidback as well, a nice change from the 24hr craziness that can be Japanese big cities or life in a synchrotron.

The following day I was up and ready to go by 7am. Today we were travelling through time, well time zones at any-rate, to Byron bay. A lot of people recommended this place to me and, given that I’m a big fan of mister mad, bad and dangerous to be with himself, I should at least have a gander at the town which takes it’s name from his grandfather. It’s nice though, super trendy, in fact maybe a little too trendy for me. It seems like a major way point for rich young backpackers on tours around Aus and the towns infrastructure has built up to reflect this. A bit more wandering would have been nice but I think it would of burnt a hole in my already over light wallet.

My cousin took me a bit further along to cape Byron, the eastern most point of mainland Australia. From here we had a nice wander along the costal cliffs and up to the lighthouse. This was apparently my Grandma’s favourite place in Australia on the occasions she visited. Looking out at the wonderful coastline views, the rolling waves and the impressive skyline of Gold Coast itself I could confirm something I have always known, she has great taste. On top of the views it is also a great spot for a bit of whale and dolphin watching, didn't manage to spot any of the former though sadly.

I finished the day up hanging out in Coolangatta, the Australian equivalent of Liscard. Well that sells it a little short, Liscard does not after all have gorgeous stretches of beach and I’m also told it’s a popular surf point. The high street isn’t much to look at though, but it did have somewhere I could buy new shoes. No surfing for me this day sadly as the wind was all wrong. I did have a good dip in the ocean though. Living up a mountain all the time makes me forget how much I miss the sea.

This trip definitely wet my appetite for a deeper exploration of the vast and quirky land that is Australia. I’m fortunate to have made a fair few Australian friends during my stay in Japan do they should expect a visit from me in the near future.

Yoroshiku ne.

Hilly Manly to Colourful Currumbin

So science over and done with it was time to delve into one of my other great passions, travelling. My plan was to fly out and meet my cousin early but sadly due to the enormous cost of flights on a Saturday I had to leave it until late evening. That left me with an extra half a day in Sydney that needed to be filled.

After a little bit of research in through the various leaflets lying around in my hotel I very quickly decided to head north to Manly by ferry to escape from the city and have a bit of a bike ride. Manly is about a 30-minute ferry ride out of Sydney’s main transport hub, Circular Quay, which was another 15 minutes from where I was staying. No lie in for me then if I wanted to make the most of the day.

Sadly that night I’d had to change rooms and my new sleeping spot had an open balcony overlooking the main road, with no windows! Needless to say I didn't sleep very much. In desperation I headed to the T.V room to try and chill on the coach. Alas I didn’t have much success but I did manage to watch a lot of classic Looney toons.

 

So with a little less than two hours of sleep under my belt I packed up my stuff, stuffed it in a locker and headed off to the ferry terminal. Alas my fatigued brain was not up to the task of buying ferry tickets and I managed to board the wrong one. I realised just in time but thanks to a rather unfriendly ticket lady I departed for Manly five dollars less rich.

The ferry ride over was very pleasant and reminded me of trips on the Mersey ferry when I was a wee little one, minus the obnoxious music of course. The addition of a spectacular view of the Sydney Opera house and Harbour Bridge were also very welcome.

30 minutes later and I was in Manly. A short stroll from the ferry terminal I found the bike rental place and looking around at all the awards they had won I knew I was in for a treat. The staff were friendly, the selection of bikes was large and all the safety equipment was provided. With my gear locked up and helmet strapped on I was ready for the off.

Getting out of the main town area was a little bit hairy but once you are away the roads clear up beautifully. It seems like the local council have really invested a lot in cycling as there were signed cycle routes everywhere. After a little bit of peddling I soon realised why the area is called Manly. It’s a hilly place and some of them are massive, if you aren’t feeling very manly when you set off you deffo will by the end of the day. A bit of reading has revealed that the reason behind the naming of the place is because of how ‘Manly’ the natives appeared to Capt. Arthur Phillip so there you go. Manland.

Sadly I was a bit short on time but I tried to cram in as much as I possibly could and did a rapid 30km route of the southern coast. First I headed out to Sydney harbour national park for a little bit of (unintentional) off-roading and some amazing coastline and Cliffside views. Having the vast expanse of the southern pacific stretching out before you on a clear day is totally breathtaking. If you get the chance to just take in a view like that sometime definitely go for it.

After a very short tour of the North fort artillery museum I turned back around and headed down towards Manly’s main beach, aptly named Manly beach, for a nice little promenade pedal and a break from all the hills. It being a Saturday the beach was packed and there was a lot of weaving to be done. If I’d had the time it would have been nice to maybe try and surf a bit and chill out but as usual time was short.

 

I finished out by heading west through the main residential area, more monster hills. There seemed to be a lot of construction and real estate auctions going on. I’m not too surprised to be honest as the area is gorgeous and just far enough from Sydney proper to not have the whole busy atmosphere of a big city.

So all pedalled out I bought a whole mango and some other snacks from ALDI, yes and ALDI and the brands were almost the same to, before boarding the ferry back to Sydney. After that it was a short hop by plane to the Gold coast, which in the eyes of local time zones took 0 time, and my cousin’s place in Corrumbin. I have to admit one of my favourite things about the trip, apart from the weather of course, has been the access to fresh fruit, vegetables and bread. That and shelves full of cereal. Ah how I miss the food of home.

Laters.

Finally Fuji

Well this post is long, long, long overdue but I am finally getting around to writing it. Yes you read the title correctly After a year and a half in Japan I finally got around to summiting its largest peak, and what self –respecting mountain man would I be had I not. My journey up was a little a-typical (well the start at least) but all the more fun for it I think.

So where to begin? Well let’s start with the weekend before. I had an absolute blast at a music festival called Summer Sonic. This is probably one of the biggest music events of the year in Kansai and it was pretty cool. Four stages of (mostly) excellent music, lots of people and, at least on the second day, great weather.

 

The first day was incredible though for far different reasons. Mainly a huge thunderstorm broke out halfway through the day. I have seriously never been that close to lightning. It was scary, harrowing and amazing al at once. The crowd ended up holed inside a baseball stadium for a few hours, a little miserable and soggy, until the power came back on.

After about two an a half hours everything restarted and I still managed to be introduced to some interesting new bands as well as seeing some of my all time favourite artists. It was a fun experience and I’d been craving live music, there is a bit of a drought in my area, I think I need to really get into the Japanese music scene.

 

Anyway I’m getting a little sidetracked so now onto the journey to Fuji. It started with yet another night bus journey to Tokyo. Once there I met up with an old friend from the UK who would be my climbing partner for the night. Yup that’s right we decided to opt for the traditional night climb up Fuji-san to see the sunrise from the Summit.

Standing over 3700 metres, Fuji-san is the highest point in all of Japan. In fact it is not a mountain at all but an active volcano, although it’s been around 300 years since it last erupted. It’s fairly verdant on the way up most likely due to the rich nutrients in the surrounding soil. Being so massive it features heavily in much of Japanese folklore, songs, poetry and so on. It is probably one of Japans most Iconic symbols and I really couldn’t end my stay here without visiting.

That being said we set off from Shinjuku on the 3 hour journey by train and bus to Fujiyoshida before setting off up to the fifth station (河口湖五合目). Once we arrived we met a great deal of people also readying for the night climb. As I said it is a very popular way to climb Fuji and to be honest even if you were to set out on your own you wouldn’t be lonely for long.

The climb itself is just a long and steady march to the top. There are plenty of mountain huts along the way to take a breather if you need one, usually necessary after the particularly steep portions. This climb is in no way difficult and there are plenty of pensioners and young children also on the trail. I think most people opt to climb a little earlier and bed down in one of the mountain huts to wake up for sunrise. This is expensive though so we opted to plough through the night.

This is the highest I have ever climbed and I was a little surprised by how quick the temperature changed, I went from roasting to freezing in a couple of hours. The oxygen level difference was also noticeable though nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. One thing that really made me giggle however was the over the top nature of many Japanese climbers, stopping every five minutes to take massive gulps from their oxygen canisters. The top moment was seeing a group of guys all taking deep pulls from said canisters before lighting up a ciggy each. Priceless.

I was also surprised at just how many huts there are. Whilst really expensive they were a bit of a god send near the top where I was deffo in need of a hot drink or two, the cup of 甘酒 near the top was divine. We reached the summit in about 6 hours, about an hour of this was spent queuing to complete the last 100 metres, and after a brief wait were greeted by the sun.

It made all the struggle worth it. I can’t put into words what the view was like adequately and sadly my phone’s little camera could not do the sunrise justice. As the sun rises up over the mountains and if the sky is exceptionally clear, as it was for us, you can really see huge rays of light spiking out in a half circle across the landscape. It looks just like the Iconic flag of the Japanese military.

Thoroughly awed and a little bit chilly we started to make our way back down. The ascent had been a pleasant one but I cannot say the same for the descent. The path consists of what felt like an infinite number of short zig-zags leading back down to the 6^th station information hut. The view never changes and the path is made up of small ash shale, which is not firm underfoot. You could probably run it in about 40 minutes but I did not have the energy for that. This part seemed to go on forever.

 

Once we’d finally got back to Kawaguchiko-eki we treated ourselves to some amazing udon, it’s about twice as thick as normal udon in Kawaguchiko and called houtou udon. With warm food in our bellies we nodded of quickly on the train journey back to Tokyo for some hard earned rest.

I think I fully appreciate why this Japanese proverb exists, “He who climbs Fuji is a wise man, he who climbs twice is a fool.” The ascent was fine and dandy and the views were gorgeous but on the way down all I could think of was “I want off of this rock.” My choice of climbing conditions also weren’t the best I think and it took me a good few days to really recover from this.

Anyway that's it for now.

Ja mata ne.

Ikumi mi ni Iku

Well those two most dreaded of words, beam and time, have caused a bit of a slow down in my blogging of late. That combined with a round of bad expression from some rather lame duck bacteria has left me with little free time. Good job I enjoy the mountain life style ey. Anyway since I’ve not really been upto much it’s time for the final installment of my golden week adventures.

The final few days saw some mateys and me from the magical ring of mystery and wonder (AKA Spring8) venturing south for warmer climes and the Pacific Ocean. That’s right I finally managed to work my way down to the illustrious southern Island of Shikoku for a bit of a road trip.

We headed out by car for two reasons. Firstly, Shikoku is not so accessible by the wonderful train systems of Japan, and secondly, ROAD TRIP. Traffic was our friend in the early morning, rather surprising as it was the first day of a four day week end for Japan, our guess is that most people were headed in the other direction. We cruised down the expressway to Maiko and crossed the Akashi daihashi no problem.

Moving swiftly through Awaji, the main Island between Honshu and Shikoku, we came to a place I’d wanted to check out for some time, Naruto. This place is famous for it’s awesome whirlpools, 渦巻き in Japanese, and also sharing the name of a rather famous manga character, actually he’s named after the city and features many whirlpool references. Sadly it was not our day as we came midway through the tides meaning the sea was calmer than a Buddhist monastery,　maybe next time. We did get some wicked udon though.

After departing Naruto we found out why the trip had been so smooth so far. It seemed all of Japan was driving through Tokushima. We must have travelled about 3 miles in 30 minutes at one point. Thanks to some quick route plotting, with a little help from our navi, we were soon on our way again.

Our final destination was Ikumi, a small beach on the southeastern edge of Shikoku. It wasn’t the prettiest of beaches, at one point I was reminded of Newbo, but that's not why we were there. Sadly we arrived a little too late to surf the first day but there would be plenty of time afterwards. We met up with one of our friends who had come from Osaka and she introduced us to her friends who ran the surf rental place we’d be frequenting.

After a few self-introductions we turned back around to go to our lodgings, Nasa house. I knew we were onto a good thing when we pulled up outside and there were old surfboards lying about the place and an extremely gnarled skateboard. The bottom floor was one giant living room with more surf memorabilia and a load of musical instruments. This place had a total hippy vibe and I felt at ease pretty quickly.

We set up a BBQ up front and began to chat away. I’ll admit I didn’t catch everything, the Kansai-ben was heavy and these guys spoke almost no English, but everyone was really cool. I think these were possibly the most laid back Japanese people I’d ever met, a total contrast to the guys at work. Nothing was a problem and they were in no rush to do anything.

The night set things up as they meant to go on. We pretty much spent the days surfing and mucking about on the beach, chatting in the sun. Then at night hitting the onsen, a really nice Japanese restaurant and then back to Nasa house to drink and gab on about anything (mostly surfing) till the early hours.

My Japanese still sucks but I’m getting better at communicating than I thought. I’m a guy with a lot to say and so I think the inability to articulate myself is what drives me to learn the language more than anything else. I’m scouse after all; I’ve got a big gob.

I don’t exaggerate when I say that this is the most fun I’ve had since I came to Japan. The surfing was fun and the time to unwind ws nice but it was the people that made it incredible. You can always trust people into board sports to be absolutely wicked and these guys were no exception. It’s nice to see that the attitude transcends nationality. I’d love to go surfing again for sure and it inspired me to pick up a skateboard again.

Mostly though I’d like to get to the bar some of the guys own in Osaka and say hi again. I think the word 幸せ  sums up the whole trip can’t wait till my next bit of free time, roll on July cos May has been a bit of a crap one.

Mata kondo ne.