The Poetist

Where I left off in Part I my friends and I were resting at the 9th station. We were about 5.5 hours in and so almost at the end – the summit – in time for the sunrise. People who climb Fuji during the summer season know that it will be crowded; common knowledge that floats around advises people to allot extra time going from 9-10 because the sheer number of climbers on the mountain really slows things down. It was no different for us; I estimate that there were hundreds if not just short of a thousand people on Fuji-san that night. As a result, moving up was slow going; literally stop and go. We had passed the hardcore rock climbing section at this point but the trail was still part rock and part path so in areas I would literally put one foot up on a rock and then stop mid climb; wait half a minute if not more, then continue with my other foot. I might make it a few steps before repeating the process a few minutes later. While we were doing this routine the sky began to lighten. Although the moon was still out the bottoms of the sky started transforming from midnight black to a deep, deep, pre-dawn blue. We could see the summit, but we could also see the thick zig-zag trail of climbers winding up the path so we decided to find a good spot on the side of the mountain from which we’d be able to observe the sunrise. And observe the sunrise we did. It was stunning! I’ve seen sunrises before, but never from so high up. Being 3,750-odd meters above sea level offered an unrivaled experience, an unparalleled view of the true expanse of the sky, an opportunity to see the sunrise, in all its deliberate and glorious beauty, face-to-face.

We came. We marveled. And then we rested. We hopped back on the trail intending to power up to the top but the way was still ridiculously crowded so chose another spot where we could eat, drink, have oxygen, and rest. It was so nice – just hanging out, talking, joking and eating with my friends but with an amazing view as both backdrop and centerpiece. We were all pretty tired – of course, because we had just spent over 5 hours climbing up a mountain, but also because we had essentially pulled an all-nighter! All of us woke up Thursday morning as usual, but none of us were that successful in taking a nap; personally I got about 40 minutes of sleep on the bus. So finally we slept. We slept on the side of Mt. Fuji after witnessing an incredible event, and then literally basking in its glow.

There was still a little bit of a crowd left after we woke up (we didn’t sleep very long), but it didn’t take us inordinately long to reach the top. When we finally got to the top we walked around a bit and then Amber and Jim went off to look for a bathroom. I sat down with the bags… and fell asleep. When I woke up Jim was back but Amber wasn’t, and I felt sick; really nauseous. I put my head down to sleep but I just kept feeling sick. I took some oxygen but I just felt overwhelmingly sick. After a few minutes I was able to sleep a little bit, or rather, I closed my eyes and found space in my head to forget my discomfort. After a little while I woke up, felt better, looked around and found Amber and Jim sitting not far away. I joined them and then we got up to take a look around the top of Mt. Fuji.

There was quite a bit of a marketplace up there, and I considered some souvenirs but exploring was a much higher priority. I was still feeling mildly nauseatic, but nothing too strong. We walked down and peered into the crater, took some fun pictures, then walked over to some torii (wooden gates signifying a shrine) and took more pictures. Next up: the post office. The post office at the top of Mt. Fuji is the second highest in the world, and all three of us had postcards to send. We asked an old man where it was and he pointed towards a small hill and said to go up there and then about 25 meters; that’s where the post office would be. By then the altitude sickness had kicked in again and I didn’t feel up to it. Amber offered to take my postcards up for me, and I found a nice rock in the sunshine to sleep on in the meantime.

I woke up feeling worse than before. It was bad. Nearly simultaneously I felt like I was going to faint, and then vomit. I shot my hand out to the nearest rock to steady myself as I felt my head getting light and my vision cloudy. I clutched my hand to my mouth wondering if I was going to see the trail mix and peanut butter and banana sandwiches that I ate earlier. After those moments passed I thought ok, what am I going to do? I can’t just faint out here on the rock. Nobody’s going to notice, much less help me; and I can’t let my friends find me crumpled and unconscious on some rock. I can’t vomit out here either. I’m not in the midnight streets of Tokyo, where nobody chastises the retching salaryman or the dangerously wasted student – because that was them last week, or will be in the future. No, I couldn’t stay out there. I was reluctant to go to the bathroom – because they charged you for it – but go there I did. Between gathering my money and handing it to the attendant I put my head down on the small counter to steady myself, and briefly passed out. He started shouting at me and so I woke up and went to go hug a toilet for a little while – just in case. But these were traditional Japanese-style toilets (a hole in the ground), and while I wanted to vomit I was in no way in a state of mind that would allow me to take the necessary precautions. Basically, I was too sober to camp out next to the toilet. Luckily there was a wide wooden bench right inside the entrance that I conveniently passed out on.

Wake-up! Wake-up! You’re sick – you have to go down! Down the mountain! The old man was shouting at me again; no doubt he’d seen this happen before. Another man was standing nearby; he spoke English and attempted to explain to me what the old man was trying to communicate but I already understood what was going on. I explained to him that I knew I was sick but that I couldn’t leave because my friends weren’t back from the post office. Such a helpful man, he offered to take me to a little inn that was part of the market elsewhere on the mountaintop. I wanted to leave a note for my friends though, just to let them know that I wasn’t in the vicinity of the bathroom, and as I was doing that I looked up and finally saw them walking down the hill. As it turns out the post office wasn’t 25 meters, it was 250! I quickly explained to them that I needed to leave ASAP and leave we did. Eschewing souvenirs we peeled off our mountain-at-midnight layers, stuffed them into our bags, and began the descent to the 5^th station.

From August 9-10 I climbed Mt. Fuji with 2 friends, Amber and Jim. We left the 5th Station (2305m altitude) at about 8:45pm and planned to climb to the top (3776m) to see the sunrise. The trail up the mountain is puncuated by stations, with a hut at each station and scattered between. As promised to my family and friends in an email, I promised to write about climbing Fuji-san when I took a rest at each station. Those notes are in italics.

6th Station, 2390m
Was supposed to be 45, we took 30 – although I tend to walk about 10 paces behind. We saw fireworks somewhere from the path.

On the rough map of the mountain that was passed out to climbers just outside of the 5th Station were estimates of how long it should take to clear each section of the trail; the approximation from 5 to 6 was 45 minutes. Oh, we were all so excited and in good spirits at the beginning! We were walking pretty briskly and passing up a number of clusters of people and I asked if we should maybe pace ourselves but Amber was confident that our pace was fine. Well, we quickly fell into our own speeds, which basically meant that I walked a few minutes behind. At one point going up we were able to see fireworks in a distant or not-too-distant prefecture; we could also hear them! That was the first of many incredible things I saw on the mountain.

We started out making conversation as we went up but it didn’t take long for my voice to falter as I concentrated on breathing excercises as a distraction to my physical discomfort and monotony of the trail (it hadn’t gotten interesting yet). Amber and Jim, however, were up ahead singing ‘99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall,’ and they even had a little bit of a syncopated rhythm/comedy routine going on. At one point I called out – save a bottle for me! I think that they gave me bottle 32.

7th Station, 2700m
Took maybe 40 mins. I partook in some singing – “ants: hurrah” then bits of Grease. We got sticks stamped. Gotta eat something. Jim is carrying my water, how nice! Man, this is difficult though. I hope I make it to the top!

The suggested time between 6 and 7 was 60 minutes, we took 40. Even with my slower pace we were making really good time. At some point after a rest I was able to keep pace with Amber and Jim for longer than usual, and we started singing ‘the ants go marching…’ It also served as sort of a marco-polo type excercise where Amber would start singing ‘the ants go marching one-by-one, hurrah…’ and then from behind I would call out – ‘hurrah!’ So, for anyone climbing around us I guess it was like surround sound singing.

At the 5th station you can buy sticks that can really help you as you climb up (and on the way down); there are places at each station to get them stamped, and of course at the top. We all got ours stamped; in fact, we treated the stamps like rounds of beer. Each time we got a stick stamped one person paid for all three, a different person at the next station, and so on. We also shared snacks and water. You can buy food, water, batteries, oxygen and anything else you might need at huts on the way up the mountain but it’s mad expensive. I decided that to avoid that I would bring a 2L bottle of water and a 1.5L bottle of some ion-replacing sports drink (Pocari Sweat). Unfortunately I hadn’t thought about how they would weigh me down. Jim was super nice though and took on my water bottle for me! This is also around when the trail started getting difficult – more steep and more of a challenge to decide where to put my feet. It was also between 6 and 7 that I saw a shooting star!!

8th Station, 3020m
It took is the full 100 mins – but this was the longest segment of the trip that we’ll have! A couple of British girls we’ve run into are looking for their friends Lucia and Jenny. I guess they fell behind? So now it’s pretty much just climbing rocks, sometimes holding onto the chain, sometimes going along with hands on rocks. The 3 of us stopped at one point and admired the view – we could see the clouds above the mountains. They were different shades of gray and purple – it really felt like being on top of the world. PS – this climbing is hard work!

This was the longest segment and we took the full amount of time, but it was also the most interesting. Fuji-san is a volcano so the terrain isn’t vegetation; it’s rock. From 7-8 the trail was pure rock, and we had to scurry, lunge and climb up the rocks. There were chains and poles on the side and poles scattered up the middle to help us out. At one point there was a big rock right in front of me – too big to step over, too smooth to provide a foothold, and too vertical to step on. For a couple of seconds I hesitated thinking, I’d have to be Spiderman to be able to stand on this rock! But then I noticed that I was right next to the chain, so I grabbed on and gave it all my weight so I could clear the rock. I certainly felt like a superhero but the source of my powers was no secret and neither were they mine alone.

The view was absolutely beautiful. At some point the three of us took a break and just sat on the side of the mountain admiring the night sky. I’ve never seen anything like it – the clouds were beautifully deep and variant shades of gray and purple. It took my breath away. And I really felt like I was on top of the world.

I think the break after 7-8 is when we also started taking oxygen. Sometime around the 7th Station I started feeling a little naseous and getting mild headaches; oxygen is supposed to take care of that. And, I’m not going to lie, there were a few ‘puff puff pass’ jokes.

9th (original 8th) Station, 3360m
I’m cold and tired. I just put on a 2nd pair of pants, hopefully when we get moving I’ll warm up. We just sat to have or have been sitting down for a good sized break out of the wind. I ate a pb&b sandwich, had one ion juice and took a number of hits of o2. It’s 2:15, sunrise is around 4? We have a lot of time. Oooh, but frankly right now I’d just really like to be sleeping. 1 more station!

I don’t remember how long 8-9 was supposed to take, but by this time we had all added to our layers and were getting a little tired. We were getting up there on the mountain and in addition to the thinner, colder air it was getting windy. I said “one more station” but really that was the last station and the next would be the top! I don’t remember much about this section except that I saw a second shooting star (!) things things had started to slow down a little. The Fuji sunrise is an incredibly popular destination and the mountain was really crowded. It provided for cool visuals – you could see all the headlights snaking ahead up the mountain, and headlights below zig-zagging up behind you. I wasn’t making a whole lot of mental notes though; I wouldn’t say I was miserable, but it was certainly unpleasant.

*The companion pictures to this story can be found here

On April 20^th I took a day trip to Nikko, in Tochigi prefecture. This trip was months in the making. I’d left Tokyo a number of times with visiting houseguests, but I had never left Tokyo 100% of my own accord; plus, my Meidaimae twin is crazy into traveling – he’s been to Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto and the usual spots outside of Tokyo, plus he recently returned from a 9 day trip to China – and I felt inspired to take some initiative in traveling. Back in February I gave someone a shift swap for March resulting in a 3 day weekend for me in April. It was then that I planned to ‘do something’. Something big. I had already seen most of the greater Tokyo area sights: Yokohama, Kamakura, Hakone; so I decided to knock a different one off my list. The major selling points for Nikko were cherry blossoms and wild monkeys. Thanks to the flu + a 12 day work week I all but missed cherry blossom season in Tokyo. Because Nikko is a few train hours north of Tokyo I figured the sakura might be in bloom up there; and as for the monkeys… well, who wouldn’t want to see wild monkeys?

In the weeks leading up to Nikko I got most of my information from my traveling co-worker. One of the most important things he told me was that the day before I left I should go to the train station in Asakusa and buy a combination ticket that included round trip train fare and inclusion to a spate of World Heritage Sites. And the ticket office closed at 3. So, on April 19^th I duly woke up with every intention of going to Asakusa, buying the train ticket combo and making a day of it seeing the sights of Asakusa. A couple of hours later I was intent on going just to get the train tickets. After my roommate invited me to join an at-home sushi lunch with him and his friend I became intent on simply enjoying myself at home. Later that night however, I did think to look up Nikko in my Tokyo Rough Guide. At that point it crossed my mind that although I had been ‘planning’ this trip for a couple of months, it wasn’t until the night before that I made any effort to figure out where I was going or what I might be doing.

*The companion pictures to this story can be found here

Friday started out swimmingly. I successfully met up with a friend to borrow her camera, left the house at a semi decent day-tripping time, and even made it to the correct station about 15 minutes before the hourly departure time. I was so excited for my day of sightseeing I sat at the front of the very first car so I could see everything the train passed by. One of the first things I saw was what appeared to be a big yellow ball sitting next to a big yellow building. I was excited!

The ride was going smoothly – I was seeing cool things, and the train was progressing on time. I checked my guidebook a couple of times and it said that sometimes travelers had to transfer trains at a certain station before continuing to Nikko, but nobody I spoke to at the station had seemed to try to indicate that to me, so I figured I was ok; I kept checking the signs at train stations, and they confirmed that I was going in the right direction. Then all of a sudden the train started going really slowly, there was only one track and the signs saying ‘to Nikko’ appeared on the other side of the track – going in the opposite direction! What happened? I guess I was supposed to transfer after all. As soon as I was able, I got off the train hoping for a quick reversal.

Enter the safety mirror photo shoot. The station was incredibly desolate. I had no idea when the next train would come, but I figured it couldn’t be horribly long; I had forgotten one of the cardinal rules of living in Tokyo – never assume you know what’s going on. I started to pass the time by taking pictures of myself in the traffic safety mirrors. Once I tired of that I started to look around, and quickly realized that there was nothing interesting to look at. I suppose the situation could also be described as calm and peaceful, but I was really frustrated with myself for my mistake. I thought to myself – people are always talking about taking time to slow down in life, and think and be peaceful, this is a great time to actually do it! So I sat down on bench to try and enjoy the peace of the countryside and deserted station. I feel like I gave it at least 5 minutes, although in reality it probably just lasted 30 seconds; I was just too agitated. Finally I heard the signaling bells start dinging to announce the coming of a train. In the near distance I could make out the fancier, more expensive train – the one I didn’t take. This train had reserved seats, but I figured when the doors opened I could jump on and then feign ignorance/confusion when the conductor would inevitably tell me I was on the wrong train. As the train pulled in I was plotting the moment to make my move, but the doors never opened. Two trains arrived at the station only so they could pass each other on the single track. 45 minutes later a train came and whisked me back in the other direction. 15 minutes later I was back at the station where I should have transferred. So, an hour later I was back in the right direction, with nothing to show for my delay.

*The companion pictures to this story can be found here

I got off the train at the correct station and started wandering around a bit. An intercom announcement seemed to say that a train to Nikko was arriving on track 2; I was on track 3. Just to be sure I checked out the signs to see if they were saying the same thing; I’m sure I looked massively confused. A Singaporean couple approached me, asking if I needed help. I told them I was going to Nikko and they said ‘oh, you don’t have very much time!’ I had left the house at a semi-decent time, but my little detour into the middle-of-nowhere, Japan cost me a good deal of time. As it turned out they were going to Nikko as well, it was a favorite vacation spot for them whenever they came to Japan. They explained to me that you didn’t actually transfer trains. The 4 car train split apart. The first two cars went towards Nikko, the last two cars went in a different direction.

*

Talk about a WTF moment. They themselves weren’t sure what track the train was coming in on. I thought it was track 2, but since they weren’t sure I assumed I had heard wrong. Once the train pulled in we realized it was indeed track 2 and we ended up having to do a little jog to catch the train.

Arriving in Nikko well beyond my target time, I headed straight for the information center to get map of the area. Unjustifyingly confident in my navigation abilities, I headed up towards the World Heritage listed shrines and temples. On the way up, as is usual in areas of this nature, I passed a small shrine; this one nicely accented by cherry blossoms. I also saw some really nice and wintry looking mountains. Not foreboding, but they provided a nice mountain setting. Around the same time I started getting hungry, and I realized that usually the main road leading up to the attractions usually have snack stands and gift shops. Where were the snacks? So after turning the corner past the small shrine I walked to the intersection and broke out my map – tourist style.

A little old man rode up on his bicycle and asked where I was trying to go. When I pointed to the area on the map he said first, ‘oh, you’re on the wrong road!’ then ‘you don’t have very much time.’ I was slightly aware of the former, and fully aware of the latter. Thankfully he showed me a still relatively easy way to get there. I thanked him and started walking; actually trying to walk as if I had a heightened interest or sense of purpose in my destination because he had actually urged me to hurry. A couple of minutes later he pedaled up further to me and said ‘well, since you don’t have very much time I want to show you where you can go.’ He proceeded to scribble over places on the map that I didn’t need to see, and circle the important places. He was such a cute, helpful old man! After maybe 15 minutes of walking and wondering, I rounded a curve and found myself opposite a beautiful bright red bridge with gold accents. Surely something of historical significance!

*The companion pictures to this story can be found here

After crossing the street I finally reached the treasures. I was welcomed by an engraved rock announcing the presence of World Heritage listed shrines and temples. Now, the day before I had passed up the chance to buy a combination ticket in advance. Had I made the trip to Asakusa on Thursday I could have bought the train ticket and admittance to all the shrines and temples for a really good deal. But I hadn’t felt like going. So, I had to buy a ticket. As I didn’t have a lot of time, I dutifully tried to follow the old man’s advice and skip the unimportant stuff. On my way to the ticket area I passed a really awesome fountain. I’ve seen a good number of fountains, and this one was by far the coolest. The first ticket place seemed to only sell those combination tickets that I didn’t want so I proceeded through a hut-like structure and up a small hill (and past a few more cool looking things) at the top of which I was welcomed to Nikko in 11 languages. I didn’t see any more ticket booths, but I did see the first set of Torii (the gates before you enter a Shinto shrine). It was pretty woodsy at this point, so I was hoping to see some monkeys – or at least hear them, but I didn’t even see a sign warning me about them.

There are a number of famous images enshrined at Nikko, including the 3 monkeys of ‘see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil’. I was interested in seeing that and a few other sights, but it really seemed like I could only buy a combination ticket, which I wasn’t interested in because I would have time to take full advantage of it. I decided that this was a place I would probably like to come back to so instead of seeing only a couple of things I decided not to see anything, so that when I came back nothing would be a repeat. I was enjoying the fresh air and the scenery anyway, so I just walked around taking pictures of shrines and temples (and a bright red pagoda) through the trees. After maybe an hour of walking around I thought to myself – you came all the way out here! You should really try to see at least one thing; otherwise why did you come? So I made one last effort to buy a ticket, maybe even a combination ticket. I went up to the ticket booth to try to buy a ticket, any kind of ticket – and she said they were closed! So I was like well, I guess I’m just really not going to see a temple or shrine today!

And then I realized how hungry I was. Since I took the wrong route up I never did get a snack, so I turned my attention to finding some food. On my way down from all the sights I passed an inviting gift shop. There were some cool trinkets and souvenirs in there, but I wasn’t moved to buy anything since I more or less planned on coming back. I still did a full tour of the store though, examining anything and everything that looked interesting to me. In the end all I bought was some candy to tide me over, and the saleslady gave me a really dirty look. Further on the way down I happened upon a Japanese-style garden near the entrance that I hadn’t seen before. It was beautiful! It was also at this point that I discovered the ‘landscape’ function on my friend’s camera, which let me take much greener pictures. I still wasn’t seeing any monkeys, but I did see cherry blossoms!! I love cherry blossoms; even further down I saw something else that I love – waterfalls. This one was tiny, just an afterthought next to the downhill path.

At the very bottom I ran into some Gaijin that I had noticed in the gift shop, and we started chatting. As it turns out the guy I was talking to was Nova teacher in Tokyo, from Florida! We parted ways when I decided that continuing my search for food was more important than continuing the conversation, especially because I was walking and they were waiting for the bus. Luckily the first restaurant I saw, Hippari Dako, came highly recommended by my guidebook. It was a cozy little place with an exuberant proprietress who spoke English pretty well. The menu was really cute – it helped travelers learn survival Japanese! I couldn’t decide if I wanted to order yakitori (meat on a stick) or meatballs on a stick, so the woman let me mix and match and have both. The food was really good; if I came back to Nikko I would go there again in a heartbeat.

*The companion pictures to this story can be found here

The successful dinner put me in a good mood, and it carried me down the rest of the hill and into the train station. I successfully got on the train and all that, then I remembered something – I was told that I initially went in the wrong direction on the train because I hadn’t been in the first two cars. But I was! I specifically sat in the front so I could get the best view possible. At that point I was like wow, sometimes this country really screws you and there’s no two ways about it. In the end, though, I really enjoyed the day. I didn’t see any shrines or temples, but I didn’t need to; once you’ve seen about 4 or 5 they start looking the same. I didn’t see monkeys either, but I enjoyed walking around in the fresh mountain air, with beautiful scenery to boot. Will I go back to Nikko? Probably not… unless I’m 100% sure there will be monkeys. (*^_^*)

When I came down from the bar the Rock Factory became an entirely different place. Now everybody was dancing – my friends, the other people in the bar, and the band! The dj put on more dance music, and everyone became friends. The dj was so impressed with me and Amber that he bought us and all of our friends a round of shots (the New Zealanders were long gone). We were all having a ridiculously good time… and then we remembered last train. All of us except for Mark and Ben had to work early Sunday morning; Mark was staying out, but Ben definitely had to catch last train for other reasons. Mark convinced Sean to stay out, Sean encouraged Christian to do the same, Christian talked me into it, and then I got Amber to stay out too. Christian, Amber and I had bought our tickets and were on the train platform when we all somewhat collectively thought – we’re having so much fun (and those shots were kicking in), we can’t go home now!

After a couple of phone calls the 5 of us reconvened outside of the station and made our way to Vibration, another bar in Roppongi. As soon as we walked in I zipped straight to the bar to make my request. The dj didn’t have any Scissor Sisters, but he was really friendly and played some music he thought I would like. He came out and danced with us a number of times. At this bar we were also meeting and dancing with random, fun Japanese people. The dj played great music, and he honored a lot of my requests (Bhangra – twice!). Around 3am we were losing a bit of steam – we had been going for about 6 or 7 hours at this point! The dj – I wish I remembered his name – noticed our lagging spirits (and the fact that I was yawning) bought us all a round of shots. We stayed for a little while longer, but the guys wanted to go to a much larger club so we thanked the dj, said good-bye to our Japanese friends of the evening, and went to Vanilla.

The Rock Factory and Vibration are bars with dance floors carved out from the spaces between counter-tops, stools, dj booths and the like. Vanilla is a huge corporate behemoth of a club – multiple floors, roped off dj booths, and packed on a Saturday night! Whatever floor my friends and I found ourselves on I made a beeline for the dj booth to request ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. It was huge – it completely lined the back wall, had something like 6 turntables, and small crowd milling about. After a few minutes of craning my neck and gesturing I managed to get someone to talk to me. After 20 minutes and 3 different people I finally took no for an answer. The 3^rd person to say no suggested that I come back on not a Saturday night, and maybe I could get my song.

Over the course of the night we lost Christian; he blacked out and wandered away and we couldn’t find him when the club closed at 5am. So the 4 of us, Amber, Sean, Mark and I, made our way to the station. We joined the crowd that had gathered to wait for the first trains to come and take everyone home. Sean was really out of it, and he walked away right as our train pulled up. So the 3 of us made our way back to Shinjuku together to catch our connecting trains. Mark lives on a different line so together Amber and I sleepily clambered onto the train for the last 40 minutes of our 10-hour night; and less than 3 hours later I woke up to get ready for work.