Mt. Fuji 3776m (12,388 ft.)

We started at the Kawaguchi-ko 5th station at 2305m (7562 ft.) at 7pm as the sun was setting. We finished at 3776m (12,388 ft.) at 4:30am as the sun was rising. That means we climbed 1471m (4826 ft.) in 9.5 hrs.

There were about 25 of us from Toyama that climbed Mt. Fuji this weekend. But we divided up into small groups. I climbed with Team Niikawa, 4 of us in total (3 of us above).

The sun is rising and we are at the top of Mt. Fuji (finally). For awhile as we were climbing, I thought the sun would never rise again. I thought we had entered some kind of hell....a never ending climb up a mountain in the cold rain with thousands of people fighting each other to get to a top that didn't exist. We're smiling, but it was a bit forced. We've been up all night and we're freezing.

This is one small corner of the summit. It was packed with people trying to get the best picture of the sun coming up. It was like trying to navigate the corridors of a college football stadium...lines for food, lines for the bathroom, people puking, people passed out, people EVERYWHERE! It wasn't being at the top was so bad though, it was getting up there with all these people! The trail was packed MOST of the time. The last 3-4 hours we would take a baby step every 10-30sec. It was slow moving! They need to start a permit system or something. There were TOO MANY people climbing!

I was relieved when the sun finally did come up. It meant the world wasn't over and we had escaped hell. And it meant we could take off some layers of clothing and finally warm up. It also meant, we were that much closer to being done. Only 4-5 hours more to get down.


Yep, that's me at the top. I made it up and back down. In total, we were on the mountain for 15 hours, in the bus for 16 hours, and I didn't sleep for 40 hours. I got home last night, dropped my bags in the door, showered and was in bed by 7:30pm. I slept 13 hours...woke up a little stiff.

I'm glad I did it. I'm glad Team Niikawa made it to the top and back down. But I'll never do it again.

Click here for Brett's account of Team Niikawa on Mt. Fuji and more pics!

Polysemy in Context

Last week I spent a lot of time looking at text, idioms, metaphors, prototypes, lexical structures, meaning and core meanings of words and dissecting grammar. I’m still processing the academic information and lectures. Overall, it was a rich academic experience. But the academic focus was overpowered by human relationships. Even though we all spoke the same language, English, some of us interpreted the signals differently. It led to confused communication and dissapointment.

As humans, social beings, we spend a lot of time wanting and needing things. We especially want and need other people to like us, to love us, to be in love with us, to notice us, to never forget us, and to remember us always. But that comes with conditions and we have to qualify our desires. We don’t want to be liked by that person, we want to be liked by this person. We don’t want to be noticed by just someone, we want to be noticed by the perfect someone. We don’t want just anyone to love us, we want the right one to love us.

When that one, someone, or anyone pays us even a little attention, instead of heart palpitations it brings heart-burn. Instead of sending tingles down your back, it sends a shiver up your spine. Instead of falling head over heels, you feel like you’ve fallen flat on your face. Last week, I had the worst heart-burn of my life, literally.

Because it’s not about anyone, it’s about the right someone. If it’s the wrong someone, you wish it had been no one at all. Because sometimes no one is better than just anyone. At least for me.

Communication and relationships are defined by status and structure. Those involved, what they do and how they do it all plays a part. It’s a very fine balance of presentation, intonation, and style. Last week a relationship pre-defined by structures of power, distance and authority was instantly shattered when the wrong type of attention was paid to a certain someone. Even though relationships are fluid, open to interpretation and individual expression, there are rules. There is a form and a structure that must be followed. When there are deviations from the form, there is a communication breakdown. And when communication breaks down, there is miscommunication. This can result in conflict and conflict results in broken trust. Because once trust is broken, it rarely can be reconstructed.

And it’s always disappointing to feel you can’t trust someone anymore.

Family Ties

Did you ever watch that TV show? It used to be a favorite in our house on Thursday night between The Cosby Show and Cheers. It was a family bonding night in front of the TV. Now our family time usually involves skype and sitting in front of a computer because we live in 3 countries and that's just my immediate family. So family bonding time is limited, but we still stay in touch and send pictures of all our activities. My sister recently visited Jeju, an island off the coast of South Korea. And my parents recently did a bike pedal across the Portland bridges! Go family!

Aren't they cute!!!

She said it was HORRIBLY hot there! But it looks beautiful!

And I'm in Hiroshima...studying!

Seminar Bound

I'm off to Hiroshima for a week long seminar as part of my graduate studies. Since I'm doing a distance course especially for teachers working in countries like Japan, the professors come to Japan once a year for real classroom learning! I'm kinda looking forward to the break from life in Nyuzen. And I'll get to meet a lot of people also doing the course. But I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to the seminar itself. The topics include: structure and meaning, words and meaning, methodology and grammar, a corpus based syllabus, text and context, prototype theory and the grammar syllabus, metaphors at work, and typological universals. I haven't a clue what any of it means now...hopefully I'll be a bit smarter this time next week!

Tai Chi: Ni Hao!

Tai Chi teacher bonding! This morning my school district subsidized and organized an extra-curricular activity for all of the teachers (and I was invited too!). I was strongly encouraged to take Tai Chi by my Vice Principal...he was organizing it. We have a strange love/hate/ambiguous relationship. He's the guy I have to get permission from for just about everything. He likes to keep close tabs on me--where I eat lunch, how much I spend on my vacation, what I'm reading, and he requests specific beer as omiyage. But he also has been letting me leave at lunch this week. So I know he doesn't hate me!

So, this morning about 30 teachers congregated at the local community hall in their sports gear: sweat pants, basketball shorts, t-shirts, towels tucked into the t-shirts, running shoes and there were lots of sports drinks and tea close at hand. We did a lot of stretching and the teachers lectured a bit while I zoned out and thought about a variety of other things going on in my life right now. Finally, we got to practice and they taught us a short little routine. We all sucked! But it was interesting, even if it was a bit slow. I know, I know, slow is the point! But, I kind of like speedier activities (like river rafting)! Ha ha ha, that probably just means I need to be doing more yoga and tai chi. Maybe, when I get old!

We won't remember the routine. But we will remember one thing: the greeting, the yoroshiku onegaishimasu, the kiritsu, kiotsuke, rae. See the picture below.


Later in the staff room my Vice Principal (above) kept walking up to me and putting his fist in my face and saying "Ni Hao." I have a sinking feeling I'm gonna have to deal with this for the next year. But because I'm not shy or worried (too much) about what people think of me anymore (wore my nose ring all day to school today), I'm gonna do it right back at him!! It's not really in the spirit of Tai Chi, but I think it's our own secret intimate way of saying "hey, you're strange and different, but I guess I'll put up with you for another year (and as long as you bring me beer as omiyge, you can leave early)."

Good Enough for the Emperor

In July, a 4th grade student of mine eagerly invited me to visit school on a particular day in August to eat Nyuzen's famous jumbo watermelon (an expensive commodity). He was very persistent! And how can you resist this face? So, I hesitantly showed up at school yesterday, hoping I'd understood his Japanese correctly! Hurray for me...I got it right!

What I didn't get from his invitation was the reason we were going to be eating watermelon. It turns out this little guy's family is The Family that sends jumbo watermelon to The Emperor of Japan. Wow! And his family donated two watermelons to his class.

Before we could eat the watermelon, the students had to prepare and cook Curry Rice. They each brought their share of vegetables (probably from their own gardens) and their portion of rice. The washing, cutting, chopping and cooking began...with very little supervision! I joined the group to the left. The girls took charge and gave the boys orders. The boys stood at the sink and filled the veggie bags with water and poked holes in them and watched the water squirt out. The girls got mad at them for playing and not working. The boys ignored the girls. These are 4th graders!

Unfortunately, my group was a bit over eager about making curry and missed a few steps. So we ended up with curry soup instead--too much water. Oh well. We still stuffed our faces. And there was a lot left over!

Next we ate two jumbo watermelons. They were so sweet and delicious!! I can see why the Emporer wants to eat these. I could have eaten an entire one myself if I hadn't just stuffed myself with curry rice.

Overall, it was a great morning! I'm glad I showed up for it! The only bummer about the day--my school emptied the pool. Boo hoo! So I had to go to the beach instead--summer sucks!

Blogger is being annoying and not letting me upload any more pictures...so I'll try to post a few watermelon pics below in another post.

Watermelon Pictures

Try Again! Blogger currently sucks!

Tatemon Festival

Last night 1000's of people gathered in front of a temple in a fishing village in Uozu for the last day of the Tatemon Festival. The typical festival fare: food, fireworks and yukatas. But this festival also has floats. These floats, made to look like fishing boats, represent different fishing neighborhoods. Each float weighs several tons. The trick is, it has to be brought to the temple by pulling and pushing. That sounds easy if it had wheels, but it doesn't. It's like a sled, but on asphalt and concrete, not snow! It's a challenge. Especially given the heat and humidity! We started pulling/pushing at about 9pm. We finally finished at about 12midnight. There were probably a hundred or so people assigned to move each float. And there were kids and muscians sitting on the float--lucky! Anyway, my arms are stiff and typing is a challenge! So here are some pictures!

What you can't see in the pictures: the heat & the humidity--it was intense!!!
What you can't taste: the sake being poured down our throats and the cold tea breaks!
What you can't smell: the sweat, the festival food, and the fishy smell of a port!
What you can't hear: the flutes, the taiko drums, and the heave-ho's!
What you can't feel: the burn of pulling for several hours!

Summer Fun

Yukata Rules
Summer in Japan means festivals and yukata (summer kimono). Several weeks ago there was a big good-bye party for leaving JETs. The theme: toga! But the Nyuzen(kurobe) crew has a style of our own. So we decided to go in yukata. We got lots of compliments! If you really want to know how to wear a yukata, just click on the link above. That's how we tried to put ours on at first, but later our Japanese friend retied it for us! Thank goodness!

Glass blowing
My friend, Takae, and I decided to sweat it out in a glass blowing studio in the summer heat. Not the brightest decision for a hot afternoon...but a few more degrees didn't really matter. We had both done it once before but by no means knew what we are doing. Luckily we had two teachers to guide us through the entire process. We get to pick up our unique creations this week. Who will be the lucky recipient of my artwork?


Tanabata Festival
This festival is held in July/August throughout Japan. The decorations for Tanabata are incredible. People spend months, or all year making decorations to hang from large bamboo trees they set up on the main streets of town. Other bamboo just has colored pieces of paper thin plastic that people have written wishes on. These wishes hang in the breeze and many people stop to read them while they are walking around town. My town is currently celebrating Tanabata. It involves the typical festival food stands: takoyaki, castella, okonomiyaki, yakitori, kakigori, etc. But this festival also had amazing taiko drumming, dancing and my students were wearing yukata!! My friend, Chica, and I strolled around town looking at the flea markets, commenting on all the yukatas and constantly tempting ourselves to buy festival food--but we knew better!!

HOA

Hokkaido Outdoor Adventure

If and when you visit Hokkaido, and if you visit in the summer months, I strongly recommend you go rafting and/or canyoning. And I strongly recommend going with HOA!!

HOA is located in the mountains of Hidaka. The company is based in an old wooden elementary school. It's been redocorated with Tibetan prayer flags, pictures of rafting/kayaking from around the world, and the rooms have been converted into a lounge, smoking bar, communal kitchen and a few classrooms are used as hostel-like dorms!

The staff is from Australia, Japan and Nepal. And they have a ton of experience between them including first descents down some spectacular rivers! They have videos and slide shows have some of the crazy shit they've done!

Hokkaido hasn't gotten much rain this year so the rivers are running pretty low by now. And the only river they were running is a half day trip. To get a full day in, we decided to do canyoning in the morning and rafting in the afternoon. I'd never done canyoning before, but it's great! We wore wet suits, life jackets and helmets. Basically, we floated, swam, and walked down a canyon with an icy cold river! We also got to do some cliff jumping...my first time! Wow! FUN!!

Rafting was great too! We went down the Mukawa River. Lots of rocks, lots of narrow spaces and the water was pretty low. So it made for some interesting navigating! But there were some flat spots where we got to play around. And our guide, Pat, did some crazy fun stuff with the raft. We spun, we flipped, we surfed, and we got really wet!!! Also did another cliff jump...maybe 4-5m.

I could go rafting everyday! Seriously, I don't think I'd get bored of it!

Hokkaido Dream'n

The Hokkaido Dream came to fruition two weeks ago when Linea, Amy and I packed the coolers with more food than we could ever eat in a week, strapped on our bikes, and stuffed Bertie (the red VW) with anything and everything we might need. We left after school in the pouring rain and drove 2 1/2 hours to Niigata City to catch the Nihonkai Ferry to Tomakomai! We weren't expecting much on the 18 hour ferry ride, but it was like a cruise ship. It was fabulous. There was a jacuzzi, a sauna, an onsen, a movie theater, restaurants, a game center, and lots of space to sit and relax. We got on the ferry at midnight and heavily drugged ourselves to avoid sea sickness. In the morning we found the sun deck and spent the rest of the day reading and eating homemade burritos, banana bread and fruit. We were actually disappointed when we got to Hokkaido. We all wished we could have spent another day on the boat!

For the next week we spent a lot of time in the car. We drove from the Southern port of Tomakomai all the way up to the Northern most city of Wakkanai and back again. Needless to say, we got a bit nutty in the car. Amy made a cave for herself in the back seat between coolers, bags, helmets, and wine bottles. We played 20 questions and told stories and listened to music. We also made a sign for the back window. We got a few looks and laughs. But no offers!






We didn't need to stop at restaurants because we had so much food in the car. But we had to eat a few local specialties. Hokkaido is famous for ramen--so we had a ramen lunch on Rishiri Island. I'm not usually a fan of ramen, it's too oily for me, but it was delicious! Linea got the super size seafood bowl of ramen. It could have feed a family of four, but Linea managed to eat most of it! Nice work lady! Soft Cream (soft serve) is all over Japan. And sometimes you can find really unique flavors. So we went on a hunt for new flavors. We found a few: lavendar, Hokkaido milk, Hokkaido melon, and some other flower flavor. Lavendar/Hokkaido milk mix was delicious.





The main inspiration for our road trip was to get Amy to Wakkanai, the start point for her bike across Japan trip. We tied her carrot mascot (it's a vegetarian bike ride) on to her bike, packed up her bags, and met her team before saying a teary good-bye. Luckily we'll see her again next month when she passes through Toyama.

Linea & I brought our bikes up too. Before leaving Amy we went to Rishiri Island, off the coast of Wakkanai and did a ride around the island, about 60km. There is a fuji-like mountain on the island--spectacular backdrop for a bike ride.




Linea and I drove down the coast rode and had two more nights of camping before our ferry back. Our first night we decided to get some distance and drove until well after dark making it difficult to find camp sites. We ended up camping in the middle of a sandy field flooded with lights next to the highway (and the beach) crowded with tents. It was like a shanty town. I'm not sure why anyone would want to camp there, but it looked like they were there for awhile, not just passing through. There was no grass, no trees, no nature. Just sand, big shower/toilet buildings, some cooking/cleaning shelters, and a highway! It was horrible. We ate, slept, and packed up as quickly as we could. Our last night on Hokkaido was perfect!! We found a lake before 12noon, got our gear unpacked, and laid by the lake and read all afternoon! We jumped in once to cool off...it was COLD! But it was beautiful. Crystal clear! And there were mountains all around us. The bathing situation was less than ideal. All the nearby onsens closed to outside guests at 4pm, we had gotten there at 5pm. I begged our way in and one kind soul gave us 45 minutes to bathe! It had been 3 days...I think he could tell we were desperate!

Unfortunately the next day was cloudy and cool. So we packed up early and tried a few hiking trails...all were closed because of a typhoon a few years back. So we drove around the lake and finally found an outside bath! It was right on the lake! Absolutely beautiful and the last thing I really wanted to do before leaving Hokkaido---sit outside in a hot bath!

We almost missed our ferry back to Niigata--always check how many ferry terminals there are and which one you're supposed to be at! But we made it with minutes to spare. The night on the ferry was really rough, but we made it through with drugs! The next day was another day of lounging and reading! But all good things come to an end!

You gotta get off sometime!

Back to sitting at a desk!

Back on the Mainland

...well, the Japanese mainland of Honshu anyway. Linea & I arrived via ferry from Hokkaido about 6 hours ago and arrived home about 3 hours ago. I'll be posting pics and commentary soon...after the coolers are emptied and washed, the tent and sleeping bag packed away for the next adventure, the very dirty laundry is done, food is put away, emails are answered, and omiyage is distributed. Be patient....more coming soon.

It was a great trip! Just look