Well I remembered my camera...

Now I have actually got to start taking some decent pictures. Last weekend was Immigrants Cafe's 7th Anniversary. A good one to stick in the diary as it tends to be pretty busy and with a 3000 yen nomiholdai (forgive the spelling) for as much food and drink as you can consume in an evening. Problem is that Immi's is a little difficult to manoeuvre when it's a bit packed and on top of that, the main walk way is mainly metal grating - not great for high heals. The fact of the matter is though, once you've taken a few picture of random people strutting their stuff, every party pretty much looks the same! Took a few that are good for facebook, but I'm struggling for a blog photo (let alone a turbo blog pose.. well Glen will understand that)
So what else did I do this weekend.... Friday night went out, had a few drinks as per usual. Recovered Saturday as per usual. Went to the party on Saturday night, had a few drinks, there's a pattern emerging here isn't there?
Sunday though I did something really different. Sunday I fitted the front brake pads to Shizuka Honda Cube - a job that should take 20 mins but actually took nearly sweaty 3 hours. Still, saved her about £100. The rest of the day was spent trying to clean myself up. I went to pick her up after work and thought I'd just give her a gentle demonstration of how much better they were now. Unfortunately we both ended up nearly licking the wind screen, but it proved the point!
Just saved my self £XX,XXX by delaying so long over buying a car that it has been sold. Partly because I didn't have enough money and partly because I was just too chicken to spend £xx,xxx on a car - even if it is half the UK price. Ah well, lets take a look at some RX7's......

Busy weekend

This was a great weekend, well from Saturday night inwards anyway. Saturday started badly, up late, went to attend a beginners Salsa lesson - I'll let you digest that for a second....two...three and you're back in the room. However, we parked at the centre only to be told that we couldn't park there and ended up driving around for so long that the lesson was almost over.
Shizuka went to work as usual and I decided to have a night in until she called later and said they were going to the beach for a little fire work party. So I headed in to town and caught up with them. We drove to this picnic area by the beach and let off little rockets and sparklers - quite a popular thing to do as it turns out because there were plenty of other people doing the same. We finished at 4 am and when home.

Sunday we went to a beach house owned by a friend of mine. As we got there you could smell the food, crabs, lots of different fish, stake and huge oysters (huge yuk!), plus beer on tap! Had a great day chillin' by the beach, even learned how to throw an American football.
About 6 we all split, but a few of us decided to go to Round 1. Round 1 is a big games centre where for most activities you buy a ticket for about £8 and you have unlimited access to tennis, basket ball, volleyball, badminton, archery, baseball etc and unlimited credits on the arcades (including House of the Dead) . Had a right laugh, and this time I managed to get some home runs in the batting cages - though my archery and my pitching sucked! Like an idiot though I didn't take my camera!

The BBQ

I called the folks back home just in case there was any news back in the UK about the quake and to be honest, we didn't really think much more about it. Apparently there was a mild aftershock while we were playing football, but that had nothing to do with me despite some wild accusations. Playing football against your average Japanese guys is a bit like playing against kids when you weigh 30 or 40 kilos more. When you go into a 50/50 tackle there is only going to be one outcome. The other team we quite happy that 'Godzilla' was on their side. The reason I have no top on is purely because in order to recognise my team members, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

One of the great things about knowing people in the resaurant business is that when they have an out of work event, you're pretty much guarranteed that the catering is going to be pretty damn good. This was no exception! So much food!

It wasn't really until I got back to work that the magnitude of the earthquake became more apparent - world news in fact and I had a number of e-mails from friends enquiring as to whether I was buried under rubble.

Ok, now the earthquake part

The 16th of July was a national holiday. For weeks the staff at Immigrants Med restaurant had been planning a big BBQ on beach. Fortunately the weather looked like it might hold out, unfortunately as we were carrying the stuff to the beach to set everything up, the ground started to do unexpected things. I have felt a light tremor before but this one was different. Rather than being a small amplitude, high frequency shake, this one was more of a big gentle sway backwards and forwards.

It's an unnerving experience, probably because your senses base everything around the fact that the ground should be a reliable thing to make balance assumptions about.

Then the coast guard sirens started wailing and broadcasting a Tsunami warning. We all cleared off of the beach and waited for about 40 minutes (pictured) for the warnings to stop before heading inland to have the party in the local stadium grounds.

Lobsters and Earthquakes

This weekend was a bit of an odd one. Went out on Friday night as per usually and got a bit squiffy. The problem is when you’re a bit worse for wear is that your memory gets a bit hazy. (well my memory does) Hence on Saturday I got a little bit of a surprise that we were going shopping for bikini’s, otherwise I might have brought money or means of getting money to the shops with me. One was not popular when we got to the till. On top of this, Shizuka and I went to a Tanning shop (salon thing). I am ghostly pale at the best of times and I thought it would be a good idea to get to colour to my skin so I don’t scare the natives. Shizuka had been before and used a machine for 30 minutes. So I thought that 20mins would be safe for me. But, the guy in the salon showed us to some different machines, more powerful machines as it turns out, and 20 mins later my back and bum were already lobster red. Shizuka came off even worse as she was under for 30mins. Needless to say over the next two days things didn’t improve and we spend many an hour covering ourselves in various products (direct from the fridge) in an attempt to ease the pain – brave Shizuka still went to work though.
No pictures!

The decent and afters

The decent from the summit for a short part is in fact the same route from which you came, although in the sunlight the path seems so much less difficult than you imagined on the way up. Although you have to be careful because there is a lot of loose shail, going down was so much easier despite the protesting muscles. After getting back to the Hot Cocoa station, the decent route splits from the ascent route and becomes a steep zig zag path which is a boring as it was arduous, particularly as cloud or fog descended on the slopes and we could see nothing after 30m in any direction. Because of this, the decent seemed to take so long and was not helped by the fact that the sign posts; on the rare occasion that a distance was sign posted; were either inaccurate or there was some kind of Bermuda triangle effect going on. i.e the sign post would say 8km to base camp, then you'd walk for a hour and the next sign would say 7.9km. Really soul destroying at that point! But the worst part of all is when you get right to the bottom and have to walk back up a big long hill to get to the car park. I'd kept promising my body that the car park was round the next corner - that's what my brain obviously believed, but after the 7th or 8th corner with no car park in sight, I was about to have a mutiny on my hands. Fortunately we got back to the coach before anything untoward happened, 3 and a half hours after leaving the summit.

When all bar one person had returned from the mountain - there's always one person who can't follow the simplest of instructions - we went to a Japanese hot spring or Onsen. We sat outside in the rain in the 42 degree spring relaxing. It was heaven - except for the naked men, but I'm sure it did the aching limbs the world of good.

Would I do it again? Yes I probably would, but I would do a lot more preparation before hand. If anybody reading this is contemplating climbing Mt Fuji, and I do recommend you do, respect the mountain more that I did and do the training before hand. Alternatively, for those less athletic, do the climb in stages. Book a place in one of the lodges and rest for a few hours before making the final stages to see the sun rise. This will also help your body get used to the thinning oxygen levels. Good luck!

Finally the summit!

So finally we make it to the top, almost bang on 6 hours since setting off. It's now 03:30 am and mixed with my queasiness, lack of oxygen and general all round knackeredness, we now have to deal with subzero (unofficially) temperatures. I put on the last of the clothing I was carrying and tried to keep warm and out of the wind for the hours wait until sunrise. Normally there are open cabins at the top that you can not only take shelter in but also get hot Ra men, but because it was still early in the season, nothing was open. It was miserable, really not fun at all and the sun seemed to take an age to rise. My hands were so cold I didn't want to take them out of the gloves, but operating my camera was damn near impossible with them on.
So gradually the sun came up, and even in our sombre mood, it was fantastic as I hope my pictures at least in some part convey.
After sunrise we made our way around the corner to see the crater. Mt Fuji is actually made up of 3 separate volcano's, and the top is a small caldera. The final picture is of a small shrine at the top, although the actual highest point is across the crater, this was near enough as makes no difference and to be honest, I really wanted to get off the mountain.

The assent continues

On the way up I met up with some fellow climbers from the Relo group, Ronald (L) and Ken (R). I'd like to say that we met up because we were traveling at the same pace, but in reality Ken and I were left behind by Ronald at every stage and nick named him the 'gazelle' - which isn't terribly smart as you won't see a gazelle up a mountain but perhaps this was the first evidence of altitude sickness. Our excuse was that we had about 30kg more to carry than him.

After 3100m (and some great sports goo, beef jerky and some sausage) I started to notice a bit of a head ache, dizziness and sickness that lead to shortness of breath, but nothing that would hold me up. We made it to 3400m, the last big stopping place before the top (though I didn't know it at the the time) We had some cocoa and a bit of a rest before setting off again. However, as soon as we started again my altitude sickness became a lot worse. Ronald went on ahead and Ken (who was struggling with cramp) and I continued at a snails pace, 20 steps at a time, then 10 and then whatever! Every step I wanted to be sick and had to take really deep breaths. It was really really hard, probably the most difficult physical challenge I have undertaken. If I hadn't been climbing with someone I'm not sure I'd have made it to 3776m. That last 376m was hell.

Mount Fuji: Going up

So we left the safety of Station 5 and headed out into the night, around 9:30. We left king of in 3 groups, the leaders, the middle pack and the sweepers bringing up the rear. I set off at a reasonable pace, most of the start was down hill, which was a bit weird but that was not to last too long. There were plenty of huts on the way up selling refreshments or 'brands' for the walking sticks you can buy. Personally I was a bit disappointed with the sticks on offer and chose not to part with 1200 yen. Basically, every time you get to an official level you can get your stick branded as proof you made it that far. The huts were great resting points - physically and mentally. I was getting very hot as I was carrying most of my clothes and 2 litres of water in high humidity. After the first couple of stations I think I lost the equivalent of the 2 litres I was carrying.

I submit the photo as 'the anti-blog photo' - though it is equally as staged!

Mount Fuji: The bit after the beginning

Phew! sorry for the delay, had a few problems with blogger.

So we caught the bus from Shinjuku to Station 5 of Mount Fuji. On the way we were entertained by the staff with a competition on Mt Fuji, Relojapan and HR consultants and HOPE. To say that the points awarding was biased and floored is an understatement and the righthand side of the bus were clearly robbed - I say this not only because I happened to be sitting on the righthand side.

Perhaps I should have mentioned before that we are also climbing the mountain at night so we can see the sun rise (this is also why I bought a head lamp) so we arived about 8ish. Here I am in my climbing 'get up' - this is not, as has been suggested, a balloon with my face on it.

Mount Fuji: The beginning

When I first thought about writing about my climb up Mt Fuji, before the climb to 3776.2m, I thought of doing a sort of spoof; something based on Michael Palin's Rippin Yarns (Thompkin's School Days - The 20 mile hop) , which about summed up how seriously I took the 'challenge'. After all, hundreds of thousands of people have done it - even a 94 year old woman apparently.
I did however take things seriously enough to get some proper gear - some energy bars, some Gortex trousers, a head lamp, and I borrowed a proper ski jacket from my mate Eric (ta buddy). But as I recall my experience, it just doesn't seem fitting.

My lax attitude to climbing Mt Fuji was not unusual. Although, most heeded the advice by the organisers, the general spirit was that it was just a bit of a hike.

Anyway so why were we doing it? Well, when I first moved to Japan, I was assisted with flat finding, furniture buying, bank account set up (etc etc) by a company called ReloJapan. In particular, a very helpful person called Karolina. Although my new deal does not included Relo assistance, Karolina invited me along to the event thinking I'd be up for the challenge and experience (too right) and it was for a good cause, a charity organisation called Hope International. Hope mainly set up clean water facilities to the poorest of the poor in numerous regions.

I then find out 2 weeks before that she can't make it due to a wedding! A convenient story!
Shizuka wanted to go too, but couldn't get t he time off work.

So I caught the bullet train to Tokyo from Tsubame Sanjo and met up the the rest of the climbers from Tokyo.

To prove a point

While wandering round Niigata the other day I just happened to be looking up and saw this boat perched on the top of a building. Someone is obviously prepared should the rain reach biblical proportions!