Category: travel

So what did you do today? This is what I did…

Let me start back at yesterday.

My original plan was to spend the day wandering Akihabara for lots of electronics, manga, and general otaku shenanigans. I thought I should chase up how to get to Mt Fuji however, since official climbing season opened on July 1 and I didn’t want to be stuck not being able to get there easily. It was top of my list for my visit to Japan.

So I braved Shinjuku Station again and found the bus depot I needed. So I started to inquire about buses to the 5th Climbing Station of Mt Fuji with the ticket girl. However my japanese and her english was making it a little difficult. She was asking me which bus I wanted to go on TODAY. When that clicked, I thought “hell, why not go today?!”. So I booked a spot on the bus for later that arvo and home the following day, and I had just organised the major part of my Fuji climb in the blink off an eye.

I was originally eyeballing tours to get me there and back and give me a fairly regimented climb up. The more I thought about it though, the more determined I was to just rock up and climb it. With my bus tickets, my plan was simply to arrive at the 5th climbing station about 9pm. Climb through the night, catch sunrise at the top, and come down and get an 11am bus back to Shinjuku. The perfect crime.

I had been keeping an eye on the weather and it was a bit all over the place. It did seem however that there was only a pretty slim chance of rain, so there was some hope of a dry climb (but I wasn’t counting on it).

So with my days plans now out the window, I decided to head back to the hostel, make sure I had everything for an overnight climb, and basically rest up, given that:

a. I would be doing close to 12 hours of hiking up and down a FREAKIN’ MOUNTAIN

b. I would now be getting no sleep for a LONG time.

So all packed up with layers of clothes, water proof and wind proof gear, scarves, gloves, and food and drink, I headed back to the bus depot (Mum… I did tell the folk at the hostel I was going, so someone knew). I was kinda surprised to see the bus was only half full. Being first day of climbing I was surprised I got a bus ticket so easily. Anyway off I went.

We got to the 5th climbing station on the Yoshida trail around 8:30pm… dark already. A bit unnerving actually. And it was raining. But then two bits of luck came my way.

First of all was half a dozen folk on the bus. I noticed them while travelling but was not sitting near them. What we had were 3 Brits and 3 Yanks, all preparing to do the same climb as me. So a quick how do you do and I had found myself a climbing group (you will be happy to know that too Mum). They were a great bunch of youngish folk (mid 20’s – mid 30’s) who mainly knew each other working here in Japan. One remaining guy was simply here on work and like me, met them on the bus. We had ourselves a posse.

The second stroke of luck was just as we said to each other “screw it, let’s just start hiking in the rain”, the rain stopped. I had a good feeling about this night.

Here is where I have to be thankful again for my walking buddies. While I could have done it myself, it was dark. Real dark. And there wasn’t all that many people climbing. I had visions of a long line of torches lighting the path, but that wasn’t accurate. So having a bunch to walk with helped stem any anxiety I was even on the right path!

Now, I have to say that what I type now, and the photos I include will just not do any justice at all to the experience I am about to try and describe. But I’ll try.

I consider myself pretty fit. And I know that a lot of people climb Fuji each year. But man, if I wasn’t pretty fit it would be a pretty full-on experience. It is not easy at all. It took us 7 hours to reach the summit. The path changed from loose dirt and gravel, to rock stairs, to full on jutting rocks, all at a fairly steep angle. It was not the relatively smooth path I thought it might be. It was difficult, tiring, hiking in places.

The other thing to contend with was the altitude sickness. I think this is where me being pretty fit really paid off. Aside from a little light-headedness, I was fine. Some of my travelling companions not so much. 3 of them struggled significantly at times, with headaches and nausea. That slowed us down, but was OK by me as we had time up our sleeve.

And so we plugged away, all the time the air getting thinner and colder. I have to say, the last hour was some of the most physically demanding stuff I have done. It wasn’t a trivial climb at all. We did have a good lightning show at times, thankfully in the distance. Then we reached the summit.

Holy hell, it was cold, with little shelter from the wind. Thankfully we only had about half an hour to wait for sunrise, but we needed to huddle together to stay warm. There were a few more people by this point, but still not the crowd I expected. What was also slightly disappointing was that the general store on top was closed. Sorry, no postcards for anyone from the summit of Mt Fuji.

We kept the spirits up in the cold waiting for the sun to poke its head up. Then it arrived.

I gotta say, it was pretty special. I am not sure I will ever see anything like it again. I was tired and cold, but the sun popping up was amazing. One of those moments really. No photos could ever capture it.

On top is the crater which you can hike around. I had all intentions of doing it however it was freakin’ cold, and I was not sure my legs could do another hour before heading down. We all seemed in agreement. So down we went.

It was a strange experience going down. As we had gone up with only the light of our torches, the climb down looked both kinda familiar, but also surreal. Did we really climb up this a few hours ago? We all seemed to have the same thoughts, part due to the darkness, but now also due to the lack of sleep and altitude no doubt.

The descent took about 4 hours, a bit longer than we anticipated. Usually a different path is taken down, one of mainly loose gravel and rock that you can actually run and slide down in parts. That wasn’t open for some reason so we had to contend with the same difficult trail we came up on. It was good to see it in the daylight though. We passed quite a few people on the way up, by which time it was getting to be pretty warm climbing. Poor suckers.

So about 9:45am we were back at the start, all exhausted and tired, a few a little more worse for wear. We had a bit of a rest at the 5th station, with some early morning celebratory beers. It had to be done. The bus ride back with the folk was a quiet one though. We all seemed to get an hour or so sleep, but only enough to make us feel seedier. We reached Shinjuku, and I bid farewell. We were talking about lunch but the overwhelming sense by all of us to get rest seemed to win.

So here I am. I’m feeling OK. Tired for sure, but not as physically drained as I might have been… more the fact I have had about 1 hours sleep in the last day and a half. But that’s OK. The weather was perfect, the climb tough but amazing, sunrise awesome. I have conquered Fuji.

It is funny how things turn out when you are travelling sometimes.

Last night I left the blog post about to head out to watch the Japan v Paraguay game. Taka, my gracious host here in Shinagawa, said he was heading out to watch the game and that the couple of us at the hostel who were keen should come along. Me and the other guy were under the impression we were heading to some nearby bar, but we got confused when Taka suggested we pick up anything we needed from the nearby supermarket. OK we thought. So arming ourselves with some beers and snacks we wandered down the street a little further.

Lo and behold it wasn’t a bar we turned up at, but what seemed like the store/office of some local folk, set up with a massive TV and food galore. We were being welcomed by some locals to their event. Immediately we had food and drink forced upon us and were made very welcomed.

You probably know the result of the game by now. Even though Japan lost on penalties, the vibe was still OK. There was too much food and drink to break the mood too much. So while it wasn’t the bar I was expecting, it was better… local hospitality.

And thanks to that hospitality I did wake up with just a small hangover. More like just being tired really, but that happens when you go to extra time and penalties. But no matter. For the most part here in Tokyo I am not on the clock. Although today did have one important thing on the agenda. Ghibli.

So I bid adieu to my hosts and hit the train.

I have to say I don’t think I have experienced the true train crush yet. I did peak time last night and the crush in the train was no different to me coming home from Caulfield. What is different though is that the huge numbers of people are EVERYWHERE.

I got my way from Shinagawa to Mitaka (via Shinjuku) easy enough, and started the pleasant wander to the Ghibli Museum. It is hard to get lost really…

It really was quite a magic day. Humid yes, but the sun was out and it was a glorious walk. And so I arrived at the museum.

I am not sure those of you who haven’t soaked up the animation work of Studio Ghibli will fully appreciate how special the museum is. I will readily admit that for each Ghibli film I love (Totoro, Nausicca), is another I am a little ambivalent about (Mononoke), so I won’t pretend I am a die hard Ghibli devotee. But this museum makes you appreciate every single frame of these films.

The first thing it is important to point out is that it is a museum, not some kind of Disney fun park. Hayao Miyazaki was adamant apparently that the museum be designed to just allow people to wander and soak  it up. That is what you do alright. Even the english language leaflet urges us to “lose our way together”.

There are gorgeous details everywhere. Unfortunately there is no photography inside, but actually it is a good thing. The last thing the museum would need would be everyone trying to get photos of everything. But this tap outside shows the level of detail.

The museum is full of gorgeous things. A zoetrope of Totoro. Several rooms made out like Miyazaki’s work rooms, complete with drawing desks and what must be hundreds and hundreds of hand drawn storyboards. A theatre showing museum-only shorts (I got “The Whale Hunt”… bummer I didn’t get “Mei and the Kittenbus”).

There was only one disappointing room really. And I knew in advance it would be disappointing. My question to Miyazaki is… why can’t adults climb on the Catbus? I swear everyone, not just kids would be loving climbing all over that thing. But it is fun to watch the kids.

The main photo op in the museum is the rooftop where the robot from Laputa awaits. The sun was out, I was in a magical place. No wonder I am smiling a lot in this photo…

None of the writing in the museum was in English, but it didn’t matter. I am not sure what any of the explanations could have added. It was just charming to let it all wash over.

With a stop by the giftshop on my way out (Ella and Jake, you will be introduced to Totoro soon), I realised I had spent longer than I thought in there. No matter though. What to do? Since I had to swap trains at Shinjuku, why not pop my head out there?

Holy crap. I now feel a little embarrassed I got lost in Kyoto train station. Shinjuku seems the mother of all stations (no I haven’t done Tokyo Station yet). It is freakin’ huge. And there seemed to be dozens of exits. I thought I wanted East Side, so found an exit and popped out.

What I got was just like Shibuya last night, but I don’t know… there seemed to be a slightly different vibe. Wandering around you can tell there is definitely more “entertainment” to be had.

As a consequence I seemed to dig Shibuya a little more, so envisage that I would lob back there from time to time more than pop out at Shinjuku… plus Shibuya train station scares me less 🙂

So some dinner and wandering brings me back to Shinagawa, all sleepy like. Not sure about tomorrow, maybe it is time for Akihabara. Best get some rest then.

Howdy all. Just a quick sneaky one as:

a. I haven’t done much today, and more importantly…

b. I am hitting a bar shortly to watch tonights World Cup game with my new team Japan playing.

Today was another day of travelling, but my last serious travel day of the trip (not counting coming home of course). It was a lazy start in sleepy Takayama this morning, not leaving until almost midday. It was nice not to rush, so it was just a small leisurely stroll to soak it in one last time and get some supplies for my 4 1/2 hour train journey to Tokyo.

Seeing now that I have a lack of photos to post today I should have taken one with my host at the Takayama hostel. Talking to her this morning was fascinating… she spent 2 years in Australia working and motorbiking around the country. She proudly showed me a photo of her on the Nullabour which I have to say was quite cool. She was adamant she wanted to squeeze in my backpack and come with me she loved Australia so much. Pity she was engaged (and planning to get married in Australia no less).

The trip from Takayama to Nagoya was stunning again, although I was happy to see the rain settle as I got further away from the mountains. It was then on to my last Shinkansen of the trip to get to my destination of Shinagawa in Tokyo.

I was a bit worried about finding my hostel on exiting Shinagawa station, however that proved to be of no concern. Shinagawa is a big station, but not as big as I expect some I am going to encounter will be. I went out the right exit (an important thing as those who have been to Tokyo train stations will tell you) and followed my instructions to arrive at the Guest House Shinagawa.

This is a fairly small hostel, and seems like it might lack a little vibe (like Takayama), but it more than makes up for it in location. 10 minutes walk from Shinagawa station gives me easy access to virtually EVERYTHING Tokyo has to offer. The hosts seem very friendly and eager to help too, so I imagine this will be a comfortable stay. Plus within 5 minutes I had teed up to go to a local bar to watch Japan play with the main guy from the hostel, so life was looking pretty good.

So knowing I had a couple of hours to kill, what should I do? Shibuya. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to wander, but I wanted to get the train system a bit sorted and start to see some neon lights, having been to one too many temples. And what better place to start than the crazy Shibuya crossing.

I don’t think I have caught it at peak time yet, so you can probably expect another photo that is a bit more packed. But as cheesy as it sounds I got a bit of a rush being part of the hordes. I was finally in Tokyo.

So it was just a quick wander, sniffed out a good record store (yep, already), had some eats, and am now about to head off to watch some football. Go Japan. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

When I left you yesterday my dear readers I was about to embark on some crane making while watching some World Cup. Well you will be all pleased to know that I have perfect the fine art of crane folding.

Here is my first bunch (thanks to great Youtube instructions). By my 20th crane I was a machine. So I popped them all in a bag ready to deliver in the morning on the way to the train station.

So morning arrived, and yep, it was still pouring. But on I popped the backpack, made a detour past the Children’s Memorial to drop off the cranes, jumped on a tram and jumped on my first of three trains. Destination Takayama.

Going to Takayama consisted of a shinkansen to Osaka, change to another shinkansen to Nagoya (not sure why I couldn’t get one straight through), and then my first train heading north. And what a trip. In hardly anytime we had left the city and were working our way up through mountains and gorges. While the shinkansen is cool, this was something else.

2 and half hours later and I arrived in Takayama. Takayama was a bit of a wildcard on my to do list. It lacked the “must do” elements of my last ports, but promised a small quaint town in the mountains. Checking in to my hostel and dropping my bag off I found this was indeed true. Even my hostel room oozed ancient charm…

Takayama is a world away from the cities of Kyoto and Hiroshima. Undeniably Japan, but the old is not separated by city. This is all town. Given it was late in the afternoon I just wanted to acquaint myself with the town a little (and start to sample some of the local sake). As would have it most things were shutting up about 6 anyway.

So a quick bit of wandering the old streets and it was time for some more public bathing. This time in a proper onsen. This was not a beautiful moutain top onsen, but at least it was a big bath house with natural spring waters. After a few wet days it was nice to soak.

So here I am typing up, preparing for a big world cup game between Germany and England. I have this to keep me company though…

I am sure it is not the top quality sake, but my taste test was alright. And for only 400 yen ($5) for 300ml it will do quite nicely.