Compositional Hibernation - Week 15 (August 19 - August 25)

Compositional Hibernation

Week 15

I bet you're wondering why there are more pictures of Fuji at the top of this post. Well, the simple fact is that, due to very poor weather and my need to save some money, I did essentially nothing this past weekend. I therefore compiled the top 5 pictures of Fuji as indicated by comments on Facebook filtered through my own impressions.

Like I said above, I did very little this weekend. The week itself was also fairly uneventful, most of my students having returned from various holidays and are getting back to a more regular schedule, which means English school is a go. I spent a good portion of the week peeling skin off my face from sunburn accrued during the Fuji climb. That was kind of unflattering and probably a bit scary for my kids classes.

The only other thing of particular note that occurred during the week was that on Wednesday I found out that my ex-girlfriend has started dating someone else. It was a weird downer after the euphoria I experienced in the wake of the Fuji climb. It's been 8 months, but it was still a little surprising I guess. You spend 5 years with someone, things like this still tend to affect you. It made Wednesday not that much fun. On the plus side, running that night was super easy, it's always easier to run when you're distracted. The week before Fuji all my jogs were super easy because I was so preoccupied with the climb.

Enough of that emo shit.

Rest of the week was okay, nothing spectacular, as previously mentioned. I got a number of souvenirs from my students from all the places they'd been, mostly food. It was quite good! I also told my story about Fuji multiple times, which was very enjoyable.

Saturday chugged into the station with no plans. I went home that night, and mucked about on my computer for a while. This was the genuine trend for the whole weekend. I read a bunch about digital photography, practiced composition a bit with my hibiscus as a subject and did some research on:

1. Getting British Citizenship
2. Universities for the future
3. Thailand

Why Thailand you ask?

Well, I'm going there next month for a short vacation, September 21- 29. If anyone has any recommendations on where to visit or what to see, I'm all ears. I really have no idea, it was kind of sprung on me. Hopefully I'll be able to save enough money to pay for everything while I'm overseas AND get a new SLR so that the pictures will be that little bit more scrumptious. I believe I'm threading the needle. Time to call in debts. Oh Ronnnnnnnnn...

I also called my family back in Canada and used up the remainder of my phone card that I had bought to call my mom from the top of Mount Fuji. Everyone happened to be at the cottage so I caught them there and had a chance to talk to a few of my aunts and my dad. My dad was cool enough to pick up a Montreal Canadians jersey for me and send it overseas, so that should be on the way soon. I'm looking forward to putting it up in my classroom in a couple months and start REALLY educating my students about Canada.

Sunday I spent finishing off Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. It's the first game I've finished since I got over here all those three and a half months ago. I'll be writing my review on CutSc3ne right after this. (edit: Tomorrow)

I also played a bunch of World of Warcraft. That's about it though, nothing else. Monday was much the same with the exception that I took 2 hours to go down to Shinjuku and buy a Lonely Planet book for Thailand. I've been studying it the past couple days. I also took my run a bit earlier than my usual 9 or 10 PM, which was quite nice for a change.

And that was pretty much it! Nothing too exciting, as might be the case with the next few weeks. I'll be curtailing my spending to prepare for the trip and hopefully the camera that goes along with it. We'll see how things work out.

Surprisingly, that's all for tonight! Cherish this accursed brevity while you have the chance! On to the next blog. Talk to you all next week, this is

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello

signing out.

Crater Endurance - Week 14 (August 12 - August 18)

Crater Endurance

Week 14

*clears his throat*

Where were we?

After staring slack jawed at the sun rise for a little while longer, Winny and I got a few photos snapped of us and then hunkered down to wait for the rest of the crew to show up. We sat on a terraced rock wall looking down at the stream of exhausted hikers edging their way up that final set of stairs, through the Torii gate at the top of the mountain. We were quite surprised when we saw a women walking up with a small black lab. I can't imagine how that dog made it past the 7th to 8th station stretch, but I guess they managed.

At 5:35 AM Kevin and Zoey peered up to see Winny and I bouncing around on those terraced rock walls in glee. Our adrenaline levels were through the roof. We did become slightly concerned that Shinsuke wasn't with Kevin or Zoey. Winny volunteered to poke around the summit for him. I stayed with Kevin and Zoey and took a few more pictures while chatting with both of them. They were quite exhausted at this point, about as bad as I was.

A few minutes later Winny poked her head over the wall at the top of the mountain and shouted down to us. Shinsuke's head appeared a second later. Apparently he had missed Winny and I on the way up and had been hunting around the summit for us during the last half an hour.

Winny and Shinsuke ambled down a couple minutes later and we shot the first of the above photos. The whole group just about to pass through the torii to the summit.

After the photo we finally crested the mountain (or I did in any case, Winny and Shin having already been there). We were greeted with small village of souvenir huts and restaurants, maybe 10 buildings in all. After walking down the tiny 'street' and purchasing a nice wall scroll of fuji-san, we walked out of the central path of the summit village and were presented with the view in the second picture. Please click on it to get a real sense of the vista.

I had purposely avoided seeing pictures of Fuji before climbing it in order to have it be an absolutely original experience for me as much as possible. I had, therefore, no real concept of what a volcano really looks like when you're staring down into the crater.

Those who know me are aware that I have a ton of different hobbies. One of these, which has been intermittent over the years is, lamely enough, rock collecting. During my younger years I was a huge fan of it and always relished my trips to Toronto as it almost always afforded me an opportunity to explore a rocks and minerals store called Gifts from the Earth which was located in the Carrot Commons on the Danforth. Wow, I'm surprised I remember it that well, and that that was such an incredibly awkward run-on sentence.

Anyways, I like rocks. I can tell you for example that smoky quartz is caused by radioactive elements that are present near to the stone. I could also tell you that there are large deposits of adventurine in the area around my cottage at Blue Sea Lake which might account for the unusually clear water of the lake.

It was, therefore, a moment of particular personal significance to me. To see the very birthplace of many of the rocks I'd hunted around for as a kid was, at the very least, impressive. Seeing the varied layers of rocks, each obviously caused by a different kind of volcanic activity, was incredibly interesting to me. It brought back that kid in me that at one point was dead set on being a vulcanologist.

Childhood dreams aside though, it was still amazing.

Evidence of destruction wrought by the formation of this mountain was everywhere, whether it was characterized by huge lava bombs flung onto the lip of the crater or the shattered boulders that littered the slopes below the summit. The summit of Fuji is an impressive testament to the power of geologic forces

This was where our group split for the next two hours. Zoey and Kevin were in a very bad way at this point, the combination of no sleep and lack of oxygen forcing them to stay put and try to rest up. Winny, Shinsuke and I embarked on the hike around the circumference of the crater.

About halfway around the crater we ran across two of the odder features of the summit. One was a very small Buddhist temple. The other was a branch of the Japanese Post Office. I should have mailed a postcard or two from there, but at the time I was too tired to mention it to anyone. Winny bollocked me for that later.

After passing by this area we climbed up to the location of the (now decommissioned) Mount Fuji Radar System. This was also, of course, the highest point in Japan at 3776m above sea level. It was here that we snapped our third shot of this post. It was fun being (briefly) the person who stood the tallest in Japan by a couple of inches. Not that much to brag about I guess, but it was certainly worth the hike.

We continued our tour around the crater and gaped at the amazing views while slowly becoming more and more tired. The 4th picture is taken as we left the summit. The sun was really starting to heat up the top of the mountain and by the time we finished the circuit I had stripped to my T-shirt. The path wound down from the highest summit between the main crater and the second crater that had formed a few hundred years ago. Evidence of all different kinds of volcanic activity were present, whether it was toothpaste-like strands of cooled lava to blocky french-fry looking upshoots of rock similar to that of Devil's Tower.

We also saw the village's source of water, which was runoff from the winter's accumulation of snow. It was a really great hike and contained the most dramatic vistas I have ever seen.

We finished our circuit at 8:20 AM and quickly located Zoey and Kevin. They had both taken a nap and although this did wonders for Kevin, Zoey was feeling much worse. Zoey had gone grey in the face and most of the color had left her lips. What transpired after this was, I'm sure, one of the most drawn out periods of my life.

A final look at the crater and we were on our way down. The sun was already starting to get brutally hot. I think the heat was somehow aplified by the lava rocks we were walking on. Regardless, as we began our descent, the deceptively easy looking series of switchbacks revealed their true nature. Although the switchbacks tended to wind downwards at a fairly reasonable pace, the very loose and dusty lava gravel we were walking on was incredibly treacherous. Everyone experienced numerous falls on the way down and Shinsuke, Winny and Zoey, who had all worn running shoes were beginning to get some solid pain going on their feet. I myself started the descent in only a T-shirt, but was warned by a kindly and well spoken Japanese man to put on something for protection from the sun. I decided his advice was good and quickly put my sweatshirt on and advised Winny to do the same. I neglected, however, to apply sunscreen. More on that later.

By the time we made it down to halfway through the 8th station Zoey's condition had decayed further. She was now suffering nausea and could barely move beyond shuffling. We stopped at this point and got her into the hut in order to rest as she was finding it increasingly difficult to move. It was nearly 10 AM at this point. I had been awake now for 24 continuous hours and was starting to feel the affects. We all halted at this point for half hour waiting for Zoey to recover. As we took this extended pause an elderly attendant at the 8th station hut informed us that he had seen what Zoey had before and that staying at a high altitude would only make it worse. We had to get her to a lower altitude; all the rest in the world wasn't going to do her any good.

I spent a couple of minutes explaining the situation to Zoey and managed to give her enough encouragement to continue the descent.

As we moved lower the colour of the rock changed from mostly black and gray to a mixture of red and black. This was soon intermixed with a few small flowering shrubs. The 5th photo is taken from slightly below the 8th station and shows the route down past the 7th station. The 6th station is visible just below the clouds in the center-right of the frame. This was the real test. By the time we left the 8th station it was nearing 10:30. As noon approached my hoodie became more and more unbearable. Furthermore, my feet began to feel like they were becoming blistered. I was also running very low on water and was soon down to the bottom 5th of a bottle of sports drink.

Around about halfway through the descent to the 6th station the group seriously started to look like it might be in danger of stopping for an extremely extended rest period on the mountain. I was worried that the high altitude combined with the extreme heat might result in some really bad heatstroke or something along those lines. In order to try and keep up the pace I basically started acting like a dick. I'm not sure if this helped all that much (it probably just strained people's tempers) but we seemed to start moving a slightly better pace. The picture above captures the beauty of this section of the mountain, but what it doesn't capture is how discouraging it is. That view is basically the same all the way from the summit down to the 6th station with very little variance. This makes for a very discouraging climb, especially in the heat, as it appears as though you are not moving any closer to your destination.

We finally reached the sixth station (little more than an incredibly dirty bathroom) before heading below, off the switchbacks and into the clouds. Zoey had mostly recovered by this point and was moving at a very good clip. The elderly Japanese guy at the 8th station had been right, the thicker air did wonders for Zoey. As we hit the clouds it was an incredible relief to feel the cool breeze and bask in the light humidity. It was also nice to find shade beneath a tree for the first time in hours.

The descent ended on a surreal note as we passed through the heavy cloud cover. Everything retained the phantasmal atmosphere that had permeated the beginning of our ascent. We happened across a group of horses that were occupied in (I think) drawing a carriage around the hiking trail that runs around the perimeter of the mountain at the 5th station.

I felt a little bad though for the tour groups just on the way up the mountain now. Our haggard visages accented by clothes tinged a rusty red from Fuji's dust must have struck at least a few blows against the confidence of the soon to be climbers.

We reached the 5th station at almost exactly 2PM. We had been on the mountain at that point for 15 hours, without sleep. All five of us passed out immediately upon boarding the bus back down to Fujiyoshida. Once we arrived at the bus station our incredibly weary group split. Zoey, Shinsuke and I departed for Tokyo. We all passed out again on the bus.

It was kind of odd walking through Shinjuku in such an obviously travel-worn state, especially considering the fact that it was rush hour on a Monday. We finally went our separate ways about 10 feet from where Zoey and I had first rendezvoused at noon the previous day.

I made it home for five and promptly uploaded all of my photos to my computer. I browsed through them quickly before promptly passing out at 8 PM after a short conversation with my parents. I had been awake for almost all of the last 34 hours, 15 of which had been relatively tough physical labor. It's no wonder I slept so soundly and quickly.

Aftermath:

The whole group suffered a number of minor annoyances and ailments as a result of climb. All of us were at least slightly sunburned. I had a particularly bad burn on my face below my eyes (apparently wearing a hood and having a baseball cap on wasn't enough). I'm not sure why I didn't apply the sunscreen I brought to the summit, but I didn't.

Kevin was worse off than I was. When we fell asleep at the top of the mountain he did so on his back, without sunscreen on. The past couple days have seen him contending with sunburn so bad that his skin blistered on his chin and hands. He may have gone to the doctor today to have everything checked out.

Other than the aforementioned blisters and sun burn, Shinsuke, Winny and Zoey made it out without anything serious.

I was displeased to discover when I got home and took my boots off that I may have had the beginnings of Trench Foot. The entire sole of both my feet was white and wrinkly and looked as though I had spent about 5 days in a bath. My feet had felt like they were blistering in my boots on the way down the mountain but as it turned out it was only this plus a tiny blister at the top of one toe which is usually there anyways from jogging.

In retrospect, here are the following things I would have modified about the hike.

1. Stay in a hut on the mountain. The hike would have been vastly simplified if we had taken about 4 hours or so to rest around the 8th station.

2. Have a meeting at the top of the mountain to discuss any concerns or problems. Remind people to do things like apply sunscreen and change socks.

3. Ensure that people resting at the summit do so in a sheltered location.

4. Buy at least 2-3 bottles of water at the top of the mountain in order to aid with the descent.

5. Make sure everyone has a walking stick of some kind. The descent was much easier with a stick to plant in the ground.

And that was pretty much it for my Fuji adventure. A lot of people have asked me if I would go back a second time and my answer was initially an adamant no. Given a couple days to decompress though, I think I would gladly return given that a little bit of time passes. I had a ton of fun getting up that slope and it was only the descent that was truly unpleasant. I think the whole experience would have been positive if I'd only shelled out the money for staying overnight on the mountain.

That's what I get for being cheap.

As an addendum, I discovered upon returning to my apartment that I'd missed the delivery of my first order from Amazon in Japan. It contained 3 books on digital photography as well as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, a first-hand account of the 1996 summit disaster on Mount Everest in which 8 climbers were killed. I've been reading through it quickly and it's really gotten me interested in doing some more high altitude trekking. Nothing as insane as Everest, but we'll see what Hokkaido offers later this year that's accessible without any technical climbing experience.

So that's Fuji! I hope you enjoyed this narrative. I'll be back next week with what will most likely be a somewhat less dramatic post.

Yours sunburn-ed-ly

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello

Nocturnal Ascension - Week 14 (August 12 - August 18)

Well I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white
And the brightness of day
I like the dark and I think to myself,
what a wonderful world.
- Israel Kamakawiwo'ole


Nocturnal Ascension

Week 14

At 5:03 AM on Monday, the 18th of August, 2008, I stood about twenty vertical meters from the northern summit of Mount Fuji and watched the sun rise. As the disc of molten copper edged over the ghostly fringes of the clouds I realized that this sunrise was, without comparison, the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I could not point to any single cohesive event in my life that exceeded seeing Sol crest those cumulus vapors. I have witnessed many things in the past 3 months that have affected me deeply, but none compared to this. Much of what I have witnessed or taken part of has been the result of the efforts of men and women. Though these achievements have been impressive in their own rights, I have always felt that the artifice of man pales in comparison to the broad strokes with which nature paints the canvas of Earth.

In that moment, at the top of the world (or so I felt) any doubt that I had about coming to Japan was erased forever. I'll never forget that moment and many others during the ascent and the descent of Fuji-san. Nor will I forget who I climbed the mountain with. Thank you Kevin, Winny, Zoey and Shinsuke for going along with my crazy plan.

Now, after this overly grandiose opening, let me elaborate on the trip and perhaps shed some light on why climbing a mountain that sees approximately 200,000 visitors a year was such a great accomplishment for me.


Background

Mount Fuji, or Fuji-san as it is referred to in Japan, is located astride two prefectures, Shizuoka and Yamanashi. It is visible from Tokyo on a clear day that is low in smog, the type of day which is most common in winter. It lies on the southern side of Honshu, the main island of Japan and is surrounded by three small cities: Fujiyoshida, Gotemba and Fujinomiya. It's about 2 hours from Shinjuku by bus.

The mountain itself is a stratovolcano which is classified as still being active. It last erupted in 1707 when it ejected cinders and ash all over the Kanto plain. It's situated over the intersection of three minor plates which explains its creation.

Fuji was first climbed (reputedly) by an unnamed monk in 663. As previously mentioned, Fuji now sees nearly 200,000 people a year, 30% of which are foreigners. There are 4 different routes to ascend the mountain, the most traditional being the Yoshida trail, which runs from the first station at the Sengen Shrine in Fujiyoshida at an altitude of 850m to the summit at 3776m. These days, the majority of climbers start at the fifth station, the height of which differs depending upon which trail is taken.

The trail we were to follow, the Kawaguchiko route, is the most popular. This is due primarily to the large number of huts on the way up the mountain and the sizable parking lots available at the 5th station, which is located at 2305m above sea level.

I had been interested in climbing Mount Fuji ever since I read in a guide book that it was a relatively simple climb, no technical equipment or skills required. The ascent of the mountain has actually been preoccupying me for the last two months. This climb is the primary reason I started jogging regularly again as well as doing some basic workout stuff, push-ups, sit-ups, nothing amazing. The majority of the planning for this expedition fell to me, so I was the one making recommendations to everyone on what to bring insofar as equipment and food was concerned. My plan (which ultimately turned out to be somewhat flawed) was to arrive in Fujiyoshida around about 4 PM, allowing people from Tokyo to acclimatize slightly to the higher altitude and thinner air before proceeding to the mountain proper for 9 PM. The climb would start from the 5th station and end on the summit by 4:30 AM Monday morning or so. After a brief tour around the crater, we'd proceed down to the bottom and hopefully finish the climb by around 10 AM. Best laid plans.

Before I really get into the meat of this I should just say that my week was fairly unremarkable. Most of my students were on vacation and all of my kids classes were canceled due to adjustment week. I spent most of my week waiting around at the school for 8 hours in order to teach one class and then return home. I bought my hiking boots on Tuesday as mentioned in the previous post, but nothing else truly remarkable occurred.

Sunday opened with me scrambling out of bed, frantically assembling my equipment and running out the door. This is what I carried/wore up the mountain:

1 pair of my worst jeans
2 T-shirts (Casino Royale on the way up, MGS 4 on the way down)
2 pair Hanes grey-toed white socks
1 Montreal Canadians baseball cap
1 Montreal Canadians toque
1 Pair of Merrill hiking boots (220,000 yen! ouch!)
3 Genki drinks (small bottles of liquid vitamins and lots of good things for you)
4 boxes of calorie mate (small high-calorie biscuits)
1 Swiss Army Knife
1 Panasonic Head Lamp
1 Extra Battery for above
1 Pen
1 Cellphone
1 LED Flashlight, Christmas gift at Silvercity last year.
1 towel
3 packages of vitamin gel
1 pair of trekking gloves
1 pair of light winter gloves
1 heavy fall jacket
1 pair of thick hiking socks
1 plastic poncho with matching pants
1 international calling card
1 tripod
1 bottle of sunscreen
1 garbage bag
2 bottles of water
1 bottle of gatorade
1 garbage bag

Well that was exhaustive.

I met Zoey in Shinjuku station. We proceeded on down to L-Breath, the outdoorsy store where I bought my hiking boots in order to purchase some additional equipment. A headlamp for Kevin and a few bottles of O2. Soon thereafter we were at the bus station where we ran into Shinsuke. in no time we were on our way up to the mountains via the Chuo Highway bus!

We arrived in Fujiyoshida shortly after 4PM. We met Kevin at the station and after dropping our gear at his house, went to a restaurant called CoCo's for dinner. Winny met us here. With everyone assembled, we headed on back to the station and waited for a local train to take us over to the bus station. There was a plaque at the station that listed the elevation as 809m. This was the first marker on our trip beyond the clouds.

Speaking of which, the weather was spectacularly unpromising on the way up to the 5th station of Fuji and the start of our hike. It was very rainy and incredibly foggy. As our bus wound its way up the switchbacks towards the 5th station at 2305m a few of us tried to get some sleep. Zoey and I had already been up for more than 12 hours at this point and had spent 2 hours on a bus just to get near the mountain. I failed at sleeping myself. I was just too excited and nervous. I could already feel that this was one of the most thrilling things I had ever done. I spent the ride up with my hat pulled low over my eyes and my arm supporting my head as I braced against each turn.

We reached the 5th station a few minutes before 9PM. Kevin, Shinsuke and I all bought climbing staves. They came fully equipped with a pair of bells affixed to them while Shin's and mine both sported Japanese flags as well.

Heading off into the misty forest was remarkably serene, but somewhat foreboding. The headlamps made it difficult to see what with all the mist droplets swirling right in front of your eyes. The hike began fairly simply, first with a slight descent and then back up over some light rises. The route was mostly paved with flagstone embedded in cement, which actually tended to be quite slippery given the misty conditions. It was already quite cool this high up on the mountain, maybe 12 C, which was the coolest weather I had felt since May. Climbing helped stave off the damp chill though, and by the time we reached the 6th station at 9:34 PM we had all warmed up a little bit.

The group rested for a few minutes at the 6th station (2390m) and received maps from the Mt. Fuji Safety Guidance center before heading off again up the mountain. I was really getting excited by this point. I had had my first opportunity to pop open my tripod and take a couple of pictures to the consternation of my compatriots.

Past the 6th station our ascent began proper. The section immediately following the 6th station made for some relatively easy climbing. The trail was composed of switchbacks sloping at maybe 20 degrees bordered by large retaining walls and anti-avalanche devices. As we proceeded upwards, this infrastructure slowly started to fade. At times we'd come across large steps that had been built into the mountain. For a group that was tired before we started, it could be quite difficult to climb over these. The first picture at the top of this page is shot about 3/4 of the way through the climb between the 6th and 7th stations.

The 7th station (2700m) was attained at around 10:47PM. The clouds were now, amazingly, below us. This was great news as it gave us a clear view of the rest of the path up, which was a pretty amazing sight. The whole trail was lit up with the headlamps of other climbers, making for a beautiful, ghostly dance on the way up. It was all framed by a nearly full moon which made the ascent much easier than it might have otherwise been. I was just hopeful that the weather would hold until we made it off the summit so we wouldn't have to deal with rainstorms on the summit. We were climbing between two tropical storms, one having hit Saturday night while another was due to hit sometime on Monday afternoon.

The 7th station marked the beginning of two new factors in the ascent. First, we were starting to get quite cold. Second, we had to get our first stamps on our walking sticks! Part of the tradition of climbing Fuji with a stick is that at each station (with the exception of the sixth) a stamp is burnt into the stick indicating the altitude and the station. It cost 200 yen at each station, but it was more than worth it.

After pulling on some heavier gear (jackets and whatnot), we started off for the eighth station. As soon as we got back to the trail proper we were confronted with a rude awakening. While the trail had been relatively easy to this point, the route from the 7th station to the 8th station would present the longest, most difficult part of the climb. The 400 vertical meters that stretch between these two stations is not navigated over switchbacks like the previous two, but instead over a field of broken lava flow. At first, upon climbing it, I just assumed it was rocks. However, as I moved upwards I realized that the at some point Fuji had spewed out a massive tendril of rock that looked like it had the approximate consistency of a very thick porridge. The stuff had tried in a cracked and fractured blanket all the way down this part of the mountain.

This frozen slurry wasn't insurmountable by any means, but it certainly was difficult. To add an unnecessary complication the wind also decided to pick up at this point. These posed two additional problems. One was that, if you timed your push up to the next spur of rock at an inopportune time, a gust of wind could easily send you off balance and falling back down the face the mountain. I doubt this would have had fatal results, but it certainly could have caused some severe injuries, especially considering our lack of protective equipment. The other problem was that the wind was now picking up the vast supply of dust on the mountain and flinging it in our faces. Without sunglasses (Winny was the only one of us with a pair) it made it quite difficult to look ahead and plot a course through the rock field without having your eyes gouged with sand. This was by far the toughest part of the climb. At this point our hiking sticks also became a far greater hindrance than an aid. I would have appreciated having the extra hand to grab onto hand holds but, as it was, the whole group made it up fine.

We made the 8th station at around 1AM, on Monday. At this point we were all starting to feel the thinner air and our exhaustion. The 8th station is a little bit unusual in that it stretches on for quite a bit. There's a large number of huts in this area and quite a bit of other infrastructure installed as well. After resting for a short while (we'd been taking 10-15 minutes breaks periodically) we pushed on past the 8th station.

We were happy to see the trail turn back into close switchbacks. Somewhere during this section of the ascent Zoey Kevin and Shinsuke started taking O2 from time to time on breaks. The going was much easier here, but it was countered with the lower amounts of oxygen in the air as well as the cold and the fact that we'd been awake for hours at this point. We reached a hut near the old 8th station (3400m) at about 3 AM. I ran into a few Americans from California here. I let one of them borrow my tripod and take a few shots down the mountain. We had a short but interesting conversation before they pushed on.

The huts were getting smaller and the mountain progressively more cramped as we got higher. Our legs burning from climbing for almost 6 hours at this point, when reaching rest stops all we wanted to do was sit and relax. In some places between the 8th station and the old 8th station there was not enough room between the mountain slope and the huts to sit down. In this section of the climb we also started to see some of the affects of altitude sickness. I saw a few people hunched over and vomiting into whatever receptacle happened to be nearby. There were also a large number of people that appeared to have given up, exhausted, and draped whatever they could over their head before attempting to fall asleep.

We staggered on up the increasingly steep switchbacks on our way to the summit. After covering what I would estimate to be another 200 vertical meters we ran into the final main obstacle in the ascent. A second lava fall, like the one between 7th and 8th stations covers part of the climb between the old 8th station and the summit. It's intermixed with the more familiar switchbacks, but is much tougher to climb when you're that much more exhausted. We were taking longer and longer breaks at this point. Kevin, Shinsuke and Zoey were all suffering from various affects of altitude sickness, nausea, headaches etc. At 4:22 AM we stopped outside the boundaries of the path on a small ledge of loose volcanic debris. The sun had just begun to brighten the horizon. I snapped a few photos before pushing on.

There was a bit of a traffic jam on the mountain at this point. There's small gate that was congesting the traffic a bit. It's visible to the right of the 3rd picture. I was, at this point, frustrated with our lack of progress and, along with Winny, set off ahead up the group faster than the others. I soon lost track of Winny in the shuffling masses. As the sun's rays grew brighter on the horizon, I realized that the summit was out of my reach before dawn. Reconciling myself to "close, but no cigar" I hopped over the path and climbed a lava boulder to a small ledge where a Japanese fellow had set up his camera on a tripod. I did the same and proceeded to take pictures that I hope to be able to look back on in the years to come and remember some of the impact of that moment. Pictures 3 and 4 were shot here. I've already expressed what I felt in this moment above so I'll refrain from repeating myself. I did omit one detail. When the sun first crested those clouds the entire mountain cheered. I've never heard anything quite like it. I was too awe-struck to join in myself, but it just added even more to the majesty of the moment.

After watching the sun complete it's own ascent and full of adrenaline from the sight I had just seen, I bounded up the last 20m or so to the summit of the mountain. I saw Winny waiting just outside the gate to the top of the mountain. We waited here for a while talking and bouncing around excitedly for the others to catch up with us.

I also made a phone call to my mom from here. I was barely comprehensible as far as I could remember and so overcome with emotion at that point that I choked up and couldn't really talk. My mom asked me to describe the scene and my only answer was that it was indescribable. It still is. Words could never do it justice. Whether it was a combination of the lack of oxygen, the extreme exhaustion or whatever other factors, I was and still am completely overwhelmed by that moment. It's impossible for me to write about it now without a tickle in the back of my throat.

I'll end this here for now. Tomorrow I'll write the second half of this journey and get it to you as soon as possible.

I remain, as always,

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello

Cinephilic Surfing - Week 13 (August 4 - August 11)

Cinephilic Surfing

Week 13

Three Months

With a whiz and bang my fingers tap out the rhythm that is ensconced within this most holy of internet institutions, the blog. More specifically, Japan from the Canadian Eye.

Back again with more tales of daring-do. Let's get the formalities out of the way first.

The work week was pretty decent, quite quiet. It's Obon season right now (well, more specifically at the time I'm writing this) but a lot of students are still out on summer vacation. Wednesday was a little bit unusual. Sean and I didn't have any classes in the afternoon so we headed out to Tachikawa to poke around a little. We stopped by Bic Camera where I found a really, really cool tripod that's super small, super light and fairly decently featured for less than 1000 yen. It even came with a bag! Really cool, I tested it out today (the 12th) and it works wonders!

Sean and I had lunch at a little Italian place that was pretty decent. Apparently it's a chain of restaurants, but the food was pretty decent, including the pizza we had. Other than that, it was straight back home to Koganei to finish off the work day and, by extension the work week.

Saturday was an unusually easy day for me this week due to a few students shuffling their schedules around to contend with work schedules and holidays. I only ended up teaching 3 classes as opposed to the more standard 7. This also meant that I finished the week at the down right early time of 6 o'clock. Unfortunately this meant I had five hours to kill before I met up with Melissa, Winny, Zoey and Ryan in Shibuya for the usual Saturday night activities...da clubzzzz!

I filled the intervening time by heading over to Kichijoji (a few stops down the Chuo line) and went to my first Japanese movie theater! It was a pretty unusual experience. The ticket booth was on the outside of the building to start, kind of like in a a super old theater. I paid my money and promptly took an elevator up to the 5th floor, which was where the cinema for my movie was located. As it turns out, movie theaters in Japan (or Tokyo anyways) tend to be built vertically. So every two floors in the building held a theater for a total of 4 or 5, I didn't count. Once i made it to the floor my theater was on my ticket was ripped and I was ushered into a sort of...lobby. It felt more like the waiting room for a dentist or something. There was no snack bar, just vending machines. On the plus side, one of them contained Sapporo, which I purchased to start the show with. On the down side the only popcorn available was in a bubble gum machine-like apparatus and was heated by a light bulb. The machine claimed that the popcorn was both "hot" and "fresh" but I have a distinct notion that this is propaganda the likes of which has not been seen since the middle of the Cold War in the good old U.S.S.R.

After the previous showing of the film let out the ushers propped the doors open much like I used to do at Silver City and I headed on in. Rideau Center may in fact be a better comparison though. The theater was kind of showing its age, from seats that were still in the old "gentle slope" pattern rather than the stadium-style seating of modern multiplexes to the curtain that draped itself over the screen prior to the show. Also, no digital pre-show. It was kind of nice to see the curtains roll open at the start of the show though. Really brought me back *tear*.

Japanese theaters also benefit from a near complete absence of non-filmic advertising prior to the trailers on the print itself. I really appreciated this, although the opportunity to see some wacky commercials is mourned when it passes by.

The trailers rolled and speakers crackled and, a couple of minutes past eight, I was watching a sub-titled in Japanese print of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I won't go too deeply into a review here (that might show up on Cutsc3ne later in the week) but I will say it was pretty decent. I went in with pretty low expectations though, so it would have been quite difficult to disappoint me. I would say it was better than Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but not as good as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Oddly enough, there is a scene involving a nuclear detonation towards the beginning of the movie. I was watching it on August 9th which is the anniversary of the dropping of the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. I found that a little bit awkward.

Once the credits started sliding up the screen I was already skittering towards the door. I was on the Chuo line before I knew it and headed to Shibuya.

We all met up at around 11:30 (with the exception of Zoey, she met us at 12:15) and headed to get some food. We had intended to go to the really cool elephant izakaya from two weeks ago before hitting the club scene but we accidentally got off on the wrong floor and ended up in something that looked like it had gotten pulled directly out of Kill Bill. It was a kind of recreation of a small Japanese village, really, really cool. We had our own little booth with a rice paper screen and everything. The food was good, but expensive. I tried sashimi for the first time. Sashimi, for those who do not know, is similar to sushi with the exception that it does not have any rice to accompany it. It is only strips of raw fish, that's it. And it's very good, especially with wasabi!

Conversation was quite jovial around dinner, as this was the first time Ryan had been down for some time, and we had not seen him in a few months. Stories were swapped around, jokes were made, a good time was had by all, and I was almost sad to leave the restaurant for a dialog decimating club. Alas though, around 1 AM it was time to displace.

Properly energized, we departed for Club Pure, for numerous reasons, enumerated in no particular order:

1. The cover charge of 3500 yen (2500 yen for women) included unlimited free drinks.
2. The choice of music for the night was Hip-Hop which, other than Gas Panic, we hadn't really experienced yet in Tokyo.
3. It was close? I don't really have a third, but what's the point of listing with numbers if you don't have at least three points?

The club wasn't bad...It wasn't great either though. The inclusion of free drinks in the cover ensured a cheap, but frustrating night. The bar was, of course, CONSTANTLY packed. Also, the drinks were generally about half what you normally expect. They even skimped on the Coke in the Jack and Cokes Ryan and I ordered. It was also pretty packed. Melissa even told me that she was about to throw down on someone for bumping into here too much, but fortunately that didn't end up happening. Overall I wasn't greatly impressed. Really, it was an upscale Gas Panic and it didn't have the big advantage of Gas Panic: you can't finish your night there for free after enjoying music OTHER than Hip Hop.

We broke up at around 4:30 and headed home. Ryan was coming back to stay at my place for the night as he was also taking part in the festivities the next day down at the beach. We were stranded in Shinjuku until 6:20 so we decided to walk around a little bit. We ended up strolling through Kabukicho again. This time, as two adult males without the benefit of female companionship, it was a little bit more seedy than the last time. We were approached at one point by a fellow who was likely part of the Nigerian mafia who offered us "pretty ladies" or some such at the small price of 4000 yen an hour. When we kept on walking he began to reduce the price until it became "I will give you 2000 yen to go in for an hour". Yeah. THAT was likely to happen. We were also solicited by a pair of call girls a few blocks down.

Not really all that more impressive than it was during the daytime. Apparently it's the Yakuza that runs the businesses in Kabukicho but it's the Triads and the Nigerians that handle most of the dirty work. Pretty interesting power structure there.

Ryan and I made it back to my place around 7:30 AM and hit the sack only to awake about 4 1/2 hours later at 12 PM in order to head on down to...ENOSHIMA!

...AGAIN!

What? I'm still excited! It's a freakin' beach!

We headed down and made it there for a little past 3:30. We took an oddly circuitous route that ended with a monorail trip. I thought it was pretty cool though. We also had a to hike a bit to meet up with the other on the beach (Melissa, Zoey, Winny, Kaz, Yuka and Seth). I shouldn't be complaining though. It was damn nice to be on the beach.

Once we found our spot we dropped our gear and I dashed off (literally) into the ocean. The waves were a bit bigger this time out, the largest one being maybe 4 feet or so, which made swimming a lot more interesting. Especially for Seth who was trying to keep his drink uncontaminated.

The larger waves also made for a slight problem, at least in the eyes of us swimmers. We had to start dodging surfers and body boarders later in the day when the tide started coming in and the waves became decent. That made the denouement of our swimming a little less entertaining, but I still had a great time.

After we dried off we headed to Fujisawa and a place called Nexus for dinner. It was a nice little diner that made some really good food. I ordered a bunch of Mexican with Ryan and Yuka, but then decided it would be better to order something else when I discovered that our order of nachos contained about 7 chips. Not so impressive. The enchilada was good and Ryan told me that the Fajita was too. I ordered some taco rice and opted out of the rest of the mexican food so Ryan and Yuka would have enough. The taco rice turned out to be amazing though. Probably the best food there.

I headed home and hit the sack. Unfortunately I set my alarm wrong and missed my opportunity to hang out with Winny and Zoey in Ginza. As it stood I just sort of "puttered around the house" as Anna would say. I left to meet Jason and Sean at 6 in Tachikawa as this weekend would be appropriately book ended by films. The second is one I've been looking forward too ever since I saw the first trailer...

The Dark Knight

Tachikawa's theater was a lot more modern than Kichijoji's, but still didn't have the level of quality of a multiplex back home. It wasn't bad though, and the picture quality was pretty decent too. Focus was a little bit off though.

All this doesn't matter though.

The Dark Knight was really, really good. I urge everyone to see it, as it is a good movie in addition to being a good comic book movie. It's also likely the best comic book movie ever made.

That pretty much ended my week though. I headed home, bought some groceries and organized some more for Fuji. I'm going to bleed a little bit over into the next week and just say that I spent some time in Shinjuku today buying equipment for the climb (boots, a head lamp, gloves and socks). I also went back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building and got some proper photos of Tokyo at dusk and in the late evening, hence the photos at the top of the page (Blade Runner eat your heart out).

I climb Fuji next Sunday. I'll talk to you all about it next week, and don't worry, I'll be safe.

Talk to you soon.

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello

Shore Germania - Week 12 (July 29 - August 3)

Shore Germania

Week 12

Once again I return, exhausted as always, although perhaps worse today than usual. It’s extremely humid outside today and I extended my run a little bit. I’m pretty sure that if I’d flailed my arms and legs just a little bit faster I would have been able to swim around Koganei park. (edit: this post was finished the day after, on Wednesday night)

This week...hmmm....

Well, the work week went pretty well. I was a bit sleepless during the week due to the amount of catch up time I needed to get photos and stuff back in proper order after the week long hiatus caused by my unreliable internet. Which, at the moment of me writing this, is acting up again. Oh well. Hopefully I’ll have this post up for tomorrow (edit: which I did!).

Last week went smoothly no troubles during at all. Again, work is easing off a lot. A large number of my students are out on summer vacation right now. Japanese corporations apparently give their employees a couple weeks of summer vacation as opposed to the more traditional personally selected days of vacation taken by employees in North America. This basically results in me losing a good number of students for the next couple of weeks.

"Not bad" says I.

The weekend rolled around much like it normally has for the past few weeks. 8 o’clock steamed into the station on Saturday, I tore off my tie, ripped of my suit and parkoured my way onto a train destined for...not Shibuya. This time the destination was Enoshima, a large-ish beach community in south-east Kanto. It was a long trip getting down there too, about an hour and forty-five minutes.

Before we hit the actual club, we stopped at what is referred to among gaijin at times as a "Japanese pancake place." I honestly can't remember the Japanese word for it. It's really interesting. You get a bowl of ingredients that includes a batter that you then cook on a...range I guess? A large heated plate. Not sure about terminology here. My pancake that I ordered contained hamburger, potatoes, a few vegetables and was garnished with fish flakes. Very good, all around.

We went to a decent sized club overlooking the beach and attempted to begin dancing. I say ‘attempted’ because the crew was not nearly inebriated enough to really start the party out proper. That took about half an hour. That was alright though. It was plenty of time for us to get a feel for the party and poke fun at a few of its denizens. There were an unusually large number of people worthy of a good jest due to the fact that this party was in nearly it's 24th hour at this point. Apparently it began the day before on the beach. Anyway, the noteworthy revellers will be described in the following bulleted list:

Poster-children for why male gaijin should not wear Yukata:

These guys were pretty hilarious. Obviously barely sober enough to stand, both guys were looking decidedly not pimpin’. Melissa was savvy enough to dub one of them “Alec Baldwin” which I think was an incredibly apt description, down to the stringy-greased back hair. The other guy she said looked like an actor from Clueless which I will verify when my internet comes back up (edit: couldn't figure out which fellow). Both these guys just looked...sleazy, kind of like they’d ventured out of doors in their housecoats, like a retired drug lord or something. If you’re goning to leave the top of your yukata open, please ensure that you don’t have a large beer gut. Just not pleasant.

Bikini Chick:

There was some girl who was having entirely too much fun dancing around wearing only a bikini. The was also kind enough to bounce over to Melissa and poke her for some unknown reason in the back. I’m as confused as Melissa was as to why. She ended up passed out in a chair.

Military dudes:

No shirt, shaved head? There’s a good chance. Naval bases are close to Enoshima. Details on that later.

After clubbing for a while we went up to the top floor of the building sang a bunch of karaoke, where I also learned a valuable lesson in Karaoke etiquette. I was handed the song selection console at one point and did my usual thing, which is to select a bunch of songs which I thought people would enjoy singing. It turns out that this is profoundly uncool. No one ever informed me that you’re supposed to only select one or two songs and then pass it on. I guess maybe that’s something you might infer without having to be told...but I’m just not that bright. Anyways, after the first couple of songs the secret was out and I apologized, promising to only chose one or two songs in the future.

We left karaoke at 4 AM and headed down to the beach. The four remaining members of the group spent the next hour or so wandering around in the surf taking pictures and waiting for the sun to come up, which it did, although behind a veil of fog.

This was a pretty interesting hour and a half for me. I’d never thought that I’d get the chance to see the Pacific ocean from the western side. It was a good morning, to say the very least. Enoshima is pretty beautiful too, with the exception of the beach.

I’m not sure why, but the beach in Enoshima contains more trash than, apparently, all the rest of Tokyo. Not impressive. Also, the sand is kind of a gross brown colour, somewhere between being a volcanic beach and a white sand beach. It’s too bad, because otherwise it’s really, really nice.

I headed home after the sun made its presence known and finally walked in the door at 8:30 AM, exhausted and tired.

The next day I was thinking of maybe going to party that was happening at another school, but unfortunately I woke up too late to attend. It’s a long way back from Enoshima.

As a result, I didn’t really end up doing all that much. I sat around for a bit then fiddled with my camera in the park. Winny’s photography has impressed upon me how far mine needs to go before it’s even remotely competent. Mine is just too sloppy right now. We’ll see if I can up my game in the next seven or eight months.

Sunday dawned with me still asleep, but I was up and out the door by about 12. I needed to buy a bathing suit and towel because I was to return to Enoshima in order to partake of the sun & surf. I bought a suit and towel at Seiyu and made it to Enoshima at about 3.

It was a really beautiful day, sun was shining bright and the water was warm, if a bit cloudy. There were tons of people out on the beach too, it was a really good time. We played some Frisbee on the beach, but the rough wind from off the ocean tended to result in some pretty wild throws, including the one that lost Ben his Frisbee (sorry Ben, I owe you!). We were also treated to the sight of what appeared to be a U.S. Navy ship (maybe a frigate or a cruiser) and, really surprisingly, what appeared to be a submarine. Pretty interesting, although somewhat foreboding things to have on your skyline!

After enjoying the sand we headed to find a place to sit and have a few drinks, but that proved to more difficult than one might think. The beach huts that had been erected to accommodate the swell in sea-side patrons were mostly closing down by 4:30. Oddly enough, the whole beach was pretty much closed by 5:00. We managed to find a little hut that was still open and chilled at a table with two round of Tequila Sunrises. Nice way to finish the day.

Now decidedly in an anti-prohibition mind set, our little posse hopped on a street car (first one I’ve seen in Japan) and headed to Kamakura for dinner. Kamakura is in actual fact a major tourist spot, and I hope to check it out a little next weekend. Regardless, we weren’t in the mood for any of that touristy stuff at this point. Instead we found the first place we could get into that served food.

This ended up being The Sea Castle.

Which was a German restaurant.

The significance of that didn’t strike me until about 20 minutes into the dinner. It was especially odd because the owners were quite elderly. Just made me wonder a little bit, that’s all. The food though, was excellent. I had roast pork and potatoes with some nice bread. It was like something my grandmother would make back home. Exquisite, especially with the good dark German beer we were served.

After that I took the long trip home, smelling of the Pacific. It’s a drag the beach is so far away but I guess two hours really isn’t that far away.

Ultimately not that exciting a week. Nothing REALLY impressive. That comes two weeks from now. I should be at the summit of Mount Fuji on Sunday, August 17^th at roughly 4 AM.

Final news: I'm currently running 6.3 Kilometres (about 4 miles) nightly. I'm pretty proud of it, but it's really not that impressive.

Talk to you all next week!

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello