Earthquakes are scary. Enough said.

So I’ve been terrible at updating my adventures here in Japan, but for the most part it’s been a normal grind of the English debate classes, and checking English essays and scripts for presentations. I’m also trying to keep everything super organized and making sure that all of my lesson plans go smoothly, so that everything is ready when I leave for my brother’s wedding later this month!

Anyway, if you’ve been paying attention to the news, a big earthquake hit Japan last week. Actually, we had three!

Last Thursday, during one of my free periods, I stepped outside of the school to grab a coffee from the conbini across the street, and an earthquake hit just as I came back into the building and was switching into my indoor shoes. The walls shook, and I could hear everything inside the lockers thudding around. It was difficult to walk, so I waited until the shaking subsided before I walked right back outside away from any overhangs. It was a long earthquake too. I was surprised, but not too scared by it. The epicenter was actually right in Saitama, by Kazo city. No one got hurt though, because it happened in flat fields. Because the earthquake was so close, the earthquake alarm on my phone didn’t go off until the middle of all the shaking.

The earthquake that day measured a 4 on the shindo scale. Japan doesn’t normally use the Richter scale. In a way, the Shindo scale makes more sense, because it measure the strength of the quake as it is being felt, and how it effects the land it travels through. So while the epicenter of an earthquake might measure a 5+ on the shindo scale, the same earthquake will measure a 3 on the next prefecture. The shindo scale measure from 1 being the lowest, to 9+ being the highest.

The quake we felt last Thursday was a shindo 5, and that’s actually when quakes start getting serious. Things can fall of shelves from shindo 4, and if a Shindo 5 goes on long enough, cracks can appear in walls and windows. When I returned to my apartment later that afternoon, I found two bottle of perfume, and one of my clocks flung onto the floor. Luckily, nothing fell onto my computer. At least nothing broke.

The second earthquake we had happened between 1 and 2 AM early Saturday morning. I had already been sleeping for about an hour or two, when the shaking woke me up. I wasn’t fully awake, but I stirred long enough to realize there was shaking happening, and kept my eyes open until the shaking stopped. This one measure a shindo 3 and usually if there are no more aftershocks, I fall straight back asleep. If earthquakes happen when I’m in bed, I actually just stay where I am, because I have nothing hanging over my head by my lofted bed, and it’s actually a pretty safe place in my apartment.

The third earthquake we had really scared me! I was out earlier that day with my Lolita friends. We went out to a Marie Antoinette styled buffet hosted by the Hilton in Shinjuku. After we got some purikura photos, many of us split off to go home, or go to other parties, so I hung out with a few girls a little while longer just to go to a craft shop.

We were on the fourth floor of the store when the earthquake hit. We actually felt it come in two waves. It was so strong, I had wondered why no ones phone alarms went off at all. When the first wave hit, we all stopped and looked at each other, but it didn’t last longer than thirty seconds, so we went about our business. One of my friends then went to the cashier to make her purchase when the second wave of the earthquake hit. It started off just as strong as the first wave, but then the floor started jerking more violently, and a few things were falling off the shelves. I looked around and saw that the overhanging lights were swinging precariously.

The scariest part about the earthquake was that it kept going! It didn’t stop for over a whole minute! I looked around and realized there wasn’t really any place to duck and cover, unless I jumped over the cashier’s counter, so I just stood by my friends and covered my head and neck with my arms until it passed. Just as the earthquake finished, my friend finished making her purchase, and then we walked out of the building, many of the staff were ushering customers down into the stairwells, and there was an announcement to avoid the elevators.

After leaving the store, we learned that the trains had immediately stopped running. Since we couldn’t really go anywhere for awhile, we just walked around Shinjuku for a bit, and then hung out at a Burger King for an hour.

From what I heard, the Yamanote line stayed down, and didn’t go anywhere for hours, but some train lines were cleared, but they were seriously delayed and move slowly.

I headed towards Shinjuku station at around 10:30 pm to try my luck getting home. The Utsunomiya, Saikyo, and Takasaki lines were running again, but very slowly. I don’t think I have ever seen Shinjuku station as crowded as it was this past Saturday!

There was a crowded line just for going up the stairs and onto the platform. There was one train already on the tracks by the time I got onto the platform, but there was such a mad rush, and station attendants started pushing people in, so I decided to just take the next train that came in. Another train arrived about twenty minutes later, and that one got packed too. I pushed myself onto that train, because I was ready to go home.

As the train left the platform, it moved slowly, and it didn’t reach Ikebukuro station for another twenty minutes. Usually it takes less than ten! The train also stopped on the tracks for a whole ten minutes somewhere between Ikebukuro and Akabane station. However, once the train crossed the river, and into Saitama, it started moving at a more normal speed again, and by luck, I reached Omiya just ten minutes before the last New Shuttle! I had somehow managed to avoid having to take a taxi to get home that night.

In the end I was safe and sound by the end of the night, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I’ve gotten used to earthquakes a little bit since I’ve moved here, but we haven’t had so many big ones this close to each other in a long time. Also, the news lately keeps reporting that another BIG earthquake is expected pretty soon. The scary part it, we can’t know exactly when and where it will happen.

I just hope that when the big quake hits, that I am in Saitama and not in some tall building in the middle of To

Winter Holiday wrap-up!

AHello again after a loooong absence! I haven’t been busy so much as distracted by some of the cool things I was doing over the past month. Even though we’re already halfway through the month of January, let’s see how well I with a New year’s Resolution of write more often.

Anyway, I am just going to do a quick rundown of some of the activities that happened in school and in my personal life.

First off, the girls in the Junior High School English club continue to be adorable. Around Thanksgiving, I had the girls draw hand turkeys, and they had to write one thing they were thankful for in each “feather” before coloring it in. After that activity, we played Fruit Basket but with a Thanksgiving twist. Normally, the students sit in a circle, and a person in the middle has to say something that they like. If other students like the same thing, they have to stand up and find another chair. The last student standing has to start over again.

Instead of saying “I like . . .” I had the students say “I’m thankful for . . . .” Some students said “I’m thankful for chocolate.” Some of them were thankful for their parents, or their pets, or their favorite pop idol groups like One Direction, or Arashi. When it came time to end the game, the last girl in the middle got all of the others to say together, “I’m thankful for Victoria!” They’re so precious!

Also, just before winter break started I had the girls play a game where they had to draw Santa in teams, but they had to draw different parts of Santa out of order. Basically, everyone started off with Santa’s beard on the chalkboard, and then I pulled out different slips of paper that said Santa’s hat, Santa’s belt, Santa’s boot, etc. There was one group who added a rocket chair for Santa, because they accidentally drew their Santa very short. I had to double check and ask them if they drew flames coming out of the chair, because it also looked like it could’ve been a picture of Santa having explosive diarrhea. Not that I think the Junior High school girls have dirty minds, but I also wouldn’t put it past them to make poop jokes if they think those are funny.

The finished Santa Drawings

 

We also had our winter English camp the weekend before the school closing ceremony. The winter camp is much more laid back than the summer camp. We just held it at Inagakuen, and no one stayed overnight. The second year students still had to do a lot of debate. In fact, I’m pretty sure this winter camp was more debate-heavy for our second year students, than it has been in the past. I did not do any fun workshops with any of the second year students; I just watched them have different rounds of debate.

However, I did get to do some fun workshops with the first year students. Of course, we usually have a Christmas theme around this time. I had the students play a Christmas-themed matching cards game, and then I had students do a fill-in-the-blank listening activity with Christmas Carols! After listening and filling in the missing words on their worksheets, they learned how to sing the Christmas Carol in English! I taught the students how to sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. 

Salimah and I also lead all of the first year students in drama-games to help them prepare for their skit contest. We played a game where they had to practice facial expressions for different emotions, and a “sculptor” game where the students were in pairs, and had to “sculpt” their partners into different things, such as Harry Potter, a detective, or dancer.

The end of the English camp culminated into the first year’s skit contest, and the second year’s final debate round. The overall theme for our English camp was Frozen, so for our closing ceremony, we had all of the students sing Let It Go, in English, before dispersing.

Even though I had to work during a weekend in December, I was still able to find time to have fun. One weekend, I went to a Glay concert with Antoine, the French ALT at our school. He had an extra ticket. He has been able to see the band Glay play in Japan a couple of times now because he’s a member of the fan club. This band is very popular, so it is very difficult to get a ticket during the regular tickets sales. They’re one of the bands where the concert tickets sell out within five minutes of going on sale.

The opening marquee before Glay arrived onstage.

I thought the ticket price was slightly steep for me at the time, considering I was saving my money for my winter vacation trip, but I jumped at the chance since Antoine was pretty much offering a guaranteed ticket, and I don’t know if I could find another way to see Glay live in Japan. I’ve also been wanting to see them in concert since I was in high school, so I got to cross an item off my bucket list!

The concert was at Saitama Super Arena, and it lasted for about two hours. The concert was fun, but Glay mostly played songs from their new album, and most of their songs that I’m familiar with were popular around 10 years ago. I was waiting for them to play Survival, Super ball, or The Frustrated, but they never did. I can’t say I was disappointed though. They started out as a visual kei band, and everyone still had colorful and gravity-defying hair.

One day, in the middle of the week, some of the teachers from the English department took us ALTs to a festival in Omiya, near Hikawa-jinja. It was a special festival where they were selling these lucky charms called kumade or bear claws. The actually look more like bamboo rakes, so that you can rake in good luck for the new year.

These types of charms can actually be really huge, and it’s common for people who own restaurants, or own their own businesses to go and buy one. They buy the biggest one they can afford, and then they bring it back, and have it displayed in their restaurant or office in order to bring in good business. Also, if you pay close attention to some of the “business owners” who buy some of the large kumade, you can tell that some of them are members of the yakuza. Of course, anyone can buy a kumade for their own personal good luck as well.

Kumade for sale by Hikawa-jinja in Omiya.

Of course, I felt I had to buy my own kumade so that I too, could rake in good luck. I found a medium-sized one for only about 2,000 yen! I thought it was going to be more expensive, but I think the vendor I bought it from gave me a discount because I’m a foreigner. I got a special kumade decorated for the year of the Ram! I now have it hanging on my wall in my apartment.

My kumade. Raking in good luck for the year of the ram!

The last thing I want to talk about is the Japanese Emperor. The Emperor’s Birthday, December 23rd, is a National Holiday in Japan. On his birthday, the Emperor makes a short speech on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. It is only one of two days throughout the whole year when the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace is open to the public.

Stephen, a fifth-year Saitama JET, invited me, and a few other Saitama JETs, to go and see the Emperor’s birthday speech. I woke up early in order to ride the train all the way from central Saitama to Tokyo station. All of us who were attending met up at around 9 in the morning, and then we walked over to the Imperial Palace.

It was crowded. There were many people dressed formally, and quite few boy scouts and girl scouts in their uniforms. There were also many people who obviously yakuza, or other staunch conservative nationalists.

We had to go through two rounds of security before we could walk into the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace. First, they had to check our bags and pockets, and then they separated the men and women so they they could perform quick pat-downs. Also, while on our walk towards the inner walls of the Imperial Palace we were handed free Japanese flags. It’s not usual that you see so many national Japanese flags at once.

Usually, if you see a lot Japanese flags, or national symbols concentrated in one area, or someone is wearing a lot of nationalist symbols on their clothes, it’s assumed that they are yakuza. That’s the reason why you don’t see so many normal Japanese people act super patriotic for their country, like you would see a normal American do on the Fourth of July, or other American holidays.

Imperial Guard

Just before going through the gate into the inner courtyard, many people were trying to catch quick snaps of the Imperial guards, but many of the police kept trying to keep the crowd moving inside, so that everyone could get in.

Even though we ended up near the back of the crowd we could still get a good view of the Emperor. He made his speech from a window-ed balcony, and at least six other members of the Imperial Family were also present. Mostly it was just the Emperor, his wife, the Crown Prince, and the Crown Princesses.

We also stood by a group of very nationalistic attendees. You’re not supposed to bring large banners to the speech, so as not to block everyone’s view. They make a point to make sure everyone who comes can see the Emperor. However, these people somehow got in with their banners, but they stood in the very, back. Everyone in our group decided to refer to them as banzai cheerleaders. They really love Japan, and they really love their Emperor.

These Banzai Cheerleaders were right behind us, but didn’t cause any trouble.

Just before the Emperor arrived, the constant reminders of the loudspeakers went silent, and the Banzai Cheerleaders behind us started to sing the Japanese national anthem.

When the Emperor appeared, everyone waved their flags in excitement! The Emperor gave a short speech that only lasted about 3 minutes, before he bowed to everyone, and then the he and the royal family went back inside the Palace.

I couldn’t get any pictures of the Royal Family, but this is how close we were.

I didn’t understand much of the speech, but some of the other ALTs who were able to understand more, told me that he mentioned that he thinks Japan must unite and me strong together. Apparently, the Emperor also mentioned that everyone should take care of themselves during the shorter days of winter. He also mentioned that his thoughts were especially with the elderly who live in rural areas, stuck with heavy snow. He said he is the same age as those who are stuck in their houses and need help, and that he wouldn’t know what he would do if he were stuck in their situation.

After his speech, we all hopped on the train over to Shinagawa, and had a big early lunch at TGI Friday’s. There’s nothing like celebrating the birthday of a Japanese monarch by eating American food! I ended up eating too much food, since I was ordering food I normally cannot get in Japan, but I was technically on vacation already, so it was okay.

Overall, I had a very lovely December, even if it was progressively getting colder outside, and inside the school too!

Next time, I will be writing about my big winter vacation trip to  . . . . THAILAND!

Stay-tuned! I should have that post up before next week!

Making Nori-maki

For this summer break, instead of staying going into school to basically do nothing, or going away on an expensive trip, I decided to take kenshuu which is study, or teacher-training leave. I’m currently taking Japanese classes at a Japanese language school in the Iidabashi district in Tokyo. It’s called Coto-language academy.

The classes are actually really good, and most of the material that we cover is from the Genki textbook, which I used when I went to Hollins, so I didn’t have to buy a new book!

The classes are every weekday for about three hours, and so far, with the classes I’ve taken, there haven’t been any more than four students to a group. I actually feel like I’m making progress in learning Japanese, and improving my speaking skills.

Sometimes Coto-language academy offers student excursions, or other cultural classes outside of the normal Japanese conversation classes. I decided to do the Nori-maki making class after my own Japanese class one day.

It was an extra 2,000 yen, but it was a lot of fun. I’ve tried making nori-maki once before when I took Japanese back at Hollins, but I wasn’t very good at it.

When we started the nori-maki class, the table set-up looked like this.

They dyed some of the rice pink, because we were going to make nori-maki in a flower design. First, we used the smaller pieces of nori, and put the pink rice in the middle of those, before rolling them over. We did this five times to make five petals for the flower. The cheese sausage we used for the middle of the flower.

Finally we put the white rice onto the larger piece of nori, before we arranged our petals and center. It was a bit of a balancing act to do.

The five petals

It was a little difficult, but with patience, I was able to roll the whole thing together into one big Japanese nori burrito!

The finished roll

Of course, after rolling the whole thing together, the last step was to cut it into slices and take a look at the final product! I was the first student to my roll open and see how well my flower maki roll came out.

My nori-maki!

My flower came out just a tad bit lopsided, but I think it’s not bad for a first try! Now that I’ve improved on my maki-rolling skills, I think I’ll try making maki-sushi more often. Also, they gave us the bamboo maki-rolling sheets as a present after the class was over!

It was a little time consuming, but I can’t wait to try making this at home!

Nori-maki close up. Oishii-so!

 

Marine Day!

So in keeping with my time-honored, accidental tradition of waiting a week, or up to a month to update my blog, I’m going to talk about Marine Day, which took place on July 21st!

July 21st is a holiday in Japan, in which everyone gets a day off, although it was the first day of my intensive Japanese course at Coto academy. My Japanese classes start at 9:30 AM and go until 12:20. It’s a bit of a pain to wake up and take the train all the way to Iidabashi to get to class in time in the morning, but once my class is over, my afternoon is completely free and I’m already in Tokyo!

After my Japanese class, I quickly changed into my sailor lolita dress and met with some of my lolita friends in Shinagawa to go to the Aquarium.

The aquarium we went to was attached to the Prince hotel. The entrance was steep, but our Japanese friend, Hina, had a group coupon, so we only had to pay 1,200 yen. After entering the aquarium, we went to go watch the dolphin show. It was lot of fun, though we got splashed quite a few times. My lap was completely soaked! Luckily, my dress was cotton, and I dried up faster than the other girls.

After the dolphin show, we went to go sea the sea lion show, but the arena for the sea lions was already full. It turned out that the next show wasn’t going to be for over an hour. We went to look at the penguins, and then we wandered around the rest of the aquarium, only to realize it was actually quite small, and not much to do to kill a couple of hours.

There’s literally a dolphin pool, a penguin habitat, a walk through tunnel with rays and small sharks, a few small tanks with fish, and the sea lion tank. There wasn’t even a second floor. Luckily, we found out we could get stamps on our hands for re-entry.

We left the aquarium to get lunch. We also found a place for Maria and Hina to continue drying off in the sun. While we waited, Maria brought a tube of bubbles, and we played around like little kids, and also took some outfit shots.

Playing with bubbles. Hina took this picture.

After awhile a security guard came and asked Maria to stop blowing bubbles because they were blowing towards the entrance and getting in people’s faces.

After we were told off, Akira and I decided to give in and bought 500 yen tickets to ride the ocean-themed carousel by the entrance of the aquarium. It’s kind of hard to tell in the photo, but I was sitting on the shark.

Akira and I on the carousel

After riding the carousel, it was about time to re-enter the aquarium to sea the sea lion show. We got our seats, and this time we weren’t splashed. the sea lion show was cute. Mostly they got the sea lions to wear funny hats and masks, but they did have some small children come and throw rings toward the sea lions to see if they could catch them.

We finished up our Marine Day activities by going for sushi at a kaiten-zushi, or conveyer belt, restaurant in Shibuya; and then, of course, purikura! This time, I can actually show some of them here on my blog!

Back row L-R: Akira, Maria
Front row L-R: Me, Hina

Hina and mine’s outfit shots.

Even though it was a bit  expensive, it was a great way to start my summer break after the Inagakuen school term ended.

Following Idols: LEDApple

I have been soooooo lazy with writing this post. This is literally something I did the Sunday after I went to the Ghibli Museum with my lolita friends.

Last Sunday on May 11th, I went to Odaiba and met with my friend Gaelle, for a a free mini-concert and a fan meet and greet for the Korean band LEDApple.

I discovered the band LEDApple through my friend Teresa last year. Teresa has since left Japan, since last year was her fifth year on JET. I met Gaelle through Teresa, and I’ve been meeting up with her some various Kpop concerts and meet-ups. She’s the same girl who bought the tickets for the YG Family concert that I went to during Golden Week.

Anyway, the event we went to on Odaiba is typical of many Idol events that happen in Japan, whether it’s Kpop of Jpop. LEDApple had two mini-concerts outside of Tokyo Diver City, next to the giant Gundam statue. The first concert was at 1pm, but before the concert, fans lined up at a booth to buy copies of LEDApple’s new single. Fans had the option of buying the Limited edition, the normal edition, and a member edition of the CD. If you bought just one of any CD, it got you into the roped off area for the “free” concert (which you could watch from outside the roped off area without having to buy the CD). It also got you a ticket for all of the members to sign your CD. If you bought two CDs, so long as one of them was the limited edition, and a member edition, it got you a ticket for the concert, for the CD signing, and to get your picture taken with one of the band members.

There was a limit on how many CD’s you could buy in one purchase, and there were many dedicated (and I’m assuming rich) fans who got back in line to buy more copies of the CD, so that they could receive more tickets for CD signing and taking their photo with their favorite members.

Anyway, I went ahead and bought two CD’s just so that I could take a picture too. I went bought the Hanbyul version of the member CD so that I could take my picture with him. It’s kind of silly, but Hanbyul is my favorite member mostly because of the fact that he grew up in Australia and speaks fluent English.

While Gaelle and I were waiting in line for the mini-concert, they handed out heart shaped balloons for everyone to hold up, since it was the guitarist’s, Youngjun’s, birthday. At least, they were supposed to be heart shaped. We had to blow them up ourselves, and if there wasn’t enough air in them they just looked like strange nipple balloons. Clearly Gaelle and I have the sense of humor of 8-year-olds.

Happy Birthday Young Jun!

 

The first concert was nice, but very short. They only played three songs. I guess they cut it short because they started it behind schedule, and they needed to get through the CD signing, and taking pictures. Also, during the first mini-concert, I found someone else’s ticket for taking a picture with Hanbyul. Someone had accidently dropped it. I asked around and tapped a few girl’s shoulders to see if it belonged to them, but no one claimed it! So . . . I kept it.

Gaelle and I got in line to have our CDs signed. I was actually able to strike up a small conversation with Hanbyul while he was signing my CD. It was inane, about how hot the weather was, but I did a better job than Gaelle, who just kind of stared at him, not knowing what to say. A lot of the other members just said “Thank you” in English when they were signing my CD, but HyoSeok actually asked me, “Where are you from?” I told him I’m from America and he looked kind of surprised.

After the CD signing, we had to line up again for pictures. Everyone had to go in separate lines for each band member. Gaelle got her picture with HyoSeok. The line to get a picture taken with him was shorter than the one for Hyanbyul, so Gaelle was waiting for me afterwards. I like to think that Hanbyul recognized me from the CD signing, but it might just be I stood out a bit because Gaelle and I were the only blond girls at the event.

Before taking the photo, he asked how I was doing, and then told me to take care in the heat before I took polaroid and had to make way for the other girls in line.

Picture number 1 of me and Hanbyul

After taking photos, Gaelle and I went inside the Diver City shopping center to use the bathroom and get lunch, since the second mini concert wasn’t going to start until 3pm. Then we went back outside, and Gaelle bought two more CD’s so that she get a picture with KyuMin. I went ahead and bought a third  normal CD just so that I could do the signing again.

The second mini-concert was better, since they played more songs. They also sang a song in English near the end of the show, but honestly I hardly recognized it. It sounded familiar but I can’t remember what it was. I’m guessing it’s a new song that might be popular back home in America, but the only “recent” English songs I’ve been listening to lately are from the movie Frozen. Also, at the end of the concert, they had a a one minute countdown as the one time during the event when fans were allowed to take their own photos of the band with their phones. I took a few photos myself. Here’s one of my better ones.

LEDApple

Anyway, Gaelle and I got in line to get our CD’s signed again, and of course to take pictures again. Gaelle got her photo with KyuMin, and I used to extra ticket that I found to get another photo with Hanbyul, because, why not? I threw my hoodie on just so that my second photo would look a little different. Hanbyul actually noticed and asked if I changed my clothes. He then asked if I was visiting Tokyo, and I told him that I actually live here in Japan.

Picture number 2 with Hanbyul

Before leaving he said, “I sang the English song for you.” I was flattered. I mean, I know the song was probably already part of the set list, whether or not Gaelle and I showed up, but it still made me smile.

At the end of the event, Gaelle had dinner plans with some other friends, so we parted ways, and I just took the train all the way back home to Saitama since I still had work the next day.

Gaelle and I having a great time!

It was a great way to spend a Sunday, even though I got my first big sunburn of the year, and spent more money than I probably should have.

 

 

 

Lolitas at Ghibli

A couple of months ago, I met some fellow foreign lolitas when I kept returning to the Harajuku Fashion walk, and lately we’ve been meeting up for other lolita gatherings.

This past weekend, some of us went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. This was my third time going, but it was the first time for many of the girls who went this past Saturday.

Deanna, the girl who organized it, bought everyone’s ticket a month in advance. Our tickets were for the 2:00-2:30 time slot and we almost missed it! We arrived at the museum about 5 minutes before our time was up. The first two times I went to the museum, I took the Chuo Line to Mitaka station and just took the bus to the Ghibli Museum. This time we met up at Kichijoji station and then walked through the park to get to the museum. We ran a little late because someone had to pull money from the ATM first, and one of the girls kept trying to stop the group asking if we wanted to take outfit shots in different places. We kept having to remind her that if we were late, we wouldn’t get in.

Anyway we arrived in just in time! We looked around the animation exhibits on the first floor of the museum, before we lined up to  see our free showing of a short film. At the Ghibli Museum, you get a free movie ticket upon entry, and it always shows three animation stills from a Ghibli film. This time my film strip movie ticket had a scene from Castle in the Sky.

The movie we saw was the same movie I saw when I went with Lauren over a year ago. It’s called Hoshi wo katta no hi, or “The day I grew a star.” It’s about a young boy who runs away from the city, and is taken in by a woman named Ninia. He helps her out with her farm, and one day when he takes some of her turnips to market, he gets stopped by these strange merchants who sell him a gem. Later that night, the boy plants the gem in a pot and by nightfall, there’s a small planet floating above the pot, with three moons orbiting around it. Eventually the boys parents come to take him back home, so he leaves the plant with Ninia. The end of the movie has the two merchants picking up the boy so he can see Ninia one last time in this place that has a collection of other small planets that people grew. At least that’s how I understood it. It was all in Japanese and there were no English subtitles., but the animation was gorgeous.

After seeing the short film, some of the girls had a theory that the young boy in the film grew up to be Howl and moves to one of the new planets when he grows up. It might not make sense story wise to people who haven’t seen the film, but the boy did look a lot like a younger version of Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle.

The majority of the museum are permanent exhibits showcasing how they do their animation at Studio Ghibli, and some rooms are set up like fake offices. The only exhibit that was new for me was this small exhibition on lenses, and mirrors, and how they can be used for optical illusions. By the end of the exhibit they tied it all in with how light and lenses are used to project animated films.

At the end of all of the exhibits, we went outside and up the roof to take pictures by the tall Laputa robot statue.

 

Castle in the Sky

Since this was my third time at the Ghibli Museum, I had told myself that I didn’t need to buy so many souvenirs again, but then I bought a few anyway. I have a growing collection of Ghibli character plushies, and this time a found a new one that I had never seen before. It was Yakkl, which is Prince Ashitaka’s deer, from the movie Princess Mononoke.

Let’s take the bloodiest Ghibli movie, and make stuffed toys out of its characters!

I also bought a cute pair of chopsticks, a pin, and I found Sheeta’s magical pendant from Castle in the Sky, and it actually glows!

Sheeta’s pendant

It glows!

It glows when you press two sensors at the bottom. You turn it off by pressing the sensors again. If you press and hold the sensors, it starts to blink rapidly.

Even though I had seen the museum before, it was nice to go again with a nice group of friends. It was a lovely way to spend a sunny, although windy, afternoon.

Group photo by the giant Totoro

Golden Days

I’m very bad at updating regularly it seems, but better late than never right?

My classes at Okegawa have been going well enough. The students are always genki but some of their shyness has definitely settled in. For the classes I teach at Okegawa, the teachers want me to use activities based on this textbook called Vision Quest. The sample dialogues in the book are okay. This past lesson the dialogue was about a boy named John who came to Japan because he likes the movie “Ponyo.” The activities  that are based in the book are a little difficult for the students to understand. Next week’s lesson is about talking about vacation plans. Instead of just using the book activity, I’m making cards with sample sentences so that the students can practice speaking with the information right in front of them. I think they’ll feel more comfortable that way.

At Inagakuen, I can usually just even give first year students simple instructions in English, and they can understand what they are supposed to do when I give an example. However, at Okegawa, I’ve needed the teachers to give full Japanese translations on more than one occasion. It’s okay since they’re first year students. Hopefully as the year goes on the students will be more confident in English.

Also, there is a set of siblings between Okegawa and Inagakuen. One of the boys at Inagakuen has a younger sister who is a first year student at Okegawa.

The big news back at Inagakuen is, I am back to teaching Oral Communication 2 without a Japanese teacher. Kira and I are teaching the class by ourselves. The teacher who was working with us became ill suddenly this past Monday, and had to go to the hospital. She will be gone indefinitely, so it looks like Kira and I will definitely be in charge of the class until the end of this term.

Luckily, we already have the curriculum and plans for what we need to do until the end of the term. Also, this year we have two Oral Communication 2 classes again, so we can bounce off lesson plans and ideas from the ALTs and JTE who teach the other class.

In general Japan news, the national consumption tax was raised from 5% to 8% in the past month. There were actually many Japanese families rushing out on shopping sprees the week before it happened, and many Japanese also rushed to make big purchases, such as getting a new car, mere days before the tax hike. Seeing as I’m from Washington state, I’m used to this tax rate, so I didn’t freak out so much.

I haven’t seen such a huge difference when going grocery shopping, or going out to eat, however, I’ve noticed it most with the train fare. It used to cost me only 340 yen to take the train into Omiya. Here’s the thing, the train fare is different if you buy a ticket, versus using an IC card, such as Suica or Pasmo. If I buy a ticket to go into Omiya, I would pay 350 yen, but since I use my Suica card, I only pay 348 yen. This is because the ticketing machines can just take off the exact price from the cards, whereas the ticketing machines don’t accept 1 yen coins, so you can’t pay the exact price for just one ticket. It’s rounded up to the nearest tenth.

This past week was also Golden Week. Golden Week happens at the beginning of May, and is a period of time when  bunch of National Holidays are strung together, so everyone is off of work for many days. This time I had a four day weekend until Tuesday. Anyway this past Golden Week has marked one year since I bought my pine bonsai tree. I have successfully kept a bonsai alive for a full year! Here’s hoping I can keep it alive for another year.

Also, this past Sunday during Golden Week, I went with Gaelle and Ashley to the YG Family concert at the Tokyo Dome. Ashley is another Saitama JET who works in Hidaka. Gaelle is a friend of mine that I met through my friend Teresa over a year ago. Gaelle is a foreign student at a University in Tokyo.

The artists at the show were Big Bang, 2ne1, Epik High, Lee Hi, and Winner. Psy was also supposed to perform, but he canceled because of scheduling conflicts. I was really excited to see Big Bang and 2ne1 perform again. I’m glad that they sang the song “Fantastic Baby” two times. It’s one of my favorites. Epik High is an older group that I wasn’t really familiar with, but apparently they just recently regrouped since all of the members have finally finished their mandatory military service.

Lee Hi is also a new female singer. I think she’s okay.

Winner is a brand new boy group on the YG label. To put it bluntly, they seem just like a junior version of Big Bang, which makes sense, because they were formed together to keep the fans entertained while the members go off and take turns doing their mandatory military service. This is actually quite common with all of the Korean Boy groups. The pop groups are formed, and then different members may or may not break off for solo projects, while each member takes turns doing their military service. If they’re still popular enough, then they can regroup when all members have finished their military service.

Even though Psy could not perform at the concert, they did do a big finale when all of the artists came on stage to sing Gangnam style, and that was a LOT of fun, even if it is an overplayed song by now. It just seems new again seeing it played live.

I didn’t try to sneak any pictures on my camera like the last time I went to the YG Family concert a few years ago, but I did take one picture at the end, to show how close we were to the stage.

YG stage at the Tokyo Dome

It was a lot of fun, and really made my Golden Week enjoyable.

New Term New School

This past Tuesday was the opening ceremony for the new school year at Inagakuen. Since it was the first day of school, us ALts did not have to teach any classes, although after the opening ceremony we were still busy finalizing our class schedules, and preparing materials for our first lessons of this week. Luckily, we did not have any first or second year classes this week, but we did have our third year elective classes.

This week, I had my first Oral Communication 2 class, and my first Current English class of the week. This is my third year teaching OC2, but my first time teaching Current English. OC2 always focuses on using English for debating, and Current English focuses on using the the news for learning English.

Today for Current English, we did 2 truths and a lie for our ice breaker. I gave my own three facts as an example, and had them guess which one was the lie. My three “facts” were: 1. I am the tallest person in my family. 2. I was born in Japan. 3. I can speak Spanish.

Half of my students in the class guessed that me being born in Japan was a lie, and were really surprised to learn that “fact” number 1 was the real lie.

All of the students understood the game when they made their own three facts, but one student, Satomi, particularly impressed me. One of her facts was “I am in Wind Orchestra and I play the trombone.” She then revealed that that was a lie, because she is in the Wind Orchestra, but she actually plays the flute.

I’m looking forward to see how Current English will go for the  rest of the year. I have a really good group of students in that class.

Also, this past Wednesday was my first day to visit Okegawa High school. I had to wake up extra early so I could make the commute and arrive in time for the Okegawa morning meeting at 8:30. Okegawa is not that far away, but it takes a long time to make the commute because I have to take time for the transfers. First, I have to take a bus from Ina-machi to Ageo station. Then I take a train from Ageo station to Okegawa station, and then I take another bus from Okegawa station to Okegawa high school.

I had no time to eat breakfast before I left the house, so I brought along a breakfast bar to eat on the bus, and got tea from a vending machine on my way.

I was very nervous, because I knew which bus I had to take, but I had no idea where I was supposed to get off. The bus does not actually go all the way to the school. There’s one stop that’s close to the school, and I had to get off and walk for 8 minutes. Luckily, there were a few students wearing the Okegawa school uniform, so i was able to just follow them as they all got off the bus. I managed to not get lost on my first day. Yay!

I found Okagwawa High school, but then I had no idea where I was supposed to report to on my first day, since this was my first day on campus. Luckily, one of the English teachers caught me by the front door, and lead me inside to where I met the Principal, and the Vice Principal. Sadly, I don’t remember the Principal’s name, but I do remember the Vice Principal is called Kono-sensei. I think it’s okay, since Kono-sensei’s desk is in the teacher’s office, and I’ll see him every week, and the Principal has his own office downstairs.

I was promptly shown my desk, along with my weekly class schedule, before I was called upon to make my self-introduction in Japanese in front of the office for the morning meeting. It was kind of nostalgic, since the last time I had to do that was at Inagakuen over 2 years ago! After I made my self-introduction, many teachers came over to tell me nihongo jouzu, which means, “You are good at Japanese.”

The teachers at Okegawa high school were so kind, and were so happy that I was there. One of the English teachers who I will be working with is Noguchi-sensei, and she is actually the wife of one of the math teachers at Inagakuen. Her husband actually used to be in the house two office back when I first arrived, but now he’s in house six. Anyway, Noguchi-sensei told me that it has been three years since Okegawa last had an ALT, so the teachers are very excited to go back to team-teaching.

I will only be teaching first year classes this year at Okegawa High school. I’m guessing it’s because it’s easier to start with all of the new students. The second and third year students have never had team-teaching (unless they had ALTs at the former Junior High schools). I will be teaching four classes every week, and I will rotate which homerooms I see, so that I visit all 8 first year homerooms once every two weeks.

I did not have to teach any classes on my first day. It was opening ceremony day Okegawa High school when I went. I’m glad I got to see another school’s opening ceremony. Okegawa’s opening ceremony was really cute, and more interesting than Inagakuen’s. At Ina, they just have the students sit down and listen to school administrators give some speeches. At Okegawa, all of the upperclassmen stood the sides, and clapped and welcomed the first years students as they paraded into the gym. They also had some school administrators give speeches, but they also played upbeat music at the end as everyone filed out.

I sat next to a history teacher named Shiba-sensei during the opening ceremony. He really likes to talk. During the speeches, he would make notes on a piece of paper, and try to explain to me what the different speakers were saying, and then he would ask me for the correct English of certain phrases. At one point, he was trying to explain who one of the female speakers was. He wrote the words nursery teacher on his paper, and asked me what the correct English was. He explained “she does medical check-ups for the school. Is this right?” I explained to him that her position was school nurse, and not nursery teacher. 

Even though I will only be working with the first year English teachers, I had many conversations with the second and third year teachers as well. Many of the second year teachers are actually quite young. One of them, Tsuyoshi-sensei, is the same age as me. During lunch, he showed me photos of his Starbucks tumbler collection. He has a bigger collection than my mom!

Also, one of the second year teachers, Nodera-sensei, lived in Canada for about a year, and actually speaks English with a Canadian accent. I picked up on it before he even told me he used to live in Vancouver, because he was ending quite a few of sentences with “eh?” It didn’t sound forced either. He was really pleasant to talk to.

The head of the English department is Naito-sensei. He teaches second year English, and invited me to visit one of his second year English classes that day, even though I won’t be teaching those students. I came to his class, and brought in some pictures and gave my self introduction. I told them about Seattle, and even showed them some photos I have of my family. I know many of the students understood the majority of what I was telling them. Naito-sensei only had to translate for them a few times.

We had question time at the end. I encouraged them to use English, but pretty much all of them asked their questions in Japanese and Naito-sensei translated. The questions were pretty basic, such as “What is your favorite color?” “How tall are you?” “Who is your favorite Japanese singer?” One girl asked me, “Do you cook?”

Near the end, I told the students to try to challenge themselves and ask more questions in English, since this was the only time I was visiting their class. Finally, one boy tried and asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?”  (Of course the answer is no, but he gets points for actually using English.)

Before I left Okegawa High school, I talked to Noguchi-sensei about the self introduction lessons for next week, and then I asked the Vice Principal for the rules on when I should arrive and leave. At Inagakuen, I need to be in the office by 8:25 am for the morning meeting, and I’m not supposed to leave until 4:10 pm. Kono-sensei told me that I have to be at school for a full 7 hours for it to be a full work day, and he basically gave me three different options for coming in. Even though I managed to come for the 8:30 morning meeting that day, he said I didn’t have to do that if it was too difficult for me, and said I could come in later since I’m not scheduled to teach in the first period. In the end, we settled on my arrival time at 9 am, which means I have to stay until 4:45 pm. I’m okay with this, since this means I don’t have to wake up as early on Wednesdays to make the full commute, and I can still live before 5 o’clock.

I really enjoyed my first day at Okegawa High school. I know the students’ level of English there is not as high as some students at Inagakuen, but I hope the first year students are eager to try speaking. I’ll get a better feel of the class dynamics starting next week. As long as the students are excited and not too shy, I think everything will be fine. I was very nervous at first about going between two schools, but now I’m excited to see what this new year will bring. I can’t wait to go back next week!

Changes are coming

This past Monday was the Inagakuen closing ceremony. It was cold in the big gym, but not as cold as it was at the Graduation Ceremony two weeks ago. It was a quick hour, and then afterwards, we were free to do whatever we wanted, like take an extended lunch break, since there are no more classes to teach. Lately, I’ve been using my free time at work to catch up on reading Game of Thrones, and studying Japanese.

Also, I just recently learned that I am going to go to a visit school once a week starting in the next school year. On Wednesdays I am going to go to Okegawa high school and team teach some English classes there. On Tuesdays, Kesha is going to visit Ageo Tachibana high school. None of the other Inagakuen ALTs are going to have visit schools. Inagakuen has never had ALTs go out to visit schools before, but this is actually a common situation for most JETs.

Okegawa is not that far from Ina-machi. I’ve passed by the town before on the train. It’s not far from Ageo, which is the city next to Ina-machi. I thought I would have to take two buses and a train to get to the high school, but some of the teachers have told me that it’s actually only a 20 minute bike ride from Ina-machi. Naruse-sensei, one of our English teachers, told me that her brother used to go there, and that she would draw me a map. As soon as I know where the school is, I’m going to spend some time riding my bike there so I can time just how long it actually takes to get there.

I hope I get more information about my visit school soon. So far, the only thing I know about Okegawa high school is that one of the English teacher’s there is the wife of one of Inagakuen’s math teachers.

Also, I witnessed something this past weekend that requires a bit of a back story. There is a soccer team in Saitama called Urawa Reds. Someone posted a giant “Japanese only” banner at one of their games, and a lot of their foreign fans called them out on it. So this story, along with some recent Anti-Korean protests in Shin-Ookubo (which is Tokyo’s Koreatown), spurred some Japanese to lead Anti-racist counter protests. The first major one that was documented happened last week in Shin-Ookubo, opposite an anti-Korean demonstration. I was in Harajuku last Friday when I came across another Anti-racist demonstration going down the street.

This is the video I took with my iPhone.

This is part of an interesting shift in the current Japanese culture, where much of the nationalism, and the “Japan is best” attitude is giving way to some of those who realize that attitude is not going to work if Japan is going to hold its own in the global society. It’s also a sign that many Japanese are realizing they need to be more opening to foreigners when the 2020 Olympics finally arrive in Tokyo.

Lastly, yesterday was my friend Michelle’s birthday, and we celebrated by going to see Macklemore’s concert in Tokyo at Akasaka Blitz. It was a fun show! Macklemore’s entire performance was high energy from beginning to end. When Michelle and I first got into the venue, we were somewhere in the middle of the crowd, but by the end of the first song, we had pushed ourselves very close to the front. Like, two people away from the front barricade. There was a lot of pushing, and my feet were stepped on, but I never stopped jumping and dancing the whole time.

This was also the first concert I’ve been to here in Japan where they gave the audience members permission to take their own photos with their cameras. I got a few photos, but not all of them are good. Michelle took more photos than I did. I understand the allure of wanting to capture the moment, and to say you were there, and to show off how close you were, but I’d rather spend most of a concert enjoying myself. That, and I didn’t want to risk dropping my phone, smashing it, or losing it.

This is how close Michelle and I got to the stage.

The set list. One of the concert staff just literally handed it to the audiences members to look at right after the show.

Michelle and I after the concert ended. It was a great night!

I am so glad I went, and I’m glad I got to see Macklemore live with Michelle for her birthday. It was a fantastic way to celebrate.

 

MOUNT FUJI!

I am so sorry I have taken so long to update. I was super tired after climbing Mt. Fuji, and then got busy helping the English debate team, working on my TEFL course, and volunteering for a children’s English class at a community center in Higashi-Omiya.

Anyway, excuses aside, I climbed Mt. Fuji on the weekend of July 20-21st. I went with my friends David, Michelle, and Elly and her husband. We went with a group called Tokyo Snow club, which organizes events for gaijin to do together around the Tokyo area.

Before we caught the bus in Shinjuku, we all went to this restaurant in Shinjuku station called Slappy Cakes. We had the option to order pre-made pancakes or make our own combo and make the pancakes ourselves. Michelle was the only one who made her own pancakes. She used a peanut-flavored batter, which made her pancakes taste like peanut butter cookies.

Michelle’s pancake jack o’lantern.

 

She also got really creative with cooking her pancakes, and even got so ambitious as to try to build an pancake Eiffel Tower.

Attempting to build the Eiffel Tower

After brunch at Slappy Cakes, we went and headed over to meet the rest of the Tokyo Snow Club group, and catch our bus to the 5th station , on the Yamanishi-prefecture side of Mt. Fuji. We reached the 5th station at around 5 in the afternoon, so we had some time to kill. We bought our Fuji sticks, and went and paid our respects at the Shinto Shrine at the 5th station. I got a Fuji stick with the Japanese Navy flag on it, since I’m a Navy brat. Elly bought one with the regular Japanese flag, and David bought one that had a map of Mt. Fuji with the stations listed on it.

Shrine at the 5th station

While at the shrine, I noticed there was a machine to get an English omikuji or fortune, for only 100 yen. The slip of paper basically gave advice for different areas in life. Mine said “Travel: You should not go anywhere right now” and “Childbirth: If you have faith, you will get over it.”

Also, before climbing Mt. Fuji, I made mini-stick figure of Mom to go climbing up the mountain, since she was unable to go all those years ago when she used to live in Japan.

Me and “mom” at the 5th station before the climb.

Tokyo Snow club started the climb together from the 5th station to the 6th station at around 7 o’clock, and once we reached the 6th station, everyone split off into their own groups of friends so that we could all go at our own pace. The walk from the 5th to the 6th station took only about 20 minutes, and was the least arduous part of our journey.

David, dressed as pikachu, ready to embark from the 6th station.

We kept at a pretty good pace for most of the night. The thing about climbing Mt. Fuji, is that we were told there were nine major stations, however, there are many stops, and huts along the way to the top. It can take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour to get the next hut, and it might be part of another station as a whole, so sometimes it would get really confusing to figure out which station we actually reached. There’s technically 3 different 8th stations. There’s the 8th station, the 8.5th station, and the original 8th station, which has the Mt. Fuji hotel.

It was cold, but as long as we kept moving, it wasn’t too bad. I actually had my jacket hanging open until we reached the 7th station. I also packed a pair of long johns, but I didn’t need to put those on until just before we reached the 8th station.

We would rest at every hut we got to. We tried to make sure we rested only for 15 minutes, or for 30 minutes, so that our bodies wouldn’t get too comfortable before we decided to hike into the night again.  At every stop, we’d make sure to either go to the bathroom, take a breath from our oxygen canisters, drink water, and eat a snack.I would have to take hits from my oxygen canister every once in awhile, but I never went through the whole can, and managed not to get a full on case of altitude sickness. I ate so many clif bars, soy joys, and these protein and energy jelly packs that are sold only here in Japan.

When I was packing for my Fuji climb, I was worried that I was packing more weight than I could carry, but in the end, it turned out okay, because as I ate my snacks and drank my water, my back pack got progressively lighter.

Even though it was only the second weekend that the Mount Fuji paths were open, we were surprised that there weren’t more people on the mountain. We honestly expected the trails to be more crowded, especially since we were climbing the weekend right before they started implementing the 1,000 yen climbing fee.

For those of you who don’t know, Mt. Fuji became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site recently, so many more climbers are expected this year because of that. Some of the local governments (depending on which side of the mountain you start your climb from) have started implementing a 1,000 yen fee to climb Mt. Fuji as a way to stem the flow of the crowds. Although I’ve read an update saying that the fee is now encouraged instead of mandatory, and that those who pay the fee get a commemorative pin.

They are also trying to discourage bullet climbing, which is basically what we did. Bullet climbing is when people begin their climb at sunset, and continue all through the night, without stopping, until you reach the top. Of course most people want to see the sunrise from the summit, but some people start their climb earlier in the day, rest in one of the huts for most of the night, and then wake up early and finish the climb just in time to see the dawn.

The line of hikers ahead of us.

Now, our goal was to keep at a steady pace so that we could reach the summit to watch the sunrise at 4:30 AM, but right before we reached the 8th station, Elly started to feel sick. We decided to take about an hour break, but Elly wasn’t starting to feel any better. Sitting and waiting to see if Elly would be ready to climb had me feeling anxious. It didn’t help that the wind was getting really bad, and there wasn’t a wall to keep out the cold. While we were waiting, I went to the bathroom and added more layers, and broke down and paid 300 yen for a cup of hot chocolate.

Eventually Elly and her husband decided to spend the rest of the night at the hut, and see us back at the 5th station the next day. After bidding Elly good bye, Michelle, David and I began our climb once again.

This was the part of the climb where not knowing which station we were actually at was getting really discouraging. We kept thinking we finally reached the 8th or 9th station, only to find out we hadn’t. Yet, we trudged on, because as long as we kept climbing, the sooner we would make it to the summit.

We didn’t reach the summit by the time sunrise started, but we were near the 9th station, which was close enough. There were a few clouds in front of the sunrise, but some red light still shone through, and the view was still very beautiful.

Dawn breaking on Mt. Fuji

The red sun breaking through the clouds. This was our sunrise.

Also, having seen all of the other stations and huts along the way to the top of Mt. Fuji, we expected the 9th station to be decent sized, with hot drinks, and plenty of accommodation for those of us who desperately needed a bathroom break. As it turned out, the hut was closed up, and looked like it was just filled up with rocks, and then covered with more dirt and rocks. It was the area and the roof of the 9th station that David, Michelle and I, and many other climbers decided to sit and watch the sunrise.

The roof of the 9th station.

 

Me, mom, and David in the background, watching the sunrise.

Now, the climb to the summit from the 9th station is not supposed to take a long time. It shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes, but this was the part of the climb that was very crowded. It was like waiting in line, while balancing on rocks, and steep slopes at the same time. There were also people who were trying to go down on the up path. Let me just say, I was secretly hoping there was a special circle of hell reserved just for those who decided to try to climb down the up path on Mt. Fuji. It’s seriously not cool, and beyond frustrating for all of those who spent 10 plus hours climbing up the mountain, and are still waiting to reach the top.

Anyway, we ended up reaching the actual summit of Mt. Fuji at around 6:10 AM. We all splurged on a hot bowl of ramen at the top.

Mom enjoyed the ramen too.

Before we had climbed to the top, David and I each bought cans of beer at a conbini, because we knew it would be better to pay 270 yen for beer in Shinjuku, instead of splurging on the same-sized can for 600 yen at the summit. We posed with our cans for a photo, but didn’t actually drink them at the top because we were too tired, and didn’t want to climb down the mountain tired and buzzed at the same time.

Celebratory beer, for decorative purposes only.

After eating our ramen Michelle and I bought special Mt. Fuji postcards to mail home, and then made the 20 minute walk around the crater to the Mt. Fuji post office!

Post Office at the summit of Mt. Fuji. It’s halfway between two different summit stations along the crater.

By the time we mailed our post cards, it was getting close to 8 AM, so we decided to take some last minute photos of the crater, and of the view from the summit.

Crater of Mt. Fuji

 

Just a friendly reminder that Mt. Fuji is actually a volcano.

Walking along the edge of Mt. Fuji

Before making our way down, David and I really had to use the bathroom. Now most of the the toilets along the top to Mt. Fuji have a “suggested donation” of 200 yen. Yet if you don’t actually have the change, they don’t actually stop you from using the bathrooms if you actually need to go. Except for the one at the top of Mt. Fuji. We had to pay 300 yen to use it, and it was one of the most disgusting bathrooms the whole trip. The water in my toilet was brown, and the whole building just reeked. Michelle was smart, and waited until we returned to the 8th station and used the much cleaner bathroom down there.

 

Beginning to descend down.

Even though we were very high up, it started getting hot very fast on our way down Mt. Fuji. I had to break out my sunglasses, and take off my jacket and long johns before we left the 8th station. We took time to make sure we covered all of our exposed skin with sun screen, since the air is much thinner and sunburns can get much worse at higher altitudes. I was thinking of taking off my long-sleeved shirt, and just wear my t-shirt the rest of the way down, but then I realized that if I did that, I would just be exposing more skin to the sun, so I kept it on, even though my sweating arms were starting to get unbearable.

After the 8th station, there were no real stops on the down path, so I could not stop and buy more water or use the toilet before we reached the 6th station. David also ran out of food about an hour before we reached the bottom, which was pretty bad, because he’s diabetic and needed to get his blood sugar back up. Luckily, both Michelle and I had extra food. I gave David an extra clif bar I had, and Michelle let me take a few swigs from her water bottle.

We also took some time to enjoy some hand made sweets that one of Michelle’s student had made for her, before continuing our descent.

Michelle and I enjoying her student’s handmade omiyage.

Michelle, David and I made it back to the 5th station at around 11:15, 45 minutes before our group’s bus was supposed to depart the 5th station back to Shinjuku. We didn’t leave anyone behind though. We met Elly and her husband back on the bus, and everyone was passed out before the bus even departed the parking lot.

The bus was supposed to reach Shinjuku around 3pm, but we somehow made it there by 2:20.  The whole time, we’ve had late starts, and yet we’d manage to reach our destination earlier than expected.

My feet were so sore for two days afterward, and my calves hurt even longer. I had a difficult time going down the stairs at work and at my apartment building for the rest of the week.

I had to report for health checks at work the very next day after I got home from climbing Mt. Fuji, and then later that afternoon, the Inagakuen foreign language department had a farewell pizza party lunch for Olga and Michelle. Besides doing those two things, I pretty much just slept at my desk at work, or at least tried to read. Honestly, if I didn’t have health checks, or feel the need to come and say good bye to Olga and Michelle, I would’ve just taken the day off of work.

I definitely feel accomplished having climbed Mt. Fuji. I was on the top of Japan! The view was beautiful, and I can cross off one of the biggest things of my “Japan Bucket list.” Although, I can safely say that climbing Mt. Fuji was the most fun I never want to have again. 😉 Overall, it was a great start to my summer break.

First, Mt. Fuji, and soon, I go to Australia! I can’t wait for my next adventure!