The long way home

Note I: This is actually my last journal entry written at different points all along my travel route from plane to plane to train returning home to Maine. It comes in three parts, enjoy!


December 7th
Part I

Ah well, why not document today, since my camera's all packed up anyway? I very nearly didn't get up this morning in time to walk to Shinjuku station, but the light from underneath the door let me check and it was already 5:20! (I had set my alarm for 4:30 before, but I must have switched it off in my sleep or something. :/ ) Anyways, got everything together but my towel was still wet. Screw it, I thought, and simply stuffed it in a plastic bag and called it good. (I've traveled with semi-wet-clothes before.) So then I walked to the station, and on the way there were these two old guys on opposite sides of the road sweeping up the ginko leaves at that ungodly hour! My, and now I'm on the Express train to Nariita glancing up at the rerunning commercials and watching a dawning Tokyo fly by my window for the last time in a good long while I should think. Unless something drastic happens, of course. :) (Nao also told me before that they call that shade of blue just before sunrise Silent Blue. Mmm artsy. :D )

Plane now. Over 1/2 of the way there! It's simulated nighttime on the plane already and the Japanese guy sitting next to me already passed out a few hours ago. (luck devil.) Still over Canada I think, but close to the border. Ahh...I was going to write something befooore.....Gah what was it?...my nose is so dry....OH! Thank you nose! Right, my dream last night. Very strange. It was game-like, and there was a bunch of stuff that felt like I'd dreamed of it before, and I think I was an older man....anyway, at some point in the dream I get this awful nosebleed, and I think it strange. Then I worry about the loss of blood because I'm still on my period (truth is, I thought about that earlier yesterday when I popped a pimple too. XD)......which is also quite strange considering I'm a man. Aaaannd yea, that's pretty much it. I seem to get these torrential nose-bleed dreams on a fairly regular basis....should start charting them or something eh? Good thing I bought a calender planner! :D
I hope it's not too cold in Boston. >< (What am I saying? Of course it'll be cold in Boston!)

Oh man there's a town called Brainerd!! Brilliant, I love it. Oh, and Rhinelander. Gahaaa! Hmm, feels weird to be flying over the states again. Right now we're passing by the southwest corner of Lake Superior, town of Duluth, I think. The clouds on the horizon are like grapefruit mixed with orange juice that is just beginning to rise to the top. Hm, not sure about that metaphor, but the view sure is pretty. :)

GORGEOUS sunrise.

Part II
Aaaaand we're in Chicago Airport. Can we say, "Culture Shock" any louder? >< Ahhhh....I'm still in Japan mode, bowing and muttering sumimasen and such, and always deferring to the left side of passageways. Gah! I swear they built this airport to confuse & stress people. There's plenty of signs usually, but they're either poorly positioned or un-informative! It must be a nightmare for the poor foreign visitors. (+me. :( )
Plus all that, when I finally figure out my gate, I sit down to hear this Bio-shock like women's voice laughing and saying something about indulging your "guilty pleasures" and then I see this extraordinarily fat guy sitting a few rows in front of me staring at me while taking a bit out of his big mac. Uggghhh.....
Can I go back now? Please? :( Or at least home to Maine quicker. Only about 20 minutes left now until boarding!

Part III

I'm here! Sitting in North Station now. Decidedly more warehouse-ish and darker than South Station, but still charming nonetheless. (Kinda)

The trains are WEIRD, the money is WEIRD, the people speak in this strange language that I can instinctively understand, there's bad cheap food everywhere, $1 coins are gold with women on them, the concrete is so grey, fat people abound like the plague, Ahhhhh!!!
CULTURE SHOOCCKK!!
Frankly, it's still quite a lot to take in at the moment, That and having got up at 5:20...tomorrow morning? And not having slept since, though I almost dozed off on the crap flight to Boston but Dr. Who saved me. :D
So now I'll get back to you after a quick call to Papa and Becky and a bite to eat. :)

I'm baaack! And on the 5:00 train to Portland this time! Quick ticket change does wonders. My tum-tum is still kinda bloaty though. :P I've been farting since Nariita! I never did get to take a proper dump this morning. >< Stupid plane and your sitting for long periods of time in a highly-dry environment. Pah!
Ok, time to calculate time spent awake and traveling!

5:20am - 11:20am
11hr flight
2hr layover + 3hr flight
4 1/2hr layover + 2 1/2 hour train
=
about 30 hours. PLUS time-zone switch loosing half a day.

And there you have it. Not bad actually, I thought it would be worse. So I should be getting to Portland soon, then I can call Becky and we can see where we at and how I can get to her place. I saw snow on the way up too! :D Woohoo!

Well then, I bring this account of travel to a close. G'night!
~Kira

Note II: This being the day after and sitting in Becky's apartment, I thought I'd add a little note on Jetlag so far. I'm a bit sleepy now and had a bit of a rough time getting to sleep last night, but Otherwise I woke near 9:00am and didn't feel too groggy, I think I'll be ok till I get that melatonin at home. Oh! I should call Papa soon. Well then, I bid you adieu as I have lots of work and recuperation to do! Fare thee well!
~Kira

The last stretch

I can't believe I'm almost done! Again I'm faced with the prospect of not wanting to leave Japan, but also wanting to return to Maine with friends and family. This time, however, I believe the idea of going home far outweighs the desire to remain in so hospitably beautiful a country, no matter how much work awaits me at school. ><

Thus, I have good news, and bad news. The good news is that I'm finally leaving Kyoto as my 1 month apartment stint is up, so It's off to Nara for one night, and then to Ise and Kumano from there.
The bad news...is...well, I sent a large package (about 10kg) home two days ago, but because of it's weight and girth did not comply with airmail regulation standards for packages to America. So I had to send it by sea/ground mail, which is going to take about 2 months which places it's arrival around the end of January 2011. I'm worried because the particular post office could only give me the lowest insurance amount, but I gave them Jake's company address in Japan to send the package to in the event of a mistake or rebound.  Still, I'm glad I had sent another package previously perhaps half the size and weight of this one before, and it did arrive home safe and intact, so there is hope. I just have to stop worrying about it! ><

Anyways, I promised my sis I'd post a few pictures and such here, though I'm saving most of the good one's for my final collection. I must have over a thousand by now! Man it's going to be hard to sort them through.

 Atop Ginkakuji ground walk.

 Kitano Tenmangu small shrine. I think it's an Ise subshrine judging from the design. Will check.

 Umm...Arashi-yama, walk to bamboo forest.

Located in some important dead guy's garden legacy. The droppings are amusing, but I don't think this one works anymore.

So there you have it! The past week or so I've been ranging around Kyoto, mostly finishing up loose ends. My favorite things in Kyoto that I've discovered would have to be.....

Inari, always.:)
Zen, a vegitarian Korean/Japanese health food restaurant near Kitano. Their like, 15 grain/seed/nut mix rice is AMAZING.
Atlas Club, organic brown rice restaurant in Nishiki food market area. Fantastic food. Good price.
Uhhh....it's a fairtrade shop on one side of the main Kyoto Uni. Campus. Nice place.
Gojo Guesthouse, cute place to stay. Though the showers are a bit....fungly....
Kitano is quite beautiful, probably my second favorite after Inari.

Aaaand that's all I can think of right now! I just wanted to add that...list of things I like. Helps the memory. Well then! Iiiit's...about 10:30am right now, gotta get out to Nara! Sad though, I just learned that the Imperial Palace is open for viewing today! Ah screw it, I'm getting tired of all this sightseeing and historical place visiting. (same thing really, but it sounds better, maybe.) Time for a smidgen of good old Nara R&R!! Really, when it comes down to it, I love Nara so much more than Kyoto. :)


Cheers!
~Kira

The good and bad of the weekend

What a rollercoaster weekend!! I can't really get into the nitty gritty details here, but I'll give you the synopsis.

Basically, the lady, Ivon, who lives in the same apartment rental, is a bit.....unstable, to my observations so far. Friday night I accidentally ended up walking with her to Fresco as she related to me (albeit reluctantly) her life's story, though she held a lot back from what I could tell. She can't really trust anyone. She also believes she's being stalked by a dirty fat Japanese man in a helicopter that she sees hovering up in the sky over the house or over nearby somewhere frequently, though for the past few days I haven't seen any of it. Her phone was also being tracked she says, combined with her violent past and spending the past decade or so circling the globe three times or something, she has got a lot of issues. Possibly bi-polar or slightly mad I think. (keeps apolagizing for her rude behavior from previous conversations, calling me young and naive and in denial of the realities of the world, which is partly true for most people, but the way she used the term..) She seems nice sometimes but then explodes in a mess of anxiety or frustration. Never quite normal though, her Japanese accent is ATROCIOUS. Whiny to the point of me wanting to rip my ears off, and completely wrong intonation. Her English isn't far from the same mark. Anyways, fact of the matter is that she is horrible at communication and shows manipulative tendencies whether she's conscious of it or not. Better exemplified perhaps, by the following:

So she offered me a ticket to a tea ceremony at Kinato Tennmangu (big shrine in Kyoto) this Sunday (also Shichi-go, celebration of children 7 years old) and gave me the ticket last night explaining that she might not make it. I never concretely stated that I would stick myself to our arranged time of between 12-1pm meeting at the shrine, because I was no longer meeting her. Plus I had no idea where this shrine was, though a map quickly sorted that out. (Though I still got lost and ended up one block too soon off the bus.) So I finally find it and wander around the shrine for a bit looking for the tea ceremony entrance and when I find it, I see Ivon sitting with a blond haired lady in the waiting area! I tap her on the shoulder and plop down besides all smiles and stating I'm glad she made it, but she doesn't say anything. I introduce myself to the woman next to her, who is from Germany and lives across the hall from Ivon (been in Japan only three weeks or so working as a bio-chemist. Coool.) and as I'm about to skip from introducing and add Ivon in the conversation, she gets up and leaves. I ask Kristian (the German lady) why she left and she said maybe she has to use the toilet. So we continue chatting and when Ivon comes back, she sits a few benches up turned away from us. I call her name after a bit but she ignores me. Later she calls Kristian out of the pavilion and covers the side of her face when she's talking to her, everything about her body language now is aggressive and closed to me. I'm still trying to be friendly, so I just pass it off as her being moody again or something. So we're called soon to go in, and everyone files into a tiny sitting room where everyone is zaseki (sitting on feet) and mostly quiet, two people behind us kept chatting. When I finally work up the courage to ask Ivon if she's ok, because she hasn't said a word to me the whole while, she has a mini-explosion and explains that I wasn't SUPPOSED to arrive at the same time as she, that she PLANNED on then going to the ceremony at a later time to avoid me with her friend. I was frankly baffled, and asked her why she didn't just say so the night before when all she said was that she might not make it. She then made very rude gestures with her face and hands and said wasn't it OBVIOUS by her behavior the night before? Uh, not really since you're like that ALL the time. Un-trusting and withheld, like a reflex. I made a point to ignore her for the rest of the ceremony. She said something about being pretty physically fit, but I can tell that there is something terribly wrong with her head, and she should probably see a psyco-therapist or something along those lines instead of keeping running from country to country from her own misfortune. After I'm done writing this I can tell you I am never going to mention or speak to this women beyond a fleeting greeting or polite excuse to be somewhere else because I have HAD it with her manipulative behavior and poor social skills, and I don't mean that in a kind way.

Well, that felt good to get off one's chest. Because of all this nonsense I'm behind in my schedule! I'm staying up later than usual tonight for sure and getting a chunk of my paper done tonight for sure. Perhaps watching a movie in between as break. :) Though my Saturday anxiety-fueled run-around has inspired me to draw up a plan for visiting Ise sometime this next week. An overnight too so that I'll get to see the whole complex the following day. It's farther away than I thought!
God, I feel like a need to go to the sento tonight and scrub away the madness of the past few days. >< Perhaps a good mental scrubbing and a touch of yoga will provide similar benefits.

Good photos will be up soon! The fall foliage is just about at it's peak, and my is it lovely...

Alrighty then! Take care!
~Kira

On work and, well, more work

It never ends really, there's so much to do. I'm planning a day trip to Ise tomorrow, the first of a few I'll be likely to take before I leave Kyoto. I'm thinking my hiking trip in Kumano will be much shorter than I had originally anticipated, it's just finding lodging down there that worries me. Still, I've got plenty of time to check things out and make arrangements. Gotta call Atsuko-sensei too! Though I believe she's back in the states by now.
I've been working on filling most if not all of my gift list as well, since I'm going to be sending a final package back home (airmail this time, it's been over a month since my sea-faring package was sent though I won't start despairing until I get back to find it isn't there yet.) full of gifts I can't carry around with me everywhere and extra stuffs. Goodness I miss having a proper kitchen. But, I think I've found the fine line between staying in touch with people back home and enthusiasm for my work and adventures in another country. Only recently had I realized this is the longest I've been away from home in a foreign country! It really isn't that hard when you've been studying the country in question for a while, connections are also very helpful. But I digress. Work. Right.

After the rains last week the days have been increasingly sunny and crisp. Things are indeed warming up a smidgen again, but that's because we're expecting more rains next week of course. There isn't much going on in November in Japan really, besides gearing up for the holiday season, New Years that is. I forget when Golden Week is again...should look that up.
Well, I should get back to typing away. I'm almost at the end of my last book on Shintoism and today is my marker for getting a final rough rough draft of my paper done, and finishing my second portrait. I couldn't paint anywhere outside last month because of the effing mosquitoes! I almost got eaten alive in Arashi-yama that day, yeesh! Still, it's only recently been chilly so I think I'll wait a few more days before I venture into the hillside shrine regions to paint again. I really want to go back to Inari and paint some tori or statues. It really is a beautiful mountainside, especially the back-side paths that I did not stray too far down since a kindly tourist hiker informed me that he had been hiking for hours already from the beginning of that trail, and It was already beginning to get dark. But that's for another day, today is e-mail updating, checking lists, finishing small projects, and a bit of planning.
For consolation's sake, here are a few picture teasers of Jidai Matsuri, the last big festival in fall in Kyoto, basically called "Festival of the Ages" which involves a very long procession of people in historical Japanese costume! Fantastic stuff. And here you are, for viewing pleasure. :)

                                                   Where the parade ended, Heian Jingu.

 I'm pretty sure he wasn't sleeping, but maybe he nodded off for a split second when I shot this. ;)

                                                      Beautiful horse...<3 Meiji era, no doubt.

And that's all for now! I've got lots of organizing mailboxes and sending of mail today. I'm off!
Take care,
~Kira

Oh my goodness! Where has the time gone!

I completely forgot about the blog! Gosh, just goes to show what bouncing around from place to place in another country will do to a person. :) Well, anyways I will return to this project with all due respect (I have been keeping my daily journal, of course!) and resume with a brief account of my exploits in Osaka!

There really isn't much to do (without traveling an hour at least) in mid-town Osaka as far as Shintoism or painting is required. There's one major shrine that I've been to, Sumiyoshi-taisha, which is the head shrine dedicated to the Shinto god of war, and subsequent gods as well, including the god who watches over those out at sea. So, yea, I've been reading a lot, wandering through the shopping mecha that is the Namba area, including Namba Parks and mall, America-mura, and Ebisu/Shinsaibashi-shopping arcade. Whew! After walking all day to various places one's feet do tire quite a bit. I think my left ankle today decided it has had enough. Tomorrow I'll stay in then, do some painting and finish my internship presentation/slideshow so that I can move on to beginning the rough draft of my Shinto paper.

I am officially....three weeks into "My" fall term! Which began on September 24th, and ends on December 7th! It's nice to work on one's own, but still, it takes a lot to stay focused! I'll admit, these past few days I've been wandering into town instead of slaving away on the keyboard, which I do need to figure out how to balance, it seems I'm ever only out walking around or shut up in the guesthouse common room foodling away on the computer or with a book. Hm. I'll work that one out later. It's only 8:30pm now, and I've been sleeping in lately, (partially due, I suspect, to the rather thin bedding.) The good news is that there's a monthly apartment complex in Kyoto that I might be able to rent! The highest room goes for about 40,000 yen. (about $400) per month, which is at least a third less than what I would be paying to stay at a guesthouse for 2500 yen nightly. (yesh..) Which is great because that will put me into the perfect time to go down to Kumano and spend a week hiking before taking a break back in Nara and then taking the train or bus all the way back to Tokyo and spend a week at my friend Nao's place! Woo! Now to just get all of this organized on paper and not in my mind where it will most likely delude me to the point of procrastination disaster, and we don't want that. No indeed.

Well then! Gosh, I haven't been taking any pictures at all! That will have to be remedied. I'll be working tomorrow morning, and then I'll go out and about taking pictures and whatnot since tomorrow is my last day in Osaka before I pack out for Kyoto! (which is only like, what, an hour away? I'll probably take another day trip back in sometime later.)

 So until my next post, which will be sooner rather than weeks later! (I apologize! There will be pictures too. I can promise you that.)

Take care, :)
~Kira

Birthdays and Food Poisoning

This story begins with a certain someone not applying for a proper Visa before she came to Japan. Then, a fury of ensuing misfortunes befell that someone in the form of missing documents, several trips to the Immigration Bureau in Tokyo, printer problems and lack of such a device, and numerous other events and situations which failed to remind this someone of her impending date by which her first tourist visa was set to expire. An emergency visa renewing trip was then put into place, however, she completely messed up and failed to comprehend that her father had made the arrangements at a Hong Kong Disney (free hotel room with points) for OCTOBER instead of what she thought she said, September. All of this was not realized until exactly one day before she had thought she was leaving for the Narita Airport. One angry Papa then was somehow able to change the flight and she herself found a safe and semi-inexpensive hotel somewhat near the airport, and off she went, feeling guilty and sorry for herself that she messed up so badly and made her poor recovering Papa suffer more stress than he needed.

China proved hot and insufferable smelly. When she arrived at the Hong Kong airport, it was very late and she did not make it to the hotel until almost 1:00am. The first experience she had of Chinese people was when she went into a grubby convenience store by the bus stop, and being rudely commented on by two hoodlums outside. She quickly went out and to the public waiting area, and desperately hoped that her bus would come soon so that she could get to her hotel room and rest.

The bus finally arrived at midnight, and it too was smelly and cramped. She tried to sleep a little, and only about 40 minutes later she arrived at the hotel. So tired was she, that she forgot to inquire more about the price of the hotel and what she was being billed for, so anxious to just get the key to her room and rest. Eventually, she did get there and took a much needed shower and went to bed.

The next day was spent mostly in the hotel room, watching Tv, a movie on the computer and using up all the battery without being able to charge because she did not have a chinese plug adapter, and wandering between the two hotel towers in a mall that was situated conveniently between. She was tired from traveling and tired of all the bland quality of stores and restaurants that seemed to only be present in this area of Hong Kong. She does not like Chinese food at all. Too heavy. After a day of doing almost nothing, she went to bed early so as to wake up at 4:00am to catch the first bus to the airport at 5.

It might have been that flight's airplane meal, it might have been the curry crab thing she had the night before at a cheesy greasy chinese cafe, or it could have been the convenience store food she bought right before her bus back to Kawaguchiko. It was probably the airplane food. They say it takes 6 hours or so before it hits you, and the timing was about right. She spent the 2 hour bus ride in agony as her stomach would complain in waves of pain and pressure. Nothing would abate it, and it only got worse when she actually got to the station. But all was well when she called Natsuco and asked her if she could pick her up at the station right away and explained the situation. She was in tears, it hurt so bad, she felt like she was going to throw up too. After Natsuco took her back to her place, she had to make herself throw up, then Natsuco gave her some medicine, mint tea, and water, and left her on a futon in the living room where she began to feel better after a few hours and managed to catch some sleep.

Three days later she still gets stomach pains sometimes, it hasn't been completely flushed out yet. But the good news is that her birthday was a blast. Natsuco even splurged on some meat for sukiyaki that night, and it was indeed a fun and delicious meal. Natsuco also got her some chocolate macadamia nuts as a present which she is eating right now.

Kira is going to bed now, and she is very, very tired.

Goodnight.

(p.s. This is posted a day after it was written because Kira had a little uncounted for excursion in Fujiyoshida when she went to see a festival. More stories soon! :) )

busy busy August

Well! It's been quite some time since I've updated this blog huh. There's been butt-loads of work and new people around here, and it's quite a lot to deal with, this has just slipped my mind. Regardless, I will be easier to update from now on, since things are rolling more smoothly now and the big dates (14 college student stay and harvest festival) are going to pass by.

There are many stories to tell and far too many pictures to post. Most are of no significance (cats yowling outside my tent, accidentally taking the hardest path strait up koyodai from the Saiko lake side, lots of sweating...) but the farm events will probably do.

Pumpkin!! They just sort of popped up in the potato field (formerly sheep pen, might explain why) and kind-of took over a little. We've got an even bigger and brighter one out there, but Na-chan wants to save it for the festival. :)

Then there's this little guy! I was just sitting around 6:30am just putzing away at the computer when, WHAMO, bam into the glass. I don't know how I knew it was a bird but lo and behold, this little guy sat on the concrete for ten minutes or so catching his breath (more likely brains). I was able to get real close too. First wildlife that I've seen so close too. I can never catch those mythical boars that eat up our eggplants and zuchinni. :/

Today actually we're expecting 14 Japanese college students for a few days. Oh boy. I have no idea which college or why they're coming here, but I suppose it's more about seeing the farm and helping out, maybe like a field trip. I'll find out soon I suppose. They're arriving at 2:00pm.

Oh! It's lunchtime. So hungry. I'll post again at the end of the week no doubt. I'm expecting a lot of cooking and cleaning in the next two days.

All the best,
~Kira

Oh the drama

There seems to be a lot of it, for such a small place. You see, on top of organizational difficulties (and partly as a result of it), our cafe manager, Jamie, quit after arguing with Jake this afternoon. Wonderful. Looks like the Solar Cafe will be closed early this summer. Unless Jake can come up with a replacement (or unlucky friend) to cover for a month or so, which may happen, but until then it's guesthouse and farm for now.

So, other than that, today turned out to be a pretty routine day off for me. I did a bit of work first, finishing painting the signs for the crops, then I headed down the road to the Ice Cave after lunch which was a tad disappointing. The cave was maybe ten meters deep or so, and at the bottom held a few piles of what looked to be cut and stacked ice blocks, and behind a cage wall were some natural ice stalagmites lit in bad blueish artificial lighting. Hm. It was nice and cold though, and when I got out it had begun to drizzle, which was perhaps the best part of the whole mini excursion. Still quite humid though.

After that, I went on an unexpected but pleasant adventure. Up Koyodai mountain! Turns out that there's a nature trail just past the Ice Cave bathrooms that connects to the mountain trail. The scary part was that it also takes you through part of Aokigahara (suicide forest). The path that I took before I found the trail (luckily) that went up wasn't too bad. What was a little off putting was that the Aokigahara path had a white string on the path that you could follow back to safety if you got lost. :o

So I made it to the top of Koyodai, which was nothing after Fuji! An hour or so later I come across this abandoned looking cafe house on the top, and when I go to look inside there's some guy just sitting there in the cafe with his phone!! Not a ghost though, because I saw his truck in the parking lot. Anyway, I only went a little further on, and confirmed my suspicions that the horse ride people come up here with hoof prints in the mud. Around there, I met this fellow.

He was flying in figure eights, gliding at times and just fluttering around. I tried to follow him with my camera (resulting in several very blurry shots) until he came to rest on this branch. I started far away, worried that my camera shutter noise would scare him off before I could get a decent detail pic, but I was able to get up to a foot or two away after a few minutes. I got my shots, thanked the little darlin' and wandered off to retrace my trail back down.
I discovered one of the horse stables in the area offering trail rides at exorbitant prices to tourists, and found that I was quite close to the cafe just as it had begun to rain in earnest. A bit later in the evening, Na-chan took Jamie to the train station and there were hugs all around. Then, Jake being all sad and stressed out now that he doesn't have a cook, decided to take us out for necessary shopping and sushi! (probably also to help himself feel better) So it was a family night, and I must say, I feel far better about being in Japan when on my own than with a bunch of other foreigners. Nevertheless, it was a great, and well needed, night out.

Until the next time my fingers rise from the grave of weeding,
~Kira

Cloud, Sun, Moon, and Feet

Last night, I have never slept so well.

Starting on Saturday, July 17th at around 6:00pm, I began the long climb to the peak of Mt. Fuji, returning around 11:00am the following morning. It was an 17 hour adventure I am not likely to forget for a long time. Futhermore, just before I got on the bus to the 5th station (a point up on the foothills of the mountain that most people begin from) I got my period. Fantastic, I know, but before I go into that, I should mention that I did not go alone. It just so happened that my friend from childhood, Dan Riley, has been studying at Nagoya University for almost a year now. Since I haven't seen him for quite some years now, and we were both coincidentally in Japan, I asked him if he would climb Mt. Fuji with me. After a little bit of pre-planning and sorting of time and place of meeting, Dan and a few of his friends and I, would be climbing the mountain. Their bus was a few hours late (which probably helped the period beginning factor with the stress) and instead of the 2:30pm bus they arrived at around 5:00pm. After we finally met up and got tickets to the 5th station (where I hastily purchased a small pack of pads and geared up), we began the climb.

How to describe such a hike? Well, Mt. Fuji being a volcano, there was an ample supply of volcanic rubble, which was both light and slightly crumbly so that it was almost like walking through sand, if you had the wrong shoes. (my hiking boots proved their worth well.) This combined with the stretches of rock climbing, sections of steep man-made steps, and winter-like temperatures at night, made the journey a test of endurance and gear. I used about everything I had packed, which included a polar-fleece blanket that was useful for an hour or so's fitful and cold sleep around 11:00pm at the 8th station. But what was my most useful and important item that I packed was: Arnica montana homeopathic medicine. I popped five or so about every 3 or 4 hours because of two worrying factors: pain in my left knee and lungs from the climbing strain, and of getting immobilizing cramps (which luckily, did not occur, probably because of the exercise as well). I was also afraid of altitude sickness for a bit, and I only got nauseous about once, which soon passed after we had rested for 15 minutes or so, and it did not return.
I must elaborate on some point of hiking at night on Mt. Fuji, and that is the sheer numbers of people climbing the mountain! I mean, there were whole tour groups! I wish I had taken pictures, but I wouldn't have been able to get very many clear shots anyways and I was far to tired to even contemplate such a thing besides. The trail was one, huge, long collection of zig zags going left, then right, then left, then right again all the way up the mountain. At night, when I looked back from where I'd climbed, I could see this fairy like procession of head-lamp lights swaying and shuffling away in the darkness below. This was partially my motivation to keep going. That and looking up at the stars when the lines would halt in their rhythmic procession ever upwards.

Yes, I did take pictures. Enough to fill my 2gig memory card and make me wish I had brought a spare. I couldn't possibly pick and choose only a few pictures to post here, but I will put up an album on Flickr which you can access in the sidebar (or dooblydoo, as I will refer to it henceforth). The posting size allowance here also doesn't quite do them justice. Here's a sneak peak though, since I think a blog entry itself is incomplete without a picture at least.

This is the sunset from the 6th station when we had only just begun to climb. Man was I tired when we reached the summit, but reaching the top filled me with new energy and relief that we had made it I was running to the bathroom and back to watch the sun rise. Oh! I almost forgot! The bathrooms! Never, in my life have I had to pay money to pee, but lo and behold, 200yen was the price for the station bathrooms, and 300yen at the peak! I think I spent a total of 5000yen (about $55) during the trip, probably over 1000 of it on bathrooms! Sheesh. Oh well. It's for the maintenance of the facilities as well, since thousands upon thousands use them on the way up the mountain and their contents probably have to be removed by air or something to preserve the environment. It was still a bit cold in the morning, so I renewed my strength with some 600yen miso soup, which was perhaps the most delicious miso soup I have ever tasted yet. Still, small bottles of water at the top are 500yen ($5), and I see now why the old Japanese saying goes: If you never climb Mt Fuji you are a fool, and if you climb it more than once you are a fool.

Perhaps I will yet become a fool, if I am not already. I took a 4 hour nap once I got back. The descent was much much faster, but almost as rigorous since you are still going down zig zag style, but now you are sliding on the volcanic gravel and occasionally people fall since it is so unstable. I had to put on my knee brace before because my left knee was starting to hurt from the climb, but I had been favoring my right knee since then and on the way down it recieved such a pummeling that I had to switch my brace half-way down. I even have cuts on the backs of my knees from the brace rubbing as I walked. I suppose that's well enough though. My left to go up and my right to go down, and my feet the whole way felt like they had been shattered by the time we reached the 5th station bus again.

But it was worth it. Every single step.

Take care,
~Kira

farm tour

Hello again, though at this point I may not yet have that many people reading this. (Probably only my papa. Hi papa! I love you!!) But I feel this is a necessary entry at this point. Plus I have pictures! I deliberately went out before the sun set to take these. It really is quite busy here, even without customers and guests yet! Anyhow, moving on to...

My home this summer, but not where I sleep. You see, guests come often to this small place and want to stay the night, so each and every lovely, hardworking intern gets a tent or shack in the fields to call their very own! (I'm gonna be booted out soon as well.) At least there is free wireless internet and food. Nah, I really am coming to like the place. It's well worn already, but in a nice way.

The Kids Field! Where I've been spending most of my time this week. Mostly planting vegetables like chili peppers, eggplant, potatoes, etc. Eternal weeding. There are some herbs as well like the German and Roman chamomile patches. An evil pumpkin plant attempting to take over the potato bed too! Lots of weeding and planting. Yes, lots of plants.

Peppermint! Our main crop. It's pretty easy to grow after all. We've got to do some transplanting soon though in the mint field. I expect to be smelling of mint soon. Better than the sweat and grunge of a week or more's worth of work though. :)

This is the greenhouse next to the cafe by the road. Everyone calls it Rob's Greenhouse because Rob is usually the one who takes care of it in the mornings. It's also storage for gardening tools, gloves, pots, and other useful plant-wise paraphernalia. First things first when weeding. Get gloves. Very important. It's astounding how quickly dirt finds it's way beneath your fingernails. Short is a must.

And last, one of our lovely quirks here that I have witnessed firsthand is the conservation of water. We collect rainwater around the farm in barrels such as these for things like watering plants, showering, laundry, etc. Our storage tanks for drinking and washing water for dishes and vegetables must get clean water that gets trucked in and usually lasts a month apparently. Not two days after I arrive though we run out. Brilliant. It works out alright though. A bunch of dishes stack up and you try to drink a little less, but a few days later we're back online.
Charming little place. Verily.

And that's the place! I'll be having pictures up of a certain something soon, along with many adventures to be sure. There hasn't been much lately in the way of that however. Work, work, and more work. LOTS of rain and weeding, a little more than what's healthy this week, I believe. Regardless! I should very much be looking forward to recording more happenings in the coming weeks! Though looking through the organized chaos I can see before me yet, there seems to be much in store. The busy season is ahead!

Take care,
~kira

A Malstrom of Beginnings

Guess what? First thing I did when I got to Earth Embassy? Went to the onsen. (hot spring bathhouse) :)
Oh my goodness, it is quite possibly one of the best onsen ever. They had a myriad of soaking pools, including a sauna and cold pool, bubbles!, lavander pool, Mt. Fuji viewing tubs on a balcony, and oh my goodness, a water light-show. I was so clean. I couldn't wait to get filthy enough to warrant making the trek back!

In my first day alone, I have: planted pepper plants, weeded, mulched, sown seed beds, washed a sink of dishes, harvested blueberries, made salad, and played Settlers of Catan! This place is perfect. Even though it rained for half the day. This, was a very good day.

Full of good food too! I wish I had taken more pictures. I should be more conscious of it anyhow, so I'll try in the next few days. There's also quite a bit to get acquainted with, but I'm sure in the next week or two I'll be able to work with everyone and know where to go pretty well. It's only my first day out after all. Though I'm not quite sure where I'm sleeping tonight. Oh well. Futons abound. Goodnight.

Take care,
~Kira

Leaving Tokyo

It's been a fun few days in Tokyo so far. Mostly I've been seeing places that I've been to before, but there have been new discoveries to be sure. Such being the festival at Asakusa yesterday! It was called Hozuki matsuri, I believe, hozuki meaning 'ground cherry' which resemble small orange paper lanterns to me. I didn't take pictures that day because there were so many people! There was so much going on too, I walked down and around down some of the side streets a bit before I got some dango and left.

As the day progressed, however, I realized another important fact when one is walking around Tokyo in mid-summer. Always carry an umbrella! The rain came down just as I arrived in Akihabara, and the streets were lined with girls in maid-like outfits handing out fliers and tissues as usual, umbrellas in hand. Smart girls. The ginko trees which line Tokyo streets are rather good though at rain protection. However their radius is not very big, and I knew that I was going to end up soaked through one way or another. So after a short stop at a guruguru zushi restaurant for some supper I high-tailed it back to the station to head home to Shinagawa, where I marched through the downpour to my hostel. Very refreshing, I must say.

And soon! I will be off to internship land! Provided I can survive on public transportation with my beast of a pack. I do hope that long distance buses have storage space.
Here's one of my favorite of the small amount of pics I took this past week!

Ravens! (In Japanese: カラス kah-rah-su). This park that I would walk through to get to the station was filled with them. Always chattering away.
Anyways, I'm off!

Take care,
~Kira

A day of opposites

Today I went in search of brown rice, which is very hard to find in Japan. In Tokyo anyway, it seems.
Here's a historical tidbit. Back in the old days, white rice was highly prized and therefore more expensive, becoming the food of wealthy people, such as nobles, emperors, and successful merchants. The poor were left to eat their rice unpolished, so the aesthetics of rice became so that white rice was more desirable than brown.

Unfortunately, my digestive system has failed to comply with this Japanese aesthetic.

So I did a little research and came up with a few places, the closest being in Nezu-cho called Nezunoya. Cute. Several trains, side streets, and an unexpectedly welcome shrine discovery, I discovered the cafe only a little ways down in the opposite direction of which I had wandered. Figures. I wish I had brought my camera that day, the brown rice onigiri I had were so good, I even bought two more for breakfast! I must go back and get some pickles too. They were the most sublime pickles I've ever had, I think. Tsukemono no ryouri (pickle cooking) is perhaps one of the most interesting and delicious kinds of Japanese food I have come to discover. Especially daikon! Ahhh. Daikon.

From this simple setting I then plunged into the maelstrom that is Shibuya, be it rain or shine which today of course the heavens were pelting us with tiny scatterings of water droplets which seemed intent on find their way into my eyes, which they did more often than I thought possible. Crosswalks became death zones of umbrella edges, and around every corner there was usually one or two foreigners inspecting some sign or walking doggedly on through the crowds. I was a little much, but nothing compared to when I entered a 10 level multi complex building comprised of nothing but floor after floor or womens clothing stores, all blaring music or containing sales women screaming about bargain prices waving brightly colored sales signs. 5 floors later I was glad to be back outside in the streams of umbrella wielding bodies. Whew. After some standing sushi to sooth my stomach, a peek at the Hachiko statue to satisfy my curiosity and I was back on the train to Shinagawa-shuku.
Boy my feet hurt.

Tomorrow there will be pictures. I promise.

Take care,
~Kira

Of planes and codfish

Well, this was by far the most interesting plane ride I have had yet in my plane riding experience! The whole day has been both peculiarly exhilarating and saddening, though a little of both is needed at times like these.

So yes, I cried. A lot. And papa was there taking me to Boston and being sillier than usual (which is very silly, let me tell you) being a silly papa. So I walk on, through the security gate, trying my hardest not to burst back out into tears again and remain my composure for the slabs of X-ray doom which got me thinking about breast cancer and whether or not they would take my tupperware of hummus on suspicion of being a hidden explosive. (the images they showed you of what they were looking at through the machine were kinda nifty though, if slightly startling).
Onwards my airport lanes took me until I reached the familiar grandiose wall of windows which contained gates B45 and B47 to Narita. (to my curious note, B46 being a few meters up the way on the right, however it got there I haven't the faintest. Poor B46. I'll never understand airports). The flight was delayed by 20 minutes which was good since I had to print out my tickets from the desk, however they had to re-check the tickets when I tried to board and only let me on the plane with 3 minutes to spare until take off! It was a fated day indeed.

I wish I had pictures, but alas, my camera was stowed and I wasn't exactly in a good position to be getting up or even taking pictures. My seat came three seats forward of the rear of the plane, smack dab in the middle too, Seat F. The circumstances under which I flew this time to Japan were also strange in and of themselves, but comforting in a way. On either side of me sat two men, both Asian (returning home to Singapore and Japan respectively), both wearing some shade of blue shirt and jeans, and both had their family in the row next over with at least two kids each. Very curious times these are. And to follow that theme, my movie listing runs very Time Burton-ish, with Alice and Big Fish being two of what I saw. (and I must say, Big Fish was better than expected).
I asked for the immigration and customs slips before we got there, (and I'm very very glad I remembered to do so) because where I thought it would take me 3 hours to get out of Narita, it then only took me about 1! I suppose I've never actually exited Narita alone before, and groups with luggage do take quite some time to get, er, moving along, in most respects. The last things I did today was get a bit lost trying to find my hostel in the hot, cloudy, wet, and humid afternoon where a few friendly side shop owners and a bit of Japanese helped clear things up pretty simply. It's a lovely little place here, this hostel. It's still strange, I've barely had time to even absorb the fact that I'm in Japan.

Yet here I am! About ready to fall down after an roughly estimated 20 hours of travel, about an hour's sleep (too little the night before as well) and much lugging of backpacks and stress.
Bed, here I come.

Home is behind, the world ahead.

Welcome, to those of you who have discovered my blog of travels in Japan! I'm incredibly excited to be returning, and equally excited that I can do it now without the restrictive aid of an educational program! (well, in a exterior controlled fashion, that is). To illustrate my journeys for those who may not be aware, this summer I will interning at an organization called Earth Embassy, which is located at the base of Mt. Fuji in a small village called Narusawa, where I will stay for about three months. After that, if my hands and photo taking device yet have vigor in them, I will be documenting my travels across the Kansai peninsula in my studies of Shinto beliefs and shrines in the fall as a residency. There will be so much adventure I can barely imagine it (which makes me a touch nervous), and so I must leave that which I cannot preordain to be as it may. The journey begins in only a few days!

Which brings me to the point and labours of packing. My very own beautiful backpacking pack will no doubt grace a few of my upcoming pictures, and has yet failed me to fit almost anything I could want to take with me on a 5 1/2 months excursion into the semi-wild world of abroad travel. Shoes are tricky though, but I think I have enough room to wedge my hiking boots in there. I'll just wear sandals on the plane and bring socks for cold feet.

That's pretty much all I've got so far. No doubt the airport will bring a story in and of itself, but that is for my arrival in Japan! I'm off to find an alarm clock.

Take care,
~Kira