Last few weeks: Sukiyaki, Sue, and the farewell parties

The past few weeks have been really busy. The day after we got back from Fuji san we had a "sukiyaki party" with the local ramen chef and his girlfriend. Sukiyaki is a delicious Japanese beef dish that you cook at you table with soy sauce, veggies, tofu... We went out to a local onsen(hot spring) with the two of them and then back to the ramen shop for sukiyaki. It was a Monday, which is his one day off, and it was just the four of us. It was wonderful.

Charlie prepping for dinner. (The first time we met him, he told us we could call him Charlie)

Charlie and his girlfriend.

We had a few more days of school to make it through until Sue's arrival. Then on Thursday night we headed to Kansai Airport and happily met her there. We had a great week with her. We spent a lot of the time in Kyoto, but were able to do some new things too. We went to Himeji and Himeji castle, Kobe, Kurama Onsen(awesome), and had a lot of relaxing time. It was great to hang out with Sue and she was here to celebrate our third anniversary!

Sue and I at Himeji castle.

Sue and Dan eating Okonomyaki and Yakisoba.

Dan and I on our 3rd anniversary.

After Sue left, we had the boating club farewell party, one week left of school, and then a farewell party from the board of education on the last day. For those of you who haven't stayed on top of our day to day happenings, we have gone sailing with a group of old men this year five or six times and spent extensive time with one of them. So they threw us a party at a nice platform restaurant in Kyoto. The restaurant has a back deck that extends out over part of the Kamogawa River. Along the downtown portion of this river it is lined with restaurants like this, but we were told they we expensive, so hadn't tried one yet. It was really nice.

Platform dinning in Kyoto

Me, Dan, Toshio, and Matsuda san

We then had a week of school to finish up. The students were really great and came and told us many thank yous. I even had one boy manage to tell me he would be "a little sad" when we leave. So, Friday night we had the Board of Ed. farewell party. It was much more formal than we had anticipated. When we arrived(on time) everyone was already there and seated. We were lead to our seats up at the head table with the superintendent, the principals, and three unknown but very important people who later gave speeches. A few peoeple spoke, Dan and I spoke, and then we were presented with a gift from the city, a beautiful ceramic platter. All of our teacher buddies were seated over at another table. I was surrounded by people who didn't speak English, but were unphased by the fact I spoke very little Japanese. This was funny, because 5 feet away was a table of bilingual friends. Anyway- the party was nice. It was held at a local restaurant, which we were happy about, because we like the owners. There was a formal Kanpai(toast), and many small meet, vegetable, and fish dishes served. After dinner, teachers from each school gave us a gift, we had a group photo, and then I noticed everyone was standing up looking at us. I recieved a quick nod at our belongings from Attarashi sensei and asked Dan if we should leave. He was quickly told by Nambu sensei that it was the Japanese way and that he would follow us. So everyone was standing there waiting for us to leave, but we didn't know it. Very funny!

Farewell party

Us with some principals and teachers

Formal picture with owl

After the party, we went out with Nambu sensei and met Kinoshita sensei and some other teachers for karaokeing in Kusatsu. It was our first time and we liked it better than American karaoke. Here you rent a room and can order food and drinks by phone to the room, where you sit around with a small group of friends and do casual karaoke. Dan and I lead it off with the Bangles' Eternal Flame(there was a small English selection). We then realized everyone else was really good- really really good. After a few drinks, we were getting requests for Disney songs. We quickly shot those down, but were somehow tricked into singing a Beauty in the Beast duet. They loved it. I can't believe it took us all year to try this!

Nambu sensei and I

Dan on the mic

Kinoshita sensei(on the left) and two other Ritto teachers

Fuji san, 3776m

Last weekend we took Friday off and headed over to Fujiyoshida, a small mountain town at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Apparently, this is where the ancient Fuji san pilgrims would start from, so there is a tori gate and a shrine that make the entrance to Mt. Fuji. All the pictures from the town show great views of Fuji, but he was hidden behind a giant cloud the days we were there. It wasn’t really cloudy out, but there was just a big cloud hiding the highest mountain in Japan.

It is still “rainy season”, so we didn’t know what we’d get, but we actually had wonderful weather for our hike. On our train ride to Fujiyoshida, we met an Irish girl. We talked for a while and then parted ways. Saturday morning, Dan and I got up early to go get some food before the big hike. We ate delicious cinnamon toast and coffee at a cute café, then took the train to the station to catch the Mt. Fuji 5^th station bus.

After we bought our bus tickets and took our spot in line, I ran into the Irish girl, Blaitin, again. She came on the same bus and the three of us ended up spending a grueling nine hours together. We took the bus up to Fuji’s fifth station, which is where most people start these days. The volcano has ten stations, the tenth being at the summit.

The first hour or two wasn’t too bad. We occasionally passed a hut or a station and had many “konnichiwas” along the way. Most people start at night, sleep in a hut, then climb up to the summit for sunrise. We were not interested in climbing at night, nor during the “official season” when 10,000 people a day attempt the climb(I have seen pictures and people are just wainting in lines on the trails). This along with many things we’ve done, proved to confuse people. Climbing Fuji san, like most things in Japan is done one way. Anyway- Dan was leading the way and Blaitin and I were trailing. We were in one big cloud and everything was foggy and hard to see. At one point around the seventh station she almost turned around, but didn’t and then around the eigth station I felt like turning back too. After that point it just became treacherous. I had never climbed at that elevation before, and it proved to be a different animal. Every switchback or two I would have to stop and catch my breath. After a while the clouds broke a bit and we could see parts of Fuji and the big patches of snow that still hung around. There was one spot where people were stopped and looking at something, so we went over to see what it was. There were a couple crazy people snowboarding down a huge field of snow. I also heard reports that people were seen carrying mountain bikes to the top. Crazy!

Here I am around the ninth station.

This is Blaitin and I chuggin up the mountain from Dan's view.

Finally after five hours, we reached the summit. It was amazing. I felt awful. It started snowing a little. I got my photo taken with some old Japanese ladies who had made it up there. Old Japanese ladies are tough for the record. I constantly see really old ladies riding bikes, tending to rice fields, and doing their neighborhood assigned duties. Much different from old people in the US. So- once at the top my main concern was the crater. I had read that some people have fallen fatally into the crater or been blown off the top of the volcano by high winds. Neither of those things happened to us, so I was relieved about that. The crater was interesting to see, and we took lots of photos with it.

We hung out up top for about an hour, then headed back down the steep mountain. I felt like I was weightless. I loved going down, but Dan said it was more difficult for him than coming up. It took four hours to get back to the fifth station. It was still technically off season, so buses stopped at two thirty. We were prepared for the worst- hiking all the way to Fujiyoshida. Luckily some hiker took a cab up to the station to start their hike just as we were ending ours and for the bargain price of 12,000\(about 120$ ), we were happily driven back to our hostel. Having three people to split the cab made it bareable. So, in celebration of our tremendous feat, the three of us went out for dinner. We ended up at a place called “Skylark Gusto”. A Japanese take on the American family restaurant. The fries and beer tasted great and afterwards, I was so tired that I almost didn’t make the walk back to the hostel.

Me, Dan, and Blaitin next to Fuji san's crater.