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I made it! And the weather was even nice enough not to precipitate, hail or lightning strike us (there were storms in Tokyo) - enough so that we were lucky enough to see the sunrise.

I am quite happy to have climbed Mt. Fuji, or Fuji-san as the Japanese call it. I actually had doubts about it before I went since I had never climbed anything to that altitude. Although not a serious mountain, standing at 3776m, it’s not to be taken for granted.

My friend Hanako arranged the trip for some friends (12 of us in total) and I took along a couple of my co-workers. We left Shunjuku around 7:30pm before arriving at Kawaguchiko 5th station around 10pm.

This is us at the start:

And me, being the most equipped I’ve ever been, with my hydration pack, gortex jacket and thermal undies (not shown), for a hike:

I had actually over-estimated the coldness, partly because everyone I spoke to before the trip said it was really cold there, but I was quickly stripping off as soon as we got moving. I much prefer the cooler temperatures than the humid heat that I’ve lived in for the past two months. In fact, when we were waiting for the bus at the end, I had some memories of my childhood because of the cool breeze blowing across my skin whilst the sun was warming me at the same time, similar to the UK’s summer a decade ago or spring time.

Anyway, the way up was not too difficult. There were plenty of overpriced goodies to buy along the way. I saw that everyone else was taking oxygen, so I brought a can for 1,500 Yen, before find it 200 Yen cheaper at the next stop! And it felt like I bought a can of air - in fact, I did! Whether it worked or not, I don’t know, but I only used it a couple of times. I did lose my breath really quickly and had to take short stops regularly. It was only right at the top, I started to feel a slight headache, but I’m not sure if that was due to the lack of sleep or lack of oxygen. I skipped the beer though, so it wasn’t that!

We had several short stops on the way, some probably longer than necessary as it did get cold very quickly above the 8th station. I’ve still got my zips undone in this picture above, so that means I’m still hot and sweaty. There are actually two 8th stations. The first one we reached by 1:30am at 3020m, then the original 8th station (which I guess is now the 9th), we reached at 3am at 3360m. Most of our pack decided to get some rest at one of these 8th stations and to see the sunrise from there but Hanako, James, Miah and myself continued onwards.

It got really really crowded close to the summit, the four of us who continued from the 8th station were all separated by now. Everyone kept stopping to take photos or to rest. At times it was moving at less than 1 metre per minute! I almost got annoyed but there was no benefit from that, so I just went with the flow. Eventually, when the sunrise came at 5am, everyone was sitting where ever they were to take the photos of it. It was simply quite beautiful. Just like the views you get from a plane but no dirty windows in the way. Just me, Mt Fuji and the sunrise (oh yeah, and the other thousand or so hikers.)

Once the crowds cleared, it took less than 10 minutes to get to the summit. I quickly found James who had found himself a warm can of cocoa and kindly lent it to me to warm up my hands. Miah turned up a little later followed by Hanako! We all made it. Despite the lack of sleep and food, it was quite satisfying to have climbed Mt. Fuji, saw the sunrise and to rest with friends in a warm hut. We managed to catch some shut-eye for a bit, as there was no rush to get back down since the bus was at 2pm!

I’ve probably climbed more mountains than I can remember now but Fuji san was certainly ranked as one of the toughest in my books. If I were to climb Fuji san again, I’d probably do it during the day to avoid the crowds. That was one of the negative sides of it (or Japan in general if you think about it). As for physical injuries, 36 hours on, I have zero blisters, thanks to my well worn hiking boots I had since my good old days in Switzerland, zero bruises and well, lots of aching muscles!! But it’s not too bad, I would say Fuji san is an easy to moderate mountain to climb. It took me less than 7 hours including stops/traffic to get up from the 5th station.

On the way down is always the easiest for me. Especially if the ground is like it was on Fuji-san. Soft volcanic ash which I practically skated down. I thought I would get blisters anyway, because I was putting a lot of pressure on the toes and heels of my feet, so I just ran down to get it over quickly. My feet did hurt a little afterwards but there seems to be no lasting damage. I was quite impressed with myself to have descended in one quarter of the time it took me to get up and I did not fall on my ass once!

We slowly re-grouped near Kawaguchiko (the start/end). We still had at least 4 hours until our bus so most of us just found a nice piece of floor to rest on.

The trip ended with a visit to an onsen. Of course, I am a consistent person (usually) so I skipped it as I’m not a huge fan of being cooked in hot water - but I have tried it at Niijima before you say anything.

Mt Fuji on Flickr

Getting ready to climb Mt.Fuji now. Let’s hope I can make it to the top and back!

I joined my co-workers for a Sunday barbie down by a park in Odaiba. The weather was great - cloudy!!! Never thought I’d say that but it made it sooo much cooler and survivable - a very welcome change from that skin tanning sunshine that’s been around since July.

I made some tiny burgers because I ran out of meat but I think everyone enjoyed it. There was plenty of food though so I probably brought the right amount.

I’m not sure why, but I’m still amazed by how orderly the Japanese are. Here’s a picture of the barbecue sets all laid out at 3pm, the time when we were scheduled to finish.

There were also endless queues that I dislike very much - fortunately we just had a BBQ so no need to queue for more food!

As in the subject of this post, I bought a new camera from Amazon.co.jp. I sold my old one to Katja so I needed a new (well, actually it’s an old model now) Canon IXY 910IS. It’s pretty much the same as my old camera, but with just a couple more megapixels, slightly wider angle lens, and DIGIC III processor. What better way to test it than to watch the summer fireworks over Tokyo Bay. I took over 300 photos last night but only about 30 of them were half decent. One day I’ll treat myself to a kickass dSLR but for now, here’s a selection of the best I could manage with my new camera:

See Flickr set BBQ and Fireworks for more photos

I had yet another weekend break last week. This time, I visited my old classmate/ex-flatmate from university, Penny, in her home country of Taiwan. I stayed at her aunt’s place, who I must say is one of the nicest person I’ve ever met. Their whole family was very welcoming and went to a lot of trouble to show me around Taipei. It was actually very interesting to learn about the history of Taiwan. In fact, Asia in general is full of stories. Here I am outside the National Palace Museum - with all the treasures from China.

I spent almost all the time in Taipei, but got the chance to go to Danshui, near the coast and hiking around Yangmingshan. I saw the so called “Milk lake” because it’s white from the sulfur coming from the ground.

I tried some bamboo soup up there and a there was a warning for fellow hikers:

Food was a big part of my trip. I’m not sure I was ever hungry. On the left we have the usual delicacies (chicken feet - eek!) and on the right is something that was advertised as “Pizza”. It looked more like some bread or pancake but it was surprisingly very tasty.

And of course, I had to visit Taipei 101. The world’s tallest building (509.2m) with the world’s fastest elevator (1010m/min). I got to see the huge, 600 tonne, tuned mass damper at the center of the building which reduces tremors from earthquakes and typhoons that are pretty common in Taiwan.

LOL - I only just noticed the “Refugee Room”. I wonder what they’re for?

This is the view from the 91st floor. There were fireworks in the distance. Apparantly, people aren’t allowed to take backpacks up there now because some American guy managed to jump off the roof with a parachute a few weeks back, despite the high fencing.

Again, it was a short trip and perhaps about 10 degrees C hotter than I would like - that’s one thing I won’t miss about Asia once I go home. I didn’t realise that I’d be flying on the Hello Kitty themed Eva Air plane, even when my boarding pass looked like this:

I only realised when Hello Kitty was in my dinner and Hello Kitty strawberry ice cream. When I got off the plane, I saw Hello Kitty and friends were painted all over it! Wish I took a picture now.

More photos on Flickr: Taiwan

The time eventually came for me to attend the baseball game I won tickets for in a work raffle. It was the first baseball match I’ve ever watched. After being clue-less for the first 5 minutes, I quickly googled “How to play baseball” on my phone and the game started making a whole lot more sense.

It was quite enjoyable (for me anyway) and I ended up cheering with the majority, since the Giants thrashed the visiting Swallows. It was 7-0 victory in the end. There was only 1 homerun - I can beat that on the Nintendo Wii…well, if I’m lucky.

A 3 day weekend just passed and we (Katja and I) went to Kyoto. But since we decided last minute, we couldn’t find any place to stay on Saturday night, so instead used that night to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto by night bus (just ¥5000 each). We saved a whole Shinkansen ticket but I suffered almost 8 hours on a bus unable to sleep. Here’s a photo of me and a not yet opened temple at 5:41AM:

We walked around a bit before heading back to Kyoto station. With my limited Japanese/Chinese skills, I managed to decipher the ticket machine to buy a 2 day pass around Kyoto. I original thought I’d walk everywhere but considering my foot had just recovered from various insect bites the travel pass turned out to be ¥2000 well spent. It was still too early to check-in to our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn), so we hopped on a bus to Southern Higashiyama district and followed one of the walks in our Lonely Planet guide.

The best bit came when we could check-in to our ryokan and take a shower! It turned out that both the Sunday and Monday we were in Kyoto, the daily temperatures reached 37ºC! I’ve now got square tan patches on both feet because of the sandals I wore

We stayed at Ryokan Yachiyo because it was pretty much the only place we could find. It did cost a fair amount but I was really impressed with the place and it was probably one of my most enjoyable stays at any hotel/hostel. It was 100% Japanese apart from the western style toilet and TV set. It gave me loads of ideas for my future house that I plan to have one day.

This is us chilling in our Yukatas:

I guess I could upload a zillion photos of temples, however in some ways I’ve kind of seen enough of shrines and temples in Japan. But don’t get me wrong, it was very beautiful in Kyoto and it was also a more relaxed city compared to Tokyo. Katja seemed to enjoy the beauty even more, which was great.

Here’s a couple of pictures of me looking dorky.

Of course, a stay in Japan is not complete without a ride on the bullet train. It cost ¥13,720 but at least it got me back to Tokyo in a quarter of the time it took by bus!

Due to popular request - a shot of my swollen left foot:

I forgot to mention in my last post. I managed to get a mosquito bite in Seoul on Sunday. On Monday my ankle was swollen. On Tuesday my whole left foot was swelling up. On Wednesday, I went to see a doctor and now I’m on a load of antibiotics as apparently I’ve got some skin infection. Anyway, I can’t walk normally and my leg hurts. And I can barely fit my foot in my shoe!!

Last Thursday I went to Korea for a weekend break with Katja. Seoul was hot and humid and in many ways wasn’t that different to Tokyo.

It was probably one of my first trips I’ve went on simply by booking the plane ticket and not having planned anything. However, with my Lonely Planet guide book in one hand and a good friend off TravBuddy, it was a great but short holiday.

The one thing I did book ahead was a tour to the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the demilitarized zone - the border between the two Koreas. I think the tour helped explain a lot about the South Korean mentality as well as show how this country is still very divided. The tour was on Friday, the same day a South Korean lady was shot dead in North Korea. Yeah…

It was the first time I’ve ventured anywhere military like so I didn’t take any risks with my camera. Just took pictures when we were told we could. One guy was told to not take his camera out because it was too big and could be mistaken for some weapon. This is us looking at the North Korean tourists at Panmunjom!! It makes you think if both sides are actually cooperating to just make money from tourism…

We got to go into the conference room where the negotiations happen and venture into the North Korean half. Here’s a ROK soldier in their taekwondo stance - they’re the rapid response force and can be ready for action in 90 seconds even if they’re a sleep:

Anyway, back to normal life and back to Seoul where we spent most of our time. Lovely Ashley (left) let us stay at her place and showed us around a bit before taking us to typical Korean barbeque.

Korean food was actually very yummy and wasn’t as spicey as I was expecting. Perhaps it’s working with Thai colleagues that have got me accustomed to a few spices in my pallette.

We also did some sight seeing and saw Gyeongbokgung (the palace that’s being rebuilt after the Japanese destroyed it a few centuries ago). Here I am protecting the entrance with the Taekwando stance. No idea why I was standing like that..

We also watched some traditional Korean folk dancing at the folk museum but it was a little slow for my taste, though the museum itself was quite interesting.

Since I knew I was going to Japan, I already had the intentions of going to Seoul since it’s only about 2 hours away. So I did it and enjoyed it More photos on flickr: Korea