I live! So far.
So. Early August. Ana, my neighbor, and I hitched a ride with our other neighbor's brother down to Tokyo, to pick up Ana's sister from the airport. We then made our way to a hotel in Shinjuku, and though exhausted from a seven hour drive for us and an eleven hour flight for her sister, we took a peek at a local festival before passing the fuck out.
Woke up early as hell to make the bus to Mt. Fuji on Sunday. Bus dropped us off at something like 11 or 12, we ate, which took nearly two hours because everyone and their freaking brother was there that day, then we headed up the mountain.
And I will just say that an eight hour hike up rocky steep assed hills sucks more ass than anything has any right to. It was raining like a raining beast. EVERYTHING got soaked, and that was through my rain gear. All my spare clothes in my backpack? Also drenched. Oh, that was pleasant.
Happily, we had a little tour ticket thing, so once we'd been going a little over two hours--which was a ridiculously short amount of time--we found the hut we were supposed to eat and sleep in before making our way the rest of the way up to the summit. Collapsed at like six because that first two hours was god awful. Though pretty much, compared to the rest, a cakewalk. Woke up at 9:30 and piddled around before heading out. The rain had stopped, but our clothes were still damp/wet/nasty.
Had to do some pretty strenuous hiking/climbing/ground hugging in some parts. And then there were places with like eight tour groups all jam packed together and it took forever to get anywhere. Which was a happy pace for me. Eventually, once the paths evened out to just gravel and rock and crap, we sort of were trudging along like zombies with everyone else on the mountain. It sucked ass. And it got freaking cold, what with all my shit being soaked still, and not able to dry. But. We made it!
Saw sunrise. Was pretty. Took pictures. Came down.
Down was almost as fun as up, what with all the loose gravel and shit. And the one point where we went down the wrong path and had to backtrack half an hour back up the freaking mountain which I pretty much despised at this point. We made it down in one piece, though because there were no vendors or anything on our route down I had run out of water about two hours before we hit the bottom. I was ready to just throw myself off the nearest cliff, I was so thirsty. Though pretty much I was ready to throw myself off the nearest cliff for the entire climb. When I finally got ahold of a vending machine I downed like three bottles of water. Oh that was special.
Then our bus took us to an onsen, which was awesome, considering how tired and sore and nasty we were. Though because all of our spare clothes were still damp and gross, we didn't exactly have anything to wear after getting clean that wasn't dirty in some way. But we figured to hell with it. Then we went home. Via shinkansen because when you're that tired? Money ceases to be a factor in anything. Sadly.
And I was evidently so exhausted that I slept until 5 in the PM the next day.
Also. My face looked like overcooked lobster. I put sunscreen on when we started up Fuji on Sunday, but it was raining and cloudy and then nighttime, so the sun never got to me. On the way down it was clear and lovely and hot as hell, and the sun he got me good. Only my face though, since the rest of me was covered. At least I partly defied him!
A couple days later we headed up to Aomori.
Anyway. Long assed train ride, delay at the end resulting in yet another freaking shinkansen. How many is that in the last two months alone? Enough to make me cry.
The parade for Nebuta was cool though. Two of the dancers threw me bells, which was cute. Also got to wear a yukata (summer kimono) for the first time, which was a pain and a half to put on and walk in, but several nice Japanese ladies helped me out with it.
And then we went to an internet cafe to sleep for the night, because there were no hotels available. Woke up in the worst mood ever the next day. Took three cups of coffee and an onsen to make me sociable again. Then we ate, got beer, and headed for the fireworks.
Fireworks were pretty. Not a lot of wind, so they had to frequently pause and wait for the smoke to blow away. At the finale it was so cloudy and the smoke was just hanging there, they had no choice but to do it anyway. It was still cool, but it was sad we couldn't see most of it.
And then we were back at the internet cafe. Had to leave suck ass early to catch our train the next day. Twelve hours on trains, maybe more. Crashed as soon as I got home.
The next weekend I went out with a couple girls I know and one got so wasted she started a bar fight. That was exciting. Happily the bartenders were content with throwing her out rather than calling the police, so I avoided having to flee from the law.
And then I had no more money. At all. Been living off of ramen noodles. I love ramen noodles.
And that was my summer vacation. Now I'm back to school. Which is sad making. Alas. Had my yearly health checkup at a local clinic today, where the doctor happily spoke English pretty well and no needles were involved, so I didn't have to resort to violence.
And that's all I got. The end.
No comments:
Post a Comment