Japan

Okay, so I am FINALLY trying to update since October, and SOOOOOO much has happened since then! I went to an amazing Sumo tournament in late October and after that, stayed very busy at work and prepared for my trip to Thailand and Cambodia. So now, here are some pics of the Sumo tournament.

Going to the sumo tournament was definitely one of the highlights of my experience here. I saw THE BEST sumo wrestlers in Japan right now. My friend Akie knew the manager of the event, so we were so lucky to get some of the best seats in the house for half the price! We were very close to the front, and of course, everyone near the front was sitting on the floor. It was really cool because I didn't see any other foreigners and the crowd mainly consisted of groups of old, goofy-acting Japanese men laughing and drinking loads of sake!

This tournament wasn't a technical match, but actually sort of an exhibition, so I not only got to see wrestling but they were also joking around a little bit and having fun. One of my favorite things was a little comedy skit where two wrestlers were pretending to really get mad and they were throwing water and salt on eachother, giving eachother wedgies and talkin' trash. Akie was translating for me as quickly as she could, but of course I couldn't catch everything. One of them was calling the other a "lightweight sissy-boy" as we might say. Akie literally said, "that one say other one wrestle like woman," but I kept imagining one of the wrestlers saying in an Ahhnald voice, "you Guuhhhhlly mahhhn!" One of the wrestlers then went out into the crowd and started grabbing everyone's beers and colas, drinking them, and handing the empty can back to them. While he was drinking, the other started getting peoples' lunches. He first ate a plate of sushi, and once, he got a bag of chips and dumped the whole thing right into his mouth!

Akie and I got lunch their and we split a "Sumo Bento" which is a traditional, very typical lunch for a sumo wrestler. I guess I just imagined that they ate stuff like cheeseburgers and pizza all day, but they actually eat extremely healthy! In the bento was two different kinds of fish and rice, Japanese veggies and sushi. So it was all really healthy stuff, they just eat a truckload of it.

Sumo is just so ritualistic. Maybe you've seen it on tv, but, before they wrestle, they do a series of bows and throw salt on the ground as to purify/clean the ring. They also take a drink of some special kind of water and spit it back out to clean their mouths. This is apparently a very Japanese thing to do because when I visited Yuko's house for a tea ceremony, I had to clean my mouth and hands in a small spring in her garden before entering her tearoom. Anyway, I just think it's funny because, well, naturally, you'd think that a human that large that wrestles gets very hot and sweaty and probably doesn't smell all that nice, but, the wrestlers actually smell so good! I walked by several of them throughout the day and all of them literally smelled like flowers! I learned that before a match, they scrub their entire bodies and use a type of chamomile flower oil mixture to set their hair up to make a "mage" (pronounced like mah-gay), which is what they call the very fancy, tucked-in ponytail they all must wear. As part of the exhibition, they demonstrated how to make a mage in between matches. You wouldn't believe just how long, healthy and absolutely beautiful their hair is.

Another thing that surprised me was the fact that the wrestlers are just walking around the dome like they are part of the crowd. The big wrestlers like Asa Shoryu and Koto Oshu actually have a rock-star kind of status in Japan, yet they are just walking around freely. But, I guess it's not like they need bodyguards, eh? I just walked up to some of them and asked if I could have a picture and they were so kind and friendly! They are just soooo massive! But standing next to them, I didn't feel scared or intimidated like I thought I would. They really seem to be gentil giants because they have such a humble, respectful attitude. They are truly amazing!

My favorite student, Yuko, is a F A B U L O U S Japanese diva who is sort of my adopted Japanese grandmother now. She invited me to her house just before I left for Thailand for a tea ceremony with her two daughters. She also taught me a traditional drum dance that was started in this area hundreds of years ago!

Yuko has a very traditional Japanese home with sliding doors, a full-on tea room and phenomenal Japanese garden. Before we had tea, I of course, had already taken my shoes off at the door, but I then had to put on special white socks for the tea room and wash my hands and mouth in the spring in her garden. When you enter the tea room, you must sit Japanese style (sitting on your ankles), and do a series of bows to your hostess and various things in the room like a small shrine. The one in her room was in honor of her late husband I believe. She also has a gorgeous calligraphy painting of a Hyaku poem she wrote.

After bowing, her daughter Michiyo gave me a small Japanese sweet made of rice called mochi. I don't know all the details of the ceremony because it's just so complex, but you must eat the sweet before drinking the tea and say "itadakimasu," which literally means, "I receive." I'm not really sure about why you say that, I just know it's extremely rude if you don't say that before you eat or drink something any host or hostess gives you at their home.

The tea is heated from charcoal that is inside the floor, as you can see in one of the photos. The tea they use is a special powdered green tea called "matcha" and they stir the tea in a certain motion, a certain number of times using a small wooden whisk. It's so incredible because every single action, whether it's stiring, placing, mixing, presenting or serving, is planned and perfected. When the hostess gives you your tea, she presents it with the pattern on the cup facing you, then, you must turn the cup clockwise two or sometimes three times to turn the pattern back to the front. It's all about presentation. Then, you must drink the tea in three sips. It's soooo ritualistic and I only know the basics from what they told me.

Tea ceremonies are really such a classic example of Japanese culture and people. They strive for perfection, care so very much about detail and always show a high respect for any generosity. I am just so fascinated with Japan because they keep the past so alive, but are also so open to new ideas, people and especially technology. Only here can you see a woman text messaging in a kimono, or take a picture of boiling water from charcoal with a digital camera!

Here are a few photos of the beautiful snow we had recently. I would have appreciated it more if I hadn't JUST gotten back from 3 WEEKS IN THE HOT SUN ON TROPICAL ISLANDS IN THAILAND!!!!! But really, seriously, am I complaining???

It really was strange though. One morning, I'm walking around Bangkok in a skirt and sandals, burning up from the heat and humidity - the next morning, I'm on a bus from Osaka to Matsue looking out the window at about six inches of snow!

I had to go back to Hiroshima for more training last week. I got to see the A-Bomb Dome at night, but other than that, I didn't really do anything exiting that night except for hunt down international stores. But, the next day in Miyajima was wonderful. I visited the aquarium there and saw a seal show and played with some penguins. If you would have told me at the beginning of the day that I would have done that, I would have thought you were absolutely crazy. Just so ya know.

Just when I thought the Mt. Fuji experience couldn’t get anymore dramatic, well, I’m thinking surely this is the grand finale to this epic odyssey: I HAVE MY PICTURES BACK!!!!!!!

Okay, maybe I should start from the beginning.

Of course, when one sets out to climb the legendary, highest peak of Japan, one would certainly expect a certain amount of drama, wouldn’t one?? But, it really got quite ridiculous…

While planning for this trip, I was worried about getting a good night’s sleep the night before climbing Fuji. All the hotels near the station were very expensive and the cheaper ones were far away, which would not only take a lot of time getting there, but would also require time to actually find them in Kyoto! However, thanks to one incredibly thoughtful and clever man, Jack of course, I stayed at the Granvia Hotel, which is actually inside the Kyoto Station! Granvia’s are some of the most prestigious and nicest hotels in Japan and they are almost always located near every city’s center near the main station. I have included a couple of pictures of the view from my room below.

So, after an incredible nights sleep in my luxurious queen size bed with a down comforter, I woke up and went to my meeting place. It was four subway stops from my hotel. By the time I got there, my stomach was in knots!! I kept thinking, “oh no, am I SERIOUSLY getting ready to climb MT. FUJI!?!, can I really do this?!?!? It's not too late to turn back...”

So I didn't feel much better when I got on the bus I looked around and I was the only foreigner! I thought I was going with a bilingual tour group, so I expected maybe half foreigners and half Japanese. But, my tour guide hardly spoke any English! That was just scary because I kept worrying what if something bad is happening or there’s really bad weather and I need some crucial information and I don’t know enough Japanese to understand what’s happening or what I should do!!

After I sat down, surrounded by only Japanese, the bus driver came back to me and said I was in the wrong seat (or something similar to that in Japanese. I’m always doing that, so at this point, I can recognize “you are in the wrong seat..”). He took me to the front of the bus, and to my extreme relief, sitting right there was another foreigner!! It may sound strange for me to be so incredibly happy to see another foreigner because obviously, all day I’m surrounded by only Japanese, but, when you’re getting ready to climb Mt. Fuji and you’re expecting a few English speakers, this is quite a relief!!

I just know the good Lord was looking out for me when he sent this awesome gal my way. Her name’s Mehgan and she’s also a Nova teacher and she’s exactly my age!! She teaches in Osaka and she even came to Japan at the same time I did. It was so weird – talking about having things in common… That’s been one of the most awesome things about this Japan experience for me. I’m always meeting someone who has the same strange and uncommon interests as me. It makes me so much more confident and sure about what I want out of life, ya know?

Okay, sorry about that quick philosophical tangent there…. Anyway, obviously Mehgan and I really hit it off from the word go and talked pretty much the whole six or seven hour bus ride to Fuji.

When we knew we were getting closer, we just started getting sooooo anxious and exited and nervous. We kept looking to see it, but we felt so stupid because we just weren’t seeing it. Then suddenly, we turned a corner and there it was, right in our face. IT WAS SOOO SCARY!!! It was just so intimidating to look up at it. I took pictures of this view from the bus, but I couldn’t retrieve them from my whole erasing-of-photos debacle because I lost most of the first few pictures. But, I’m sure you’ve probably seen a photo or two of it sometime because it’s just such a popular view of Japan, so I guess you’ll just have to use your imagination as to how it feels to look up at this huge thing and know you have to get to the top of it!

Our bus stopped at the fifth station on Fuji. The view from just that spot was already spectacular. You can see from the photos of this point that the clouds and sky are just so incredible. But, it’s so strange because the clouds aren’t just sitting there in the sky, they are moving and swirling around so quickly.

We had a brief little meeting, of which I couldn’t understand anything of course, and then started off on our adventure! It was about 4 pm. Soon after we started, a Japanese girl named Noriko and her friend Atsuko came to us and said they speak a little English, so they can try to help us if we need it. How awesome is that!? I know I say this all the time, but the Japanese really ARE the most kind, considerate people. There’s always someone that will go out of their way to help you or try to make you comfortable.

So we climbed for about three hours before it got completely dark. I was so glad that I went with a guide because he really knew when to stop and we always went at a very smart pace I think. I would have tried to go a lot faster and then probably wouldn’t have made it an hour, but our guide just knew exactly what he was doing. I felt so safe with him and our other guide. Oh, sorry, I guess I should have explained that. We had one guide who was our main one – he picked us up on the bus in Kyoto and stayed with us the whole time. Our other guide was our actual climbing guide and he climbs Mt. Fuji once a week!! So at all times, one guide was always in the very front, and the other was always in the very back. When it started to get dark, they both had these huge glow-stick type things so you could find them if you need to. It was really an impressive setup.

After it got dark, I could look out and see entire cities’ lights. It looked like a really small clump of lightning bugs. The climb at this point hadn’t been too bad, and I was starting to think, “ah, this isn’t gonna be half as bad as I thought it was gonna be…” - until the storm came through that is. I had forgotten that there was a typhoon headed this way and then I kinda started to panic. Of course it’s not like the typhoon was going to come straight for us, but the outlying winds and rain from it were. So then, it started to rain very heavily and the wind was so cold and so strong. The rain was not the big drops that fall calmly. No. These were tiny little beads of rain that moved so quickly with the strong wind that stung my face and hands like little needles. I was trying to hold a flashlight in one hand and my hiking stick in the other. It was just so shocking to feel so incredibly cold because I had been stuck in extremely hot and humid weather for so long in Matsue. I told Mehgan that I wouldn’t complain about the weather in Matsue for the rest of the summer…

I remember looking at my watch about 8pm and wanting to just die! We had started climbing up some rocks that were really steep and you had to really use your whole body to move up them. They were so slick and cold and it was really quite dangerous because I kept falling and banging up my elbows and knees. It was terrible. The rain was beating down and I was freezing to death. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t raining, because there’s such a huge difference between cold, and cold and soaked. My hands and feet were freezing cold because my cotton gloves and socks were so wet. To make it worse, we kept passing these little stations where you could stop and sleep for the night. I looked it and saw people warm and dry, wrapped up in sleeping bags and eating! What a slap in the face. We climbed like this for about an hour, and FINALLY made it to our mountain hut.

We stuck out wet clothes in some plastic bags and were handed an “interesting” rice bowl with smelly green seaweed salad on it. But at the time, I was so absolutely starving that I didn’t care at all. I had packed plenty of my own food anyway. So Mehgan and I went into a very small “uncomfortable community bedroom” as I would describe it and were shocked to see that the beds were like two long bunk beds stretching from one end of the room to another. Then a Japanese man came to me and said, “three people go this space” and held out his arms about two or three feet. I couldn’t believe it. I knew at that moment I had to sleep uncomfortably close to a complete stranger. But it’s so funny, we were all so deliriously tired and sleepy that we just didn’t care about anything like that. So were crawled up into our sleeping bags about 9:45pm. We were so slap-happy and kept laughing hysterically at everything: people snoring and just anything and everything was just so hilarious. We were going crazy.

I remember laughing at how incredibly ironic and quite surreal this situation was. The night before, I was sleeping in a luxurious queen size bed with a down comforter overlooking all of Kyoto – my happy belly full of filet mignon – which was via room service might I add... Now, I’m sleeping in a cold, clammy sleeping bag next to a strange Japanese man and my view is of my wet dirty socks hanging from a hook at the end of the bunk bed – and I have an empty belly stirring at the thought of the cold “seaweed rice surprise.”

So we got to sleep about 10pm, although Mehgan and I just sort of half-slept because we were so anxious and exited that we were sleeping ON Mt. Fuji and we will be at the top soon. At 1am, our guide came in the room and woke us up and talked for about five minutes. I didn’t know what he was saying, but the look on his face and his tone was really freaking me out. It just didn’t seem good. Then, I found Noriko and asked her what he said. She said he told us that he strongly advises us not to climb to the top because the weather is so bad and it’s really dangerous. But, if enough people still want to try to do it, he will take us to the top now.

Wow. I was so emotional at that point. I was so crushed to think of all I’ve just been through, and now, I won’t get to make it to the top. I really didn’t want to go back out in that storm, especially knowing the next three hours to the top are the steepest and most dangerous. I talked with Mehgan and we decided that it just wasn’t worth the risk. But then, we decided it was. I asked Noriko what she was going to do, and she said, “No way, it would just be too terrible.” So, at the last minute, Mehgan and I decided that we would try it for about 10 or 15 minutes and if it’s really dangerous and miserable, we’d just turn around and come back.

I will never forget this feeling the rest of my life. After we got our wet clothes back on, we walked outside and the wind and rain was just going crazy. We were literally standing inside storm clouds. But, we just kept going and going and I tried to keep my mind as numb as my freezing body, just trying not to think about anything except getting to the top. There were so many people trying to get to the top though, so that made me feel so much better. We actually had to wait in line at times to even move. I had psyched myself out so much that when we stopped at the top, I didn’t even realize we were there! I looked at my watch and it was about 4:15. I asked our tour guide, “Are we at the top” and he looked at me so strangely and said, “eh, yeeah?!?!?!” like, “duh, you dingy foreigner!” After he said that Mehgan and I just started screaming “AHHHH, WE DID IT, WE DID IT, WE’RE AT THE TOP, WE’RE AT THE TOP!!!!”

We went inside the mountain hut at the top and had some coffee to wait for the sunrise at 4:30. I was getting worried because it was extremely cloudy and I didn’t think we’d get to see the sun at all. So we went out at 4:30 and there was only black clouds surrounding us. We couldn’t see a thing.

Then, suddenly, a small ray of light shined through for literally about a second. The clouds were moving and swirling around us so fast that we’d only get a glimpse of light for about a second. Then gradually the light got bigger and bigger, and then, it looked like the sky was catching on fire!! It was absolutely amazing! The clouds would roll through, and then suddenly the sun would burst through and the light would burn through the clouds. What made this even more incredible is that you are actually looking ahead at the sun, not above you. You feel like you are eye-level with the sun and it’s so surreal. I kept trying to capture this, but my pictures just don’t do it justice.

So we started climbing down and gradually the storm clouds started rolling away and the sun started shining through. As you can see in the photos, the storm clouds look like they are right above my head – wow, I guess that’s because they are! It was scary to look up at this cloud and know I was just standing inside it!!

So for the next 3 or 4 hours it took to climb down, I had the most spectacular view. You could see one of the five lakes and look down on some really high mountains.

Coming down Mt. Fuji is no picnic. It hurts your knees so badly and the ground is not solid. Your feet sink down into this red lava ash and it gets in your shoes, so you have to stop from time to time to pull these rocks and lava clay/ash stuff out of them so your feet don’t get bruised or cut.

But even at those moments then when I was in such pain and my body ached so badly, the view is totally worth all of this. Mehgan and I just kept saying, “wow, it’s worth it” all the way down.

Climbing Mt. Fuji was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. But isn’t that usually how it goes? The most difficult and scary experiences in your life are the ones that you grow the most from. It’s definitely those experiences that are the most character-building. In the end, you get a reward that far exceeds your pain, effort, and if you're lucky, your expectations as well!

So please enjoy the pictures and if you would like me to email you a bigger version of any of them, please let me know and I'll send it!