Hakone

During mom's second week, the schools here were having spring break which allowed us to take several day trips during the week. The first place we visited was a mountain resort area called Hakone (pronounced A-cone-ee). I would describe the main tourist area as a Japanese version of Red River.

One of the big attractions in Hakone is the Hakone Ropeway. It is like a tram or ski lift and it takes about 40 minutes for the entire ride. Unfortunately, part of the Ropeway was being worked on, so we ended up on the ride for only about 15 minutes.

 Here is mom and Andrea as we are descending towards Lake Ashi - which was formed by the collapsed caldera of a still active volcano.

 A better view of Lake Ashi.

 At the base of the Ropeway was a restaurant. Although it looked like a typical tourist cafeteria, the food was prepared and presented with extreme attention to detail. These entrees are especially popular in Japan - curry, rice and even an egg to add texture.

Macie and Andrea taking a picture with a replica of the Ropeway and Mount Fuji.

Andrea, Macie, Mona and mom pose at the stream that runs through the town of Hakone.

A video of mom walking and shopping the stores of Hakone's main street.

Mom's first week in Japan

After going to the mall on Sunday, Zach came over to see mom on Monday.  And we ended up eating at Chili's.

During the week we visited Blue Street to do some shopping - mom ended up buying some local honey with ginger among other things.

She also did some birding at the Ikego campground area. At the Ikego campground, we learned about yaguras - small caves dug into the sides of the mountains that were used as tombs several hundred years ago. Here is a picture of one.

On Friday, mom got to experience Mona's favorite Japanese type of restaurant to eat at - the yakatori. A yakatori features meat, vegetables, etc. on skewers and fried rice (the main reason Mona likes these places).

Finally, on Saturday we traveled to a nearby base called Atsugi to watch Macie's last basketball game of the season. Unfortunately, we were missing a of couple girls, so we struggled. But this was one of the highlights - a video of Macie making a three pointer. 

Mom's first trip off base - Aeon Mall

After mom rested for a couple days trying to get over there the jetlag from her trip, we took her on her first trip off the base. We went to the Aeon Mall - which is located next to the base. We ate at a restaurant that served a more traditional Japanese cuisine than what we would normally eat. Everyone really enjoyed the food - very good. 

Afterwards, mom went to a bookstore to find a book by an nature painter and naturalist that was featured on a Japanese television show that we had watched the previous night. We were able to find the book because we showed the employees a photo of the book that we had taken when we paused the show and used our phone to get a picture of the book cover. Amazingly, the employees were able to identify the book and they had the book in stock.

Here is the screenshot that we used.

Mom visits Japan

Mom has been visiting us here in Japan for the last 5 weeks. It has been so much fun having her here and seeing Japan through my mom's eyes. Alas, she flew back home today. So, over the next few days, I am going to post about the different places we visited and try to document some of her experiences while she was here.

Tomorrow is TYPHOON DAY! (That is a hurricane to you and me)

We are expecting the arrival of Typhoon Mindulle tomorrow. So we went to the NEX to pick up some items in case we lose some of the basic services - power, water, etc. As we were checking out, the Japanese cashier made the X sign and said the NEX would be closed tomorrow because it is typhoon day. Pretty cute.
None of us have been in a hurricane before so it should be interesting. If the storm keeps its current track, we could be hit pretty hard. It is supposed to make landfall 9 miles west of us - which means, because of the counterclockwise winds, we would be squarely in the path of the strongest winds.

The calm before the storm - no wind and very quiet.

The sunset was unusually colorful -
             reminded us of sunsets back in Texas.           

           

Stories from the Mount Fuji Trip

Although my previous post talked about the pain involved when we climbed Mount Fuji this weekend, we also had experiences that we will remember forever. One, of course, was the actual experience of climbing Mount Fuji, But there were other things that happened during the day that were genuinely memorable.

On our drive to Mount Fuji, our van started to overheat. I had to try to coax the van by stopping occasionally, letting the engine cool down and adding water. On one point, we were on the side of the tollway with our hazard lights on. A vehicle with flashing lights pulled up behind us. It was a traffic patroller - their job is to help when there is an accident or a vehicle breaks down. The gentlemen was so nice, he asked if we needed water for the radiator, he sat out emergency cones and brought water for us to drink. He also gave us a pamphlet that had a telephone number on it. Despite the language barrier, he was able to communicate to me that, if we called the number, the operator would be able to help us find a tow truck and a place to repair the van. Unbelievably nice.

While we were driving, I told Andrea and Zach about the trail we were going to take to the summit. The trail is called Yoshida. As I was doing research for the climb, I found that Yoshida was the easiest and most used trail. But there was one warning about the Yoshida trail - make sure you don't take the wrong trail on the way down. There is a point on the descent where the Yoshida trail goes to the left and the Subashiri trail goes to the right. I said to remember that the trails on color-coded and that the Yoshida trail has the yellow signs. I reminded everyone again as we began our hike - always take the yellow signs.
Because of the meniscus tear in my left knee, I was pretty slow on the descent. I told Zach and Andrea not to worry about staying with me and to go at your own pace. Around the 8th station, Andrea was waiting for me. She was waiting because there was a sign that looked like the point where the trails diverged. She wanted to make sure that she was right. This was the place. However, she hadn't seen Zach so we didn't know if he taken the right trail.
A couple of hours later, I finally made it back to the 5th Station - our starting point. Andrea was there but no Zach. Turned out that he took the Subashiri Trail and ended up on the other side of the mountain. Andrea and I rode our bus back to Fujikawaguchiko Station and Zach was waiting there for us - after a $200 taxi ride. Stay yellow, pony boy.

At the end of the day, we still needed to try to find some coolant for our tip back to Yokosuka. Earlier, I had noticed what looked like a mom and pop gas station. At the gas station, there were two old ladies that reminded me of my grandmother - very sweet and kind. The ladies came out to help me and understood that I needed coolant. After looking at how worn down we were, I think they felt sorry for us. As one lady mixed the coolant for the van, the other lady brought tea and candy to Zach and Andrea. Then after I put the coolant into the van, she brought a huge bottle of water to add to the coolant reservoir. Using her limited English and hand gestures to communicate, she let me know that she wanted me to keep the bottle of water in case we overheated. She also brought me another bottle of water - she again was able to get me to understand that one bottle was for the car and one bottle was for us to drink. Unbelievably nice.
But then she motioned for me to wait. She proceeded to give us two plastic cups filled with cherry tomatoes that she had grown herself - she motioned to her garden in front of the station. She again motioned for me to wait. This time, she came out with 3 large cucumbers. She proceeded to wash and cut the cucumbers. While she cutting the cucumbers, the other lady brought out a bag of rolls and gave them to Andrea. Lastly, she brought out a packet of wipes so we could wash our hands before eating. It was truly one of the ;most surreal moments of my life - standing outside an old gas station late at night while two women, who reminded me of my grandmother, showed us kindness that I had never experienced outside of my own family.

Here are the tomatoes and the sliced cucumbers.

Here is one of the two water
bottles that the ladies gave us.

Such a memorable day - and climbing Mount Fuji is only one of the many things that we will remember from that day.

One word for climbing Mount Fuji - Pain

Climbing Mount Fuji is truly a pain in every sense of the word. Physical pain, mental pain and emotional pain. When you read about climbing Mount Fuji there is very little written about this part of the Mount Fuji experience. As we neared the summit, every person we saw was suffering - you could see it in their faces, in their body language and in their slow, deliberate march to the top.

On the Fujikawaguchiko shuttle bus
to Mount Fuji 5th Station. All smiles.

5th Station - Unbelievable number of people and buses.

The start of the Yoshida Trail actually begins on a decline for
quite a while - we started questioning if we were on the right trail

We saw a large number of hikers on their way back -
these hikers had spent the night so they could summit
and see the sunrise. Despite the large number of hikers, 
it was very quiet. They walked without much talking -
we would soon found out why they walked like zombies.

Didn't have to wait long to start climbing.
We thought most of the trail would be like this.

Unfortunately, a large portion of the trail was like this - jagged rock.

This is what the trail often looked like as we
approached the many stations on the mountain -
actual steps made out of rock.

After climbing through the rocks, we were so excited to see the
trail in the background. To me, they looked like beautiful
rainbows we could walk on to the top. Unfortunately, 
that is the descent trail.

This is what the ascent trail looked like for much of the way.
You can see how much elevation Andrea gained after a few steps.

This is one of the stations. Notice how steep the trail is at this point and
notice the Shinto gate. Many of the Japanese would stop and say a prayer
before passing through the gates.

This is us at the top. Before we took this picture, we had sat on these
steps for at least 5 or 10 minutes. When I first tried to take this picture,
there were no smiles. I had to talk them into smiling. Now, I wish I had 
taken the picture without asking them to smile. It was amazing how 
completely done we were at this point.

This is us at the summit.

Andrea and Zach doing the Mount Fuji sign.

This is the descent trail up close. No rainbows - just more pain.
These trails were like walking on a layer of gravel with
large rocks, dirt and dust mixed in. To us, climbing down
was, in many ways, just as hard and miserable as climbing up.

The scenery was beautiful as we walked down. I stopped to take 
a couple of pictures - this one shows the shadow of Mount Fuji.
It looks like smoke is rising from its top. But, after a while, the 
endless steep trail of rock debris makes you almost immune to the 
scenery. Your one focus becomes getting off the mountain as quickly
as possible.