It's finally hot. Really, really hot. I'm hiding indoors under both air conditioning and a fan, trying not to move. I admit it, I hate the heat. I'm not sure I've ever really liked it. I always feel trapped... you can usually escape the cold by piling on the clothing and blankets.. but in the summer here you sweat even when you're buck naked. There's nothing to do but walk around completely soaked all the time. Ugh. I'm quite thankful not to live anywhere near Tokyo where the concrete and massive buildings trap in the heat until the entire city is par-broiled and they have to shut off all the power because there just isn't any and every body just turns into a lukewarm puddle.

But of course, I am visiting Tokyo, so I am pretending to embrace my oncoming puddle status... but failing miserably. I hate being hot.

Other than that, I'm having a great visit! Akko and I successfully recognized each other in the train station yesterday.. and have since picked back off from where our friendship left off seven years ago. She flattered me by claiming my Japanese has actually improved since then, which though I find hard to believe, would redeem the my last 4 attempts to commit to learning this darn language!!

We spent the afternoon bumming around at her place. She just got married and moved into the house that her husband had been living in by himself. They promptly ripped out all the old tatami mats and created a beautiful wood floor, then added a outdoor porch and finished the renovation by randomly painting bold colors all over the house: kitchen cabinets are red, bath window frames are blue, one bookshelf is bright green, etc. In one room the curtains are bright orange and in the other they are dark purple. Its really great. The house is tiny, only two rooms plus the kitchen and bath and hallway, and it is crammed with a ton of interesting nick-nacks, books, photos, and artwork. They are both artists and I imagine anyone would guess as much from looking around their home. Its very comfortable and cheerful. They say that "if" I wanted to move this direction, the homes & apartments are very cheap and they have entire army of friends who would be more than happy to keep a bargain spotting eye out for me. Good to know...

Last night we sat around with another of their artist friends and had homemade takoyaki- fried octopus balls (check the photos). They were delicious! It was nice to relax with friends and also exhausting to speak so much continuous Japanese!! I Akko and her husband's freedom to work at their own pace and schedule the rest of their day to day around when they aren't creating art.

Just finished a book, too... "My Year of Meats" by Ruth Ozeki. Its a novel about a Japanese-American woman who begins to work on a Japanese TV show that portrays American "wives" and their meat recipes to a Japanese audience. In the end, she learns a lot about the dark side of the meat industry. The book bounces back and forth between the States and Japan, which I found really entertaining. A good one, if you manage to pick it up.

It's officially summer vacation! And I am in the office!! I just finished planning the last of my adult English lessons. We have our final class tonight, and I'm definitely looking forward to finishing. They have been a great class, and teaching them has been rewarding enough to consider continuing in the fall. For now though, I am almost done!!!

I had a really good weekend. I headed to Tokyo on Friday after school, unfortunately timed perfectly with one of the last (I hope) storms of the extra long rainy season (though it still looks like its going to pour yet today). About a hour into the 2 and a half hour trip they shut down the tracks in both directions due to the rain. I wasn't aware rain actually affected the trains much, particularly here where Japan is one of the world's best at being on time with their rail system. But... there we were, stuck on the tracks in the rain, next to a station but not allowed to leave the train. Sigh, more reading time, I told myself. They continued to postpone our expected (re)departure time until we'd been sitting on the tracks for almost an hour an a half. People were getting anxious and I was worried that I'd never make it to Tokyo. Of course, we'd left Matsumoto at 4:56 in the afternoon and the original arrival time was 7:37 so with the delay we were also getting mighty HUNGRY. On top of all of this anti-excitement, the conductor announced that someone had suddenly become ill and were there any doctors on board?

Well, we all survived, but it was a really long trip. (I swear though, it was raining harder when we actually got moving again...) We finally reached Tokyo just before 10pm and were escorted off the Shinjuku platform to a plethora of extra polite apologies by the announcers.

The rest of the weekend was a blast though. With the extra time Tom had to kill before I arrived, he baked me a birthday cake... it was delicous and hit the spot after waiting so long to eat (oh yeah... we had dinner, too). On Saturday, we both slept in and then we headed out to Tokyo Dome "City" to check out the new roller-coasters. We spent the day bouncing between the rides and being dropped from far, far up in the sky. The Japanese have mastered the art of building rides on top of already existing buildings, so that an already tall coaster is twice or three times as far off the ground when you look down from the top of that hill! After we'd had enough of that, we checked out the 5 or 6 simultaneous fireworks shows that you could see from the top of his office building. It was a nice way of Tokyo to celebrate my 26th birthday... I'll have to thank the mayor. We finished the day with a video and more of that chocolate cake!

On Sunday we met up with the Mori No Ike abroad program, in their final swing through Tokyo before a final exam and flight out of Narita (today). There are 18 high school students with three teachers, and let me tell you... they are feeling the effects of a month of traveling together. We were getting some pretty funky vibes out of that crew! Nonetheless, we all gathered together for a lovely picnic in Shinjuku park. Tom even brought a football so the guys could look manly while knocking out innocent bystanders. It was a good time had by all. I headed back here in the evening after a fast meal at a Tokyo Mexican restaurant.

Yesterday was a day long area teachers "Summer Seminar" run by myself and one of the only other JETs left in town. It was basically just an English camp for adults. We warmed up with skits and introductions and then taught English songs. We all cooked asian food together for lunch, then we finished the day with a sample class using MTV videos to get kids into listening to English. I got some really positive feedback, and it felt good to finish. Once I finish my classes tonight, I will be officially out of things to plan!! That will feel great.

To celebrate, I'm heading back to Tokyo! Too bad I can't collect frequent flyer miles! I'm looking forward to spending a few days with a friend from Wakayama who I haven't seen since I left in '96. She was one of my best friends in school, so it should be a fun time. After that, I'm hooking back up with Tom and we're going to "Summer Sonic"- a big summer music festival concert featuring the bands Blur, Travis, Blink 182, and a couple of our favorite Japanese bands: Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and The High-Lows. Should be cool.

I don't know when I'll be back online, but keep checking the photo page because I post to that a lot more often. I can send pictures from my phone regardless of where I am and don't need to get online to do it. I'll try to keep you all updated!!

Behind on my journal again... but I've gotten no comments or encouragement from anyone so I'm going to assume you're all too busy to keep up anyhow!!

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Of course, here in Japan, that phrase doesn't mean much: school never really ends. Today was officially our "last" day of classes, tomorrow we'll all come to school to clean, enjoy a boring and stifling hot closing ceremony (suits required for the teachers), and cheer the sports teams for the northern prefectures tournaments. Then we get to enjoy three weeks of summer vacation. Three weeks!! Even that needs further clarification, because all of the teachers will work the entire time except for the few days of Obon (holiday period where families gather and visit the graves of ancestors who are believed to come back during this time). Most students will be at school more days than not, practicing with their assorted clubs and sports. When they aren't practicing, they will be studying , especially the 3rd graders who have to prepare for their high school entrance exams in March! Those 3rd graders who are members of teams and clubs that aren't continuing on to the Northern Prefectures tournaments are now finished with clubs/teams until high school. They had most of one semester to play... now they have to study. Doesn't sound like much to get excited about does it? I've been shocked at the lack of summer vacation build up... nowhere near the levels of home where we are really OUT for the summer! If there's one person who is clearly looking forward to summer, with reason.... it would be me!!! Some of us AETs (Assistant Language Teachers) get off pretty easily for summer. I am helping to run and lead an English day for the area English teachers on Monday, and am also on a panel of AETs for a discussion of international education on Aug. 6th.. but otherwise I am free to actually be on vacation. Whoopee!!! Just don't tell anyone... shhh!!

I'm looking forward to the break. This week, heck this month, this summer, this YEAR have just flown! Jaclyn left on Tuesday morning to join an intensive Japanese course in Osaka for two weeks so I'm on my own. We do pretty much everything together, so it has been a strange week without her. I also got the pleasure of picking up her last two adult English classes in addition to my own... so I was totally stressed followed by totally exhausted on Tuesday. I have one last night of classes next Tuesday and then we're finished with that... for a while.

It seems very strange that we're almost two-thirds of the way through the summer. The weather has been consistently very cool and rainy, so it hasn't actually felt too much like summer. I'm not going to complain: when I got here last summer it was just brutally humid and hot so I'm sure I've got that to look forward to come next month. I'm just thankful that thus far it has been quite tolerable. Of course, the fact that we're still in school makes it seem unreal that its almost the end of July.

Speaking of the end of July- as of this weekend, it will be a year since I left home for this crazy job!! It is so hard to believe that there are new JETs on the way and that I've been living here for 12 months. Every year seems to fly, but this year has been in warp speed. I can recall clearly the jitters of meeting the staff here for the first time and the confusion of my first few weeks of trying to figure this place out. I swear I just bought my car last week... and yet I've already had to change the oil and will have to stop driving it next week until I can figure out how to pass the Japanese Driving Test (more on that later, I am sure). I'm really excited for this next year, but of course I still have no idea what I'm doing when its over... so I'm hoping everything slows down just a bit!!

It's already Tuesday! How does that happen?!

Friday night was girls night. Danielle, Jaclyn, Sara and I went out for conveyer belt (kaiten) sushi. The sushi itself wasn't great, but watching the little dishes cruise past all the tables is always highly entertaining. We were out celebrating my birthday before the day since everyone is packing up and leaving the country for the summer. Danielle heads home this week and Jaclyn is leaving next week for a Japanese class in Osaka (before going home for a month!). Sara isn't sticking around or another year so she's leaving to travel the world in a few weeks. Omi village just won't be the same... ever again!

Anyway, after dinner and random sushi photos... we went back out to Willy Wonka's bath tub. Who's heard of going to a bath for your birthday?? Definitely a first, and definitely worth the second trip out there. This time the purple bubbly bath was bright turquiose! We spent some time trying to figure out whether we could sneak our cameras into the baths but decided getting busted would be just too humiliating. (Danielle's camera's battery is dying so you have to wait 5 minutes before it takes a picture, my camera is totally dead and wasn't along, Sara's camera is a massive manual zoom which wouldn't have hid in a towel too well, and Jaclyn didn't want her Mt. Fuji film confiscated by accident!!). Next time I'm sure one of us will consider trying to bring in our cell phones ;) (keep watching the photo page,... you never know what you'll see!)

The evening was wrapped up deliciously with a fabulous few pieces of 10 egg angel food cake made from scratch by my dear friend Jaclyn. It was yummy and Danielle and Sara didn't stick around for it, so Jaclyn and I are eating the whole damn thing ourselves!!

Saturday morning I woke up superbly early and figured I might as well see if there was an open seat on the bus to Tokyo. The weather looked stinky so I decided rather then hang around my house bored, I would go hang around at Tom's. Honestly I hadn't even planned on going, but Tom made the random effort of inviting me up... and I figured, what the heck? So I was in sticky steamy Tokyo in time for lunch and a cool drink at Starbucks.

Tom finally broke down and bought himself a TV/VCR and a DVD. I think the first time I accompyanied him to the electronics store was...oh... about two years ago (before I'd even moved here!). He's been putting it off for-ever, and frankly that was just fine. I was just getting a bit tired of all the time spent bumming around in front of all those TVs while he tried to decide! Since we had no real plan for the weekend, we watched a couple of movies to make sure the system was in working order.

Also picked up some new Japanese text books, I'm planning to attempt level 2 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) this year. There are four levels, one being the highest. I passed level 3 with flying colors last year, but the gap between there and level 2 is HUGE. I highly doubt I will pass it the first time around. I should have started studying a long time ago... but it hasn't felt urgent enough. So, I will take it for practice this time. ;) No one has to know my score, right?

So as I started out by saying, this week is already flying. I have several interesting classes this week; I'm interviewing all the 3rd graders, as an add on to their finals of last week. The test had a listening section but no test of speaking, so I decided it would be a good experience for them to spend 2 minutes or so trying to hold up their end of a conversation without notes. Many of them will have to do interviews to enter special English specialization courses for their high schools or for English Proficiency exams. The first class was nervous, but did a pretty good job this morning.

and tonight the adults are waiting for me to enlighten them further... this week we're practicing the phrase "Have you ever ________?". It is an easy lesson for me because I just finished this section with the 3rd graders.

Last but not least, I missed another wedding this weekend. Andi and Stephen are now happily husband & wife forever and ever... sigh. I was really sad not to be able to be there, again. Ah... the drawbacks of life on the other side of the planet.

Miss you all!!

Today is insanely windy. I woke up in the night and had to slide my windows shut because it was so noisy. My bedroom is usually really comfortable: I sleep on a futon on the floor (in Japan, futon just means the cushion, not the frame) about even with the bottom of my sliding glass door out to the balcony. When it gets hot, the breeze coming in is fabulous. Last night though, I was concerned that the wind was going to blow right through my paper window screens (and they already have enough holes!). There is apparently another storm blowing in... we are obviously not quite done with the rainy season yet.

This week has gone really quickly. Tuesday night I had another adult English class and it went really well. I only have 3 left! My class is up from the 12 person limit to 17 students! It kind of makes casual conversation a bit difficult. We had fun practicing pronounciation this week: Japanese speakers really struggle with hearing and producing the difference between L and R, V and B. I had them holding up their top lip to pronounce V and contorting their tongue to make sure they were getting L correct. The adults looked even funnier then my students here do!

I haven't had a single other class this entire week. Tuesday was the big test day, so my classes before, during, and after Tuesday were all canceled. Today I finally have ONE class of my own, and perhaps another planned by another teacher, unless its canceled.

Yesterday, Robert, the JET from a year before I got here, showed up at school. I've heard bits and peices about him all year so it was interesting to actually meet him. He'd been back in Japan to visit for a couple of weeks and only had about 30 minutes to see school before being whisked off to an onsen overnight by one of the students in my adult class (nothing changes around here... they just don't really get "hanging out"). He did apologize for the state of the "garden", claiming that the woman before him (the one I have always blamed for the mess) had indeed created the most tastless and out of control English garden something or other, and when he arrived he just destroyed it. So... at least I finally got something of an explanation. He apparently likes Misato so much (he's from Ohio and currently living in New York), that he wants to come back here to live. Both of us acknowledged that it would be a cool place to be if there were jobs other than teaching English... who knows, maybe he'll be hired back here at school when I leave?

Misato really is just a fabulous place to live. I don't know if I feel more normal and comfortable living here compared to Wakayama simply because I'm not an exchange student... but I think there's more to it. This feels like one of the last "sane" corners of Japan. There are still tractors rolling down the streets, there are fields everywhere and not just ugly buildings. Speaking of buildings, there are plenty of beautifully constructed, traditional Japanese homes here, instead of the ugly pink or green concrete ones of the big cities. The mountains are gorgeous- every-day. People here spend mass quantities of time enjoying the outdoors (case in point: my English class was working on future tense this week so we discussed our plans for the summer: half the class was traveling within Japan or climbing mountains!). I can bike around at night and not hear anything but insects and the water rushing along side the road. It doesn't hurt that lately it has been the perfect temperature outside. After arriving in and surviving the brutal heat of last summer, I was certain summer was going to be awful... so far it has been wonderful! I guess if I've enjoyed this much of it, I can handle it getting ugly in August (I will just head to the hills!). Adding to my new found love for Japanese summer: I am also, for once, already excited for winter, too! Now that I have skis and I know how to use them... BRING ON THE SNOW!!! Even Jaclyn (who hails from Southern California and hears that it is currently over 100 degrees at home regularly and when applying for JET just asked for someplace warm), is armed with a new snowboard and is psyched to head back into the snow. In short, I love it here. I feel sorry for those of you who can't enjoy it with me!! (and sorry for myself because now that I've lived here I will always miss it when I leave). (and I will leave).

ps. don't forget to glance at the picture page everyonce in awhile... I'm having lots of fun sending out new shots from my phone.. I can add to the page whenever I want to, simply by shooting off an e-mail & picture no matter where I'm at. Enjoy! (link is on the left margin if you scroll).

Excellent news!!! I found a website to use to post pictures from my cell phone! I just posted the pictures I took on Mt. Fuji before my phone died. Here's the link... this will be fun!!! More pictures to come (just not any more of Fuji).

Team 2 was no where to be seen, but we weren't alone. Since it was a weekend and the opening weekend of the hiking season, even in the crappy weather there were tons of people headed towards the top. It was an odd scene... dots of lights from the hikers and big flourescent lights from the inns and shelters dotting the trail as far as the clouds allowed us to see. We unfortunately got stuck behind the JTB group (which had started an hour ahead of us) fairly quickly. They were exiting another shelter and their leader blocked the other trail traffic so they could start as a group. I was very annoyed. Particularly since they were very slow and constantly stopping for breaks. It took about a half hour to slog past their group and I'm sure they were just as annoyed that we were passing them.

Not that the hike was easy... at all. I was feeling completely wimpy and totally wet. I would take a few steps and pause, repeat, until reaching the turn in the upward heading zig zag trail where I would pause longer, sometimes taking another bite of Snickers. Tom's light died almost right away, so after passing the group I spent most of the time leading. It was hard to see even with the light: my light, being attached to my forehead, created a beam right in front of me which was filled with the reflection of the zillion rain drops and the fog, which was was difficult to see past. Step by step we continued towards the other lights, swearing aloud at the weather. I knew there was no chance it would blow over by sunrise, but we'd passed the last shelter before the top so stopping wasn't even an option had we considered it (which we never did). There had been plenty of others taking shelter as we'd passed, but frankly once we were wet there was really no point in waiting.

We played tag team up the mountain with a number of small clumps of hikers, sometimes I was in the lead, then I would take a break and the other groups would pass, etc. It was pretty boring, actually... we couldn't see anything, could barely hear each other and we were drenched. At one point we passed through a torii (the Japanese gates) that I thought probably marked station 9 but that's all there was so it wasn't real concrete motivation. There was no telling how much further we had to climb. Then out of the darkness, I heard someone exlaim, "Tom?". It was team 2! I had been climbing directly behind Sara for probably 10 or 20 minutes, but I hadn't recognized her nor their voices. When we went to pass them, I still didn't recognize Danielle, nor she I, but somehow she realized it was Tom. They'd been climbing all night in the rain and were exhausted and Jaclyn's feet were aching. They were a bit miffed that I hadn't mentioned all the climbing involved, but I had to admit I might have selectively forgotten that after the first climb. oops. Oh well... when climbing the highest mountain in Japan its probably safe to expect there to be a little work involved, right? Anyway, it was pretty crazy to meet up with them. I was relieved that they were still climbing and hadn't quit.

Finally we began to hear shouting above us. I tried to ignore it and not get my hopes up, but we were nearing lights and I was excited that it could possibly be the top. Indeed, after several more zig zags I saw the stone lions and the big torii marking our arrival at the 10th and final station at the top of Mt. Fuji (3770 some meters). I hollered and yelled and was just thrilled to be done. There was another group that had just made it and had paused there and were congratulating us... it was nice to have our own little welcome. Knowledge that we'd finished actually energized me and I bounded ahead and found the (still almost empty) free shelter beyond the torii. With a welcome and a congratulations, the shelter worker welcomed us in. We found a spot near the wall, took off our bags and soaked jackets and just sat. I was pretty convinced that I was insane for putting myself through the climb of the entire mountain, particularly since it was obvious there was going to be no sunrise to look forward to. It was about 4:15am and as it inched closer to sunrise time, the sky merely got shades lighter. We didn't even bother to watch.

Instead, we warmed up with glasses of sweet rice wine (which normally would be pretty nasty, but it was warm and I was not) and bowls of ramen. Actually, Tom got the bowl of ramen, then made the mistake of offering me some. I was so delerious I forgot to give it back until I'd eaten over half of it. He was just sitting there staring at me until I realized what I was doing and began apologizing profusely. Good thing the guy loves me... (why??!). I don't think we actually were there more then 45 minutes. Already cold and soaked, the exhuastion began to set in as we got quieter and quieter. The shelter was soon packed and noisy, but I could have easily fallen asleep at my spot on the bench. We decided we needed to keep moving, and everyone was eager to get down off the mountain. Suited back up, we wound our way through the other climbers back outside. Once again, it was far too cloudy and windy to see into the crater. I was frankly too angry at Fuji to be dissapointed! Due to the weather, we also decided not too climb around the crater to the trail we'd originally planned to take for the descent (famous for sand slides where you can literally run down the side of the mountain) and instead opted for the closer downward trail.

The trip down the mountain was rather unremarkable. After about an hour, the sun peeked out from the clouds and dried up all the rain (dum, dum, dum). We could see a huge section of the mountain above us. After another while, we could see through a tiny slot in the clouds out to the coast and the ocean (miles and miles and miles away). By 7 in the morning, it was almost entirely clear to the top and the clouds were below the 5th station. Tom and I grumbled that we would have done better to sleep in and finish the climb in the morning... but we were too tired and it would have been too disspointing to dwell on the thought... we just kept climbing. Actually, though we hadn't taken the "official" sand slide route, our path involved a lot of sliding. The lava rocks were just in piles, every step you took you could take advantage of another 5 inches of slide as they moved beneath your feet. Of course, this also meant each of us spent some quality time wiping out. Ouch.

The climb down took less than 3 hours but it seemed like we would never reach the 5th station. The last section was the worst... my entire body ached and it was begining to get very warm. I just wanted to stop walking. When the buildings came into view, I was too tired to even be very happy. All I could do was sit down. We were finished!

And that, was that. I called my dad quickly so that no one would worry as my cell phone messages had stopped when my phone died. It was nice to get some sympathy about the weather. We snacked a bit, dried out our clothes and feet in the sun, and snagged a taxi back to the station (in which we all fell asleep... team 2 had pulled an all nighter to the top and down). At the station we boarded trains to Otsuki, then the girls and I headed back to Matsumoto and Tom to Shinjuku. We were all out cold immediately.

In summary (ha! told you this would be overwhelming!), I'm glad I went but very dissapointed in the weather. It will be a good memory, a fun story and a checkmark on a list. I had a good time and am recovering well. I think I'll be going to bed before 10 all week though. Thanks for the encouragement and if you come to Japan... admire Fuji from afar... the view's much better from off the mountain. ;)

The 7th station felt like major progress since we'd been so confused as to whether we'd actually passed 5 and 6 and where. We had a reservation for dinner and sleeping time at an inn a bit above the 8th station. Up to this point, we'd been debating whether we were actually going to make it before the end of dinner (7pm) or if we were going to have to stop before then. Since we were supposed to meeting team 2 (Jaclyn, Danielle, and Sara) there, and I really was looking forward to the substantial break... I wanted to keep going. After studying the map and looking at the buildings (huts) stacked up along the zig-zagging trail above us (and inhaling half a Snickers bar each), we decided to push for it and see if we could make it. The trail was a bit more difficult, at times actually requiring some climbing over boulders and ledges. At was hard work and we were already over 2000 meters, so I was really getting tired.

We reached the 8th station and could see our inn just hovering above our heads. After guzzling some water and giving each other pep talks, we went for the last leg just as we were both starting to really feel pooped. Half-way between the two stops we hiked through a JTB (Japan Travel Bureau.. one of the most well known tour companies here) group which we overheard would also be staying at our inn. We also overheard their tourguide talking about the curry rice awaiting them (and us!) at the inn. We inched closer and closer... my legs letting me know with each lunge that I'd been hiking all day. At the base of the stairs leading towards the inn's outside platform (its hard to even describe the huts), Tom just stopped. "I'm done". This in fact turned out to be the last bit of motivation to get me to the door: if he could be that tired, then it was ok for me to feel completely trashed. We got there together at 6:45 and practically collapsed trying to take off our hiking boots (for of course, it being Japan, you can't wear them inside a building!). Around this time we got the message from team 2 that they had arrived at the bottom and were starting to hike in the rain (from the 5th station).

The inn employees (who were college-student age and I would guess live on the mountain for the entire hiking season, 7/1-8/26) took our bags and showed us to our "spot". The sleeping room was built so that it had one massive bunk bed. The top level was filled with already sleeping hikers... probably 15 heads as we walked by them. Each hiker had one sleeping bag and one pillow. Tom and I were given spots in the middle of the bottom level, complete with pillow and numbered sleeping bag. On Tom's left were a father and his very young (I would guess maybe 6 or 7!) daughter, and on my right were a couple in their 50s. The instant the employee left we both sprawled on our backs in our space. It felt great. About this time it started to rain, and we smiled knowing looks at each other to be inside of it and knowing the other group was going to be climbing up into it and through the dark. We stretched and just laid with our feet against the top bunk to recover a bit. Then we changed into dry clothing which also felt terrific. There was no separate room for changing so we took turns holding a jacket-curtain up for the other to change behind. Of course, everyone on the top bunk was asleep, so we didn't have too much conscious company.

Back downstairs, we enjoyed our curry rice for dinner and finished just as the JTB folks filed in for their dinner and pep talk from their leader. I could have eaten another 3 servings... but they unfortunately weren't offered and I was very aware of how difficult it must be to get supplies up the mountain to the assorted huts. We trekked out to the bathrooms (a separate hut from the inn with no running water, just tanks upside down for a tiny bit of hand-washing water). The next stop was sleep! We crawled into our bags, slid out of our hiking pants (really hoping they'd be dry by the time we woke up), and tried to go to sleep in the middle of 30 other people. After a half hour, they turned out the lights, which helped, but it was still a massive slumber party and a very hard floor. We went to "sleep" around 8:00.

I woke up around 10:30, squeezed out from between Tom and the lady next to me, and headed out to use the bathroom again. It was still raining and there were hikers resting at the bench outside the door. The inns people were keeping everyone outside quiet so the guests could sleep, but they were allowed to sit for a while. I opened my cell phone to check on team 2's status and there weren't any messages. I was a bit worried they'd bagged it... but at this point I also noticed the phone was practically dead from sending out messages all day. I went back to the sleeping room and crawled back into my bag. Eventually I fell back to sleep, although for the rest of the night people were getting up and out to re-start the hike. Tom and I woke up around 1 am to the sound of pouring rain. We looked at each other and ticked off the pros and cons of starting the hike or sleeping in (the original plan was to be at the top for 4:30 sunrise). Having already experienced one Fuji ascent in the rain to be greeted with a non-sunrise, I wasn't too thrilled with our situation. But part of me was worried that if we slept in it would be worse in the morning and we'd never find the other girls. I also just wanted to finish the whole thing, and I had a stomach ache that could have been due to the altitude (the inn also provided buckets for mountain sickness issues) or just from the curry. In the end, with a "this is what we hiked all this way for" from Tom, we decided to go for it. After suiting up with rain suits and head lamps, we left the dry warmth of the inn for the windy, wet side of the top of Fuji.

I'm almost too overwhelmed by this past weekend to write about it. I can tell you one thing for sure: I am DONE climbing Mt. Fuji! I can now officially say that I've climbed the whole damn thing and I NEVER need to do it again.

So here's the short version for those who just want to check whether I survived: Yes, I did. Tom and I climbed from Fujiyoshida Train Station at the base of the mountain to the Shrine in the same town, and from there to the start of the actual trail. We started from the trailhead around 11am and reached the 8th station at about 6:45 pm, where we ate and slept. We left for the top a bit after 1 am and reached it in the pouring rain around 4:15am. There was no sunrise... just the lightening sky, even less impressive and more wet then the first time I attempted it. We were back down to the 5th station by 8:30 am and in a taxi to the train station (we didn't feel the need to climb back down the whole thing, most people start from 5) by 9:15am and were back home by 2 in the afternoon yesterday. I'm glad I tried again, even though I can see that it does indeed make me a fool. I'm also glad we hiked from the bottom, because climbing the whole thing made the weather worth it. Not very many people can say they've done it.. and the trails on the bottom half are actually quite pretty (as opposed to the ugliness at the top)... so that redeemed the effort. (note: Danielle, Jaclyn, and Sara also made it to the top and down from the 5th station- we climbed together from about the 9th station).

The longer version: Do I even have enough energy to tell the story in full details? Note: The story is continued in the next three posts... so don't worry the entire thing is here... you just need to keep scrolling.

Like I said, Tom and I had decided to start from the bottom. We had some transportation issues so we got a late start, but wandered from the train station (at 809 meters) to the Shrine that officially marks the begining of the pilgrimage (Fuji is a holy mountain) around 11am... and it was already all up hill. We had originally planned to taxi then to the start of the trail... but we just walked it instead.. which may or may not have been such a brilliant idea. It was horribly hot and humid and we were already sweaty by the time we stopped for lunch at the tea house that marks the start of the trail. As we were eating, we gaped at fat-less men running down the trail past the tea house. They were wearing practically nothing and couldn't have weighed as much as my dog. Tom and I looked at each other and just laughed. They couldn't possibly be running the entire mountain, right?

We started heading up the trail after lunch around 1 in the afternoon on Saturday. At first it was a paved road just small enough to look more like a sidewalk then a road, but as the few annoying cars proved, I guess it was still a road. As I've said, it was incredibly muggy. I was wearing some zip-off pants (which I'd zipped off into shorts) and a cool-max T-shirt. I was dripping. Each of the first 3 stations were shrines, all ancient and at different stages of disrepair. The trail was beautiful with ancient pine trees and different alpine flora. We had no company climbing up, but there were still random psychos streaking down. In my sweatiness I started playing a little game with them: I said "Konnichiwa" to each one of them- morally obligating them (in their own heat and exhaustion) to return the greeting. I know, it was mean, but it made me feel better at the time. ;) We took mini-breaks at each station to suck down water, take pictures (and e-mail them to Dad and the other girls-team 2), and chow on m&ms. The weather was hot but it was really cloudy. On the one hand, that meant no view, on the other hand it meant it could have been hotter and I was glad that it wasn't.

Station 4 was mislabeled (we believe) as Station 5, and it gave us a somewhat false sense of speedy progress up the trail. It also made the stretch to Station 6 unbelievably long. This is about where we ran out of trees and plants and moved into the lava landscape. It was also where we joined up with the main trail. Now we had plenty of other company (and fewer runners... we decided we think that they just run down from the 5th station or so... now why would anyone do that?!) but still no view. We took a stop just before the trails joined and changed into long-sleeved cool-max shirts. It was nice to ditch the sweaty ones as they were getting chilly. We glimpsed the upper half of the mountain between clouds long enough to take a picture... but it was entirely hidden from view after that. I got seriously hungry shortly before the 7th station and ate the most delicious Balance bar I've ever had (usually I think they're disgusting).

Happy 4th of July to you all... there's nothing that would possibly give away the holiday-ness of today except the package of 4th of July star-shaped Peeps on my table at home (thanks mom!). But that's ok because its another Friday!! Next week we have semester finals (the term ends July 25th but they like to do tests early here and get the grades to the kids before vacation), so all of the teachers have canceled their team teaching classes (they wouldn't want to actually let the kids listen to actual English so close to the test, now would they...?). I am therefore, free today. I had one very high energy 1st grade class this morning and I'll be spending 50 minutes with the "special kids" after lunch, but today is a pretty stress-free teaching day.

So now I'm whiling away the hours before leaving by stressing about last minute fuji packing issues. Do I take something to sleep in, do I take a book for the bus ride (then have to lug it up the mountain and down), do I want a winter hat, should I take a disposable camera (mine broke) or rely on Jaclyn and Tom's pictures and the silly ones I can take with my cell phone, and on and on. Fortunately there is a limit to the amount of stuff I can physically take, or I'd never be able to cut myself off. I'm really getting psyched about the trip. I've been monitoring the weather via the internet and so far it looks like it will be cloudy to partly cloudy. I hope that the clouds just stay high enough so that we don't climb into them and get drenched. Please think good weather thoughts for us!! As it turns out, Tom and I plan to start the climb from the bottom and then rest at the 8th station for food and some sleep then hike to the top for the sunrise- But the girls are attending a 4th of July bash (on the 5th) at the American Embassy and won't start climbing until late afternoon (from the 5th station)... so there's a good chance we won't see each other until we hit the top. Or down the other side. Should be interesting. There are rumors of cell phones working on the mountain, so we may be able to keep in contact that way. Who knows.. maybe I'll send out some e-mails from the top!! Check your inboxes.... ;)