It is natural that we all fall in the cliché that the most interesting countries are in Europe, I was one of those persons, I had never really a desire of traveling to Asia. Japan never called my attention, first, since I heard is such an expensive country and second because the culture never seemed interesting to me, in fact things that are the most attractive to me from European countries are the calmness of their streets and how crowds are not so overwhelming. Japan on the other hand is overcrowded and everywhere you go there is a circus.
The first day I arrived there I took a bus from Kansai Airport to Kehihana plaza, it was a 45 minutes ride and it was until I got in the car of Yanagida-san that I noticed that they drive on the left.
When you walk on the mall and you have to take the escalator you have to stand on the left and those that want to walk have to do it on the right! However in Osaka things are flipped and you still drive on the left, but on the escalator you stand on the right.
As soon as you enter a restaurant you will hear a wave of Irashaimassen’s to come from all directions, a tiny little girl will come and offer you a sit, and when you finish giving your order she will start yelling something in a tone of voice that could brake glass and that will make the already over crowded place even louder.
You will not be able to find a bar where you just sit and drink like you find in so many other countries unless is specifically designed for Gaijin’s, Japanese drink while they eat, and without noticing it you will be stuffing your face with Edamame, Foraid Potatoes, Raw Fish and other dishes as strange as you can imagine.
You will see teenagers dancing on the street but while they watch the loudness of their speakers, they will wear strange attires and have even stranger hair cuts, but watch out if you stare too much you may be stopped by an undercover police man (Justin and I did, though we got rid of him by showing him our ATR Library card, ha!). On Tokyo streets you will find people on the streets of Shibuya passed out on the floor while police is just around the corner. You can buy a beer and have it on your way home without breaking any laws.
Karaoke’s are one of the weirdest places in the world, quiet people will turn them selves into a version of Mr. Hyde with a couple of beers and sing with all the strength of their lungs. Even stranger one as a foreigner will find yourself immersed in the enormous book that is the guide of the songs and surprise yourself to find something in your own language (Spanish in my case).
Parties are not the exception in terms of crowd, I had to host around 50 people in my tiny little flat, that of course was a lot of fun. Fun activities are quiet different from those in the US, while back here the intention of a party is to get drunk and hook up with somebody, in Japan is to laugh, and meet each other, drunkenness comes afterwards.
The colors of the streets, the merge of traditional and high tech. Teenagers dressed in traditional costumes, the clerk that bows every time you stop by his shop. The police man that watches out that the garbage is thrown away in the right dates. The yelling in an Izacaya. The other clerk that sits right in front of you when you are trying shoes. The ticket dispenser that is more polite than the machines back at home. The microwave sings when it finishes its cycle. Friends go beyond work to personal life.
Conclusion, Japan is upside down … and I can’t wait to go back.
Friday, August 20, 2004
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Fuji san
Around a dozen people have told me how magnificient the view from Fuji-san was, how worthy will all those hours of walk would be once I saw the sunrise from the top of the mountain, everybody was excited for me, but nobody could prepare for what it was about to happen.
In the morning of my last weekend in Japan I woke up rather early and did the last cleaning on my appartment, that appartment that hosted a good amount of reunions and parties, it was sad to leave a place full of 2 months of stories. I was already 20 minutes late when I started to come out with all my bags which I had the intention to leave at Mickael’s for the weekend before I moved to Kyoto for the last days when I met him and Erwand at the stairs, they helped me to bring them down and take them to the other appartment.
The two french and me took the train towards Kyoto where our station was supposed to be and after wondering a few we hoped in the bus towards Gotenda station on the east side of Mount Fuji, however we decided to climb the west side and took another train towards Fujinomiya station just to sadly find out that we were late for the last bus to the base camp at the mountain, our bad luck had just started.
While we were waiting for the taxi to take us to the 5th station (or base camp) we noticed to weather was overcast, that should have been a signal but we ignored it and instead kept our decision of climbing the Mountain.
At 9.30 pm we were all prepared with snacks, water, aquarius (a drink similar to gatorade) sweaters, hand gloves and a very thin poncho. The journey was more like a steep hike than a climb, a dance of flashlight could be seen at any point, while walking we could hear so many different lanaguages, in stops when we get to talk to some Indonesians, Mongolians, Chinese and so many nationalities that I cant remember.
On the 3rd station I had to change my clothes since they were so wet of sweat and weather humidity but the journey turned out to be easier than I thought, after 5 hours of hiking a snickers bar, some lembas bread (oficially Calorie Mate) we got to the top of the mountain. About 2 meters before the summit I met with Mickael and Erwand who were 5 minutes ahead of me, the weather had started to get worse, a thin rain and a hard cold was on top of us, they were guarding themselves behind a rock, I did likewise and tried to sleep. A few moments later Erwand took off and went to the top to wait for the sunrise, that was the beginning of our disgrace.
Fifteen minutes have passed and the cold was growing and the rain was tighter every minute, not to count that trying to sleep on rock is not the very comfortable. Mickael and I agreed that we should do likewise Ewrand and try to find shelter in the summit, a few rock houses the post office and a crowd of people was what I could barely see in the rain, the flashlights were almost useless, the fog was too heavy and we couldn’t see anything 5 meters from our faces.
After a few minutes of unsuccesfully trying to fall asleep we gave up, now the noise, the fog, the rain, the cold and sometimes the ice was unbearable, I found Mickael spazing in one corner.
- We have to go! –I said.
- But the sunrise …
- There wont be any sunrise for us, it is too cloudy, we wont see anything, besides is 4.00 am already and we cant see in front of our faces.
- We have to find Ewrand then. –Mickael pointed out.
We spent around 30 minutes looking for him unsuccesfully, which was improvable since the area of the summit was so small, so we took a hard decision, leave him behind. We started to climb down around 4.30 am, the supposed hour of sunrise, the sun never showed its face to us.
A few after starting to climb down Micakel stopped and started to vomit, he complained about a headache and stared at me like barely knowing where he was or what was he doing.
-I have to climb down.
-I know, but take it easy, you have a problem with air pressure, you have to climb slowly.
-I have to climb down now. –He mumbled.
-Ok, but take it slow.
He never took my advice and started to climb down faster than I could. After 2 hours and me finally catching up with him we fond our selves in the middle of a sand pit, the rope that was supposed to be our guide was gone, and a sole symbol with an arrow and the message “Gotenda station” was our only guide. After 20 minutes of walking Mickael was too fast for me and I found my self in the middle of a sea of sand, black and rocky, completely alone with no guiding rope, a dense fog surrounding me and ice hitting on my face, I started to panic. I kept walking and walking down hill I could see nothing, for an hour the only hope I had was that going downhill I should get somewhere. My knees started to crack, a few minutes later I was in a lot of pain but no other option to keep walking.
Three hours and thirty minutes of non-stop walking was the journey down the mountain, finally I caught up with Mickael and we phoned Erwand. Onsen, clean clothes and we were back in Takanohara by 8.00 pm. In pain, tired, sick was the result of our long journey to Fuji-san, he didn’t defeat us, but he surely beat the crap out of us.
In the morning of my last weekend in Japan I woke up rather early and did the last cleaning on my appartment, that appartment that hosted a good amount of reunions and parties, it was sad to leave a place full of 2 months of stories. I was already 20 minutes late when I started to come out with all my bags which I had the intention to leave at Mickael’s for the weekend before I moved to Kyoto for the last days when I met him and Erwand at the stairs, they helped me to bring them down and take them to the other appartment.
The two french and me took the train towards Kyoto where our station was supposed to be and after wondering a few we hoped in the bus towards Gotenda station on the east side of Mount Fuji, however we decided to climb the west side and took another train towards Fujinomiya station just to sadly find out that we were late for the last bus to the base camp at the mountain, our bad luck had just started.
While we were waiting for the taxi to take us to the 5th station (or base camp) we noticed to weather was overcast, that should have been a signal but we ignored it and instead kept our decision of climbing the Mountain.
At 9.30 pm we were all prepared with snacks, water, aquarius (a drink similar to gatorade) sweaters, hand gloves and a very thin poncho. The journey was more like a steep hike than a climb, a dance of flashlight could be seen at any point, while walking we could hear so many different lanaguages, in stops when we get to talk to some Indonesians, Mongolians, Chinese and so many nationalities that I cant remember.
On the 3rd station I had to change my clothes since they were so wet of sweat and weather humidity but the journey turned out to be easier than I thought, after 5 hours of hiking a snickers bar, some lembas bread (oficially Calorie Mate) we got to the top of the mountain. About 2 meters before the summit I met with Mickael and Erwand who were 5 minutes ahead of me, the weather had started to get worse, a thin rain and a hard cold was on top of us, they were guarding themselves behind a rock, I did likewise and tried to sleep. A few moments later Erwand took off and went to the top to wait for the sunrise, that was the beginning of our disgrace.
Fifteen minutes have passed and the cold was growing and the rain was tighter every minute, not to count that trying to sleep on rock is not the very comfortable. Mickael and I agreed that we should do likewise Ewrand and try to find shelter in the summit, a few rock houses the post office and a crowd of people was what I could barely see in the rain, the flashlights were almost useless, the fog was too heavy and we couldn’t see anything 5 meters from our faces.
After a few minutes of unsuccesfully trying to fall asleep we gave up, now the noise, the fog, the rain, the cold and sometimes the ice was unbearable, I found Mickael spazing in one corner.
- We have to go! –I said.
- But the sunrise …
- There wont be any sunrise for us, it is too cloudy, we wont see anything, besides is 4.00 am already and we cant see in front of our faces.
- We have to find Ewrand then. –Mickael pointed out.
We spent around 30 minutes looking for him unsuccesfully, which was improvable since the area of the summit was so small, so we took a hard decision, leave him behind. We started to climb down around 4.30 am, the supposed hour of sunrise, the sun never showed its face to us.
A few after starting to climb down Micakel stopped and started to vomit, he complained about a headache and stared at me like barely knowing where he was or what was he doing.
-I have to climb down.
-I know, but take it easy, you have a problem with air pressure, you have to climb slowly.
-I have to climb down now. –He mumbled.
-Ok, but take it slow.
He never took my advice and started to climb down faster than I could. After 2 hours and me finally catching up with him we fond our selves in the middle of a sand pit, the rope that was supposed to be our guide was gone, and a sole symbol with an arrow and the message “Gotenda station” was our only guide. After 20 minutes of walking Mickael was too fast for me and I found my self in the middle of a sea of sand, black and rocky, completely alone with no guiding rope, a dense fog surrounding me and ice hitting on my face, I started to panic. I kept walking and walking down hill I could see nothing, for an hour the only hope I had was that going downhill I should get somewhere. My knees started to crack, a few minutes later I was in a lot of pain but no other option to keep walking.
Three hours and thirty minutes of non-stop walking was the journey down the mountain, finally I caught up with Mickael and we phoned Erwand. Onsen, clean clothes and we were back in Takanohara by 8.00 pm. In pain, tired, sick was the result of our long journey to Fuji-san, he didn’t defeat us, but he surely beat the crap out of us.
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