My last day in Japan

Order of events:

6:30 Wake up and start packing immediately

6:45 Realize that everything is not going to fit into my suitcases, even though I sent many of my things in boxes to Canada

6:50 Skype with my mom who confirms that my best option is to send another box

7:00 Start preparing box while continuing to pack my luggage (weighing every 5 minutes to make sure my luggage wasn't overweight)

8:00 Breakfast

9:00 Finish preparing box and luggage

10:00 Go to post office to send box

Filling out the necessary documentation to send the box (address, contents, estimated value)

11:00 Eat lunch (Reiko prepared a beautiful lunch)

Reiko even created a heart-shaped egg

12:00 Take bus to airport with Shigenori (my dad's friend)

And said goodbye to Reiko who couldn't come to the airport

14:30 Arrive at airport

14:30 - 15:00 Stand in line for the Air Canada counter

15:00 Drop of my luggage, get my boarding pass

15:30 Meet up with my roommate Anzu, who came all the way to the airport to see me off

16:00 Eat delicious sundaes

16:00 - 17:00 Talking, chatting, laughing, smiling : )

17:00 Go through security and walk to gate

17:30 Board plane

18:20 Take off

Picture taken as starting to descend towards Vancouver



First to last

When I arrived in Japan, almost everything was a first. First time going to a hot spring, first time practicing with the Tokai Judo Women's Team, first time living on my own... everything was new and exciting.

But now, everything I do is "a last". My last time visiting a hot spring, my last time seeing my roommate, my last time drinking Pocari Sweat and Calpis Water (two drinks I've grown fond of). It feels sad but at the same time, I'm really excited to go back home and hug my parents and brother. I even want to hug our cat. : p And of course, I can't really say it's my last time doing all those things because I am 100% sure that I am coming to Japan again in a few years. But it's my last time... for a little while.

I felt a bit sad leaving the L-Kan (the residence where I lived for a year). It was like a second home. I had my favorite shower... and washroom... and washing machine. My roommate and I had decorated our room and made it ours. It was also my first time living on my own, away from my parents. So evidently, I did quite some growing up there, cooking and doing all my laundry on my own. I'll miss my roommate most of all. We had quite a lot of laughs and funny incidents in that room.

But I am also not sad to be leaving the L-Kan... because of the spiders. During my whole year, I only saw a few, but during my last week, I saw as many as four HUGE spiders in the shower room. I swear, they were about the size of my hand. And of course, I had to be the one to find them.... and one of them, on the morning of my last day! I mean, come on! My roommate joked that they came out to say goodbye... : (

My room back to how it was when I first arrived at the residence

My roommate Anzu (left) and I

Conquering Mount Fuji!

The first thing I'll say about climbing Mount Fuji is... that I'm not sure I ever want to climb it again. Not that it wasn't worth it. The sunrise at the top of the mountain was incredible. But it's a long and tiring way up. And climbing it once in a lifetime is enough according to me... and my body.

Warning: LOTS of pictures ahead! Probably the most picture-loaded post I've ever written. But you won't be disappointed because they're awesome pictures!

We left the dorm early at 6:30 am on Monday morning.

Geared up and ready to climb

Arriving at Fujinomiya Station

We took the train to Fujinomiya, and then a bus to get to the Fujinomiya 5th Station. That's where we started climbing. As you can see in the map below, there are different trails that lead to the top. We chose the Fujinomiya trail on the way up and Subashiri Trail on the way down.

The Fujinomiya Trail is the blue trail

Starting off at the 5th station

The first day (Monday), we made it up until the 9.5th station. At first, we were motivated and the climb wasn't too difficult. I think we made it to the 7th station with only 2 breaks. Then, from the 7th to the 9.5th, the climb got steeper and steeper and we took breaks about every 10-15 minutes to rest our legs and breathe properly again.

It was hard. The terrain were dangerous and you could easily fall if you placed your foot on the wrong foothold. Or twist your ankle. Or hit your head on a rock as you fell. Lots of ways to injure yourself if you weren't careful. But we climbed slowly and tried to choose the safest paths.

Steep...

And steeper...

Taking a short break

What surprised me was that kids as young as 4-5 years old and men and women that seem to be about 60 years old or older were also climbing Mt. Fuji. It kind of motivated me and I tried to hide my panting when we passed them. If they can do it, then I can too. That's what I told myself a couple of times when the going got tough.

When we arrived at the 9.5th station, we checked into a small mountain hut, what they call a yamagoya in Japanese. It's really just a place to sleep, not to do anything else. We couldn't even brush our teeth. And we slept in a room full of other people we didn't know.

This is the mountain hut at the 9.5th station,
where we slept for about 8hrs before climbing again

The room where everyone slept all together

View from the 9.5th station (at around 6 pm)

After sleeping for a few hours, we woke up around 2 a.m. and got dressed into warm clothes, installed our flashlights and started climbing again. It was so dark! During the day, when the sun was high up in the sky, the going was dangerous but at least we could see. This morning, when we started climbing, it took us a lot more time because we couldn't see beyond what our flashlights lit up. But slowly, steadily, with a few breaks, we made it to the top at around 3:00 a.m. And then... we had to wait. The sun only came out around 5:00 so during 2 hours, we froze our butts off. The wind was strong and there's no place to hide from the wind at the top of the mountain. So we huddled closely together and sang some songs to distract ourselves.

My roommate Anzu with her headlight

Finally, the sky slowly started showing tints of pink, yellow, and orange. And about 30 min later, out came the sun!

Starting to come out

With my roommate Anzu

Amazing view!

We did it! We climbed to the top of Mt. Fuji and saw the sunrise!!!

Then we started our descent. Going down was much easier than going up but it was still tricky and dangerous at times. The trail we took to go down (Subashiri Trail) was made mostly of soft sand so we kind of "slid" our way down. There were still a lot of rocks here and there so you had to be careful. I think I fell about 5 times along the way because I slipped on some rocks but fortunately, they weren't hard falls because of the sand. In total, it only took us 1h45 minutes to go down while it took us 3h04 minutes to go up (breaks not included).

Kage Fujisan: Mt. Fuji's shadow

Another surprising thing is that I had great phone connectivity up on Mt. Fuji. I even sent a picture of the sunrise from my phone to my parents and grandmother when we were up at the very top.

Finally, after taking the bus and the train, we arrived home. I immediately took a shower because we hadn't been able to wash ourselves the night before. My face, feet, and skin were full of sweat and sand and dust. It felt so good to take a shower. Then, later, my roommate and I went to a hot spring bath and that also felt like heaven.

I can now say that I climbed Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan! But I would never have been able to do it without my roommate Anzu. She's climbed it twice before so she reserved the mountain hut, she lent me hiking shoes, and organized the transportation to the climbing site. And we pushed each other when we got tired. If I had climbed alone... well, I would have probably given up halfway. It's so much more fun to climb with a friend. So again, thank you Anzu!

Fireworks in Hiratsuka

Yesterday, my roommate and I took the bus to Hiratsuka city to see the fireworks display. We watched the fireworks from the beach, along with probably hundreds other people.

There were lots of women wearing pretty yukatas, (the simpler and lighter version of a kimono). And so were we : )

Two pretty ladies : my roommate Anzu (left) and me

I think I still have to master how to wear the yukata. It's definitely not as complicated as a kimono but not easy either. My roommate struggled about 15 minutes just to try to tie a bow in the back. But with her yukata, there was no need to tie a bow. Nowadays, most people buy already-made bows that you simply stick in the back.

The fireworks lasted for about an hour. It was quite spectacular. There were a few breaks in between of course to prepare the next round but it was almost non-stop.

Waiting for the bus

I'm so lucky to have Anzu as my roommate. Without her, I never would have known about the fireworks, or even how to get there. So thank you Anzu!

Cleaning with a purpose

So I just learned that my new roommate's luggage will be arriving this Saturday (Feb 4th) and the roommate herself will be moving in next Tuesday (Feb 7th). Her name is Anzu Funayama and as you probably guessed by the name, she is Japanese. Which is good for me because I get to practice my Japanese : )

Since my last roommate left, my belongings kind of slowly made their way on to the other unused bed. I like to spread out because I think I am a bit claustrophobic. I don't like having lots of papers or objects cluttered on my desk because it prevents me from thinking clearly and working effectively. So instead of putting things away, I've been putting them on the other bed instead. But now, I have to clear that bed for the new roommate.

I think humans are wired to work more efficiently when there is a deadline or a certain incentive to get the job done. Before I learnt that my new roommate was coming, I had started to clear up the other bed but was doing so very slowly. I wasn't in any rush. But now, because there is actually someone coming, I've accelerated my pace lol. I now have only a few papers to put in order. My side of the room is pretty much all used up. All my shelves and closet space are being used. It's really amazing how much you can accumulate in just a short amount of time.

I'm excited to meet my new roommate. The room feels a bit empty ever since my previous roommate left. Hopefully we'll get along. There's always this fear when you meet someone for the first time, whether or not you'll get along with the other person. And because we'll be living together in the same room for almost half a year, it's much better if we do happen to get along. I'll keep you posted!

Kamakura

The day after Christmas, my roommate Moe and I had decided to visit Kamakura together. As said before in my blog, my roommate is going to Canada (specifically to Vancouver) to study English at University of British Columbia. She'll be leaving at the beginning of January so before she leaves, we wanted to spend a little time together.

The morning of, I left for the station and took the train to Shinyurigaoka. The night before, Kenzo (one of the Iwasa's sons) had explained to me which trains I should take in order to get to Fujisawa. After arriving at Shinyurigaoka I checked the screen for the 9:20 train which I had been told to take. The only train at that time was the Limited Express Romance Car. So I imagined that was the train Kenzo had meant for me to take. So I boarded the Romance Car. The Romance Car is the Odakyu line's fastest express train. And the most comfortable as well. Not long after we left the station, a man in uniform came walking through the alley to verify our tickets. Uh-oh... I didn't have a ticket. So I explained to him that I had made a mistake and that I had boarded the wrong kind of train. He understood right away but then asked me to pay 700 yen (about 8 $) for a ticket.

Then, when we arrived at Sagami-Ono, they announced that the train would be separated. Cars 1 through 6 would be going to Hakone, and cars 7 through 10 to Katase-Enoshima (the direction I wanted to go). At that time, I was sitting in car number 2. So I had to walk all the way to car number 7. Ouf! I'm just glad I paid attention to the announcements. Usually, I just tune it all out because it's information I already know. But if I hadn't listened to it that day, I would have gone in a complete different direction.

So, I met up with Moe in Fujisawa, where we took another train to get to Kamakura, our final destination. And in Kamakura, we spent the whole day walking around, visiting various shrines, taking pictures (see below) and climbing lots and lots of stairs. One day is definitely not enough to see everything there is to see. And in the spring and summer, it's even more beautiful to see because all the flowers are blooming so I'm planning to go back around that time.

Here are some pictures, but of course, I couldn't upload them all.

the train station in Fujisawa

The two upper middle masks (the geisha mask and funny looking man mask) are the exact same masks
that we have hanging on a wall back home so I had to take a picture

o-mamori: people write down their prayers or wishes on these pieces of wood (many of the people hoped for a successful entrance examination, which is very important in Japan to enter university)

The Great Buddha of Kamakura: very impressive. We were able to see the interior as well because there is a hollow part on the side from which people can enter.

I'm not exactly sure whose shoes these are...

That was my last time seeing Moe before she goes to Canada. Good luck in Canada Moe! : D