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Journals from September 2004( Page :1 )
POSTED BY:
toque
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POSTED DATE :
27th September 2004
15:25 PM |
VISITED ON :
25th September 2004 |
"A wise man will climb Fuji. A fool will do it twice"
I guess that makes me a fool as I have now climbed Mount Fuji two times.
Setting out at the way to early hour of 3:30pm Bill, Jenny, Angela, Dan, Risa, myself and a Japanese fellow left for Shizuoka to climb the symbol of Japan. Dinner was eaten at a rest area along the toll highway and after a quick break and near mutiny at Lake Suwa we set off. Dan's group of Risa and the Japanese fellow were certain that hiking the north side would be better. I told them that the south side was shorter and as it was so early if they did the north side they would be on the summit well before midnight. South Side it was. Mutiny Averted.
We started hiking at 9:30 pm just taking it easy. Jenny didn't start out to well and the first few stations were very difficult but the view was amazing. We were really lucky for the ascent. We could see thousands of lights below us. Everyonce in a while there would be an explosion which Dan said was the military training however I thought it might be North Korea invading. Further up the mountain and after many long rest stops the clouds rolled in. We were above them for a while and it was interesting to see lightning flashes from above however lightning generally isn't a good sign when in the mountains. Getting close to the summit I went off ahead and upon getting to a station sat down to wait. Angela came up next surprisingly followed by Jenny who seemed to be doing great. But she wasn't wearing her backpack. Bill the gentleman that he is was carrying it on his chest. Reaching the 9.5 station (10 in total) the weather closed in and it started to drizzle. The temperature was pretty low as well. Probably around 5 celcius. Bill, Jenny, Angela and I sat down in a doorway and huddled under Angela's huge poncho for an hour waiting for the weather to get better. When it did we went for the summit reaching it at 3:30am in really thick and cold fog. We were all surprised to find nothing open at the top. It's only september people!!!!!!! We found a small overhang and once again huddled under the poncho trying to keep eachother warm waiting for the sun to come up. Risa was not doing to well and suffered a brief altitude sickness throwing up near where we were all sitting. She was also very very cold with uncontrolable shivering. Dan broke out his evergency blanket and she warmed right up. Wanting to warm up I went for a little walk among all the stores and found on the other side of a rock wall piles of new bells. It appears that they have fallen off of the walking sticks and instead of cleaning up the waste to take it off the mountain they were just dumped out of sight. I filled up my pockets and brought them back to everybody. Free bells. Yippee!!
Sunrise came and we were all still alive however it was just a change in the shades of gray. Bill and I went for a walk around the summit crater to bag the true summit. We started out with the girls however we had no idea where the trail went and they didn't want to get lost. Walking around the crater was kind of sad as there was waste everywhere. Old cement foundations, used car batteries and every other kind of waste imaginable. They had also taken down any signs so we were a little confused as to where the trail went. But as long as we stayed along the ridge I assumed we would eventually get back to the area we started. And we did. But we were able to get the highest point which was next to a huge ugly weather station. Climbing up a ladder I was able to get a few metres higher than the actual summit. Take that Japan.
Back at camp Dan and Risa were just packing up to go so we joined them and headed back down. Last time we were able to glissade most of the way however now that it is September the snow has long since vanished. I was surprised however to find that the trail down was quite a pleasent stroll. Mostly sand it was pretty easy to get a good pace going. We also dropped out of the clouds for a few minutes and got an amazing view with low clouds below us and high clouds above with the sun in the middle. Very beautiful. I made it back to the car in 2 hours and was shortly followed by Bill and then the ladies.
A quick Onsen and then it was back to the Yama-shi. We stopped at an British Pub in Matsumoto for a much needed lunch. And then we were back home. The drive was very difficult as I was very tired. I was in bed by 8:30 and I slept for 12 hours. Very nice.
To view photo's of this trip please send me an email and I will invite you to look at them at Ofoto.com |
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POSTED BY:
cheech
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POSTED DATE :
23rd September 2004
21:15 PM |
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Well still stuck in Sydney trying to plan my first trip to japan, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of things to do, places to ride?
planning on heading down in February,
wondering if anyone knew when the Toyota Big Air is on in Sapporo ( hear its on Feb 19th) and also when the Snow and Ice Festival is on in sapporo..
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POSTED BY:
toque
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POSTED DATE :
21st September 2004
11:35 AM |
VISITED ON :
19th September 2004 |
Into the Heart of the Beast
Matt is now back in the country so he came out to Takayama to sort through all his stuff which was in my apartment. After getting rid of papers and giving away lots of stuff we got all his possessions into my car and we set off into Tokyo. Both very much afraid of what we would encounter on the route into the Heart of the Beast.
A couple hours later we arrived at his apartment. Very anti climatic as it wasn't difficult at all. Getting all his stuff into his tiny little apartment I left him to unpack and went to my favorite part of Tokyo. The ski town. Into the first store I found the pair of skis I have been looking for. K2 Shuksans. A light and burly touring ski. And what's that Mr Japanese clerk? 50 percent off? But the price is already 20,000 yen. You mean that these skis are only 10,000 yen. That is correct. I didn't have to think twice about that. Bought a new pair of skis for really really cheap. I was so happy. But as it was my first store I didn't want to go back to Matt's apartment so carried my skis to all the other stores. I also found TGR's High Life for 800 yen which also found it's way into my hands. From what I saw in the stores I got the only deal. So many nice skis but so expensive. Now I just have to find Free Ride bindings and I'll be set for skis for quite some time.
But went back to Matt's where we had many beer and combini food. And then out on the town. We met up with Robin and Jenny at Space Lab Yellow and partied it up till the wee hours of the morning. On the way back to Matt's we were sitting on the train across from 3 asian people. Big surprise. I was stairing at the floor and saw one of the their backpacks. Looking at the lable it said MEC. Mountain Equipment Co-op? Are you Canadians? Turned out they were from Toronto and were on there way to the Fish Market. Why they wern't in bed still proved to be very very confusing for both Matt and I. But we made it back and slept. Not to much room in his apartment but I found a nice little spot on the floor. Lunch/Breakfast was at this really cool American place where we had the best and greasiest burgers ever. They were so good.
I delayed the ride home till 5 but figured I better leave soon or Tokyo will keep me forever. I was really nervous about driving out of the city by myself but with number 4 drilled into my mind I set off. It was really really easy with only 1 scare when an unmarked cop car came flying up behind me lights flashing and siren blaring but it sped by quickly. I was home in 5 hours.
But I think that with enough people in the car we could make a trip to Tokyo for cheaper than taking the bus. Will have to do that for sure because Dean seems to be moving there very soon. Tokyo here I come. |
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POSTED BY:
toque
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POSTED DATE :
13th September 2004
15:18 PM |
VISITED ON :
11th September 2004 |
On my vacation hike in August with Dan we where shut out from climbing Tsurugi due to time constraints. That mountain laughed at us for the entire trip making things much more difficult than they should have been. Well that's what we told ourselves at least.
So we planned a return to Tsurugi to get the monkey off our backs. We also invited Erik who is a first year in Gifu from Colorado. Both of them eventually cancelled and I was left alone for the trip. The weather didn't look good but I had to get out of town so I packed my tent, book and a tonne of food expecting to lay in my tent for the weekend waiting for the weather to clear.
Friday I left Takeyama by myself and amazingly made it to the Tateyama train station with little difficulty. I really had no ideas of where I was going but knew the general direction. I had brought my futon along and slept in the back of my car. It was actually very comfy although I might have to build something to make it more level. But I was able to stretch. This will be a certain option for the winter ski season. Up at 5:00 I was the first person in line to buy tickets to the Murodo Plain. I was the 1st in line because of the reason that the ticket window did not open till 6:00 and the first train was not till 6:40. Silly Matt. Tateyama is an amazing place however the cost of getting here makes this trip far less frequent. This area is a National Park although from the built up areas and thousands of people you would think you are in Tokyo. For over 10,000 yen you can travel by train, trolly, bus, electric bus, gondola, and then bus again all the way through the North alps from Toyama in the west to Nagano in the east. The electric trolly is in a tunnel cut right through Tateyama. It's a really amazing although very sad site. The only good thing about this transport route is that it stops private vehicles from getting in limiting the access a bit.
But anyways. When I got up there I quickly got ready and motored up the hill to the pass. I made it to my camp below Tsurugi in less than an hour and a half. After setting up camp and having a bite to eat I set off for tsurugidake. I took the lid off my pack and sinched it all up making a surprisingly good day bag. It was quite comfy. The route to the sub peak was nothing new as Dan and I had completed it 1 month before but after that it got really interesting. The final part to this climb is blocked by a vertical wall standing about 100 metres tall. There is both an up and down route to ease bottle necks and chains and foot pegs to help those along. I don't really trust the chains so climbed it all without touching them. It was by far the steepest and most exposed climbing I have ever done. I really loved it. The top was cloudy although I was happy to meet my Japanese friend Kijiro and his University friends. I had met Kijiro last year on the top of Yari and then hiked the dreaded Daikiretto with him and another gaijin. He told me he was going to be in the area before but I didn't think we would meet on the summit again. His group was from a University in Kyoto and it had taken them 5 hours to get to the top from the tent area. I had done it in 2. After a few pictures we all packed up and left. I went on ahead descending the tough part which was even more airy than the up part and lots of fun. I made it back to camp had my dinner and fell asleep laying on the rocks. A nice end to a great day. Kijiro's group came into camp nearly 6 hours after leaving the top. Very very very slow. A long day for them. While they were cooking dinner I went and talked to a Japanese girl I had met on the climb. She was from Nagoya and spoke pretty good english. It is really rare to see women in the mountains alone so I jumped at the chance to talk to her. While we were talking Kijiro came over with his Ukulele and Harmonica and played songs for us while the stars came out. I guess this is how it works seeing as I just started seeing a different girl in Takayama. But she went to bed shortly after and I joined Kijiro's group while they chatted after dinner. They quickly brought out the liquer which was Russian and 96 percent. Ouch. I tried a few sips straight. Far to strong. They were blowing fireballs with it. I could have run my stove off the stuff. But it was fun talking to them and I didn't get into bed till after 10.
I decided to sleep in and managed to stay asleep till 6 when I got up. It was very cold and I had to wear all my clothes and have a nalgene full of hot tea to warm me up. I finally got going around 8:30 and was down the mountain and on the bus out arriving at my car around 12. A really good time in the mountains.
To view photos of this trip email me at lucasmatt@gmail.com and I will send you a link to Ofoto.com |
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POSTED BY:
toque
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POSTED DATE :
6th September 2004
10:38 AM |
VISITED ON :
21st August 2004 |
After my big hike through the North Alps I needed a rest so Jenny and Robin invited me out to Nara and Kyoto for a little cultural sightseeing. This was my first JET sightseeing trip and I was very happy with it. One of the major reason for the trip though was to pick Bill up from the airport Sunday night as he was coming back from a month of vacations in both Hokaido and America. Saturday we checked out Nara wihch was great fun. I had been here before almost 10 years before. There are many deer to look at and a really big budda. My higlights of the temple area were feeding the deer and squeezing my foreigner body through a tiny hole that only kids were playing in. It is supposed to be good luck if you can get your body through the hole. I squeezed through listining to many sugois from th Japanese people around me. Lots of fun. After the temple we went to our hostel in Kyoto. This is the cleanest and best hostel I have ever been to. So nice. A quick clean and we went out for dinner and drinks. We ended up in the Red Light district as that is were the fun is while eating falloafas watched a lady step on a cockroach and saw numerous hookers standing around on the corners. Normal hookers in Japan look pretty trashy but I was surprised as these ones looked pretty nice. I was also very surprised to see a school girl uniform and all standing on one of the corners. We finished the night with beers in an English pub and ate fish and chips. Yummy.
Up early I went to McDonalds for some really tasty breakfast and saw a lot of police officers. Worried they were gaijin hunting I ate my breakfast and scurried back to the hostel. Telling Robin about my great McDonalds breakfast and Jenny and her made me go back for more. After my second breakfast we asked the police what was going on. We were instructed that the Emperor and Empress would be driving past shortly and they were security to block traffic. Sweet deal. We set up on the side of the road near many many old ladies and waited. We had turned into Royal watchers. After a few practice camera sessions we were ready. At precisly 10:45 the car came around the corner slowing down in our area. With window down the Emperor and Empress dorve past waving out the window. What an experience. |
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