Climbing Mount Fuji Part 1

Mount Fuji stands as the tallest mountain in Japan, measuring 12,388 feet from sea level. It's a currently dormant volcano, and it draws plenty of visitors during its open climbing season during July and August. When I knew I was going to study abroad in Japan, I also knew I was going to climb Mt. Fuji. Why are mountains put there? To climb, of course.


You might remember this picture of Mt. Fuji I took from the plane back in April.

Now I've had some mountain climbing experience, including Mt. Shavano in Colorado, which is actually 14,236 feet hight at age 14 with my Boy Scout troop. Now the thing about that trip was that we climbed it over a period of 2 days, and got to sleep in nice tents halfway up. That time, some of my friends got altitude sickness on the second day up to the peak. Some of the leaders stayed behind, and only half of us made it all the way to the top. Most recently, I scaled Half Dome which is 8842 feet in Yosemite on a dorm camping trip in 2004. We had to start pretty early in the morning, I think around 6 or 7 to be sure to make it down before dark. This time, the group also split, and half of us made it to the top while others didn't.

Back to Mt. Fuji. I figured since I was 14 years old when I climbed a 14er, and now since I'm now 21, I figured I could probably take on Mt. McKinley which is almost 21,000 feet. And Fuji-san (as they call it in Japanese) is only a mere 12,000 feet high or so. No sweat. I wasn't really worried though many of my friends who I was going to climb with were a little nervous after hearing stories from their co-workers and reading articles online. Out of everyone in the group, I'd say that Priscilla was the most gung-ho about climbing Fuji-san. So excited, in fact, that she wanted to climb it from the base of the mountain. Most people start climbing Fuji from "gogo-me" meaning the 5th station, which is really already 2/3 up the mountain. But I'm always looking for a challenge and since Priscilla's determination never wavered, we ended up leaving about 8 hours before the others to climb from the base and meet everyone else at the 5th station. My main mistake at this time, I realized was that I had gotten very little sleep before. We were going to climb starting Saturday morning, and Since Thursday night, I had gotten a total of only 8 or 9 hours in those 2 nights before climbing. How long would I last?

So Priscilla and I caught a series of trains beginning at 7am, and we made it to Fujiyoshida around 10:30 or so. We should have taken a direct train there from Shinjuku station but we didn't know about it. Upon arriving at the station, Priscilla had the foresight to find the information center where we got some very, very useful maps of Mt. Fuji and the different trails, along with time estimates for each section. We loaded up on a few groceries inside of the big shopping center. I felt weird inside such a commercial area as I was about to begin hiking a mountain. In the States, you usually drive your car to some trailhead in the middle of nowhere, park, and go. But since most people use public transportation, our hike began at the train station. We walked along the streets until we finally reached a cedar forest where the shrine stands, marking the beginning of the pilgrimmage of climbing Mt. Fuji.


Priscilla and I at the shrine at the base.


We explore the shrine for a bit, and then find the trail behind it, which actually begins as a paved road. Eventually, there is a parallel walking path right next to the road which is better, but sometimes through the trees you can still see the road, which kind of ruins the atmosphere, in my opinion. Around this time, it starts raining. I laugh a little as we put on our raincoats, saying it's better that the whole group didn't start here at the bottom. In less than an hour though, the rain lets up, thankfully, and we continue our hike through the green forested areas. I had gotten so used to the buzz of crowds and concrete while working in Tokyo, that this was a very welcome atmosphere, and I almost forgot I was still in Japan. As we're resting at one of the substations and talking in English, this Japanese looking guy (Note: If you're Asian and you're in Japan, you look Japanese) asks us do you guys speak English. We tell him we're students from America, and in fact, so is he. Will, as he introduces himself to us, even happens to work at the same company as our classmate Jerry, who is among the group that we're meeting at the 5th station later that day. Talk about coincidences. So now in a group of 3 we keep hiking, passing through the broken-down and decrepit stations 1 - 4.

The look kind of like barns, or perhaps an old house or shed that's been abandonded for a few decades, with the wood rotting, and many boards out of place and falling apart. Still, each station is marked with a small wooden sign, and helps guide us on the well-marked trail up to the 5th station. The trail get gradually steeper as we approach the 5th station, but still nothing that difficult. We end up reaching the station at around 5:30 and I text my friends who are on their way (Yes, cell phones work pretty much anywhere on Mount Fuji - even at the peak) and they say they'll be there in about an hour.We eat some Ramen at one of the many (maybe 5-6) restaurants at the 5th station. It's pretty commercial for being 2/3 up a mountain. As the sun goes down, the rest of the group arrives and we prepare our gear, stretch, and take some pictures.


Our group at the 5th station.

At this point we're pretty psyched. Lots of adrenaline running especially for those who have been sitting down on buses or trains for the last 3 hours. Everyone is eager to go. Well, except me and Priscilla. We weren't super tired from the morning hike, but definitely weren't 100%. Personally, at this point I can tell I'm suffering from mild dehydration already which is why I ordered soup and I kept drinking. I should have drank more. You can never have enough water. Nevertheless, once everyone is set, we start off around 7:30pm. I try to pace us, since we don't want to get to the top too early, I said. But in reality, I wasn't sure what kind of pace I could keep up with myself. My legs were fine, but when I walked, I was feeling lightheaded and a slight headache which was emphasized with sudden movements. Still, I figured I could think pretty logically, and I tried to calculate how long it would take us to get to the top. I put us on an admittedly leisurely pace. I figured, you don't want to get too tired at the bottom and run out of gas by the time you get near the top. We pass by the 6th station and take some water breaks in between. At first, the crowds are rather small and we're not sharing the trail with too many people at once.

The terrain is pretty much all rock. At the beginning it's not so steep at all, and the gravel is pretty shallow so there's minimal slipping. Still, I'm wary of pushing myself too hard, and I soon finish the one liter of water I brought along with me. I was carrying more water earlier in the day and finished it, and I decided I'd rather pay the exorbitant prices charged on the mountain for water, considering my current condition, and I'd make things a lot easier since I would be carrying significantly less. Water at this point costs about 300 yen ($3) for half a liter. It was already 200 yen at the 5th station.


Yummy trail mix, thanks to Wei!


I'll stop here for now. Check out some pictures, and look for the rest of the story very soon.

Update: For Part 2 scroll up or click here.

New Employee Party

On Friday, the development team here at Cybozu had welcome party for new employees. Besides me, they've hired 2 other developers in the last month or so. We ate some Okinawan food. They still called it nabe, which was a mixture of meat and veggies in soup that you heat up yourself on a hot pot in the middle of the table. Some of was . . interesting, but overall pretty tasty. They brought out a few extra dishes periodically, but I didn't get to take pictures of all of them, oddly enough.


A big hotpot of nabe.


Yes, all you eat in Japan is vegetables.


My friend Kamura and I.


Around the table.

It's pretty different hanging out with my co-workers outside of work. In the office, it's all business. Of course we don't really talk that much because I'm not fluent in Japanese, but even with each other, it seems like they only talk about work at work. Then again, since I really can't understand all of what there saying anyway, what do I know?

But especially after most of them have been drinking and relax, they become a lot more outgoing. Plenty of people who I see all the time at work but have never spoken to, finally introduced themselves and talked to me. Some even try to speak English. Don't get me wrong here, some of them are quite good at it, but then again, some just . . aren't. I know I can't say that much in Japanese, but sometimes it's easier to talk to me in Japanese if you can only say one English word every 10 seconds. I'm not complaining too much though.

Still though, this is one of the only times I've gotten to hang out with co-workers outside of work. I don't know why, but everyone here works so hard. I mean I do to, when they let me (another story), but I don't want to spend all day at the office. I get there at 9, have an hour for lunch, and leave between 6 and 7. Most people are already there when I arrive in the morning, and it always seems like I'm the first of all 150 employees to leave in the afternoon. That's what it specified in my contract, and if I don't have any pressing work that needs to get done, I usually go home and cook dinner. I hear most people are here till about 8pm, which I think is a little ridiculous. I mean they don't even have their own gourmet chef like Google. Others stay even later. And what's kind of sad is when I ask them what their weekend plans are, and they tell me they'll be in the office. This isn't always true, but for some of them it is. I'd say the average commute for them is about one hour each way on the trains. Which means they have to leave before 8am, and they don't get home till after 9pm. I suppose they are the leading groupware development company of Japan, so it makes sense that a successful company has hardworking employees. But when I "grow up," I think I can work hard, be successful, AND have a life outside of work.

Just smile and nod.

Since this just happened like 5 minutes ago and I'm on my lunch break, I figured I'd make a quick post. Normally at work I just kinda sit at my own desk and program by myself, occasionally asking my mentor some questions. I've been interacting more with people since I got a new assignment that put it in a larger team. The problem is that most of these people don't really speak English. At first, the people I talked to most knew pretty good English because they worked or studied in America before. Though I usually spoke Japanese, when it got to tough technical vocabulary I usually had to resort to English. But with my new project, it's been tough to figure out exactly what they want me to do, and to ask my very specific and slightly nuanced questions in Japanese.

My lack of language ability was just demonstrated to me when one of the computer technicians came by and started spouting off some Japanese to me. He had a clipboard in his hand and was looking at my computer's serial number. I figured he was doing some kind of hardware registration check. He asks me a question (I can tell from his intonation more than from the actual words he uses) and points at my monitor. He says the name of the groupware program that we make and also use, so I open it up. Apparently he sent out a company wide e-mail this morning telling us to download this utility and run it. Of course, I get maybe 10-15 of these e-mails a day and they're all in Japanese, so by now I've given up on trying to read them, and focus on the ones that are just sent to me.

He points at the monitor. I click. Then I just let him have the mouse. Easier that way. I run this utility program, it spits out a few numbers and other data that he jots down, and then it finishes, leaving this nifty window open that I have no idea how to close. He says some more things to me, I just smile and nod. He's like "daijoubu?" (Is it okay?) I just answer back with the same question, "Daijoubu?" (I have no clue, is it okay? He answers "Daijoubu" (it's okay), maybe because he already knows I can't understand anything else. Haha. Don't worry, it's all daijoubu.


Here's a screenshot of my desktop with that cool utility program running and the groupware program in the background. I'm not sure what the icon is, looks like a yellow cartoon ghost wearing a police helmet and carrying a set of padlocks. Beats me. Any of my more Japanese literate friends are welcome to help me out with translation.

Earthquakes, Typhoons and Humidity, oh my

You never really know what to expect here in Tokyo I suppose. On Saturday Adam and I were playing Frozen Throne in my apartment when all of a sudden we feel this shaking. He's like quit shaking the table man, and I'm like I'm not. Then we pause the game realizing that its a freaking earthquake. I've never been in an earthquake before, so I was kinda like hey this is cool. But I was quickly rebuked and sobered realizing that serious earthquakes can be disatrous. We look outside the window as my apartment building is swaying side to side, and people are all looking around, we see some guy get off his bike. Finally it stops. No major damage to my area. But we were luckily pretty far from the epicenter. It was a 5.7 on the Richter scale and 5 people were injured.

It was pretty scary, considering that Tokyo is bracing for the Big One, since it's due for a disatrous earthquake like the one that hit Kobe in 1995, killing 64,000 people. The worst part for me was that it stopped all the trains and subways. You see, unlike America where we always drive cars, pretty much everyone here uses public transporation. And there's literally no other way to get around besides walking, biking or super-expensive taxis. Because of the quake all the trains were shut down for a few hours, stranding me at home unable to go to this fireworks festival I was planning to go to. It was pretty frustrating, but instead Adam and I hung out some more since he couldn't go home either. We saw this Taiko performance going on across the street and watched for awhile - he was even able to play some which was cool since he hasn't played in a long time. Then we played this goldfish catching game with some little kids. I ended up taking about 4 of them home. Some tried to jump out and died, so I put the rest in my bathtub, which was interesting. I finally got a little glass bowl for the remaining survivor, and some fish food. Still deciding on a name.

Anyway then yesterday we were hit by a typhoon which wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. It just rained pretty hard all day - I've seen much worse back home in Houston. The same goes for the heat and humidity - yeah unpleasant - but about the same as in Houston. I have lots of pictures to post still, so keep your eyes open for those. In the meantime here are some pictures from the weekend before last:


From the Osaka Aquarium.


Kids marching in the Gion Matsuri parade.


One of the floats.


Some kids playing in a stream.

Me + Hydrogen = ?

Here's a funny link I saw:

Stanford project mixes Darwin with hydrogen

Hmmm... in other news - look at my new photostream at flickr:

I cooked dinner for the first time this week. Fun fun. And work is okay. I finished my first project and gave a presentation on it, but they haven't really decided what to do with me next. So I'm just waiting...

Here's from last weekend's Gion Matsuri when I went back to Kyoto:




Yay for the mini SCTI reunion!

More pictures!