Mount Fluji

The past 2 weeks are almost entirely a blur, but what I can tell you is that both Lisa and I have contracted what I've christened "Fuji Flu" which causes coughing, sneezing and an intense desire to never climb a mountain again ever. The symptoms are probably to be expected, considering we spent most of the climb being buffeted by torrents of wind and rain; these dropped the temperature to a level you'd normally associate with being inside eating marshmallows, rather than scrabbling over slippery rocks 3km above the earth's surface. Once we had collapsed in ruin into our seats on the bus, we flicked through the photos we'd taken from our holiday and found it hard to imagine that it had all taken place in the same 5 day period. Lots and lots of things happened - let's see if I can't start from the beginning.

Don't quit your day job

The chequered flag fell on Friday and I roared over the line in about 7th place, ready to shrug in disinterest and start the best bit of work - not going there. This time it's going to be done in style - we've picked up our Fuji climbing tickets, our rental boots and wet weather gear are on their way and in about 1 week, we'll be wondering what the hell we were thinking. Until then though it's as much of nothing as possible; the only hiking we're going to be doing is between beer joints and roller coasters.

And four beers, thanks

I don't know if it was the daily beers, the constant meals out, no-money poisoning or all of the above, but I am mentally all over the road at the moment; I find my mind drifting constantly. Japan is well and truly Narnia-like, I said to myself as I drifted off last night. The only problem is that rather than grand adventuring with Aslan, I seem content to sit on the couch and drink cups of tea - I tut and draw the curtains on all the centaurs and magic. Is this amazing world behind the wardrobe that few people ever discover wasted on me? Probably. Now get out of the way, I can't see the TV.

No rest for the wicked

Due to some no doubt ominous aligning of the planets this morning, I had to wake up about 5 hours earlier than I’m used to and saw the sun rise as I walked down to the station. This was not the kind of thing you’d see on a Nike/Sports by Brooks/Boost Juice ad – there was no triumphant fist pumping or spinning around with arms skyward in a gesture of how much of a free spirit I was. It was bleary eyes, bed head and generally lots of things that said I don’t want to get up at 5am again. That said, I am now on a bus – blogging on one should be an interesting experience. I apologise in advance for any surreal images that my omelette-ised brain may conjure.

...BLOG BUS!

The dumpling king, a tale in 2 parts (Part 2)

We left off our tale "last week" with Dave having just arrived, me wondering how I was going to last the week without squeaking to a halt like an unoiled tin-man and you unsure as to what "the dumpling king" refers to. Now that the lads have finished their whirlwind trip (Dave having bid farewell and left for Tokyo this morning), I'm sitting in what now seems to be a very empty, lonely apartment; it seems like a good time to conclude the tale. Theirs weren't the only goodbyes this week, as you will see.

Golden!

Golden Week is, as I'm sure I've said, a string of almost uninterrupted public holidays that sits astride a weekend in early May. I used it as an excuse to not think about blogging for quite a while, which is why it's been ages since my last post. It was an action packed week in the end, and even though we didn't take any huge trips, we managed to fill up the time nicely with a bunch of excursions as my photos will attest. Results were varied. Good varied though, between "incredibly awesome" and "mildly annoying", the latter because of the heaving crowds that Golden Week is infamous for. We cancelled our car hire and big trip because of the expected traffic, which I think was a very good idea. In a parallel universe, I imagine there's a Mazda 2 embedded in the side of Kobe's Port Tower, where I sit amongst the chaos with a satisfied smile on my face.

Snowboarding or something quite like it

I came to Japan promising myself that I would do things I couldn't do at home. So, in one weekend I smashed my shoulder into dust on a mountain, secured my safe passage to the Buddhist afterlife and stood in the snow stark naked and pouring with steam. Achievement unlocked.

Sports Day

This is a bit overdue (4th of Feb?), but I finally got around to uploading the photos from Kobe High School's sports day. It was basically a big hike up the nearest mountain and then a marathon.

We'd probably call this strange creature "cross country" back home, except that this one was about 689m taller and had blue lips.