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.

Grindstone cowboy

I was expecting some kind of explosion when I got back to work, or at least opening the office door to find myself washed away by a comical tide of paper. Things were suspiciously quiet though - Monday passed without so much as a rumble and then I went on a brief business trip to Tokyo and came back similarly unaccosted. I can hear the beast lurking in the shadows though, paper skin all a-crinkle. He watches me through hole-punched eyes and gnashes his paperclip teeth, waiting for the moment I drop my guard and say wow, not long till holidays.

Cake bus, cat bus, silver robot hat bus

Our Tokyo long weekend had several essential components. There were to be new experiences like the Ghibli Museum and the Tokyo Game Show. Eggs Benedict had to be involved somehow. Most important of all, we needed rice cooker banana cake for what became known as "cake bus".

The rice cooker beeped, cake was wrapped in foil, the stage was set. We grabbed our bags and headed out the door on the most successful Tokyo trip I've ever been on.

I think I might have just spoiled the ending.

A small town lad

You'll be pleased to know that the blog bus didn't go down in fiery ruin as expected, leaving me tapping out my last few pithy jokes at the bottom of a gorge in Nishiwaki. I lived on for at least another prosperous few days of travel, beer and in time, a desperate need to not do anything any more.

Tokyo, I'm sorry - we're just not right for one another.