Back to the basics: My apartment

Howdy there everybody. How goes it?

SO let's just say on off in out yeah we've had our fun. I've given you a little bit a this and a little bit of a cross-sectional idea of the calm and underlying oddity of everyday life in Japan. And there's well more where that came from. But ya know what? It's time to rope this thing right back in and take you from the beginning - it's time to get back to the basics.

For the foreseeable next blog or two, we're gonna shift gears away from the truly random, and start heading on back down the interesting road. Of course they go hand in hand, and with inseparable love, but now it's Earth time Japan. You are actually have some purely interesting aspects, Japan, as much as you wanna pair those aspects with the jackhammer of randomness. And as my poor blog post is now boasting two introductory paragraphs, it looks like the jackhammer of randomness has gotten to me too: let's do this.

My apartment

Houses in Japan, or apartments, or what some would probably deem as apartments with walls and some air separating them, are freaking different than they are in the US and Europe. Apartment life is SO different in so many ways that are very concrete. This is certainly not with reference to access to amenities, Japan observing the third larges economy in the world, best education system, and extremely high standard of health. Yet, it is still totally different. I'll use my apartment as an example, though it certainly does not demonstrate the high variation in apartment life, it does have a lot of the characteristic differences. Let's just get right to those differences shall we?

Tatami rooms. In a large large proportion of Japanese apartments and houses, there are tatami rooms. These are rooms where the floor is made of strongly woven straw mats. These mats are usually wrapped about panels which are strong and stiff, but give a little bit, unlike normal flooring. These floors are made for sitting. And that's just what they'll do. No they won't. That's right, you sit on the floor. For me it was a not a surprise because it's quite well understood that people sit on the floor in the East, but still a surprise because I wasn't myself knowing if that was a thing of the past or not. Regardless, I personally have a hard time adjusting completely to this backsupportless way of life. Luckily tatami seats, basically fold up seats with no legs, are quite common - so i went that way with it.

My tatami living room. Check out them floor panels. 

Now tatami rooms in Japan don't take up the whole house, and in the rest of the place, for instance the kitchen or dining room, people sit in chairs I would consider quite normal. In my experience, usually the tatami rooms constitute the living room and the bedroom, which brings me to my next point.


Futons. People don't just sit on the floor in Japan, they sleep on the floor, and on these floor mats called futons. NOPE. While yes, you do feel a bit like you're crashing at your buddy's place all the time, these are not the fold out "futons" we're used to in the West....or maybe really just American dorms. No sir, futons are not a crude make-shift poor excuse for a couch that folds out into a make-shift poor excuse for a bed. Rather, I've heard these floor mats called "poor excuses for down comforters" by agitated expats hahaha. They're not actually usually that bad, although sometimes they are. It all depends on how you like it, I think some Japanese folks prefer to sleep on a sheet covering their tatami, and others like to sleep on what feels like a bed but just with a lot of support (because the floor is underneath). I started on the former but eventually bought one which is a bit more like the latter. Regardless, the futon always goes over tatami, which gives more than normal flooring, but is still absolutely not as forgiving as carpet.

That's what I sleep on son. Welcome to the constant feeling like your crashing at your friend's place. But just on his mat instead.  And as for the couch, yeah, I inherited that. Obviously some expat got really frustrated down the line, in the hundreds of years English teachers have lived in this apartment, and bought some couches for cultural relief purposes. Or a ghost put it there.

Wall Panels. Most tatami rooms have a certain wall paneling design that really reminds you that you're in Japan and completes your feeling of "not in Kansas anymore" even while you exist in your own apartment - an effect I freaking love. There's not much to say about them so here's a picture:

One thing about the panels is that some of them sliding panels which are actually doors. They're quite interesting, and you can remove them as you like to give you more room. That usually goes hand in hand with moving your futon to free up floor space as well , which most Japanese people do everyday anyway and hang it up to be sure and air it out.

I'm gonna go on a complete tangent.

When I first got here, I was taken to an Italian restaurant, which was great btw, they really can do Italian food here, which surprised me. When I was there I remember getting up to go to the bathroom, then going up to the bathroom door. I grabbed the handle and pushed. NOPE. Okay, then I grabbed the handle and pulled. NOPE. Well fair enough this bathroom door is just locked, must be an individual bathroom or something. So I sat there a minute, then just out of pure monkey curiosity did it one more time. Same result duh, only this time I noticed two people behind me laughing their asses off. I was really confused at first what they were laughing at then.....

Sliding doors in Japan. Don't really know why, but sliding doors are ubiquitous. Now, they are still not as common as push - pull doors, but they are extremely common nevertheless. I guess they take up less room or something in a very spatially-limited country. Either way, they were enough to confuse me when I got here. Some of the sliding doors have handles just like push-pull doors, and some of them little depressions for your hand to gently slide. The ones with handles are particularly confusing. Cause, if you're in the West, what is the natural thought process? Won't push, won't pull, okay. It's locked. Well when in Japan, just remember not to forget giving it a go in one last direction before giving up completely. It'll be a good diplomatic tool not to make people here think folks from the West are just dumb. End tangent.


Shoes. Ahh yes. Another priceless gem of complete randomness. But I told you that this time, we're not talking random so this thing explanation goes in a different place. All I'll tell you for now is that in apartments and houses in Japan, you take your shoes off at the door and walk around inside in your socks.

Toilets. Oh don't even get me started on toilets. That's another one who gets it's own explanation down the road.

Tea set furniture. I am Mrs. Nesbitt in my apartment. One of the first things I noticed is that I'm huge in my apartment. While in the US I'm maybe a slightly tall guy - here it's always a surprise to meet a Japanese person taller than me. I've really only met a handful if that. I can't even think of one I know right off hand that's taller than me. That is except one of my students who is like 6'5", and he just is taller than most people in the world anyways. Regardless, folks are a bit smaller here, so stuff is well...a bit smaller. My stove comes up to my thigh, my kitchen table like, I don't know, not even halfway up my thigh. Then the small doorways are funny at first. Ha ha look at me I can hit my head on all the doorways haha yaaaayyy.....Yeah that's funny for less than a day. Then you're carelessly turning up some peach juice while walking 30 min later and BAM. If you're an expat who can still say your own name by the time you leave Japan you're doing pretty good.

Do nevermind the mess in this picture. It's usually just like this. Kidding not really. Anyways, that refrigerator in the lower right hand corner of the picture comes up to about between my belly button and chest. 

Little demo for ya. That's the size of all my doorways in my apartment. Perfect for a surprise TKO during the morning rush to leave for work.

Picture of those doorways for scale. 

Dishes. Now, this isn't exactly a huge thing, but a thing nevertheless. In Japan, sets of dishes are apparently a bit uncommon. People have many different shapes and sizes of dishes in their homes and don't generally have too many of the same type. I read that in a book. However, it's also extremely true of the dishes I inherited in this apartment. For me it's really strange, there's no equality at dinner parties. Some people get big cups, some small, some big plate. It's luck of the draw. Then of course I can't move onto the next section without mentioning chopsticks, at least as a side note. Everybody knows what they are so I won't say anything except for well, people eat with em. Pretty much every day, and in nearly every situation. That is all. 

Kotatsus. Our final fun Japanese apartment treasure is the kotatsu. These are traditional more-than-meets-the-eye tables. They're fantastic little devices which work in the summer as a table, okay so not cool yet, and in the winter as a heater. There it is. So without going into a long explanation, a Kotatsu is a table with short legs in a tatami room(cause you sit on the floor). In the winter you can remove the top panel and put a blanket, then put the top panel back on. Damn it this is hard to explain. I'm just gonna put pictures.

Kotatsu baby. Starts as a normal table just with really short legs. Don't be fooled though.

When you check under the hood, this thing's got an engine baby. This is my kotatsu when I lift up the top panel. Underneath is revealed a power cord and a small heater.

This is the view of the heater from the bottom. And ain't she a beaut? She's probably like 100 years old but anyways a beaut.

Now, when you're ready to use the kotatsu in the winter, you just slip a perfectly square kotatsu blanket between the top panel and the heater. Once that's done, just turn the thing on and slip your legs underneath. Then do whatever you'd like to at the table. Watch TV, drink coffee, write this blog, etc. It's really a very very comfortable home accessory I must say.  There it is, the finished product. This is a kotatsu folks, or better characterized by people from the West as, "A f***ing snuggie table."

There you have it folks! Your very own tour of a Japanese apartment. We had fun didn't we? These are a few of the things that make living at home super different than that of Western nations. I don't think I quiite covered all the differences, specially those with shoes and toilets, but these are a few of the characteristic differences you'll see as a theme around Japan. So until next time freaks and geeks! This has been a more reserved, less random blog entry to rope you back in from space. Have fun while it lasts cause we gonna blast off again and you ain't seen nothin yet!

Let it go has let it go and now Japan is never gonna let it go.

Japan LOVES certain songs. LOVES.

When I first got here, it became readily apparent that Japan loved Frozen. JAPAN LOVES FROZEN. And if you think you've had enough of hearing "Let It Go"* everywhere you go in your country , then please, remember to never come to Japan. You see, Japan is a country of repeating songs until they're dead, then allowing them to rise from the dead in a zombie-like form and begin strangling you. Then waiting until you're dead by strangulation, and forcing you to reluctantly raise from the dead also in a zombie-like form and then it begins strangling you again. But you already died, so it just goes on forever like that. This is "Let It Go" in Japan. The song plays everywhere, and they don't mind if they understand the song. They play it in English and Japanese interchangeably. I suppose that's their idea of "variety." If you wear out a song, just listen to it in another language, until there are no more languages to listen to it in. By then Aliens are here and you can use their language, unless they've already given you the raybeam because they can't stand hearing "Let It Go" anymore.

Let me give you an example of how obsessed with this movie Japan is. When my friend was coming over to Japan on the airplane, he had a Japanese fellow sitting in front of him. Of course you don't have to be a snoop on a 12 hour flight to be bored enough to check out what movie everyone around you is watching, even accidentally. Well my friend saw the guy in front of him watch Frozen. Yeah yeah, you're thinking, of course that doesn't prove anything. Well after the movie was over, this guy watched Frozen AGAIN. Twice in a row. THEN, after it was over, he watched it AGAIN, but this time fast forwarding to all of his favorite parts. 3 times!!!

Just recently I went to a demonstration class at my school. Some big important people were there to watch, for instance representatives from other schools and the head of the prefectural school board. Well, often in classes we sing songs of course. So far we've sung some good ole Aladdin, Oasis, and Coldplay. Not bad taste huh? Well of course you already know for the example class the demonstration teacher played Frozen baby! Started the demonstration out right, and of course you know the important persons onlookers couldn't help but break the ranks of professionalism and sing along. If you wanna hear Let It Go in 40 years, please give an enthusiastic visit to Japan.

And this kind of behavior does not stop at Frozen actually, I don't know if I ever wanna hear "Day dream believer" ever again. In my whole life. That song plays every third time I walk into a freaking convenience store, it plays in the grocery store, it even plays at the train station. Trains here play songs at every station at the platform, perhaps to act as the "kick"(inception anyone?) to wake people up who are sleeping. They hear the music of the station they're supposed to stop at and wake up, perhaps. That's a theory floating around among the expats*. Theorizing is a common practice in Japan, for the lack of apparent sense made by everyday  settings begs interesting questions akin to old time favorites like "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Pursuit of a solution is noble and futile, and that's daily life in Japan on the most mundane of objects.

Ddb at the train platform

So yes, I've even heard more than once, "Day dream believer"(DDB) as a "kick" at the train platforms. But you see, DDB is an old song, and I wasn't kidding about this zombie-like state. Let it go(LIG) is just in the preliminary stages. DDB has been though full cycle and stagnates in maturity.

How does this zombie-like state play out then? Well in the beginning there is the normal song, and in the songs poor unsuspecting infancy, it is quickly and ruthlessly played into the ground. Perhaps then some time passes and you think you are safe, but no, you're in Japan. It's back, and this zombie like state is but a hollow shell of its former self. Yup, you guessed it, this state is the song being played on the harpsichord. It is merely the tune of the song, with minor background accompaniment,  being played without words on the harpsichord. And you might be used to, in your country, a song being overplayed then just hearing it from time to time after that, no such luck in Japan. Overplayed songs stay with you for a loooong long time forever, and on the harpsichord. DDB is in this zombie form stage 5. I text my friend every time I hear it on the radio, usually at a convenience store, which generally makes for texting him 2-3 times a week for that purpose(or more!!!). Considering that I visit convenience stores maybe 5 times a week, that is simply staggering (and hilarious). DDB is not the only song in this state either, I've heard many songs, including but absolutely not limited to the rocky theme song on the harpsichord, Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke,"  "YMCA," oh and also "Girlfriend" seems have just made it on that list. That's almost as depressing as the "Fresh Prince" coming on Nick at Night. Except at least shows on Nick at Night don't foment ill will towards the human race. I suppose the equivalent harpsichord zombie-like version would be if the Fresh Prince were rebooted with the same dialogue but now One Direction plays all the main characters.

Video of YMCA harpsichord

The incessant dead-horse-song-beating* in Japan works its way wonderfully into the beautiful, unbelievably odd picture Japan paints of itself. Would it be my own country I might go insane with the level of overplaying, but much like the inability of the soon setting Finnish sun during the winter to impart any mood decrescendo on me during my stay in Finland, such things as these generally just pique my curiosity. Instead of an epic eye roll everytime I hear these songs, I'm just struck by an internal chuckle and sometimes manage to udder "Yup, Japan," and crack a modest smile with the corner of my mouth. Sometimes I suppose this is exactly why I travel. PEACE AND LOVE.


*(and thus causing an inherent contradiction because nobody can let it go with that song playing everywhere)

*(And horse eating for that matter, I'll explain later. Maybe)

*(It's become readily apparent, mostly cause somebody told me, that the train "kicks" are actually just to let you know the train is about to leave or is leaving. Cool theory though, bro.)

Finally, to play us out and in the spirit of Japan, I give you.... DAY DREAM BELIEVER AGAIN!

Japan and Finland Sittin in a Tree

Ahh hello again freaks and geeks. Here we are again with a new installment. Got a good one for ya today, so get in a comfy armchair but take that tobacco pipe out of your mouth so it doesn't burn your lap when your jaw drops baby. Let's do this!

Okay maybe it won't be THAT action packed but check it out.


Japan has a crush on Finland

Everything Japan does is random, even in its love life. So why don't we start today on it's little crush on a country we all know and love as Finland. Of course Japan has a crush on Finland, just, of course it does. Not Norway, not Sweden, not Italy, nope. Finland.

One thing you gotta know about Japan, along with the overload of other things I could never have time to even express, is that everything is cute in Japan. It's also true that the word "cute" is in the hearts and minds of all Japanese people everywhere. The word "kawaii(可愛い or かわいい)" meaning cute or attractive is spoken by everyone(not predominately girls like in the US) and might as well be played on the harpsichord*. Thus, perhaps Finland's fate as Japan's heart throb was sealed by the creation of a cute little character called "Muumi(Right)."

Muumi, the Finnish masterpiece, is originally a show made for kids, but of course Japan saw this irresistible character and now applies it in a number of situations. Characters such as these are all over the place in Japan actually, every prefecture, and every city has its own unique animated character representative. It's worth mentioning that my small city's character, "Sano Maru," won the city character competition in Japan last year. And boy do people take cute seriously here*, thus Sano's  cute, winning character can be found all over Japan and now gives the city one of its few claims to fame. Thank you Sano Maru. Anyways, so by corollary, if a new legendarily cute character is created somewhere in the world, Japan feels a disturbance in the force. And ohhh was the force strong with this one. Muumi can be found in many corners of Japan in everyday life. I would say it is deserving of the primary reason why Japan has this crush on Finland.

Here area just two pictorial examples of what I'm talking about with Muumi:

One of my students brought a little muumi for show and tell

One of the teachers in my office has a Muumi towel

When we did show and tell in class the other day, the normal way of things was to listen to the speech then ask a question or two. Well I just loved it when this kid brought in a little muumi for show and tell. My question was this: What country is muumi from? Almost before I could get the question out of my mouth, my student said, "Muumi is from Finland," in a very matter-of-fact manner. Yes, it's true that focusing on muumi might lead one to believe that Japan loves Muumi, and not Finland. However, muumi is not the only spark in Japan's Finnish flame. I learned this very quickly just being a teacher.

Upon opening the English textbook for my 8th graders in the first weeks of my stay here in Japan, I noticed something interesting on the inside cover of the first page:

Finnish is the first language exemplified 

Hmmm, that's interesting. At the top of the inside cover the textbook introduces itself by making examples of "Languages around the World." And cool check this out, Finnish is the first language shown with it's "Hyvaa paivaa."(Lit:good day) Neat, that's funny and ironic hehe funny they put that one first......wait....then I continue down into the contents and the chapters:

The eighth grade textbook has a whole entire chapter on Finland.

Huuuuhhhh????? My textbook has an entire CHAPTER on Finland. And in the next chapter after this and before this and beyond it talks about completely unrelated things. Finland is the ONLY featured country in this textbook. That was like okay WOW. But then I found another featured story about a woman in Finland in a different textbook by a totally different company. WHHHATTT??? Now there's really starting to be something to this......then I started grading some of my students' work later on not too long after I made this little discovery. The topic of the essays they wrote over the summer was "What country I wanna visit the most." Now Finland wasn't number 1 I wouldn't say....so I won't go that far, but it was definitely number 5. Doesn't sound high but considering that there are a couple hundred countries in the world, I'd say it's pretty dang impressive.  The others that topped the list were the totally expected ones, USA, UK, France, and Italy. Now think of this, the Japanese school children want to go to the USA, the UK, France, Italy, and Finland. Which one of those doesn't seem to belong in the average vacation destination list???

Not even done yet! SO then, yes then, I was playing a game with my students the other day where they were in groups and have to, one by one, name items of a certain category. Well we had already run the gambit of clothing items, body parts, days of the week, months, etc etc and we were getting into more obscure categories, at least for a junior high foreign language English class. So I said okay nameeee, countries in Europe! Everyone groaned at the difficulty of this task as I went up to the first guy prompting him to answer and of course the first word and answer out of his mouth was "Finland!"

Well I had thrown my arms up at this point, as I was just getting then used to the completely randomized list of traits which constitute Japan, but one final thing popped into my head later on......When I was Finland, I went to Santa's village. Maybe just for throwback purposes we can throw out this picture:

Yup, ole Saint Nick as it were

I remember noticing something that, among many other things at the time, piqued my interest and curiosity. As I was sending a postcard home, one thing I should make better practice of doing actually, I noticed on the wall some statistics about the letters coming into Santa's village(for Santa) from other places in the world. Well you guessed it, Japan was on top! I don't know if it's still that way, but you can guarantee it's top 3! Tens of thousands of letters come from Japan every year and go straight to the Finnish Santa Claus!

In fact it's true that Finnish Lapland gets a good number of Japanese tourists. And actually, Finnish Santa is purported to know "all" languages, you know, since he's Santa. Now I hate to burst the bubble of the 10 year olds reading this, but after all that Santa is most likely just some Finnish dude(and you thought it was your parents, lock your chimneys, kids!). And that dude's gotta know a lotta languages, but surely he can't know them all. But he's gotta learn the ones he gets spoken to in the most, right? If you are the Finnish "know all languages" Santa, and you get a bunch of German tourists talking to you in German, well you better know German pretty well! Right?? Well I remember my Japanese friend not believing this knowing all languages malarky and so he decided to test poor Santa in a challenging way. Not only would he speak to Santa in uninhibited, natural speed Japanese, but he would also speak to Santa in his -specific- Japanese regional street dialect. So here goes nothing, good luck, chap.

There we went. We walked into Santa's little room together, and our Japanese friend went quickly directly to Santa, all the while addressing him by rattling off some deep Japanese slang. The plan was in full motion.Well Santa immediately responded IN KIND. Our Japanese friend fell to the floor because he just couldn't -believe- what he was hearing. It wasn't just shallow greetings either, he went blow for blow with Santa in Japanese and Santa shrugged it off with perfect Japanese responses, no joke, in dialect. We all still remember this very vividly! All of this came flying back to me, as did these analyses, as I started to notice these odd connections! Thus there had to be droves of Japanese tourists flying through Santa's Village in order for Santa to be that well versed in Japanese. There just had to be. Well....that is....unless the magic of Santa really is real, which who knows, it might be. Regardless, I don't care what anyone says, Japan is under that magical love spell Finland has cast - and oh that magic is real. There's something up in the land of the rising sun that ain't just the sun baby, they're just happy to see Finland.

But what can I say, I love Finland too, and singing to the choir? If that's what you would call it. Well I do love to sing.  Preaching! That's the word I'm looking for. Anyways this has been your digest of Japan this time folks. I suggest a thrilling and off the beaten path Japan-Finland vacay. You won't be disappointed, but you might get totally confused! Peace!


*(See blog coming up in the next few days)

*(I'll probably write a whole blog post about the importance of cute things in Japan)

No sense? No problem. But a hell of a lot of cents.

Here's a little cultural corner for ya here on this fine fine fine rainy day. It's time to drops some knowledge, son. Okay nay it's not raining anymore.

I wanna just start by saying, Japan is WEIRD. I think that is pretty much internationally known at this point, but I may never run out of weird points to mention about Japan. I am confused and surprised just about everyday. It's one thing that is so interesting about this country. So often you find yourself asking yourself "Why?? Why that?? Why??" Many things in Japan make sense only because things in Japan consistently don't make sense, and you just see things and just think "Oh, that doesn't make sense, well that wouldn't make sense." So here we go.


Money in Japan is like, wtf

You know for what research would allege is a money saving society*, Japan sure does make such a task incredibly difficult. That is unless you prefer to shun conventional banks or wallets and would rather opt to save your money under your local drink machine, in the crevices of the interior of your vehicle, or a bowl on your room divider for things you don't otherwise have any idea what to do with. Yes, folks, I'm talking about coins. The COINS THE COINS. WHY JAPAN WHYY???

There's a simple misstep which takes us all down to China town. Not too far from here but rather an annoying trip to make more than anything. The largest coin in Japan is worth FIVE FRIGGIN DOLLARS. Not only that, but the smallest bill in Japan is TEN FRIGGIN DOLLARS. Well you guessed it, the smallest coin is equivalent to a penny. Thus, FML. Coins in Japan are a painfully annoying fact of life.

Now I know what you might be sitting there thinking, yup I do. You're thinking Yeah we have pennies and they're annoying but hell nobody carries cash anymore so how does Mr. Complainypants have any kind of point here? Wellllll think again genius in a bottle, I'll tell you what rubs my brain the wrong way, and that's the fact that PEOPLE DON'T USE DEBIT OR CREDIT CARDS HERE.

HUH??? But Sensei, didn't you know that Japan is one of the most advanced societies on God's green Earth?? Well you know what, you're right about that. It is one of the most high tech societies there is, but to my surprise, Japan actually picks and chooses convenient technologies to use, ones that we understand as modern facts of life. It has stuff we've never seen before that it considers normal, and stuff we've had since the ice age that they just pass on. However, my friend, is for another blog post altogether and a tangent in this one.

Japan is a cash based society, and that doesn't seem to be changing with even "deliberate" speed. And that doesn't mean just in bars. Forget it, if you come to Japan bring a big tough wallet and a tight fitting belt to hold your pants up as you lug boatloads of change for reasons beyond the grasp of mere lay like ourselves. If you ever wanna get an idea of how much that sucks, get 20 quarters and stack them up. Then imagine they're just a tiny bit bigger. Realize that in Japan you have 100 dollars sitting there instead of 5 dollars. Now keep up with all the change rendered from those things cause a dollar bill is also a coin. Then there's 50 cent, 10 cent, 5 cent, and 1 cent coins. No quarters, and the dimes are huge. You quickly find yourself leaving bread crumbs of money everywhere you go. Of course you get all of it back because it would strongly violate a Japanese conscience  to keep or use anything they even have a suspicion isn't theirs. Any left over talents they may have from the days of ninja mercenaries are now used to track people down and give them back their money or items they dropped.

So what about cards? I mean come on, people don't just........what do people do anyways to get money?? I wasn't born before this archaic vestige you call "cash" became so.  Well people do use cards, but only generally at ATMs, to get money out. IE, you can't pay for anything with them. Nobody told me that shit actually. I often tried to pay with it when I first got here. I often gave people my card, and they would just look at me and hand it back to me timidly like ummm....this is a cash card sooo...... They wouldn't say that of course because English isn't exactly widely spoken, but that was the obvious sentiment. People are so polite here though, they would even sometimes try to use it knowing full well it wouldn't work.

Little pic of the coinz, minus a 500yen($5) coin because those things get broken so quickly.

Insofar as people don't use cards, they don't use them for online payments either. In fact, when you order something online, you go pay at a convenience store. Convenience stores are a whole other blog as well, they're indispensable in Japan. Seven-eleven picks up the slack where all of Japan decides to deliberately inconvenience itself.

So to be fair, there does exist the capacity to use cards in spots. Some people actually have credit cards, but I almost never see people use them. In fact, to my knowledge, there aren't debit cards either. Now maybe they exist but I just haven't noticed or inquired far enough, but the point overall still stands - that people use cash. Many places won't accept card period, and only larger places like shopping malls and grocery stores even have to potential to do so.

So in the end, how you supposed to save moneys like that bro? Smallest bill is ten dollars and nobody uses electronic/plastic payment. Everyone uses cash for everything and a much larger proportion of their "cash" is pesky easy to lose coins. You got metal flying everywhere and some politician should run on quitting that. The GDP would probably spike and lead Japan to the promise land!......Oh. What a weird thing to lead you to the promise land, you say? That doesn't make any sense, you say? Well that wouldn't make any sense. Peace.


*(Statistically countries whose native language has no future tense tend to save more money than their future tense language counterparts - saw it on NPR son!)

Expect the unexpected when travelling, but this, really?

I moved left. I moved right. I touched the ground a few times and wondered how I got myself in this situation. The night was warm and I never thought I would find myself like this right after such a Fuji pickle. But there I was two nights later, doing something which would cause me to open this blog with a trite literary device. That said, here we go folks -

SO. Yeah son stuff is happening way too fast for me to blog about, but never fear. Lotsa material I'll keep on plugging and chuggin until it all runs out yo!! Things will slow down, and I'll thereafter vomit the ridiculous loads of stuff that's gone down. I'll start where we last left our heroes, and luckily, that wasn't on Fuji. That, if I remember right, was with my jont around Tokyo in my good ole trusty spongebob PJs. Ah yes. I remember now.

As it all comes flowing back to me, it is fair to note that the first real weekend was PACKED with action, because after my spongebob stroll, I went straight to my apartment and went to sleep. Okay so it doesn't seem packed yet, I'm getting there. I went back to my apartment at around 4:30pm on Saturday. That was after waking up last also in my apartment at 7:00am on Friday. That's right, the Fuji adventure had been nearly a 36 hour adventure of just not sleeping but instead well if you read the last blog then you know. If you didn't then fear not! these episodes are not cumulative. There will be a quiz though.

When I got home it was bed time, so I went to sleep at 4:30pm....woke up briefly at ~10pm wondering where the hell I was, then went back to sleep immediately and woke up again around 5am. Bummed around for an hour reading the news and such, then went back to sleep around 6am. Woke up at 8am. So in all......around 14-15 hours of good quality sleep. Good thing too because I woke up to a message from my friends saying let's go to be BEACH YAYAYAYAYY!!!! Well let me tell you, I was tired, but it's less than 3 hours to the beach from here, so I'm loath to turn down a good honest trip to the beach. I was out the door and at the train by 10am.

Fast-forward and we're there!!! It was nice. Actually we went to a park first that was pretty cool. For good measure I'll throw in a picture of the park as it were:

One word, bigasssunflowers

Okay this picture is actually pretty sweet. Yeah I know it's two pictures now and I said "a" picture. Who's counting though?(besides you).....(and me)

Little group pho never hurt anyone. Don't know what the hell happened to second from the left.

Alright time to walk to the beach now.

WEEEEEEE THE BEACH!!!!

Yes yes, it was a quiet and normal day which provided relaxation not nearly commensurate to the struggle of the day before and night before that, because that's dang near impossible, but it tried! It was a really nice time. Only my feet were slightly sore and less functional than usual but other than that awesome. After finishing up a little chillax on the beach it was time to step up the relaxation a little bit. You guessed it! It was time to eat some squid salad:

That's right, nothing takes a load off like some chewy tentacle, MMMMM

Just joshin that didn't really relax me at all, but what came after did. We followed directly into the Japanese onsen after that. It's my first time in the famed onsen, which is a bath house where you (generally) go bathe naked with people of the same sex. I know, I had you at "bathe naked with people of the same sex." Well it goes on. The way these things work is that you're in a big open area and there are many pools of different temperatures. It's actually quite awesome. The point of an onsen is just to relax, not to actually take a bath, that would be pretty odd haha. You actually are required to shower beforehand before getting in the bath. That's how much of a not bath it is. And wash you do man, freaking a. There's a bunch of stools as you walk into the room on the right. There's a line of folk all with their own individual shower heads just showering away sitting down though. Strange but I didn't ask, not that I would know how. There was actually a line to get showered off because people were taking FOREVER to shower. I'm not sure if this extends to other onsens or the rest of Japan, but DANG MAN. They must take this clean before getting in the onsen thing super seriously. Those dudes were cleaning everything like six times, in places probably still left undiscovered by even modern science. Thus, by corollary, and the ever present law of physics, "monkey see monkey do," I also took forever to shower. And felt violated(by my own self), which was a perfect segue to heading into the bath. It was HOT. Very peaceful tough, partially outside and on the roof. Nice rock landscaping. Pools that were super cold, then with a tunnel into a sauna room with a pool that was super hot. A pool in a little cave, etc it was awesome. I was relaxed and happy. Good for the muscles.

It had somehow managed to seem like it would be a normal evening. As if things were without a hitch and for the love, we were being thrown a bone after having our bodies tested the days before. Then as we were leaving....wha...??? Music? I like it. There had been music coming from some ambiguous direction the whole time we were on the beach but this was louder and closer. We were still just one street over from the beach btw. So at this point we're like sweet well we have some time before the train so lets do this. We went over and found a party!! Wohoo! LET'S DO THIS:

Dance floor????

Friends?? Okay he was there the whole time.

TIME FOR FUN! Now those who know me know I just love me a good dance from time to time. It's just that music baby, keeps ma body movin! And what did you know? They were actually playing western hiphop and r&b at this particular joint - something people seem to find difficult to come across in ole Japan. So I was ecstatic, ready to go baby. Even though it was like a shitty Cinderella story cause the train was at like 1030 or something but anyways we had some time to jam out. 

When we got on the dance floor, people were obviously a bit surprised. Westerners are pretty hard to come by in Japan, for real. And to see them out and about in a group in a non-international tourist area is something that turns heads pretty instantly. So we made a bit of a splash, plus I love dancing so I don't exactly keep a low profile even though I'm a goofy ass dancer. Wait what the hell am I saying??? I'm sweet.

One thing in Japan I've learned, however, is yeah, lots of dudes love to dance. What's more, in my short and meager experience, they're freaking good at it! So on this particular dance floor there were a few good dancers, and one in particular who was kind of the ring leader guy. My first thought when I saw him: Oh shit. I'm gonna get into a dance battle with this guy aren't I? I knew it from the second I saw him. First, some background.

So for some reason in my history
I have a tendency to be challenged to miniature dance battles. I don't know why, I've never taken any kind of dance lessons or anything like that whatsoever, but it still happens. Usually it's in a small enough situation and few enough people are watching that I can just be like uhh haha umm and then just act like I didn't notice the challenge. I've never taken anyone up on it. I think I get challenged just cause usually the only folks ever brave enough to dance are usually those who have had some kind of training or at least think they're good. For me I just don't care about looking like an idiot if I'm having fun. 

Unfortunately an hour into dancing, there was no ignoring this challenge. I had too big of a profile being a foreigner who was actually managing to fake dancing experience. I was fodder man, irresistible to a curious Japanese dancer who has possibly dreamed of this moment when he could challenge a gaijin(foreigner). Son of a b****, so I put this thought down in the back of my mind. Everyone danced in peace for a pretty good while, managing to still be a slight bit of a spectacle, but not that bad considering. But I drifted too close to this guy. It was slightly intentional, I was hoping to come dancing in peace, dancing in his general vicinity with this "Hey! Party right?" mood about me. Well that nope. I got close to him and like he had been planning his dance dis for his whole life, he came directly to me and danced in my face with a strongly worded (in body language) taunt. He backed away and everybody said OOOOHHHH.......NOOOOO FINE. Here goes nothing.

Well everybody knew what was up at that point, they all cleared the dance floor and got into a well defined home team and away team. Some other people went and sat at picnic tables cause they didn't care. In all epic stories there's always those people who don't care, just no author has such balls to mention such individuals as yours truly. I embellish not!? And to be honest, after that it was all a blur. I danced, he danced. His favorite song came on, my favorite song came on, I slipped a few times on the sand and made it look ambiguous as if I meant for that to happen. But we were beasts clashing, my legs at this point burned like I can't even express! They made me fully aware that 48 hours before I was hiking up a volcano when I should have been sleeping. Anyways there is one legendary picture of this even which will go down in history I kid you not. Somehow, it'll go in the books. Any here is your first look, the originals. 

There it is, look at that guy, he's like "Ohhhh shiiittttt!"

Of course yours truly won this thing. I mean who else? Except the guy who has probably been dancing his whole life.......I WON. So to end this thing, I'd like to just say after this eventful situation we went home NOT. Dang it our train left us, good thing there was a festival going on in this town. We were just running into festivals left and right I swear! But then we had to sneak a bunch of people into a hotel room. Then I had to go to my first day of work the next day on a 4:30am train, ohhhhh yay Japan! Even with all the expectations to do things I've never done before when travelling, I never figured it would be this! More to come, this blog has just gotten started!

Night on Bald Mountain - Wrath of Fuji

Before we start: I made the pictures too big on purpose. I thought it was better to be able to see these things well than for them to fit inside the lines perfectly. One setting lower makes them too small! So, enjoy large photos - begin!

Well howdy buckaroos! Yup you guessed it, its been a week and it's about time for another blog post. WHEW. Ridiculous thing is, SO much happened this week, I'm gonna have to write multiple blog posts. I hope I can get to everything! But, just to save everyone from losing possibly the best one in the fray of all life, we'll save the best for first. Sense, right?

So I've been in Japan just over two weeks now, and make no mistake, I've not wasted any time in running around and seeing stuff. Really, I'm mostly swept away in the current that is cool people are doing this now I guess I'll go. You know what? I don't mind at all. Let's get started.

Fuji Fuji Fuji Fuji. No I'm not inciting some incantation, I'm merely saying a word that will likely just fall short of famy only to drop into the realm of infamy in my mind. It all started innocent, though let's be real, climbing Fuji is not just a walk in the part in any event. The plan was, and as it tends go, that we would climb/hike(not proper rope climbing at all, I'll explain in a second) up to Japan's highest peak, which is actually an active volcano. That's active like you would call a couch potato who hasn't left their couch in 300 years yet is still somehow alive active. Well let's hope Fuji doesn't go for a figurative jog anytime soon, as it's actually overdue for one. Beside the point though, Fuji is, at its peak, 3,776 meters tall ie about 13,000 feet tall. And while the perfectly shaped cone of Fuji does not have anywhere on the main trail up to the top requiring rope climbing, nor oxygen tanks or pick axes, this is still a pretty serious mountaincano - even in a normal scenario. But folks, as luck would so have it, this was NOT a normal scenario. Fuji was not a happy mountain when we climbed it people, not happy enough to make me happy that I'm sitting here able to type this blog post. Long story short we had no idea what we were in for.

Long story long I'll continue this blog post. The thing people usually do with Fuji, most of the time, is start at the 5th station, which is something like 2300 meters up. You think, ohhhh that's a wussy wuss way to go starting there c'mon why don't you start at the bottom? Then at least at the top you won't be singing "started at the fifth station now we're here." Sounds pretty lame right? Well going to the top from the 5th station TAKES 7 HOURS. How about now? Started at the bottom now we passed out before we got to the 4th station? Yup. So what people do is actually start the ascent at night, and try to time it right in order to be at the very top of the mountain when the sun rises. After that you start the between 4 and 5 hour decent back down the mountain and go home tired but full of peaceful and beautiful panoramic memories. Now altitude sickness can be a thing on Fuji, you're way up there, and the air gets very thin. Therefore most reasonable guides will tell you to hike up to about 11,000 feet, stay the night in a hut on the mountain to get acclimated to the lack of air, then go the rest of the way in the middle of the night, making it just before sun up. Many many people just don't take those recommendations, and furthermore ignore the warnings of just starting at night and going all the way to the top in one shot. That increases the likelihood of altitude sickness quite a lot. Well we fell very comfortably into this genius category. Now we weren't completely senseless, not that it helped much, but we gave ourselves 10 hours to do the 7 hour hike which sometimes even takes 6 hours. So, it really seemed like that would be okay. And it was, sorta almost.

People do what we planned to do all the time actually, so if we just take it slower than people who are dumb about it. We should be fine. And really, the first part of the climb was amazing, and innocent enough actually. Really nice!

Fuji from far awayish. It's actually quite up close. Once you get closer you're basically on the mountain and you have no concept of the thing as a whole. For 1.5 hours of the ride that we could see Fuji that cloud on top seemed eerily persistent.......

Here's a picture of the crew at fifth station. Temperatures still in the 50s at least. It was in the 90s at the bottom of the mountain. You basically have to stack on the layers, at the top it can get close to freezing at night. Ahh we all look so happy don't we?

View from 5th station. Already pretty high up, as you can see. 

And so we climbed, got to fifth station at about 7, had dinner, left heading up the mountain at about 8:30PM, hoping to summit at about 4:30. Sunrise at ten til five. And on our way, we got some pretty sweet pictures. 

 We started out in the woods more or less, where there was still some vegetation. Quickly losing the vegetation and taking us though this tunnel.

 Headlamps were a pretty crucial part of this nighttime climb. 

You could see the city below and the trail ahead illuminated by headlamps

Some absolutely astounding views from one of the earlier/lower stations. This one is probably the 7th. It goes up to 9 with an 8.5 thrown in there somewhere because the final stretch takes several times longer than those leading up. 

So I was gonna make this one a two-parter, but I have decided not to rob a great Fuji story of the benefits reaped from narrative continuity like Fuji robbed us of a non-misery infused stroll to the summit. Thus folks, there is no choice but to continue your decent  down the page just like we had no choice but to continue our ascent up the Fuji steep. Here we go.

Last picture for a while here, and you'll understand why soon enough, just to exemplify something that people commonly do. Sleep outside on Fuji. Now there are huts on the ascent that can take people for the night, as well the stations can often accommodate some, but these are usually for "book in advance" because a lot of people climbing the mountain want to stay the night. Also, those things just have people sleeping basically side by side on the floor with a little mat on the ground. This is not to mention that there are WAY more climbers than huts or stations could fit in the first place. Thus those who are not the close touchy feely type, or those who simply didn't book in time but would like to still kill time getting to know the altitude will just post up, like some are doing in this picture(in particular the dude laying on the ground in the yellow), and sleep. 

I'll now take this time to say a few words about altitude sickness. It basically happens when you ascend to a high altitude too fast. Now there are the other more extreme kinds that don't apply here, like trying to walk around on Everest without an oxygen tank. Then we're talking a deadly version of altitude sickness. Nope, in the normal case, and as it goes in our case, altitude sickness only threatens with dizziness, confusion, nausea, vomiting, inability to walk straight, and fatigue. Those forces gain considerable weight when trying to scale a mountain, which is why we arrived an extra 3+ hours early. If we were going to have symptoms, they were going to be mild in any event. 

And mild they were, and relatively unobstructive for the first few hours of the trip. Yes, after the pictures you see here, we did start to feel some of the effects. The hike up Fuji is not a walk in the park, you're hiking up about 5,000 feet, indeed no small feet. Feet feet I'm a genius. Hiking up Fuji is an effort that makes your leg muscles burn, and that burn is your muscles telling you they need air. Well ours needed air we didn't exactly have, so starting up from the 7th station we began having to take semi-frequent rests on the trails. Just a two minute sit would do. You had to remember to walk slow, and breathe deep and quite quickly. A normal walking pace up the sometimes very steep paths would eventually stop you in your tracks, so it was important to pace yourself. As we moved up the symptoms got worse, but not out of hand in any way. Shortness of breath was coming faster after each break at a hut or station we took along the way. You could feel your thought processes changing a bit, as if you short term memory was being munched away. It wasn't helping that it was starting to be about the time we all usually went to bed, thus the onset of sleep deprivation. Yet still, we were taking it slow, eating food, drinking water, and taking breaks at every station. We remembered that many people do this multiple times per year. It hadn't gotten to us yet. 

Eventually we started passing around cans of oxygen on the trail, which we had brought as further preparation for the ascent. It actually really helped. Well me anyways, some others didn't agree, perhaps I'm placebo effect susceptible, but oh well. I really just felt like my thoughts cleared up when I got the oxygen. The trails were becoming steeper and more rocky, sometimes eliciting manual assistance up certain sections. The trails were also narrowing, and often marked by waist level pencil thin metal polls with reflective material affixed. Chains or ropes hang between. 

Happening upon one of the substations, we felt some precipitation, taking only the form of a bit of a thick mist. It was really nothing, barely damping the rocks beneath us. It had been a clear sky up until this point, or more like, any clouds that existed we were above and the sky above that went on for ages. With the mist this had started not to be the case but in general you could still see the sky. The temperature had been dropping, now probably in the mid 40s. I gave the rain pants I brought to one of the more unprepared among us who came with; this poor fellow just wanted to climb Fuji but had been a plus one so late that he had no time to look and see what it means to be prepared for Fuji. AKA, this fellow just had shorts on and a sweat shirt. It was getting kinda cold so I just threw him over my rain pants and an extra sweatshirt I brought. We continued the climb, consuming 2 dollars every time we stopped at a substation because the bathrooms asked for a donation.

It started misting harder. That tiny cloud you can see in the first picture came to all of our minds. Oh well, either it will go away since it's so mild or we'll simply ascend above it like we did all the other clouds and still catch the sunrise. It was still 3 or 4 hours before we reached the top. The outside sleepers had apparently foreseen this moisture, as the deck sleepers started to unanimously curl up under a set up umbrella or plastic sheet. Unfortunately my blue jeans with sponge bob PJs underneath for warmth did not foresee not having rain pants. So they started to take on a bit of a balmy not at all wet but not completely dry feel. Luckily it stopped completely as we finally ascended to the 8th official station.

Then it started POURING. Then backed off a bit, but still raining. Okay, now it was really starting to be a buzzkill. We were all feeling lite headed, and tiring easily from ascending so fast - we really didn't care for a trudge through some rain on top of that. Even more annoying, we were still pretty far away. One thing you gotta understand is, the higher you go, the less common the stations and substations are, and the longer the hike itself takes. Thus, perhaps the time between station 5 and 6 was 30 minutes, but the one between 8 and the 9 is two  or three hours. There are stations along the way, though, but they get less and less inviting and substantial. Many of them at this point are full of sleeping climbers and specially the huts will tell you to be quiet and move along not to wake anyone. There is a station 8.5, so that's nice, and it's middle size. 

We continued ascending. I had bought some more rain pants(cheap cheap quality) at station 8 just to halt the offensive the rain had already waged on the front side of my pants. The back was still okay though, and it was an extra layer, so I bought the two piece suit and gave the top half to unprepared friend Matt. I required an extra large hahaha. I had a rain jacket so I was good there. 

NOPE I WAS SCREWED. We were all screwed. Fuji was through playing around and decided to throw a haymaker. The rain came roaring back much stronger than it had been before, this time accompanied by 60 mile an hour gusts and a 40 mile an hour sustained wind that changed direction every few seconds. Visibility was NOTHING. You were lucky if looking up with your headlamp bore anything beside your hand, the person immediately in front of you, and the next reflector marking the hiking path. I've rarely seen a storm like this one actually, and never actually had been forced to face it if it came. We continued anyways. Even the storm, unrelenting thereafter, had not yet even put thoughts in our mind about turning back. Perhaps it was the fact that we had come so far, spent money, and sacrificed an entire night sleep, all to give up the idea of the sunrise at the top? Not yet. 

We continued up the path, but as we pressed on all of our clothes became completely saturated with water. "Waterproof" clothing had acquiesced to the blitz carried out by the ocean falling out of the sky. My clothes were water resistant only by virtue of the fact that they could hold no more water. Our stops were taking longer, the air was getting thinner, and now we were carrying A LOT of extra water weight. I had a big bag with some of my daytime clothes inside which also got soaked. HIking in wet blue jeans is also a NIGHTMARE. Wheeeew buddy people how did those Duke boys get themselves into this situation this time??

We started to wonder silently what we continued to climb for. Hopes of the sunrise at the top had already set only a few hours after the sun itself had first led the way. The higher we climbed and longer rests we were forced to take we started to realize how much of a pickle we were actually in. It was getting colder. Low 40s now if not high 30s, you can see your breath. Torrential downpour still happening. Hours away from somewhere indoors. The stations were not big enough to accommodate everyone, and some of them were plainly rejecting knocks at the door. The unheated bathrooms felt warm only because you were out of the onslaught from the wind and cold rain. People were standing under the meager awnings of the huts and just staring inside like wet puppies. 

When we got to the next substation we started to have real honest conversations with each other. We couldn't keep hanging out at stations forever, because we were being constantly drenched by sub 40 degree water. Stopping made you feel cold, which gives way to hypothermic conditions. Continued movement staved off any onset of hypothermia. If you took it too fast though, altitude sickness could come, you could even pass out. Then people help you with what?? Nothing was dry. No one could warm you up. We were left with no good option. The storm was hours hike above us and hours hike below us, and those steep rocky trails would not be easy to hike in the rain.

The sunset motivation to keep going had flown out the window and changed forms. We kept going. Now it was no longer to pursue a beautiful view at the top, but a test of will and physical tolerance that none of us had known we signed up for. It was an impromptu challenge. The motivation was now F you Fuji, it's not going down like that. We were still an hour and a half from the top. A 5.5 hour turn back was DAUNTING. Worse yet, someone at a substation told me there was nothing at the top. Thus, from then on, it was even longer before we could find somewhere we could even potentially go inside. Further, there is a different path down than up, and visibility was such that it was in question whether we could even find the(shorter) pathway down.

We pushed on anyways. At this point we were only three of the original seven. Everyone started going different speeds, taking pauses to wait for the wind or decide whether they wanted to go back down or not. Many people were turning back. The effects of the altitude were getting worse. My thoughts were cloudy, everyone was feeling weak, concentration was needed to make sure you were on balance. A few times the feeling of throwing up came but I pushed them down and ignored them. I started to question our ascent, protesting what was happening in that moment. We shouted to hear each other over the wind. I was in an altered state, and a couple times tripping over a rock I didn't see to the ground. I started to say why aren't we turning back??? But the group wanted to press on, and I wasn't about to go by myself hahaha. No way. It was a bad idea to leave anybody at that point, going up or down. I started to oscillate between silence and appeal to turning back. We pressed on. I'm glad we pressed on, that was definitely the right thing to do I'll tell you why in a sec.

People were strung all over the trail to the top. Some sitting down, some laying while their group waited on them, some bent over throwing up, some just sitting there getting rained on as if they had just said forget it Ima give up and stay here. I passed some people who had made their way into a tiny cave and started a fire from who knows what haha. WHAT IN THE WORLD. The path has narrowed and there are a few cliffs now, have to take care. I saw the wind shifting peoples positions during gusts, not the best thing when sleep deprived, dizzy, lite headed and climbhiking on a steep narrow path. I looked over the edge with my headlamp, nothing. At one point I looked behind me and there was no one on the trail. At that point many were turning back or not coming up at all. The path got narrow enough that a line formed because only one person could go at a time. I saw a sign that said we were 200 meters away from the top. That 200 meters took an hour. You would wait in line and feel the cold start to bite, then you would go and feel like you couldn't take a deep enough breath. Too slow, hypothermia, to fast, altitude sickness.

There, we did it.

We finally reached the top.

And wait a friggin minute......THERES A BIG LODGE!!!! Thats......thats IMPOSSIBLE. That's gotta be a Fuji mirage. No it's REAL! And what, they're serving hot noodles there!?!?! She told us wrong, why did she tell us wrong??????? Who cares I just now I can just go sit down and get out of the rain and get in the heat for a second! Am I dreaming??? Nope, already checked coming up the mountain.......but anyways YES this is AMAZING!

It was true. Now, it was a bit of an open air lodge, with a big open front door to just a big room with benches and fairly full of other brave and wet souls, but there was some form of heat! I went in, ordered a hot tea and had a hot bowl of noodle soup. I took off my wet upper body clothing(including a big cotton sweater, perfect in a rainstorm) to try and at least dry my quick dry undershirt. 45 minutes rolled by and it was already almost light outside, visibility better like you can see 10 feet in front of you but still no way in heck you can see the sun. No one gives a s*** anymore, we made it! We were joined by the others, some too cold to speak at first. It was time to go, but not without someone risking life and cellphone to take the one proof picture that we were up there at the top with the quintessential Fuji stone post, and here it is:

Oh we're such cute happy campers, finally figuring we're gonna live and everything

We all started shivering. Better get the heck out to warm back up before we start hitting problems. The decent will at least prove easier with thickening air. We started toward the clearly marked and, thanks to the sunlight, obvious path back down. The wind at the top was the worst. I would fully lean into the wind and be pushed the other way. A rock got picked up and smacked me in the tooth at one point gosh darn it MY TOOTH. Anyways I was fine just kept running down that hill. Down those switchbacks. The trail down was MUCH easier than the train up. No boulders, no steep ledges, wide path. It was a comparative cinch! And fast! The lower we went the better and better I felt. YES! and as we descended....the weather got....better....markedly better. We were going down so fast that....before an hour was up, we were done with the storm and barely getting misted. The mist even stops. Just a little bit of wind. Then the wind goes. It's....quiet.....and just like that we were completely below the storm. It was....a beautiful day.....

 The silence was almost eerie. 

 The peace under the storm left no clue

 And bore no indication of what we had been through just hours before.

 It was breathtaking.

 And even the biggest skeptic gotta suspect that God is alive and well.

There I am, can of warm tea in the inside pocket of my jacket(IT WAS HOT AS HELL ACTUALLY I COULD BARELY TOUCH IT AT FIRST)

As we happily descended, bored, tired, and wet, you could look at people. It's like you could tell which ones went up last night, and which ones were descending from a hut after not even attempting it. The ones who had been through everything had this wow what the F*** look on their face, and just looked at the ground and did what they had to do to get off the mountain while thinking I can't believe this. Those who didn't we faster, had more pep from unspent energy, if not a little bit of confusion written on their face unsure of what happened last night and why everyone else looks like they do. 

I spoke to someone on the way down who didn't go up because they didn't let her go up. They told her conditions at the top were too hazardous, and that they weren't even letting their guides go up last night. What we got was NOT NORMAL. But now that I know I survived, I'm glad I did it. Gotta love that "type 2 fun." The descent took like 4 hours, was boring, and full of just seriously I have no idea how many steepish switchbacks with not soft ground at all. But you know what? Nobody cared. The bottom was that much better because of it. I got down and got directly into my sponge bob PJs, soccer jersey, running shoes without socks and boxers. I spent the rest of the day like that, walking around Tokyo in sponge bob PJs definitely turned some heads. But ya know what? It's among the happiest times I've had in those sponge bob PJs. Relief!

Looks like this long and unrelenting blog post will come to an end now. We got through it together people. Luckily some unrelenting things do end. Until next time folks!