Snow & Yosakoi-ing

It's been nearly a year since we came to Sasebo and we hadn't ONCE experienced snow. The folks here say that it's rare for it to snow here -even tho it gets so darn cold! But lo and behold, on Daniel's birthday, it snowed! I know he was pretty amused, but I was absolutely thrilled!

We had already decided a few days before that we were going to drive over to Fukuoka on his birthday to check out what is said to be the biggest (and quite possibly, the only) snowboarding store in Kyushu. The journey was definitely not what was expected. With the light, gentle snow sparingly trickling down in Sasebo, we thought the drive would be worry-free. But BOY did we worry! As we drove further away from Sasebo and closer to Fukuoka (upper Kyushu), the snow fall grew heavier and the flakes got BIGGER! So we took a break at a rest stop to stretch out and frolic (okay, maybe the frolicking part was just ME.) Till that point, I had been driving and it was time to switch. Despite the worrisome snow falling on us on the road, it was beautiful! The hills alongside the highway had snow-tipped pine trees. But when we finally got there, we forgot about the scenery and were stoked to git'ta shoppin'! The store is called Power's Surf and Snowboarding and once we walked in, we were in awe... this place had everything!

But then we looked at the price tags :\

Yikes. Sooooo expensive.

They even had some Hawaii brands! -which was weird.. but of course they were like 3x the normal price. And so after browsing the shop for about 20 minutes with our mouths open, we decided to leave empty-handed. Since Power's was in a big shopping mall, we took it upon ourselves to explore a bit. Even after all of that tho, we still left empty-handed. *sigh* oh well! And so we labeled the day as a good "sightseeing" adventure.

Feeling rather unfulfilled, the minute we got home, we hopped on the computer and ordered complete snowboard sets from http://www.the-house.com/

Then the weekend after, we went snowboarding in Tenzan. It's a ski/snowboard run about an hour-and-a-half from Sasebo (damn, why does everything have to be so far away?) My friend Sarah took us there -she's CRAZY about snowboarding. She often jokes that if her BF of two+ years made her choose between him and snowboarding, she'd just tell him "K' Bye." She laughs when she says this, but then she says in a slightly more serious tone, "But he knows better than to make me choose..."

Anywho, snowboarding was the best! The last time we snowboarded mustve been like 5 years ago.. and it was only for a week in Whistler!

So anywho, at Tenzan, I was worried that I wouldve forgot how to board, but yay for me, I still remembered! Even odder, I think I had better control than when I was in Whistler! How can this be? Now I absolutely can't WAIT for our snowboarding gear! I think it's going to arrive next week! *crossing fingers*

And while we're on the subject of "New & Fun Things" I also joined a Yosakoi team! It's crazy how I ended up joining too. Remember that bar I talked about a while back -Yakkyugushi? I think this was my pre-blog days. Anywho, there are a couple of really sweet girls who work there and since we go there every so often, we made friends with not only the owner, but them too :) One day, we asked the girls what they like to do in Sasebo in their spare time, and while others said tennis, shopping or whatever, one girl Mami (24 years old) said Yosakoi.

I didn't even know what Yosakoi was at the time (this was pre-tokyo) and I couldnt really understand the concept. But then I guess while we were in Harajuku, watching the Super Yosakoi, Daniel remembered me saying "Woooow, that looks like so much fun! I want to do that!" So then, a couple months later, when we went back to our favorite bar, a drunken Daniel asked Mami if her team would be open to new members, not only that, a gaijin (foreigner) member -How embarrassing! Anywho, Mami asked me to make sure I was interested -which I totally was! and she said she would ask her team. The following week, I found myself surrounded by local japanese people -dancing! And I'm their first gaijin member! The team, Ikiijyu, doesn't have a video on youtube so here's one that I thought looked most similar to their style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvHVAbwQEHc

Everyone is good fun... and I am getting PLANNY practice in speaking japanese!

ps. Sorry there's no pictures in this blog but I hope it was still worth the read!

Turning the big 3-Oh with big, half-naked guys?

Yep, I dunno what's more shocking: turning thirty or seein' big, nakey (nearly) guys wrastle! I'd like to think of it as a tie.

But first, I absolutely MUST share with you the day before my birthday. Since my birthday shares the same day as a holiday (Veteran's Day), and it fell on Tuesday, I intended to take Monday off. I mean hey, four day weekend man! But Daniel convinced me to take the Friday after Thanksgiving off instead. He reinforced it by saying, "Whattr u gonna do with Monday off anyway? you're prolly just going to stay home, laze away and work on your blog..." Oh how right he was! He pretty much nailed it right on the head ;)

The thought of having a full day to do absolutely nothing sounded divine! But then the thought of having the day off after consuming an ungodly amount of turkey and stuffing sounded absolutely neccessary!

Anywho, with that said, I went to work on Monday. It was like any other day... until

the lady with the flowers and balloon came. Me, thinking this was a mistake asked the lady if she was sure it was for me. In her best Engrish, she said, "

Are you Matsuosan? [I nodded]... den deesu for you!" I could feel the heat spread throughout my face, I knew it was all red.. I just KNEW. My co's, watching the whole ordeal, confirmed it as they laughed :\

I opened th

e attached card: "Happy Birthday to you! From your hubby" Awww how sweet... but wait a minute,.. this isn't Daniel's handwriting! This left me with some questions. I called Daniel...

[me:] "Hi babe, thanks for embarrassing me at work! Nah nah, thank you for the flowers, you totally caught me by surprise."

[him:] "Yah, that's why I really wanted you to go to work today! That woulda sucked if you took the day off!"

[me:] "Ohhh okay, well you did a good job convincing me.. but hey, what's with the card? It's not even in your writing!"

[him:] "Oh, yeah, so what's it say?"

[me:] Hu-whutt?! you don't even know what it says?

[him:] "Uh.. well, I just told her I'm your husband...So what's the flowers look like?"

[me:] WHAT?!?!?! DANIEL! You didn't even pick out the flowers? What about the balloon?"

[him:] "Balloon? Oh yah, that's right, they said if I paid a little extra I could get a balloon to go with it."

[me:] DANIEL! Damn dude,.. so what part were you involved in all of this?"

[The doodoo head:] "Uh,.. well I asked them to put some purple flowers innit cause you saw that field of purple cosmos at the park on our last field trip and you said they were really pretty..."

[me:] Awww Oooookay, at least you referred to SOMETHING I said.. that's pretty sweet for you to remember...

[him:] "Yeah, see, I'm sweet! But fo reals, they make it so easy! All I did was call them and tell them I wanted flowers and where I wanted them to go and they just picked out everything! I didn't have to really do anything! All I had to do was give them my credit card num...."

[me:] "Ahem, daniel...DANIEL! Just shut up and say, 'I'm glad u like them, Happy Birthday.'"

[him:] "Oh okay, Happy Birthday ~luv you!!"

*sigh*

Anywho, my co's were really sweet too, They sang happy berfday to me with big, lit-up 3 & 0 candles atop a choco-banana cake. It was pretty tasty too! Light and fresh..I helped myself to two pieces. Holy shit guys,.. I'm 30! But as I sit here, with my 30-year-old fingers typing up this blog, I vow to all of you that until the day I die, I will proudly state my real age to anyone who asks. Of course not without asking the asker how old I "look" first! On that note, judging just by my writing ability, I'd say I'm about 13 ;D

Onward to Sumo!

Sumo is actually a whole lot more historical and respected than I ever imagined! but I wont go into the historics -you can find that out on Wikipedia ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumog/wiki/Sumo

What I can tell you is what it was like watching one live!

The tournament started from as early at 8 in the morning. Our tour bus got there at 3:30 in the affernoon. The high-ranking sumo wrestlers were set to start at 4 o'clock, so we came just in time to see to the best guys. I tell yah, these big guys are amazing. Did you know that every one of these guys can do the splits?! We watched a video of them training in their "stables" and doing the splits. Everyone on the bus was like: "Woah...no way!" Apparently, despite their size, they are extremely flexible, and after watching them, pretty darn fast too!

I thought the way they had it set up was pretty trippy. The sumo wrestlers entered the same way the public entered, so people were able to see each wrestler in traditional kimono (actually, I think they're call it something different for guys -but whatever) walk in with his small entourage. They really are big when you see them up close! Such presence!

There was even an opening ceremony for the high rank guys. They all came out and stood around the ring. Each wrestler wore an elaborate (and probably very heavy) mawashi. I think that's what they are called... That's what the regular thong-looking things are called.

For lack of better word, the "ritual" they do before the actual pushin throwin' is a bg part of the sport. The lower rank guys get right to wrestling, but the higher rank guys have up to 4 minutes of tossing salt and staring eachother down until actually fighting. The fight itself lasts for only 30 seconds or less. I dunno if it was our new found appreciation of sumo, or the anticipation of each fight after waiting up to 4 minutes... (maybe it was both) but it was actually pretty exciting to watch!

In the end, the winner of the tournament immediately does a solo performance. I'm not sure if all the winning wrestlers do the same show, but I was pleasantly surprised to see him use what looked like a japanese bow. His movements were so fluid but very controlled. I thought it was beautiful :)

It was dark outside as we left the center, and the wooden structure at the front entrance was now lit up and occupied by a taiko drummer. I wished I couldve stayed to watch him do his thing but our bus was getting ready to leave so I didn't even get a chance to shoot a picture of it. Oh well, that's okay, I was here to see Sumo ...so I was satisfied :)

Halloween in Japan! *ahem* ...and some big balloons.

Halloween weekend was quite amusing. On Friday, I went to Harbor View Club's (the "nice" restaurant on base) very first Masquerade Ball. There were three reasons why I was already stoked about this event.

1. I got to design all the media for it! This includes banners, flyers, posters and even tickets! I had free reign to design it however I wanted. My direction from Luis, the event coordinator was: "I want it dark and eerie, but elegant!" I even went ahead and designed the tickets to look like masquerade masks. People raved about those :) But they were quite the project -since we had to hand-cut every one of them. And for even MORE fabulousness, each ticket had 3 little crystals adhered to the outer corner of one eye.

2. Planning only for a small, intimate event, they sold nearly 100 tickets! yay!

and 3. The "ball" encouraged guests to dress up. Whether it be all fancy-like, accompanied by a mask -OR- wear a costume. I decided a "dressy-costume" would be best suited for myself.

Even though last year I had made Daniel a Daniel Larrusso (Karate Kid) costume and a Cobra Kai costume for myself, he REALLY wanted to be Cobra Kai this year. I didn't mind, since that would mean less work for me (since I'd obviously be making HIS costume too) and more time to do my costume! What kinda sucked was how much better he looked innit than I did! :\

I decided to go with a futuristic, space-girl look. And so I ordered a simple (more importantly, cheap) A-line bridesmaid gown and altered the heck out of it! Before I was finished with it, I had a skype session with my girls, Heather and Sarah. I showed it to them and Heather exclaimed "Oh! you're going to be Cinderella!" ...hrmm... not the reaction I hoped. I told them it was going to be a "space dress" and they both looked a bit puzzled. That's okay, that just meant I had to work on it sommore! Because no matter how cheap that bridesmaid dress was, if I didn't wear it at all, it'd be a total waste! -it's not like I can wear a bright aqua-colored bridesmaid dress on just any old occasion! ;) ...and so, I managed to finish my costume a week before the ball. I proudly called it the "Cyberella."

Anywho, onward to the Ball!...

After getting dolled up, (or in Daniel's case... just getting dressed) We both decided it would be best to catch a taxi to the event. When we got there, we met up with Cary and 5 local japanese friends in the lobby. Cary was dressed as a Rastafarian Car Salesman and everyone else had cute halloween hats on. Except for Yuki, she wore a cape and devil horns -which I thought was awesome for her -since the others seemed to be more on the shy, "un-costumey" trend. When we stepped in we were all in awe. The place looked awesome! Like Luis said, it was dark and eerie but elegant! In hindsight I wish I took pictures of the place, but I was more focused on talking stories, enjoying all the fantastic "horrors" d' overes, drinks and atmosphere. And I really DO mean fantastic! The hors d'oeveres were SOOO good! Among them were these tasty mini quiches, tender & juicy slices of BBQ tri tip beef (I swear I could not stop eating those -Sarah don't freak out, they were SMALL slices) chicken salad croissant sammiches, little sticks of teriyaki chicken, macadamia nut crusted chicken, some kind of lemon butter grilled fish, and a couple more I can't remember.

In the beginning while people ate, they projected the movie "The Haunting" on 3 large screens. Great idea in concept, but since most people were talking and eating, the movie seemed a bit too quiet. I think a subtitled, muted version of the movie, overlayed with cool eerie music, would have been a better choice. After the movie ended, there was a magic show. Well, actually, it was more like a guy doing silly tricks and trying to entertain with slapstick comedy rather that real magic. His starting trick was dropping his hat on his foot then kicking it up -catching it on his head. His ending trick was getting out of a straight jacket while riding a tall unicycle. Even with that said, our local Japanese friends were totally entertained! I'm guessing watching a live, american magic show (that is probably better suited for kids) was quite a treat for them!

As soon as the magic show was over, the costume contest started. But this wasn't one of those stand-up-on-stage-and-look-pretty contests. This was a dance-while-judge-floats-around-eliminating-people-one-by-one. Since Luis, the host of the party pretty much knew everyone, he decided it would be fair to pick a random person from the party to be a judge. The judge he picked was a japanese lady (looked like in her 40's), wearing a puffy pink tulle dress. I had no idea what look she was going for but I figured she'd be a fun judge -Boy was I wrong!

She proceeded to eliminate pretty much every creative and original costumed character on the dance floor. My co, Sarah, who came as a greek muse (the girl in white, pictured above) and her friend Dora were eliminated right in the beginning.. then Daniel got axed... then me. Waah. What she did end up with were 5 people/couples dressed in what cleary looked like store-bought costumes. A pair of pirates (there was a BUNCH of people who came as those!), a pimp & ho, a french maid, who's costume looked JUST like the one they sold at the NEX) a lovely "masquerade ball" dressed girl (who BTW is a friend of mine, so it's was okay for her to be up there..hehe nah, for reals, her's was pretty nice.) and a beer bottle. And who ended up winning? The Pimp & Ho. *sigh* I guess the japanese lady didn't "get" what we were supposed to be :\

...What?! Noooooo, I'm not all salty about losing! :P

After the contest ended it was "everybody dance" time. That was pretty fun.. until they started playing a string of salsa then reggaeton.. then country music? Hoo boy. We decided it was a good time to leave. Luckily the taxi got us back right at midnight so I turned into a pumpkin at home.

All in all, for a first-time event, it was "alright"... but on that same token, a few days later, our Japanese friends told us they had so much fun, they were already thinking about what costume to wear to the Ball next year!

On Saturday, I volunteered at the Haunted House & Carnival. Even tho we worked for 6 hours, it went by super fast. We had to quickly set up all the games, run the games for the hundreds of kids flooding in, then break everything down at the end. It was funny hearing all the kids screaming from the nearby haunted house. Some of the poor kids were too scared and redeemed their house entry ticket to play a carnival game. I manned the "Add 'Em Up" game: you know that game where you have to roll a bunch of balls down a slope into numbered slots? But instead of regular balls, we had ping pong balls painted as eyeballs :)

Anywho the coolest thing this weekend was Sunday's Saga Balloon Fiesta! After enduring a 2.5 hour drive filled with the constant, glass-shattering screams of two toddlers (both from the same parents) who sat 2 seats behind us, everyone was relieved and happy to finally reach Saga. Iwanted to kick myself for not bringing my headphones to play PSP.

After getting off the bus, we realized that we had to walk quite a ways to get to the food and souvenir tents. It must have been at least a mile or 2 long. When we got there, the booths seemed endless! An endless row of Yakitori, Tako Yaki, Grilled Corn, Yakisoba, mini candied apples and other fruits (which I thought was weird at first), Okonomiyaki, French Fries and so on...

We didn't want to make the same mistake of buying from the first booth we saw because last time we did that -and it sucked! And then we saw like FIVE other booths selling the same thing for cheaper and looking like theirs probaby tastes better! And so, with that in mind, we walked thru the whoooooole stretch. By the time we got to the end, we were starving! Daniel got desperate and almost bought a pack of stale-lookin' fries. Cary and I had to stop him and coax him out of this nearly devastating move.

Then there was an excited stir around us. It looked like the event had started. With packages filled with well-thought-out food choices, we headed back to a long open grass field that we had passed on the way in. We set up pikinik on a small steep patch of hill. It was pretty uncomfortable, but the place was crazy packed, so all the prime real estate was already taken.

We looked up and there were a bunch of hot air balloons in the sky, approaching pretty quick! Balloons would come down one by one to the field in front of us -it was then that we noticed the big bright pink "X" marked in the grass. We realized that this was an actual competition! The balloon that dropped it's marker the closest to the big X would be the winner of the fiesta. After realizing this, the event was much more exciting! The black balloon (pictured here) came the closest to the target and when he dropped his marker, (almost a bullseye hit) people were cheering, "Yatta! Yatta!" (You did it!" x2) While some balloons drifted slightly away from their desired course and nearly hit some of the spectators! -That was awesome too ;)

We even visited one of the balloons that crash landed in a different field. Even tho the fiesta is called the "International" Balloon Fiesta, we were still pretty surprised to discover a Hungarian pilot!

Cool event, it's likely we'll be checking this out again next year :)

Have a great weekend folks!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...No Lie!

Who'da thought, in the middle of Japan (okay technically more like the lower half...), I'd go to an African Safari park?

The park, which resides in Beppu/Oita is a three hour bus ride away. I found out this week when my mom came to visit that she grew up in Oita! I also found out that Oita is famous for their great abundance of onsens (hot springs) and monkeys! It was at that very moment that I was able to fully understand why my dad always jokes that my mom is a monkey. Not only is my mom from the city of monkeys, she also happens to be born on the year of the monkey! Oh boy, good times ;)

Aaaanywho, we rode in these mobile bus-cages (that resembled some wild beast) and got to feed lions, and deers, and bears, and elephants,... and giraffes! Oh! then when we got off the bus we got to feed kangaroos (I had no idea how super soft their fur would be!) ...and and and squirrel monkeys!! Omigawd, the squirrel monkeys! I swear, I would take the whole 3 hour bus ride in a heartbeat just to see those little guys again! But when I went back to work the next day and gushed to my co's about them, they told me there's a place (called Biopark) only 45 minutes away that has them too :\ Grrr. Oh well, it was still cool to feed the big animals!


Dude, Giraffes have crazy long tongues.

Oh and the other guy in there is our friend Cary -he's from Hawaii too.

I absolutely adore the little Ojiichan monkey on the bottom right.

My deepest apologies for this horrid montage!

Go Wild! -me

Catch My Tokyo Drift?

....Heeheehee...

HI THERE!

Hey hey guess what? We went to Tokyo!! ;D

I'll start with the moment we stepped out of the airport and onto the street....

Oh wait, before you do that, I must tell you that this may very well be the longest blog I have written, so you might want to go to the bathroom, grab a nice cup o' joe and settle in. OR not. Up to you! ;)

It was a dark and drizzly night (around 6p.m. I'd say), and there we stood at the curb, waiting for Daniel's dad (who works as a taxi driver), to come pick us up.

Naturally, I was a tad nervous and excited to meet the guy so my heart quickened everytime a taxi passed by....there were a LOT of taxis :\

Finally, a shiny white taxi rolls up. A guy jumps out, runs up to us and says "Hayaku, hayaku!" (FYI:"hurry x2"), grabs our bags and loads them up in his trunk. Daniel whispers to me, "Is this my dad? he doesn't look like him."

HUH-WHUTT?!

[note: that last time daniel saw his dad, was over 10 years ago during highschool -but seriously, one SHOULD be able to recognize someone after only 10 years right?!]

Of course I'M no help since the only thing I've seen was a picture of him 27 years ago -carrying a 3-year-old Daniel!

We cautiously move the rest of our things into the trunk -staring at him- trying to discover a facial feature that we might recognize... We hop in the car, still worried that this might just be some ballzy taxi driver -after all this IS Tokyo!

But then he asks us about our flight with such detail that we realize it's him -WHEW!

With that all sorted out, I give him my (now late and awkward) introduction speech -he laughs, saying there was no need to be so proper.So I immediately ask him how he would prefer I address him. My choices were: 1. Danieru no otoosan 2. Matsuo-san or 3. Papa-Matsuo. He cheerfully picked the last one.

So that night, after checking into our first hotel, he took us out for Chinese food. He said it was the best chinese restaurant in town...at the end of dinner, I agreed everything we ordered was deeeelish! After a nice conversation full of japanese and english (and me as the translator), we called it a night.

The next morning, Papa-Matsuo took us to our second hotel. The New Sanno Hotel. We would be staying here for the rest of the week. This hotel is for Military and DoD only. When we first got there, the security guys gave us a lot of trouble. They didn't allow taxis to drive up to the front entrance...plus there was a bus behind us trying to park where our car was! The only way to get out of the way was to back into the front driveway! But even after Papa-Matsuo explained what he was going to do, the security still freaked out -even some of the staff from inside came running out and started yelling at us! GEEZ! But after he finished backing up (got out of the way of the bus) and got back on the street, they FINALLY understood. And lemme tell ya, it's FANTASTIC! The place was real classy-like, and the service was amazing! At the front desk, they told us that they could upgrade us to the Lincoln Suite for the first night. This room was reserved only for VIP! Of course, we took it. I'd like to think they gave it to us because of the whole drop-off drama they put us thru!

Here's some pictures of the suite: SWEEEET ah?!





Okay, so I've been thinking about how I would write this blog. Should I write it by days or by category? I've decided it would prolly make more sense to do the latter -the previous idea wouldn't be such a great idea since I can already hear myself saying "And then we did this,.. and then this..and theeeeen...." oh brother.

1st subject: FOOD!

CHINESE? On our first night in Tokyo, Papa Matsuo took us to what he claims as "The Best Chinese Restaurant in Town." I don't think we ever caught the name of the place, but it's a nice little 2 story place, in an area called Shiba. But dude, that place was Goood! Some of the stuff we ate were totally new to me -I'm not even sure what was innit all -but it was still mui ono! Of the many dishes we got, my favorites were this beef w/ green bean dish (Dare I say, much savorier than the one at Little Village in downtown) and their cake noodle dish -Hoo man, that one was hard to order!- I didn't know how to explain it, and Papa Matsuo didn't know what it was so all I could say to the waitress in japanese was: "The crunchy noodles that are stuck together and it has sauce and other stuff on top of it." Shameful. But she figured it out and boy am I glad she did! Mm mm!

SUSHI. Of Course. Yet again, another place that we were unble to retain it's name. But this one was a little shop run by Papa Matsuo's golf buddy. This is the place we experience REAL Toro. Do you guys know Toro? I'm sure most of you do, but if not: Toro is fatty bluefin tuna belly. There are 2 grades of this stuff: Chu-toro and O-toro. Chu-toro is "middle" grade and O-Toro is the higest grade. Real O-toro will literally melt in your mouth -and of course, this stuff is pretty expensive too. Since Papa Matsuo insisted we order the best, we ordered both toros. Our reaction: WOW. It really DOES melt in your mouth...and da buggah taste good too! It was hard to go back to regular red Ahi sushi after that!

MORE SUSHI: This time we had it for breakfast! It was at the Tsukiji Fish Market. At 5:30 a.m. there is a fish auction that pretty much every Tokyo guide book insists you go and see. Unfortunately, we got there just when it ended. That's okay tho, we still got to see massive Ahi's (much much bigger than our Gir) getting carted away to their winning bids. After walking around the big market area full of all kinds of fish, we decided it was time to eat them. We picked a cute little sushi shop on the main street and dug in. It was good -but we gotta admit, not as good as Pap Matsuo's friend's sushi!

YAKINIKU. Korean Style, in Shinjuku. We went here with Misako (Daniel's mom's long-time friend) and family. They fed us SO MUCH. I totally got my Kal Bi fix -and then some. This was a family of eaters! There were 6 of us, and they ordered about 8+ platters of various eats to cook up AND each of the 2 daughters got their own big bowl of Bi Bim Bap atop a heap of rice! But I guess we shouldnt have been too surprised since this family runs a manju and snack shop! For our last dinner in tokyo, they asked us to have dinner at their house and while Misako was cooking a grand meal, the rest of the family was trippin' out that we didn't need to gorge ourselves on snacks while we waited for a little less than an hour!

NEW SANNO'S RESTAURANTS: We went to two really nice places in the hotel. One was a Japanese restaurant. We decided to go to just because it was convenient. We didn't think it was going to be anything special. We even wondered why an american/military hotel would even MAKE a Japanese restaurant in the midst of well,...it's native country! But of course, regardless of my doubts, it was wonderful :) Since we went a bit late, we almost had the place to ourselves! They do Teppanyaki (kind of like how Benihana is). The chef cooking up our stuff was a cool, mellow japanese guy who spoke really good english. The food he cooked us looked and tasted fantastic, but looked like such small portions -but after we finished the last dish, we were SUPER full. Sha-zam, like magic! (lawdy, did I just say "sha-zam?")

We also went to the hotel's fanciest restarant: Wellington's. This was a new and amusing experience for us since we've never really done "fine dining" before. We knew it was a classy place, but we didn't realize just how classy! I managed to pass dress code with what Sarah calls my "Naked Eye" dress ( http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn56sIX5KWE) and mary jane shoes. Daniel however, didn't make the cut with his button-up shirt, dark jeans and Vans shoes. Awww. poor ting. But instead of shunning us away, they offered up a closet of dress pants and shoes where he could borrow from! At first, all the special attention was kind of awkward. We had about 3 guys waiting on us! The "champange and food" guy, the "basket of warm bread" guy and the "I'll answer any of your questions, is there anything you need?" guy. But even with the 3 of them, they made sure to give us our space. Oh yah, and the food was excellent too ;)

Basically, we had a good and tasty experience with pretty much everywhere we ate! Well, except for ONE place. After ending a late night at the club on the final night, we went to a little mini mart and bought some musubis -we were STARVING. His one, with smoked/cooked salmon innit mustve gone bad cause the poor thing got really sick the next day. At first we thought it was a hangover, but since he really didn't drink all that much and had a mean tummy ache for the entire morning, we ruled out the booze and figured it mustve been that damn musubi! Then Papa Matsuo told us that during the summer, it isn't a good idea to buy musubis with meat innum... NOW he tells us!

Onward to SHOPPING and EXPLORING:
With Papa Matsuo as our personal chauffer for the first 2 days (he had to work for the rest of the week), we got to go pretty much wherever we wanted! At first we felt guilty to have him drive us everywhere but he insisted and he was happy to do so. The awkward part was that he would take us everywhere and wait in the car until we were done with the place -then take us to the next place! He said that walking around tokyo didn't really interest him. I guess cause he's lived there all his life? He assured us that he would be fine waiting -as his car has a t.v.

Palette Town in Odaiba: This place surprised us. When we first entered we saw a huge Toyota musuem/gallery. This place was bizarre. They had all the latest models and some cool futuristic prototypes. They even had a cute toyota car ride with their tiniest car. We decided to skip on that. But here's a picture with me in one :) Anywho, the surprising thing was how massive this place really was! After walking thru the Toyota place then thru a big game center,we came out thinking, "What a weird place. I guess we should head back to the car now..." But then we walked back to the main entrance and saw a rather unassuming door downstairs to our left. We figured it didn't hurt to see what that was all about and we went in. DUDE... it was a HUGE indoor mall! Whaaat?! What was even weirder was that they designed it to look just like Vegas' Caesar's Palace Forum Shops! It was a pretty neat place -I think when I come back to Tokyo, I'd like to spend a little more time here. Oh oh! but before I get to the next place, I gotta tell ya about the really cool "thing" we experienced at the game center! There was this black fabric-covered cylindrical room in the middle. It was maybe about 20-25ft across inside. And for 600yen you can sit in this room and be engulfed in 3-D! The theme this week was horror. We thought it would be fun so we went for it. There was a small group of 20-somethings (4 girls and one guy) behind us debating on going in -but I guess since they saw us go in, they decided to try it too. Oh my lawd, it was hilarious. I'll admit, they had some pretty freaky things in there like the massive 3-D fleshy worms (with sharp teef) that shot from one side of the room to the other side (how'd they do that?!) and the crazy lookin' bloody guy that came bolting out at you, cackling, with his massive shears and those blades shooting out -cutting your head off! Me and Daniel were "woah-ing and laughing but the girls were screaming! One girl even burrowed her face into her friend's back and started crying! yikes!

Harajuku: Thanks to Gwen Stefani, pretty much everyone knows about this place. The place where all the kids (and excentrics) come to "express" themselves. This place is fun to just walk around and people-watch or get that random odd accessory. We went here twice during the week. The first time we went, we were lucky enough to catch a big celebration happening at the park by the subway station. The event was called Super Yosakoi. From what I could tell, Super Yosakoi is a event where big groups of people dressed in lovely matching outfits, dance syncronicly (?) (syncronycically? syncronized-ly? well u know what I mean) and they compete with other groups. There were even Chinese and Korean groups! Anywho, it was really neat... it looked like so much fun too! Made me kinda wish I was in one of 'em. On a related note, I just heard that Yosakoi is coming to our town! Oh boy, oh boy! I'm SO THERE.

The second time we went to Harajuku was on our own. We went to visit the MoMA store. No Museum tho, just the store. I couldn't believe they would have one WAAAAY over here in Japan! I HAD to check it out. The store was a pretty good size, about the size of maybe 2-and-a-half Starbucks. I spent a nice chunk of money there :) I was happy.

We also visited the Meiji Shrine there. Picture taking a nice 15 minute stroll thru a lush wooded path and it ending at the grand entryway of a shrine. Beyond the huge wooden doors was a big open courtyard and the shrine sitting just beyond it. *sigh* On one side of the courtyard there was a great big tree with a fence around it. The fence was covered with thousands of people's wishes. People from all over the world, written in countless languages. Amazing. Many of these wishes asked for good health for family & friends and for love. It's nice to know that despite our many differences, we all basically want the same thing. After adding a wish, tossing a coin and paying our respects, we headed back. I felt refreshed and content. I dunno how Daniel felt, but I'd like to think he felt the same. We walked a different path back and realized that no one else was on it. hrm... strange. Then it started to pour. As the heavy-heavy rain came coming down, and the sky suddenly getting darker, the once lush and peaceful path seemed rather creepy. Slightly worried, we walked faster, huddled under a broken umbrella. Then Daniel started to stare and squint at something up ahead on my side of the path. He started to say, "Is that a house over th.... AAAAH!" I screamed. I hate him so much. By the time we got out of there, the rain had stopped, and any residual peacefulness we felt had gone with it ;)

AKIHABARA: This is the electronics district. Alls I gotta say is: TOO MUCH. Personally, that place is just overload. But I'm pretty sure Daniel dug it. A couple of times I heard him say, "Holy crap, I can't believe they sell this here, that's crazy!" ...Oh well, at least I found the laser pointer I was looking for (toy for the fuzzy beasts back home).

OBON FESTIVAL in Roppongi. Let me just say this: This Obon festival was NOTHING like the one in Sasebo -nor like any in Hawaii! Basically, the streets packed with the usual little booths -selling food, toys, accessories, games... but this one had BOOZE. A lot of the bars in the area got in on the action and served up glasses of Dom Perignon (with fresh strawberries -ooh lala) and X-rated (the pink drink) at very reasonable prices. So naturally, the majority of the people we saw in these streets were drunk 20-somethings. A lot of the girls wore their yukatas with red light up devil horns that were sold on the street. I wasn't too sure how to feel about that -seemed a bit offensive. But then, after a couple of drinks, I really wanted to find a pair of green ones! Shameful.

And noooooow, we reach the segment I like to call: MY FAVORITES...

HASEGAWA KYUGUTEN, a japanese archery store owned by the family of Mizue, a Kyudo sensei and friend of mine. :) I can't tell you enough how excited I was to go to this place! I'd say just as (or maybe even a bit more) excited than meeting daniel's dad! teehee...visions of arrows danced in my head...hmm...What color should I get? I hope they have one that I like! So silly yah? When we got there I basically FLEW out of the car. And then of course ever so quietly opening the door, popping my head in and saying with my most polite voice: "Sumimasen...Ohaiyogazaimasu..." Mizue's mom came out and greeted me with a smile and we went straight into business! I was looking for a whole set: a Bamboo bow and a set of 6 arrows. She had me try a couple of bows to see which one felt the best. Then she went to the back to wrap the handle with my chosen pattern. In the meantime, Mizue's grandma came out and helped me pick out a set of arrows sized just right for me. There were SO many lovely colors to chose from -I was a tad concerned that I might have trouble deciding! But when she put the whole batch of them on the table, I knew exactly which one I was taking home with me. It seemed to say "Psst! Hey you! lookit me! I've been waiting for you!" I lovingly call this color: "mint-aqua"

SEA-AQUARIUM & CITY LIGHTS in Roppongi Hills. Roppongi Hills is this set of HUGE twin buildings -taller than the Tokyo Tower! At the top of one of these buildings is a art museum and a creatively designed, beautiful aquarium. What you also get when u buy a ticket to any one of the exhibits is a free panoramic view of the city thru high, glass-to-ceiling windows. Oh man, it was fantastic! And because it rained, soft, thin gray clouds wafted in and out of our view of the tokyo city lights. Some may say it ruined the view, but I thought it was pretty cool -plus it reminded me how high up we were!

ABSOLUT ICE BAR TOKYO in Roppongi. This little bar is based on the Ice Hotel in Sweden. What's even crazier is that they ship in all ice stuff FROM Sweden! At 3500yen for cover, the price was a little steep, but we just HAD TO try it! What we got for that price was a big heavy silver coat with a faux fur-lined hood, a pair o thick, insulated gloves and a drink (served in a cup made of ice). The music in there was a nice chill, atmospheric, housey type of music that perfectly matched the surroundings. And our ONE drink was reeeally yummy! I was kind of sad when I drank all of it (but passed on getting another -it would cost 1200yen). You also only get to stay in there for 45 minutes, but after sipping our drinks, taking pictures and soaking in the experience, we were ready to move on to the next place. The place was small and pricey, but we both agree that it was amusing enough to be worth it -at least once!

CLUB WOMB in Shibuya. After the Ice Bar, I was ready to go to a club. In Sasebo, there are NO CLUBS. Now folks, it's not like I'm a heavy clubber, but I like to go out one in a while and shake my kaboose every once in a while. So when my buddy Charlie told me about Club Womb, I was stoked to see what it was all about! Good thing I had wrote down the address from their website before we left the hotel cause it was pouring outside and we couldnt see a thing! The taxi driver took the address and entered it into his hooked up GPS. We were there in no time. But when we got to the address and got ou, we couldnt find a "Club Womb" sign anywhere! Just a big unmarked building. There was a guy in the front, holding an umbrella and waving us over. He said to me in japanese, "I know what you are looking for" and points to a short set of stairs with a big orange door at the bottom. The door opens from a guy on the INSIDE and he waves us in. SO COOL! We felt so covert! They even had a finger scanner at the front for members! Wussup wit dat?! That can't be for real, can it?!

Well folks here we are, we have reached the end of this blog... FINALLY! Hope this blog was a least a little entertaining (or useful! -if you havent visited tokyo, you really should!) Anywho, thanks for being part of this one-sided conversation! :D luv u guys!

-M2

ps. saw this great sign in the subway:

Spirits and Creatures!

So far, this summer has been hot & muggy, cultural, and weeeeird.

Hot & muggy at 90+ degrees with a bajillion percent humidity.. I tell ya, it's just plain "eww" out there) "Black Flag" is what the guys on base are calling this weather. Oh and I hear the worst is still to come! guhreeat.

Cultural because it's Obon Season.

And Weeeird because never in my life have I ever seen so many unusual creepy crawlies in my life! I'll show u some in a little bit....

So, many of (or all) you folks in Hawaii may know about Obon thru the Bon Dances that occur around July-August. Alls I knew about Obon was the dancing-around-a-tower and shrine-visiting to celebrate/remember/ pay respects to people who have passed on. What I got to experience this past friday was a whole 'nother side....

The entire last week was observed as holiday for the Japanee folk. Unfortunately for the japanese nationals who work on base, they dont get these days off (Those who work on base observe american holidays only). During this time, families and friends gather to make a float, (resembling a boat -yay, I rhymed) in honor of a loved one who has passed away this year. They then carry or push these boats on wheels (depending on size) from their homes, parading them to a big park in the middle of the city.

Since this was our first year attending a traditional Obon ceremony/festival. We needed to do it right. We even got off work an hour early so that we could take care of the Gir and Miu matters and not have to rush to get ready. It was a good thing too, cause it took me like a freakin' HOUR to get my yukata on! I even had to watch a instructional youtube video about 10 times to get the obi on right! I was getting pretty frustrated...the ties and folds just weren't staying put!

...All the while, there sat Daniel, (who ready in seconds flat, because all he had to do was throw on a hapi coat) ooh-ing and woah-ing at videos of freedivers spearing uluas! [hmph.]

But when I finally got that yukata on I was stoked! So stoked was I, that I almost didn't care that it was highwater! -Apparently the "One-Size" style comes up a bit short for Magzilla ;)

After a couple pictures, we were off to the Albaqurque Bridge (the bridge that all the americans from base, cross to go into town), to meet a couple of friends. There, they had various food, souvenir booths and even a little buddhist shrine set up forpeople to pray!

[Oh by the way, they even had those plastic rainbow light-up toys! You know what I'm talking about right? The ones they have at the Polynesian Cultural Center or the ones you can get during christmas at Honolulu Hale! ... except over here they had SWORD kine! Ohhhh boy, did Daniel wanted one of those! -but he got over it pretty quick when they told us it was $12.

What we DID buy was a floating lantern to share. We even got to decorate it before we released it into the river. While decorating, I glaced over at a haole guy next to me who wrote a little note on his lantern addressed to his uncle who had passed away. It said something about how he was glad he got to see him before he left for heaven... It made me a little sad -but then a little ashamed for being so nosey and peeking in on this poor guy's personal life! oops. Anywho, after successfully releasing our lantern, and watching it float over to get lost with the other lanterns, I felt an unexpected sense of calm. I may have only lasted a minute or two, but it was definitely there.

After that. we were off to get some food.. we were starving! we ate tako yaki and a banana-choco crepe. We sat and ate near the street where the parade of boat-floats passed by. It was trippy, they only close one lane of traffic for this parade, so cars are going by RIGHT up next to them!

It was a sad but beautiful sight. All these boats. Each one representing a missed loved one. Some even had a picture of the departed. A grandma, a grandpa, a young son :( Some of these boats were HUGE. There was this one young guy's boat that was really cool. His float wasn't a boat at all! It was built to look like a Kawasaki motorcycle! There were pictures of him on the front and back. He was a pretty young too, he didn't look a day over 25. The bunch of guys pushing the float looked about the same age -they must've been his friends... perhaps they're a motocycle gang?

After most of the boats passed us and reached their goal at the park, we decided to head to the park too. What we saw at the park was even more surprising. This big park was filled with SO MANY boats! They were all perfectly lined up for display. Big boats and little boats side-by-side. This is where everyone lit up the rest of their firecrackers. But they werent' popping them one pack at a time, they burned piles at a time! It made my ears hurt a little, but the resulting smoke looked pretty neat -like mini mushroom clouds!

On the opposite side of the park was a big loooog pile of what kinda looked like trash. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that it was a huge mound of offerings! They were fresh-cut flowers wrapped in (what looked like) straw matting, and paper packages full of decorative sugar flowers! I had nothing to give, so I offered my head-flowers thing.

I felt sad but I felt kinda happy too. Sad because I couldn't believe how many people died this year in Sasebo... But happy because I got to see the result of family and friends working together, and a community that really supports it.

After feeling spiritually renewed, we went to our favorite bar and got plastered ;)

Onward to creatures!... now don't get me wrong folks, I am NOT a bug fan, but I feel so compelled to share this witchu guys!

Okay, so it appears that Sasebo+Summer=BUGS! As soon as summer hit, all these crazy bugs came out of the woodwork! I've had bright green stickbugs surprising me at the park (they blend in so well with the grass!). I've seen butterflies of various colors: yellow, white, electric blue, lilac, monarch orange ('cept these were smaller than the ones I've seen back home) and black ones... hmmm maybe those are moths? Yeah, there's lots of different moths too. My favorite one is this guy -which I named Mothra...naturally.

There's a lot of beetles here too. Like BIG ones. Big like the length of your palm! Japanese kids like to have them as pets... but if you don't want to go and catch them yourself, you can buy them at a store for 600-800yen! crazy. Unfortunately, I don't have any photo proof of those :( I even spotted a big reddish-brown one at the park last week but I didn't have my camera. I ran home and got it but it was gone by the time I got back! sneaky buggah. (maybe some kid found it and took it?)

Here's a fun fuzzy worm we saw near a boat harbor.

And right now, it's the season for Semi. These suckers are big, loud and kinda freaky to me. Alas, we have not been brave enough to get close enough to get a good picture of one yet. This website has one on the bottom of the page. It even has a audio sample! Just multiply that by 20 or so, and you'll get the lovely sound we hear out in the park every morning! http://www.timwerx.net/odds/suzumushi/index.htm

There was one lying in the front walkway 3 doors down (hehe) from our apartment. It looked dead. I thought "Oh hey, nows my chance to get a picture of this thing!" how morbid and odd is that?! Anywho, I run home, get my camera and run back -good, it's still there... so then I turn my camera on macro setting -ready to shoot...

...I need a stick or something to flip it over... boo. no stick in sight.

maybe I can blow onnit...

*phoooo*

The friggen thing comes back to life!! Still upside down, it starts spinning furiously and buzzing!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

FORGET THIS!

I run away.

Later after work, I lead daniel there to take a look at it. It's still there. Still upside down. It's not moving. I hand him the camera. He gives it back and tells me to shoot while he tries to flip it over with his shoe.

We go in closer...

Without warning, the thing starts buzzing and spinning again!

Daniel says [and I quote]: "Woah Shit!"

he leaps up....

laughing, we both run home. ...we're pathetic ;)

the next day da buggah was gone.

Oh! and on a side note, we have also witnessed a large crab crossing the road during our morning commute.

Hope u enjoyed this webisode, stay tuned for the next installment after we get back from Tokyo! We're headed there this Friday to meet Daniel's pops! :)

thanks for readin' me!

Fujiisan: Color Me Humbled!

Konbanwa!

In case some of you haven't heard, Daniel and I decided to take on Mt. Fuji this past weekend. Hooo Boy, what a journey!...

First, a little background:

At 12,388 feet, Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan. It is open to climbers for about 2 summer months per year. On the other months, it is actually illegal due to the extreme cold climate and super strong winds -winds that can literally whip people right off the mountain! They say approximately 200,000 people climb up Fujisan [what the japanee folk call it] every year!

Aaaanywho.. here's how our travels started.

After packing all the essentials, taking the fuzzies to the pet hotel, and buying even MORE supplies at the NEX (just in case), we were ready to embark on this journey.

I must also mention that for the past 2 weeks I have commited myself to wearing my hiking boots all day, everyday (to break them in). We have also been good about training at the gym -rockin' the treadmill and stairmaster everyday after work. I HATE the stairmaster.. but my biggest fear was being that one person who would slow the rest of the group down.

We went with a group of 29 predominantly young, healthy folks. This tour is run only two times a year by the Outdoor Recretion Center [OREC] on Base. Their motto is like that movie Lilo & Stitch: "No one gets left behind." And here's why I'm a terrible person: While we were all getting to know eachother at OREC, I was also scanning the group for people who may potentially be slower than me! I fixed my focus on this kinda big guy, (who looked like a much taller version of Silent Bob) who was taking out a pair of NEW hiking boots from an NEX package. SO BAD YAH!? but aside from my evil thoughts, the group looked like a fun bunch of people ;)

The first challenge: Survive the 15 hour shuttle bus ride.

During the first 2 hours, everyone was excited that they passed inspection and were on their way to hike the great Fujisan. Everyone was chatting it up, playing their nintendo DSs, ipods or reading. Daniel and I were ready too: we had a word search book, two of those "spot the differences" books, a magnetic Chess & Checkers set, a travel-size Connect 4 game, a DS, a PSP and an ipod ;)

We stopped at a rest stop every 2 hours. It wasn't too bad... at least for the first waking hours.... :\

After our dinner stop, there was nothing left to look forward to but trying to sleep on this uncomfortable bus that stops every 2 hours! :(

It's pretty safe to say that none of us got a decent night's sleep.

But then we finally reached our destination. And with the excitement, everyone got a new boost of energy. We got dressed, loaded up, and bought a plain wooden hiking stick from the souvenir shop.

Here's the entry of the hike. That guy right there is Walter, our hike guide. This is the same guy we got our Kayaking Certification from. Yep, the same guy who paddled circles around us. I tell you, this guy is a machine! You will hear more about how amazing this guy is a bit.

So here we go, hiking sticks in hand, merrily embarking on this glorious adventure...

We started at the 5th Station of the mountain. This is where most hikers start since there is paved road and car passage up to this point. Since we were already pretty high up, we started our hike with a view of the morning light.. it was BEAUTIFUL! I must've sighed at least 3 times!

So there are 5 stations till the top. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to each station. It was mildly strenuous but doable..at least until the 7th station! Till then, it was a zig-zaggy rocky, dirt trail. 3 hours into the hike, we all started to realize that this hike was going to be harder than we thought. The tight group was starting to thin and spread out. Then the guide in the back, (who acted as a sweep), Charles hollered for Walter in the front. We all had to halt. 3 people had given up. They said they could go no further. Dan (The volunteer guide -who also happens to be Daniel's supervisor) took over as the lead guide while Walter went back down to escort the 3 people back to the bus. He told us that after he gets them back to the bus, he will catch up with us. He's crazy. We just hiked 3 hours and he's going to go all the way back down and come back up to meet us?! geez. At this point, Daniel had nicknamed him "The Terminator," and everyone laughed and agreed.

And with that, we sallied forth. We were lucky, it was a nice day. Cool and breezy, but still sunny. Even with a good coat of sunblock, I got pretty burnt. At the 7th station we got the first of many hot stamps. Each station has a couple of huts that serve as rest stops. At these huts, you can get your wooden walking stick hot-stamped with a design unique to their hut. Each stamp costs 200 yen (about 2 bucks). Some stations have a special 2-design stamp that they offer for 300 yen. But I tell yah, it really adds up! 2 sticks at 10 bucks each, with 15+ stamps on each stick! Cha-ching. It was worth it tho. It was patiently done the old-fashioned way with a hot coal pit and a small metal brander. The people who ran these huts also lived there during the hiking months! They even had small sleeping areas available for hikers if they wanted to sleep there -for a price of course! I ain't gonna lie, shit was REALLY expensive up there... and the price got higher and higher as we ascended! For example: bottled water: 400yen, Cup-o-noodles: 600yen!! Oh, and a small can of oxygen (yes, they had those): 1,300yen!

Nearly every station, we stopped to "refuel." We both had camelbacks full of gatorate and a backpack full of beef jerky, powerbars and gel packs. The gel packs were surprisingly tasty -like fruity, chopped up jello! It made up for the powerbars -bleh. I really wasn't feelin' those but I knew I had to eat. Walter told us that even the fittest of hikers can collapse due to lack of intake. So I gulped mouthfuls of gatorade and choked a powerbar down at every station. Speaking of Walter, he caught up with us at the 8th station!

It was pretty much the same stuff until the 9th station. But it got colder and colder and we lost sight of all "green life" down below. Now it was just rock, pebbles, ice and CLOUDS! Our walking sticks were pretty full of stamps at this point -all we needed was that final stamp from the hut at the top! We were exhausted. Everyone gathered together to rest one last time till the final frontier. The last stretch was a DOOZIE! It was nearly 3 times as long as the trek from the 8th to 9th station! It was pretty funny tho. When you reach the 9th station, the hut that sits there blocks the view of the trail to the top... so every person who walked around the hut to see it, let out a big sigh or a classic: "Holy Shit!"

Needless to say, at the 9th staion, someone decided to give up and Walter had to escort yet another person down. But this time, he decided not to come back up and join us -I mean, we were almost there!

I can't even begin to say how hard this was. Physically AND Mentally. We were moving SOOOO SLOW. It was discouraging how much futher we had to go, even tho we had already made it this far, there was still this monumental stretch of nothingness. It would feel like we'd walk forever -then when you look back to see how far you went, you'd realize that the 9th station was still RIGHT THERE! Waaaah! When we reached the halfway point, we felt a mixture of relief and dispair.

Then there it was.. the gate marking the end! We summed up the last vial of strength and FLEW up the last "zag." It felt fantastic. I wanted to jump up and down and do a dance,.. but all I could muster was throwing my arms up and giving a big toofy grin.

It felt weird to be up at the top. There was so much activity! But even with all the hustle and bustle, I could really see how spiritual all this could feel -With the cold, thin air, the sky all misty white ...and our endorphin-filled bodies... ;)

We quickly got our last stamp. It was perfect: A simple "Top of Mt Fuji, ALT. 12395 ft" burned with a thick circle around it. It was still warm when they handed it back to us... yes, I had to touch it to believe it :)

We decided it would be a good idea to eat something up there so we took a seat in one of the shops. The seating was weird. The whole area had about 4 rows of long wooden boxes. Each one was covered with tatami (japanese matting). People sat on both sides of the rows. There were no tables. You just had to hold your food with one hand and eat with the other. The food was EXPENSIVE too. But that was to be expected. We ordered a Miso Ramen to share. It costed 800 yen. It was delievered to us in a small bowl, filled with barely enough ramen for ONE person! And it tasted a lot like the Sapporo Ichiban, 65 cent ramen that you can buy at Longs! ...But lemme tell yah, after eating nasty powerbars and guzzling 2 liters of fruit punch gatorade for 6+ hours, it was the tastiest instant ramen EVAR!

[Oh! by the way, remember the "Giant Silent Bob" guy? yah, well he was pretty much ahead of us during the ENTIRE hike! That'll teach ME to judge by appearance!]

After resting up at the top for about 45 minutes, the group gathered, took a quick swing over to look at the crater. We found it amusing that this big ol' crater had only a few skinny metal posts and some flimsy rope to keep people from falling in!

Then we began our 3-4hr descent. This was WAAAAY easier, since going down is a different trail. The trail was mostly pebbly and dusty. Which means it pretty much sucked if you had people in front of you. We all felt like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown.

Even tho it was easier that going up, walking down a trail covered with loose pebbles had it's own challenges. But within the first hour, we learned to tolerate having little rocks in our shoes and perfected our "slide-step."

The first hour's decent was pretty bleak. Just a red and gray trail against the white sky. But we did stop to play with a wall of ice!

[Side note: You may notice, that there are no pictures of JUST daniel. That's because it's pretty tricky operating a camera with gloves! Not to mention, I DID earn the nickname "The Destroyer" since I was a wee child, so we didn't want to take our chances...But I DID manage to get a shot of him during the warmer parts of the hike -but that one came out too dark! poor guy. Aaanywho, moving on...]

So here's a couple pictures taken when we finally DID see something worth shooting!

On the right, I call this a picture of "mokomoko clouds."

And below is a panoramic shot of the view below, once we got out of the "whiteness."

When we hit solid(er) ground, Dan told us that we just had one more UPHILL stretch to overcome and we'd be back to our bus. He called it the "Heartbreak Ridge." How appropriate. It was about a mile more. The sun was low (it was going to set soon) and blaring directly in front of us as we trudged along. Then all of a sudden, I started to feel queazy. I couldnt look ahead because of the sun, so I looked down at the rocks. But then the rocks started to vibrate. My tummy was starting to hurt. Uh Oh. Since I drank all my gatorate during the descent, I didn't drink or eat anything on the way down -big mistake. The awful feeling in my gut escalated pretty quickly and it was hard to even think straight. ARRRGH, not now! It was so frustrating. More than ever, I wanted to finish this. We were WAY too close! I couldn't stop now! Daniel still had some gatorade left, so he gave it to me. He told me to hang on to him and focus on something other than the rocks. So I walked behind him, holding on to his backpack for guidance and directed my attention to the lush greenery on our right. Even if I felt lousy, it was quite a sight. It felt a tiny bit better. All the while there was a mini battle in my head: One side, whining like bratty children -asking me to stop and rest. The other side sounding like a drill seargent shouting that I'd be a complete wuss if I listened to them....but the next thing you know,.. we had made it to the parking lot. Thank the lawd!!!

Since we had "conquered" Fujisan faster than expected, we were treated with a trip to an onsen. But during the ride, my queaziness turned into full-blown dizziness and nausea. I've never felt so messed up. Then it got worse. My vision was blacking out. With eyes wide open, I could barely make out anything in front of me. This mixed with a light head (that felt like it was going to disconnect and float off ...) and a heavy, painfull churn in my belly, pretty much freaked me out. Daniel tried to tell me that my body was just experiencing over-exhaustion and I needed to calm down and try to relax. Two guys, Kurry and Cai, who sat close-by who happened to work in the medical field, heard me talking so they got up from their seats to check on me. And folks, lemme tell you how lady-like I am: When they asked me various medical questions, I responded with: "I dunno guys, but I gotta either puke or take a crap -either way, something's gotta come out!" NICE. :\

When we reached the onsen, Walter told me that this exact thing happened to another lady 2 hikes ago. He said that I just needed to eat carbs. I told him that I ate a couple of powerbars and stayed hydrated, but then he said that either I didn't eat enough or maybe my body wasn't taking the powerbars well. Hmmm...come to think, before this hike, I've never had a powerbar! Nor have I ever drank so much gatorate before! He reenforced his previous comment and said "Trust me, you just need carbs." Daniel dug thru our bags and found a tuna & crackers set. He ripped it open and gave me just the crackers to eat. (Tuna sounded so disgusting at the time.) There were about 6 crackers in the pack. By the 5th cracker, I felt 70% better! wow. Magical crackers! I was well enough to take advantage of the onsen. Now THAT felt GREAT. After we got out, Daniel bought me some sweet bread that they sold there. It almost seemed like I felt better and better with every bite.

After that, I was an eating machine. It was funny, Walter just happened to be passing by everytime I had food in my hands. He commented, "Wow, you're really taking my advice to heart!" he started laughing around the 4th time he saw me and said: "Man, I'm impressed!"

On the bus ride back, 3/4ths of the people were sleeping... and the rest of us were challenging eachother in Connect 4! :)

Well I guess that's it guys! I hope you found this blog informative and useful -in case you should feel so compelled to take on Mt Fuji too! Remember folks: Bring carbs, liquids, cold-weather & rain gear and LOTS of yen and determination!

And now I leave you with this fine discovery at one of our rest stops: SPAM Curry!

Oh, and to the right of it is WHALE Curry... yikes.

much love, me