Summer vacation has ended and I’m back at school. It's the start of the second term for my students, and the start of my second and last year in Japan. Its been great to see both the teachers and students at my schools, but now I’m getting bored. Ready to start teaching!! Next week my regular classes start again, this week has just been long days of sitting in the teacher’s room trying to keep myself busy.
On a happier note, summer vacation was great! As most of you know, I spent a month in the states visiting family and friends. I left Japan on August 14th, just a couple days before my students took their final exams, and began my arduous journey to America. That first day was intense.
I left home on Wednesday, July 14th at 5 a.m. in one of the heaviest downpours I’ve seen in Japan. Japanese rainy season torrential downpour. I thought about calling a taxi, but I’ve never done that in Japan and in my quick search, couldn’t even find a number to call (I don’t even have a phone book!), so I couldn’t even attempt to call and request taxi in Japanese. I had to catch the first train out of Saidaiji station in order to get to the airport on time, so I took a deep breath and rushed out into the rain. I’m sure I looked a little crazy, pulled two big rolling suitcases while trying to hold an umbrella over me and them with only two hands. I survived the ten minute walk to the station, caught my train, and spent the next half hour trying to dry my bags with a towel. Luckily, hardly any water seeped inside the bags.
A few hours later, I was on a plane flying from Kansai International airport to Narita airport outside of Tokyo. I spent 6 hours there waiting for my next flight, wandering around, and trying to sleep. At 4:00 I boarded the next plane and was on my way to Los Angeles. Eleven hours later……America….10 a.m…..on Wednesday, July 14th ! My first time back in a year, my first time away for a year. I had another six hour layover here (due to some last minute changes to my plans in America). LAX was a bit of a shock after a year in Japan. I was exhausted and jetlagged, which didn’t help, but I couldn’t believe how loud and rude people were. Everywhere I looked, employees were chatting with friends, complaining about it being so busy, telling me they don’t really care where I leave my cart, rolling their eyes, complaining that they were going to be late for their lunch break, looking tired and annoyed and distracted….This was not the kind of customer service I had grown accustomed to. I made it into the Delta terminal to wait for my next flight, and soon realized it was going to be delayed, which would cause me to miss my connecting flight in Salt Lake to get to Wyoming. I rushed to customer service, where there was a long line and the three women working there were chatting about lunch and telling the people in line that they could go use the service phones to get someone to help them, because they were waiting for their replacements, who were apparently late, to come so they could go to lunch. Finally, one women helped me, and told me that I could just stay overnight in Salt Lake because the next flight to Wyoming would be the next day at 1:00 pm. I almost cried. Instead, I called my mom, then I went to the gate of the earlier flight to Salt Lake, which was only still available because it had already been delayed over 3 hours, and the woman at the gate was actually helpful and quickly switched me onto that flight. I made it to Rock Springs, Wyoming by about 8 p.m., where my dad picked me up, and was in bed in Lander, Wyoming at my parents house by about 11:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 14th, after about 30 hours straight of traveling.
I spent a week at my parent’s house with my mom, dad, sister-in-law Dawn, and my niece Maggie. We rode horses, bucked hay, went fishing, cooked dinners, visited the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins, drove around looking for wild horses and hung out around Lander. Then, I drove over to Pinedale with Dawn to visit my brother for just the evening, and the next morning we all went to breakfast with my mom, before my mom and I drove the five hours to Salt Lake City. We did some shopping there and then stayed the night in a hotel before I flew out the next morning back to Los Angeles.
Jessica picked me up in Los Angeles and we drove back to her place in Ventura. We had a BBQ with some of her friends from work by the beach, explored Ventura a little, got mani/pedis, watched Inception (which was amazing!), and spent a night and day hanging out in Santa Barbara where we visited her sister, hung out on the beach, and explored downtown. It was over all too fast, and I was back at LAX, flying up to San Francisco….
Leeann picked me up at the San Francisco Airport and drove me up to Santa Rosa, where I stayed with Katie, Eric, and the newest member of the Leal family, Isabel. I spent a few days there, mostly chilling with Katie, Isabel, Diego the pug, and Mr. Boots, the kitty. We got to go to the Sonoma County fair, which was kind of amazing for me because it felt SO American in a way I never experienced before. We also saw our first horse race there….and our first mule race ;) We also took nice walks, did some shopping, and I made them some Japanese foods one night. On the last day, some old friends from college came by to say hi, Myles, Sarah, and Sarah’s new husband. Then Leeann came to get me and take me back to the city….
The next couple days I got to enjoy the city. Brief, but lovely. I took a jog from Leeann’s house down to the bay and then….back up. She lives on top of one of those famous San Francisco hills, so it got a bit intense, but I loved it all anyway. I can’t help but love San Francisco most of the time. Ali drove down and stayed one night, and we visited the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), where Sanja works in the coffee shop now, drink sangria and ate tapas at Cha Cha Cha, and did some serious shopping around Union Square. Friday afternoon we said goodbye to San Francisco and drove up to Chico….
I spent a week in Chico, which was a bit of a whirlwind, as is appropriate. Saturday started things off with the Bike Races, a costumed journey on bikes made by about 80 people annually around Chico. We traveled to 5 houses, each of which offered up too much booze and great local music. Always a good time, the 2010 bike races didn’t disappoint, but did leave me feeling less than amazing on Sunday. Luckily, the only plans we had were tubing down the river, one of the other things I dearly miss about life in Chico. We made the most of it, relaxing and enjoying champagne in Tupperware, in style. The rest of the week was full of biking around Chico, meeting up with old friends and colleagues, swimming in one mile, jogging in the park, eating at as many of my favorite old eateries as possible, drinking Sierra Nevada beers, shopping, enjoying time with Ali, barbecuing, and relaxing. The following Saturday morning, Ali drove me down to Sacramento and I caught my flight back down to southern California, where Stacey, Noah, and Vivian picked me up at Ontario airport….
I spent my last week in America in and around Menifee hanging out with the Carrerro fam. We played, cooked, shopped, ‘swam’ (kiddie pool style), and bounced. Danny and I spent one evening at his friend’s house playing darts, while Stacey watched the kids, and then Stacey and I spent one night out for pizza and a movie (we saw ‘The Kids Are Alright’, which was awesome), while Danny watched the kids. It was a lovely, relaxing last week in the states, and I couldn’t believe how those kids have grown since I last saw them. My last night we went out for Mexican food, which I ate entirely too little of while in the states for some reason, and I packed my bags.
August 13th Stacey drove me to LAX and I flew back to Japan, and back to the future. I arrived jetlagged and tired, but happy to be ‘home’ and finally unpack my bags in my own apartment. It was such an awesome trip, and I really needed it to recharge and be ready to take on my next year in Japan. Can’t believe it will be another entire year before I see everyone again!! Well except for those of you who might make it to Japan this year…… ☺
Since I returned, I’ve been getting to know our new JETs here in Nara, getting back into my lifestyle here, making plans for the next year, and climbing Mt. Fuji!!
Last weekend, I climbed Fuji-san with a few other JETs. We traveled to Tokyo on a night bus Friday night, wandered around the city on Saturday and caught a couple hours sleep (sort of) at an Internet Café, then took a bus to the 5th station on Fuji-san. The 5th station is one of a string of stations on the path up the mountain that offer supplies and bathrooms, as well as marking your progress towards the top. The 5th is the biggest, and the highest you can get by bus. Its about ½ way up the mountain. We began hiking at about 11:00 p.m., and spent the next 6 hours hiking up amidst thousands of other hikers.
The path starts off easy, but after the 6th station gets a lot more intense. Some parts of gravelly wide paths, but some parts are all rock that you clamber up. It was quite an amazing site to see the mountain at night. It was like an illuminated trail of ants climbing the switchbacks up the mountain. All the way up, the trail was solidly filled with people with headlamps on slowly making their way. Looking down, you could see Fuji City lit up at night, and in the nearby distance, the lights of Tokyo sprawled into the darkness. We made steady progress until we passed the 9th station, headed for the summit. The sky was beginning to lighten in the distance, and everyone was anxious to reach the summit for sunrise. Unfortunately, movement on the trail had almost come to a standstill. By 4:30 we broke off the trail, like many others, and found a place to sit on the rock and watch the sunrise. The temperature hadn’t been a problem up until now. I’d been wearing just my sweater and shell, but suddenly I was freezing. We pulled on all our layers, hats, gloves, and were still freezing. Leif pulled out a space blanket and that helped a lot, even sharing it between three people. We snacked on bread filled with butter and anko (sweet bean paste) with real peanut butter on top to fill our bellies and watched the sun break through.
The weather was amazing and we could see the sun rising on Japan far into the distance. Below us, pillows of clouds nestled between lesser mountaintops, and poured out of valleys like overflowing bathtubs. The sky above, streaked with whispers of lighter clouds, turned tropical hues blending into brilliant blues and purples. Below, on the mountain, the red volcanic clay was revealed to us, along with the endless trail of hikers below, and above, to the summit. No longer just glowing headlamps, they were now a rainbow of jackets, pants, backpacks, and bustling bodies.
Soon the sun was fully in the sky and the most majestic moment passed, and we made our way back to the trail. It took another 30 minutes or so to reach the summit, where we had to suffer the worst smelling bathroom I have ever encountered in my entire life. Which also cost 300 yen to use. The view was beautiful though, if you could ignore the bathroom’s offensive odor drifting over the entire peak. We took about an hour on top, for Kristin to nap (she was getting some altitude sickness), and to take pictures, eat snacks, check out the crater, and rest.
It was warming up quickly though, and we wanted to get down before it got too hot and also to catch our bus at noon, so we were soon on our way down the mountain. This was by far the worst part of the experience. The path down is a different path than the path up, and consists of about 6 km of switchbacks on volcanic gravel and sand. It was really exhausting and hard on our ankles, knees, and feet just getting down, but it was made worse by so many people going down at once, all kicking dust up behind them. Three hours later, we reached the bottom, exhausted, sore, and covered with a nice layer of dust. We all looked a few decades older with our hair dusted and gray, and we had dirt streaked across our sweaty faces.
We only had enough time to grab some food to eat quickly and catch our bus back to Tokyo. On that two-hour ride back to Tokyo it must have been completely silent on that bus, as I’m quite sure that every one of the exhausted and dirty conquerors of Fuji-san were fast asleep.
We weren’t done yet though. Upon arriving in Shinjuku, we had just an hour and a half before our bus to Nagoya. We wanted showers, but settled for a quick cleanup in some public bathrooms. With hands and faces washed, long johns removed, at least some clean clothes on, and fresh deodorant applied, we grabbed some food and drinks for the road and caught our bus.
We were supposed to arrive in Nagoya at about 10, from where I was going to catch a train back home and they were going to Kristin’s cousin, Kiyoshi’s house for the night. We didn’t arrive till midnight though, and with the help of a taxi got to Kiyoshi’s. Starving, we headed to an izakaya, one of the only places open at 1 am, ate our fill, and then headed to Kiyoshi’s apartment, showered, and finally got to sleep around 3 am. We were up again at 9, and caught our trains home.
So, as I began, the summer has ended and I’m back at school. Ready to make the most of my last year in Japan.
P.S.- Pictures from my America trip are already posted on my Flickr, if you haven’t already seen them, and my Fuji pics should be up soon
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