Between the Clouds: Fujisan

We survived our climb of Fujisan on Saturday. As I was hiking I didn't think it was too bad but my legs are still tired and a little sore two days later so maybe my lungs are just stronger than my legs...it was shorter and less tiring than Mt. Whitney and Longs Peak but there weren't as many switch backs as those hikes. Portions of it seemed to be almost straight up. I had fun with that since I miss the frequent opportunities to rock climb in Colorado. The way down wasn't as exciting to me since I constantly felt like I was going to slip on the small volcanic rocks that cover the trail. It turns out though that it is much more pleasant hiking down a mountain without a 40 pound pack like my dad and I did when we went down the Mt. Whitney trail.

We could only see clouds from the summit but this was a pretty cool perspective. It seemed like we were between two layers of clouds. There was a blanket of white clouds below us and above us there was another layer...I never felt like I was actually in the clouds but I could always see them.


As always, the experience of reaching a mountaintop has inspired me to hike as many mountains as possible. This is a very convenient thing to want to do since I'll be living close to most of the tallest mountains in California (and the lower 48 states)!

"Foreign" Experiences in Japan

During the last week and a half or so I have gone to several restaurants that aren't Japanese in origin but come from foreign countries (mostly the United States). Last week, we had dinner at El Torito in Shinjuku. Unlike, Mexican food in America and Mexico none of the dishes came with beans.

A couple of days ago, Jillian and I went to Shibuya and ate a blooming onion at Outback Steakhouse because our friend Taro is a waiter there. I looked up Outback on Wikipedia when I got home and it turns out that it isn't from Australia at all but based out of Tampa, Florida. I realized later that this was the first restaurant I've been to that had everything in English but it was also my least favorite restaurant since I don't eat beef. The blooming onion was deliciously fattening as usual though!

Today I went to Tully's Coffee...they have a lot of them here (though not as many as Starbucks of course) and I had only been to one once in the United States when I went to its hometown of Seattle. I've never even seen one in California. In any case it's been kind of fun to try American chains in Japan because they are usually slightly different than at home.

Odaiba and Forth of July

I don't have any pictures of our Independence Day party yesterday because I forgot my camera but we had so much fun! Not surprisingly, Japanese students are just as excited about fireworks as we are in America. I think the craziness of the night may have topped anything my friends and I ever did in high school when those type of fireworks that usually sit on the ground send sparks out were tied to the end of empty boxes so that two people could hold them up to make an arch. This happened a couple of times but the climax was when a few of the Japanese guys choreographed a "fire dance" that involved yelling "crazy awesome" and "Independence Day" words they learned earlier in the day could be used to describe the 4th of July by Americans.

Earlier this week we went to Odaiba, a man made Island near downtown Tokyo. In the late 1800's it was used for defense but now it's used for industry and play time. We tried to see as much as possible taking pictures with Tokyo's tribute to the Statue of Liberty, the 59 foot life size replica of the Anime character Gundum, and at the top of the impressive Fuji Television building. We also when to Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology. As always, the students took us to eat some delicious food...ramen for lunch and Mexican for dinner! Mexican food is not popular here but there is an El Torito near the Shinjuku train stop and when unlimited chips/salsa and tortillas are involved you can't go wrong. Speaking of food, yesterday in tribute of July 4th we had a traditional American meal at McDonalds and I had the Ebi (Shrimp) Filet-O. It was amazing, if they had that in American I might be more inclined to eat at McDonalds once in awhile.

Takahata Fudo Shrine

Monday is our day off and this week I decided to walk down to the Takahata Fudo Shrine (only 10 mins from my apartment) to work on my Bible study. This was a very neat experience since the shrine seems to be an important center of Buddhism in this area.

There were a lot of people visiting the temple and the gardens. It's such a large area with lots of Buddhist statues. Unfortunately, I can't read anything so I don't know the significance of any of the statues or shrines on the grounds.

I definitely was able to appreciate the sense of spirituality and the beauty of the grounds. I walked along some of the paths and was absolutely amazed by all of the colorful flowers. I did not have time to explore everything because I wanted to sit to reflect and work on our 1 Corinthians study before heading back to the apartment.

It's been a great experience going places by myself when I understand very little of what's written or being said around me. It seems that I have to rely on intuition much more as I interact with people when I explore the places around me.

When I am out in public I can't really communicate much other than hello, please and thank you with language but as relational beings we are still able to communicate...it's so interesting. At the temple, a woman had brought here dog and he was being silly. An older woman was sitting next to me and we were both laughing and she turned to smile at me. It was such a simple and obvious exchange but it was still a cool reminder that culture and language doesn't hinder our ability to enjoy each other (or a puppy hehe).