Conquering Fuji-san! (a.k.a. Mt Fuji)

Legend has it that if you go to Japan, and don't climb Mt Fuji, you'll eventually be back to Japan. Since now is the time to enjoy the most out of my time here, I figure I'd check off that block sooner then later!



These two pics show the view from the 5th station, or the starting point of the climb. As you can see, once you're at the starting point, you're already above clouds. The view up looks as if there's not much mountain left to climb. Trust me, there's plenty of mountain left. Plenty.


Here Cicely and I are before I started the climb. The stick I'm holding is the obligatory Fuji walking stick, which will be stamped at each station along the climb, denoting how far you've made it up.


While I started the climb, Cicely and her brother, Carl (visiting from the States) took a tour of the local Fuji area.






Here is the 6th Station. It's about an hour from the 5th Station (the beginning of the hike) and the first place to get a stamp on the stick - and more importantly, a well needed rest while waiting in line. This is where the first inklings of a lack of oxygen start to hit you.


Here is the first [of many] stamps getting burned into my stick.


At this point, the hike got exponentially more difficult. It may be hard to tell from the picture, so you may have to click on and enlarge it. The trail became a jagged, hand piercing, ankle twisting old lava flow - almost coral like. The vertical aspect of the climb also became much more pronounced.




And the air just kept getting thinner...


You know what they say if you're afraid of heights..."just don't look down" ;o)


FINALLY!!! After six and a half hours, I made it to the summit - FYI, it was freezing! Luckily, they had a little ramen place where I was able to get a piping hot bowl of noodles. Then I passed out for an hour or so after lunch - whether on a ship, or on the top of a mountain, I'll take a nooner anywhere, anytime!


Time to head back down...







...almost looks like oblivion, doesn't it???




Take note of the awesome tan line on my face. I didn't bother using sunscreen, or a hat. Although the sun is a bazillion miles away, that extra two miles closer I got by getting to the top of the mountain apparently made all the difference in the world when it came to UV rays. Not only are my leg muscles sore, but they are sunburned as well - I've never been burned on my legs until now. The combination of both types of pain at once is something you just have to experience for yourself to get an appreciation for it.

Now that I've checked this block on life's 'things to do' list, I must yet again refer to an old Japanese saying; "A wise man climbs Mt Fuji...once."

Our 1st Anniversary - In Hong Kong!

So with our newlywed year coming to a close, we thought what better way to celebrate our 1st Anniversary than with an unforgettable trip to the most recognized metropolitan city in this hemisphere - Hong Kong!


Our anniversary, June 30th, fell on a Saturday this year, and Hong Kong is only a 4 hour flight from Tokyo (via Taipei, Taiwan), so it was a relatively easy weekend getaway! We got there on Friday night, so soon after checking into our Hotel on the Kowloon Peninsula (the north side of Hong Kong), we decided to head out to the waterfront and catch the skyline view at night. Little did we know that every night, both sides of the city put on a laser light show; according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it's the largest single laser light show in the world - almost every building takes part! And to top it off, on Fridays, it's choreographed to music. We really lucked out with our timing!
Saturday consisted of the usual sightseeing, starting with the Star Ferry ride across Victoria Harbor to the Hong Kong side of the city, from Kowloon. The weather was rainy on and off, so we intended on going to the Stanley Market, thinking it was a closed shopping area, then to Victoria's Peak to get the famous view of the city.
Here is Cicely at Stanley's Market. So much for staying out of the rain. As it turned out, the market was nothing more then an open air Chinatown type place. On the plus side, it was a lot cheaper then the 5th Avenue type upscale stores in the city. We found a couple of souvenirs and decided to head out so that we wouldn't miss our dinner reservations. It may seem like we didn't do much during the day, but much of it was spent in transit; although Hong Kong is easy [and cheap] to travel around (whether by bus, taxi, subway or ferry), it's touristy spots are always on opposite ends of the island, so you need to factor in travel time with your plans.


Based on a recommendation from our Frommer's travel Guide, we made dinner reservations at a restaraunt called Petrus. It's a hoity-toity French place on the 56th floor of the Island Shangri-La Hotel on the Hong Kong Side of the city. Let me say that we definitely paid for the view. This picture was taken after our dinner, and although the service was impeccable, the atmosphere was not the pizza shop atmosphere Cicely and I are accustomed to. The portions were tiny, and the food was, well, French. One more reason for me to not like France. I will say this, it was very romantic. Which is why Frommer's recommended it. As for pricing, well, we could've gone to Ruth's Chris for a nice juicy steak. Three times. Both of us. Live and learn!
The dessert on the left is what we had at Petrus, the ice cream on the right was a surprise from our waiter at dinner the night before, at the aforementioned Ruth's Chris.

Here we are in the lobby of our hotel, the Langham Hotel Kowloon. It was a very nice 5 star hotel.










On Sunday, we headed back across the water to get to the tram that takes you up to Victoria's Peak for the famous view of the entire city. It's the steepest tram in the world, and if you can tell from the picture on the right, we're almost vertical on that thing.



At first, we thought that the overcast day would ruin our view, but the clouds add a certain surreal effect to the pictures. Don't ya think?


We decided to take the bus back down the mountain instead of the tram. The combination of a double decker bus, and a narrow winding wet road, made for an almost roller coaster of a ride! As we got back down to the city, we ran into a parade starting.

Remember that good timing I mentioned earlier? Well, we didn't realize when we booked our tickets for the weekend, but July 1st was the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return back to China from Great Britain in 1997 - which explained why the city was all decked out that weekend.



We then headed to the marina district to hop on a ferry to Jumbo, the world's largest floating restaraunt.


After a quick snack of Dim Sum at Jumbo, we headed back to our hotel to beat the crowds that were sure to form for the 10th Anniversary fireworks.

We did get right in the middle of the crowded streets of Kowloon for the fireworks, and stayed for the beginning - much like the light show, every building in Hong Kong was shooting fireworks from their roof!

The picture on the left was taken from the crowd outside; we then wised up and realized that the view from our room was just as good, but more comfortable! (picture on the right)

For our final hurrah in Hong Kong, we decided to take advantage of our hotel's amentities, so we checked out the rooftop pool....we should've gone the first day we checked in - in fact, we realized we could've enjoyed the fireworks from the pool! Oh well, maybe for Hong Kong's 20th anniversary....

Shibuya...Tokyo's Times Square

Mike has wanted to visit Shibuya ever since he heard of it, not because of any of the exciting things you can do there, but because of how much fun he had pronouncing its name, She-BOO-YA, always said with much enthusiasm, of course. So when our friend Rich invited us to go with him one Saturday, we were all over it.

First thing on the agenda was the obligatory train ride. You can't get anywhere in Japan without using the train system. We started to get hungry during the ride, so Mike passed around my homemade chocolate chip cookies I had made the night before. Mike always makes fun of me for always packing food when I travel, but it really worked out this time, didn't it?


Outside of the train station is a famous statue of a dog who, legend has it, would dutifully wait for it's master everyday at that same spot. It's a popular meeting place and we had to finaggle our way beside it to get our picture taken.


Here's a picture of the girls, La-La on the left and Lynn on the right. La-La is Rich's friend who's visiting from China, and Lynn is Colin's wife. Both Rich and Colin work with Mike.















And here are the guys, ordering lunch from a kebab place. I was a little intrepidated by the look of the big slab of meat at the window, but I was so hungry because I didn't eat any of the cookies on the train, so I ate it anyway. It was actually really good. It turns out they slice the meat and put it in a sort of pita pocket with lettuce and tomatoes and some sauce. On a side note...there was another picture I was going to put in place of this one that showed the guys, but I was afraid some people might be scandalized by it, so if you're interested, let us know and we'll email it to you. Nothing kinky or anything, but I was really surprised they had something like it in Japan where the culture is very conservative.

Here are a few interesting things we saw while we wandered around...

A Lamborghini owned by an old Japanese guy with a young, hot, blonde girlfriend.


A guy advertising for free hugs. None of us had the courage to go up and actually hug him, but later on, we did see a guy in a Winnie the Pooh costume take him up on his offer. I kid you not! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera ready to give you proof...


The cutest dogs...the Japanese really love dogs here. I saw these three, all in dresses, and being pushed around in a stroller and I just had to have a picture!

Finally we ended the night at an Irish Pub. At one point, the girls went out in search of a nearby ice cream shop, while the guys finished their drinks. We couldn't find one so we ended up sitting outside and just talking. A Japanese guy came up to us and started speaking Japanese, thinking we were locals. I've only got 3 Japanese classes under my belt, and La-La speaks Chinese, but luckily Lynn is pretty good at the language. When she explained to the guy that we didn't speak any Japanese, he says to us that he can speak English. So this is what he says after what seemed like an eternity of trying to figure out what to say, "Please, drink with me." After explaining we were married and our husbands were just inside, he immediately disappeared. At which point, we girls figured it was time to head in and get the guys.

We never did find the ice cream place, but instead ended our night by eating a crepe, which is a very popular treat here. It was a great time and I can't wait to do it again.

Zushi Beach

First of all, forgive me for getting a bit behind on the blogs. I'll do my best to catch you up on what we've been up to the past few weeks. Little did we know that there was a beach just down the street from where we live. We discovered this a few weekends ago when we decided to just get in the car and drive around the area. We had a map, but I'm not very good at navigating in the best conditions, but here in Japan where all signs are written in Japanese...forget it! Geographically speaking, the beach isn't that far away, but when you factor in the traffic, it can take over an hour to get there. The people really love their beach here and if you look carefully at what's going on behind me in this picture, you'll see the most popular thing to do here at the beach...windsurf.

Here are just a few interesting things we saw during our trip to the beach...














A guy just completely passed out. There's also a lot of construction going on because they're building these little restaurants and bars on the beachfront. Apparently this happens every summer and the little buildings get torn down every winter, only to get rebuilt the following summer.



A cute little scooter that reminded me of Mike's sister, Megan, a huge Roxy fan.





I found these little Japanese girls adorable! They look so 'ladylike' with their purses and their serious discussion on where to explore.















And finally, a scary warning sign about tsunamis. Let's just pray that we won't have to worry about that...