Mt Fuji

It's been a while...again....crazy computer had to break down..anyway. Two weeks ago I climbed Mt Fuji, from the bottom. Normally people catch a bus to halfway and then climb the rest. Some people even rest at the inns located on the 7th/8th stages of the mountain (there are 10 stages). I guess I was kinda over-confident in my ability so I decided to climb from the bottom to top in one shot, in 10.5 hours. From the bottom that is a pretty decent pace to move, I was kinda worried about altitude sickness but my body coped well. I didn't use the oxygen I brought nor ate half the food, but even with about 3L of water and 1.2L of energy drink I still had to buy more liquid on the mountain. I climbed through the night so if it was day, I definitely would have used more than the approximately 5.5L I drank in total. Theres way too many videos and stuff to upload here so I suggest adding me on facebook and looking there :)

The first half was basically from 800m to 2000m in a continuous uphill walk for 3 hours. It wasn't terribly steep but being mostly continuous uphill meant every step worked on my knees. Towards the end I was stopping every 400-500m of the 12km lateral track to catch my breath. Reaching halfway I was wet from the rain, tired, out of breath and my legs well warmed up. I'd started at about 5:30pm and arrived at around 8:15. Rested a bit and then trudged onto towards the top. Compared to the first half having stations along the way meant more frequent sitting rests than before so it was easier. From the last 8th station (there are fake ones haha) there was a huge line of people to the top. From there I didn't sit down to rest anymore because it was slow going and I didn't want to be late getting to see sunrise. Trudging through the last few stages I reached the top where it was WINDY as all heck. I mean seriously I nearly fell over, but anyway I snuggled in behind a small rock and waited for sunrise. I waited about an hour...which was not bad except for the crazy chill factor from the wind. Once the sun came up it was all worth it :)

From the top it took me about 3 hours to descend, descendant was painful. Steep ash trail all the way down. On the train home while standing I felt suddenly sick and had to sit on my bag or throw up. Luckily I made it home without incident and for the next two days....I couldnt use my knees. Seriously just slightly bending them was ridiculously painful.

Fireworks Festival

This is a pretty late post for what was on Saturday. On friday I went hunting for a place to buy a yukata, sash and shoes. For those who don't know a yukata is a traditional Japanese summer outfit that is similar to a kimono but much simpler and cheaper. It's really thin which is great and being made out of cotton also helps keep you cool. Nowadays they are normally worn if you are spectating a festival, part of an obon dance etc basically for an organised occasion. I really like em but anyway the store I found was a short walk from Ginza station and probably had the cheapest yukatas around and amazingly in my size. Alot of places, at least for untailored yukata dont stock above size L so I was heaps happy to find this shop, it's called Hayashi Kimono.

I bought a yukata and kimono, I'll upload pictures later so you can see...

The fireworks festival was...packed as but not unbearable like Sydney NYE. In Sydney literally everyone is cramming to get to the front or whatever so it gets really congested. It's quite surprising because there was only two firework boats on the sumidagawa river whereas I think Sydney runs 3ish along the harbour plus the bridge but at least this time everyone was more spread out. We left as a group from our dorm and after complicated directions came to the place our nice dorm reps had prepared i.e. layed out some sheets on the road so we could sit. The fireworks started at sundown and went for about 1.5 hours I taped more than half but I don't how I can get them on here..

After the fireworks we made our way back, the group went to dinner in Shibuya but I met up with some friends who had come from Yamanashi. I just like to say Starbucks Matcha Frappuccino is sooo tasty. Matcha is the strongest flavour of green tea, it comes in a powder and is used traditionally in tea ceremonies. In modern times they have made all kind of things Matcha flavour like ice cream, sweets etc

So far so good, I still haven't started Karate up again after my break should get to that soon, I'm also researching climbing Mt Fuji so that'll be fun when I do it :D