Another Year Closer to the Future

I've been far from often in my updates, but I figured this is about the time to play katsup.

So what have I done . . .
A hop over to HK to visit Chuck
A long train to Kyoto
A shorter train to Kyoto
A few parties
A slight ass kicking
A venture into hanging 10 on a sofa
And a most fantastic new year's eve

Since I had some money in my pocket and a long weekend, I figured Chuck would be up for some company, so i jumped on a plane.

Surprise of surprises, Hong Kong did a brilliant job of meeting my expectations

Like it jumped right out of Rush Hour

We wandered around to find a few beers and something tasty to eat before heading on to see how long we could distract the ladies of the night before they realized we weren't buying

Why not?

Yes that is my friend mequilla,
and yes that was the most delicious bowl of cheese and pork I have ever eaten

I forgot the map-less treasure hunt that we undertook to find the hostel that we were crashing for the evening. We never left a 2 block radius, it took us about an hour to find . . . nuff said. After crashing for the evening we decided to spend the next day checking out a giant budha, a small mountain, some tasty Taiwanese treats and the fanciest Pizza Hut on the planet.

Butterfly who followed me to the top
You'd best beat the hell out of that fire
Yeah, that's the stuff

We felt we needed to class ourselves up a bit

After another not so comfy night's sleep, I was on a plane and headed back home. Fast forward a few weeks, and time for another long weekend. This time I set out for a fall in Kyoto.

The oldest major city in this island country, Kyoto has more shrines and temples than one could want to see in their entire life. Needless to say, I've had my fill. I took the 4.5-5 hour cheap ticket option to make my way there, and I have pretty mixed feelings about the trip. Not with the trains or the time its self, but rather with the scenery. As I ride out of Nagoya, I pass through mountains and small towns, and I am reminded of how much I still have left to see (and how much time I am somewhat wasting day after day in this city). But at the same time I see these places and can't help but smile just at the sight of it all . . . And so I arrive in Kyoto. I had spent the last week or so asking around and looking through google maps to figure out where I wanted to go, so upon arrival I rented a bike and set off.

First stop (after dropping my bag at the hostel) was a train ride to Biwa-ko, the largest lake in Japan.

Not the worst sunset I've come across

After that, some diner and back to the hostel to chat with the backpackers and prepare for a pre-dawn rising.

I woke around 4am ate some breakfast and around 5am headed off to my first destination, Kiyomizu-dera. I planned on catching the sunrise, but was absent minded enough to miss the fact that there is a mountain backdrop on the east side of the temple. However, early arrival granted me free entry and the scenery gave me an excellent background for a video message home for the AIESEC banquet (even if it ended up being too dark to actually see me . . .).

The view down the hill up to the entrance

I continued on to wander through a few deserted shrines
After getting my fill of shrines and temples for the day, I wandered the rest of the city
Seems the Papa decided to experiment in a new market
Later I found a very tasty "deep fry whatever the hell you want" restaurant

From there it was back to the hostel for some more chatting and preparation for an even earlier morning.

This time I left the hostel at 4am and made my way all the way to the other side of the Kyoto valley to a park/mountain called Arashi-yama. I got there while it was still dark and made my way up a small peak to watch the sunrise. I didn't take any shots of the sunrise (cause my camera doesn't take very worthwhile pictures in the dark), but here's the view after it lightened up

A bit of fog, but not too bad
Next was the Moss Temple
(They only let about 10 people per day in for this one, but I got there long before anyone arrived, snuck over the moat and had a good view for an hour or so from this tree)
On to the Suzumushi-dera
(This one's all about crickets and wishes coming true . . . very Pinocchio-esque)

And finally Kinkaku-ji
(The most famous)
The GT in me couldn't help taking this one

After that, another 5 hour train ride home. And then a few weeks later I got send on a business trip to Kyoto University to work with one of the professors there. Difference this time being that travel was on the companies tab, so I rocketed from Nagoya to Kyoto in 35min via the Nozomi Shinkansen. 5 times more expensive, but if someone else is paying the bill, a good way to travel.
A few pics from that trip
From the Uni
Complementary suicide bags from the hotel
Even more delicious than it looks

The next round of events were the Bounenkai, the end of the year/forget about the passed year parties
This was the middle of the first of 3 parties that evening
(p.s. held on a Thursday with work the next day. . .never been so hungover)

After 4 months of training, I was finally granted the opportunity for a boxing spar.

A learning experience to say the least . . . 20lbs and 4in makes a much bigger difference when I can't use my legs to close the distance . . . Anyway, if I want to give the pro test a shot before I go home, I need to at least be able to keep up with a pro 20lbs heavier than me . . .

A week or so after that I was inundated with requests from couch surfers. The first was a kid from Poland who was in the first week or so of an open ended wandering around Asia. Great guy, and made a pretty tasty goulash. A few days later I had a guy from Canada who is teaching english in Saitama and two guys from Croatia. All worth a few drinks and some conversation. Plus this adds an easy stopover in Zagreb during my planned European wanderings this summer.

Quite randomly I found this sweatshirt at the local thrift shop
I couldn't buy it (because that would show some small amount of support), but I thought it too entertaining to let go completely

With all that passed, I move on to a rather astonishing new years

I have had to go through more permission getting and convincing for this adventure than I have gone through for all past adventures combined, but after 3 months convincing my company and my parents that I wasn't going to die, I equiped up to climb a mountain
My Equipment
My Equipment.rar

And so AIESEC GT shirted and bearded up, I started the 8 hour train ride to Fujiyoshida city. Everything went as it should as I checked into the hostel around 5pm, grabbed some dinner, bought breakfast, hit the hostel's hot spring and crashed for the night.

I woke up at 02:15 to get dressed and eat breakfast before my taxi arrived at 03:00 . . . unfortunately I was a bit slow off the mark and ended up eating and finishing getting dressed at the Sengen Jinja, the starting point of my climb.

After I was fed and all was in order, I started my way down the path. The 6 mile approach has two major parts. The first (from the Sengen Jinja to Umagaeshi) is a slight incline walk in the woods that I covered at a quick pace in about 1.5 hours. The only troubling moment was when I heard what at first sounded like a chainsaw off to my right. I turned off my light for a moment to look around for another person, but saw none and continued on. A few minutes later I heard the sound again, it appeared to be following me. It was at this point that I realized something strange about the sound of this chiansaw. . . it was comming from 3 or 4 meters up in the air off to my right. As I continued to walk I wandered through possible explainations in my mind, and after discounting large cats and bears, I came to it, Oosuzumebachi, Japanese hornets.

For those not in the know let me offer a small excerpt from wikipedia
"known colloquially as the yak-killer hornet, is the world's largest hornet. . .
approximately 50.8 mm (2.0 in), with a wingspan of about 76 mm (3 in). . .
The sting of the Asian giant hornet is about 6 mm (¼ in) in length . . .
venom contains a neurotoxin called mandaratoxin^[5] which can be lethal to people who are not allergic if the dose is sufficient. Between 20 and 40 people die each year in Japan after being stung by giant hornets. . .
venom of the Asian giant hornet is more toxic than that of most other bees or wasps, giving this species one of the greatest lethal capacities per colony. . .
Japanese Hornets protect their nest and will attack humans that venture within about 10 meters. They will start to swarm and then attack en masse, sometimes emitting a loud noise. It is advisable therefore to retreat immediately from groups of Japanese Hornets, and at great haste should they start to emit a rattling noise"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzumebachi

One thing that they forgot to mention that I saw on a documentary here is that when one of these guys stings, it releases a pheramone that calls all other nearby to attack the same target

5am in the blackness around Fuji-san, at least 3 miles from the nearest living soul and I was hearing that "rattling" noise . . . this was not the ideal situation, so I put a hurry on. Luckily there was soon a road that passed over the path, and I heard nothing more after that point. The path from Umagaeshi (the "horse return" point where historically people would unmount and head on by foot), is a bit more involved. Dry and ice free from Umagaeshi to about the middle of the third station and icy beyond that, everything from Umagaeshi on is between a 45-60 degree uphill march. Far from impossible (as long as you've a pair of crampons), this piece took quite a bit more effort and put a major dent in my climbing time (Umagaeshi to the new fifth station was about 5 hours). As I didn't feel like coughing up the $500-600 for a good pair of climbing boots, I had taken the aproach of buying a pair of work boots from the local construction worker supply store. I bought the pair that had been recommended as most water proof and that had the most ankle support. The level of water proofing became both an issue and irrelevant durring the course of this climb.

Not wanting to stop too often I had worn all socks I thought neccessary for the top, from the bottom. This was not the smartest of descisions . . . as I passed the fourth station I realized that moving my toes around wasn't working anymore, and that the feeling in them wasn't comming back. This was the point where I completely abandoned my origional plan, and tried to hurry ahead to find a warm place to avoid frostbite. I remembered reading about one hut that was open year round on this trail at the fifth station, and I decided if I couldn't find that hut I would have to stop at the fifth station to break out my sleeping back and warm clothes to bring my feet back to life.

Luckily as I wandered up to the fifth station I found myself in the company of about a dozen people at the entrance to a nice warm hut. I cautiously stepped inside (not knowing if anyone would be offended by my entering), greeted some of the other climbers and grabbed a spot next to the cast iron stove in the center of the main room. After a bit one of the guys asked me if I was really that cold, and I informed him that it was just my feet. I let him know that I had been out for about 8 hours, and he suggested I take my socks off to make sure I didn't have any frostbite issues. No worries there, however, at this point we (myself included) realized that my socks (all three pairs) were completely soaked through. This is when I checked my boots and saw that they to were soaked (so much for the water proof recommendation), but there was never more than a couple inches of snow on the ground (and I was wearing crampons at the snowy times, giving an extra inch). After some thought it was figured that to many socks and over active pedal sweat glands were the problem that had nearly frozen my feet off. After warming my feet and assesing my boots with some of the more experienced climbers, it was quite clear that I would not be heading to the summit as planned. . .

Dissapointed that I would not get to see the top, I opted to stay at the hut for the night and enjoy a warm bed and some festivities. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Diner was a multi course feast of sashimi, nabe, noodles, pork flavored rice and more that I know I am forgetting. There was also more drink that you could ever want. As one of the younger Japanese guys said "On new years, the alcohol never runs out". I ate my fill and had a few drinks, but the best part of the whole evening was the company.

In all there were around 30 people in this little hut for the night, and aside from some entertaining Canadians and one other very interesting American, there were a smathering of world famous climbers in the house. Most of the crowd was in the 60+ range, and many of them come out every year to party and then watch the sunrise (one guy had been there for 53 consecutive years). There were a few guys who had spent the 60's 70's and 80's setting first ascents on mountains all over the world, and a few more who were photographers just as well traveled. The climb from the fifth station to the summit takes most good experienced climbers 4+ hours, but there was one Japanese Ojii-san who does the fifth station summit and back in 2 hours. Good food, good drink and great people at 2300m. . .an amazing night and a hell of a lot better than being in a sleeping bag at -25C.

As conversation and people dropped I finally decided to call it a night (not sure what time it was, but I figured some sleep would be neccessary). The room that the beds were in was neither insulated nor heated, but the blankets were toasty. . . a cold room and a warm bed, doesn't get much better.

5am rolled around and the lot of us were off to the 6th station to get above the treeline for the sunrise. I got one snap just a bit before the sun peaked up over the horizon, and then just stared off trying to soak up every moment.
After that, many pictures were taken, a drink was passed around (though a few of the old guys were still drunk from the night before) and then everyone headed back down to warm up, eat some breakfast and start the party going again.

From there it was more great company and conversation until Jeff (the most experienced of the Canadians, who has been up every year for the last 10 and in Japan for 14) returned from the summit. This was about the time I was outside shoving my hand into the snow (because I had just burned the shit out of it on the cabin's cast iron stove). I saw him coming down around the bend in the trail, and he asked me to come help him out with something in the bathroom. Never one to turn down a friend in need (even in the most unusual of situations), I headed over to the bathroom building. Once inside, he told me that he had been messing around coming around the last corner (just 20m away) and had fallen and dislocated his shoulder. Jeff, Adrien and myself then tried to slip it back into place . . . to no avail. Jeff didn't want to go inside, because everyone knew him well and he didn't want to make a big deal of it. Luckily the mountain police (who had also stayed the night in the cabin) were at that moment loading up to take a couple people down the mountian, so after a few "I don't want to have to go to the hospitals", Jeff climbed into the polices' truck and was on his way down (with equipment in tow so that he could climb back up after his shoulder was reset).

Shortly after there was a delicious lunch of hand made gyoza and curry. I had planned to climb down just after lunch, but decided instead to hang around, enjoy for a while longer and wait for Jeff to return before heading down. After a nap and fair amount of stove-side sitting Adrien and I were ready for a walk and decided to make our way up to the 7th station.

I borrowed one of the other climber's boots for this trip (and the "dainty" crampons that came with them). We made our way up as high as it seemed safe given the equipment and grabbed a seat to try and catch a bit of sunset. Unfortunatly since we were on the east side of the mountain, there was little of a sunset to see. So we started the way down before it got dark, and I switched on my headlamp from the 6th station down. Upon return I packed up, said goodbye and headed down the mountain.

Headlamp and fresh battery equiped the first piece from the fifth station down to the middle of the third was a breeze. It was at that point where the 50/50 mix of dry and icy ground told me I should keep my crampons on for a bit longer . . . Unfortunately a lose rock in one of those dry spots found its way under one of my crampon teeth and I rolled my ankle pretty hard. I slowed my pace and found a place to sit and remove my crampons. After getting them off and packed up I headed on, and about 10 steps out sliped on some ice over a step and rolled that same ankle hard, again. After a quick stream of explitives, I moved on. And after about 15 min I was stepping down a big step and realized that I didn't have my axe to brace myself . . . I have left it when I took off my crampons. I moved back up quick as I could hoping it was indeed where I thought it was. It was, and once grabbing it I started back down again. The rest of the climb down was rather uneventful. I saw some guys camped out in their car at Umagaeshi, and i managed to roll that ankle 3 more times before I got back to the Jinja (luckily no flying chainsaws to contend with this time).

I entered the Sengen Jinja around 22:30, and I met with some very currious looks from people making new year's trips to the shrine. After a quick rinse of my hands, a drink of water and a thank you to the mountain for a good journey, I made my way for the front enterance and my way home. When I got to the parking lot at the front enterance I asked a couple college aged guys which direction it was to the nearest station. They gave me directions, and as I was repeating them back offered to give me a ride. As we headed for the nearest station we started talking, and I told them I had just come from Fuji-san (they were astonished). I told them a bit about my climb and some of the conditions on the mountain. They asked me where I was headed from the station, and I told them the name station near my hotel (the next station over). They then offered to take me all the way there, saying that there likely were not any busses running at that time. I accepted their offer, thanked them graciously for saving me and continued to chat with them until we arrived. I may not be as classy or ladylike as Blanche Dubois, but I to have a tendancy to "rely on the kindness of strangers". Anyway, thanks to the ride I got to my hotel about 5 minutes before curfiew. I then grabbed some tea, a good hot bath and crashed for the night.

The next morning I checked out, walked around a bit taking one more look at what I had done
And got on my train home.

AIESEC US is in a kind of overdrive that defies thermodynamic law, and that leaves me the duty of maintaining that same drive. I still haven't figured out just how, but I will change this world for the better. With an idea like AIESEC behind me and a world full of AIESECers around me, I can't do anything less. Go big and shake it hard, or stay the hell behind in 2008. The future is only there for those that would make something of it