Fuji: The view from the top

5 hours and 40 minutes up. 3 hours down. Peak at 3.773 m. A great day of adventure. I am so happy that we did not choose to climb at night. 90% of all Fuji climbers start at 2200 to reach the tip at sunrise. We chose to travel in daylight. We had sunshine most of the day - and no rain! But! We were all surprised at what lack of oxygen above 3000 m does to you... dizzyness, loss of balance, out of breath.

We slowed down - and used our OXYGEN IN A CAN :-).

Rain again - but enjoyable

A day of adapting plans. First choice was to climb Mt. Fuji during the day time, but the weather forecast and delays made us postpone till tomorrow morning. Instead together with our Swedish friends Frederic wanted to try the world's largest roller coster. Almost made it before the sky exploded again. Default plan: a Fuji Rouge wine cave - wine tasting - soso - but still a nice ending to a rainy day. The hostel has a big nice kitchen, so we went shopping and converted three big bags with fruit, salad and ingredients for Frederic' special omelette into a delicious meal.

At the foot of Mt. Fuji

In the backpacker hostel K's House in Fuji-Yoshida:
Five hours thunder, lightning and pouring rain - turned into a cosy evening at the hostel. Card playing, reading, talking to people from all over the world. Dinner finally around 22 - Frederic helped find a Ramen restaurant - meat, noddles, vegetables, cold beer. Dined with two Swedish ladies who discussed the challenges of teenage years with Frederic. Back at the hostel I went to bed (five bed dorm) while Frederic spent the next few hours reading the novel RING! I did'nt know the Hollywood film had a japanese author.

First week - Tokyo is our first treat

TOKYO - 26th July to 4th of August

Nice flight - would have preferred to sit next to Frederic who enjoyed his freedom :-).

Surprise! Telephone message waiting for us at hotel check in! Our friend and future travel partner - Tonami-san - offered to come and show us Tokyo. Deal. Agreed on Tuesday.

Hot.hot.HOT. Now I understand what they meant by "muggy summer heat". Changed to suitable clothes: short pants, bare feet in sandals, running T-shirt. All of a sudden the heat was bearable. Even nice.

Hotel Gimmond (great bargain - mail me for details) - is in a business district - less than a kilometer from the centre of Japan! Nihonbashi (=Japan bridge). This was the centre of Edo Japan. A signpost shows the distance to important places in Japan.

At first sight the surroundings seem deserted - only consisting of office buildings. But after a few days - I know it sound strange - lots of little but good restaurants serving office workers at lunch and after work. We try half a dozen - the prize goes to a very fast fastfood place where you select and pay for your food at a machine, then give the ticket to a waitress - and 60 seconds later you have your meal. Very good quality - and at prices of 25 DKK per meal. People do not look rushed - but don't linger either.

Tonami-san walked us around Tokyo. Surprise: take the underground and you will forever be estranged. Walk - and you will understand the city - which is large, but still walkable. Nihonbashi, Ginza, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya and Asakusa were just a few of the places we saw. After the sightseeing we drank beer at a small open pub and later went to a nightspot under the safe leadership of Tonami-san.

Father's view on the trip

Monday 4th of August at 1700: I see that I am one week behind Frederic in accounting for our experiences. I will make that up shortly. But right now, sitting at the nicest hostel at the foot of Mt. Fuji, I want to enjoy the rain pouring down outside. More to follow.

First week, first meat.

Ossu, everyone! It is I, Freddy ya Friend!

I made a new/my own blog, since I didn't like the address my dad had made. Yeah, I didn't know you could change it, but whatever!

Here's a quick review of the first week. It's late Sunday right now, and I have to get up early, so I'll probably add more later.

Saturday-Sunday
We get on plane, Economy Extra, woo, upgrades ftw. 10 hour flight in front of us, we lean back and relax. We're on two seperate rows with an empty seat beside us, so lots of room to put our stuff.
I watch some shitty movie about some amateur movie makers.. or something, with that fat actor dude Jack Black. Sleep.

Arrive in Japan! God, it's hot. lolwut 37 degrees ftl.
We take a train into Tokyo, and crash on our hotel after searching for it for 1 hour. We get something to eat at a place called Jonathan's. Tasted like bleh.

Monday
Monday.. what the hell happened Monday.. Oh right, we found out there was a huge cosplay gettogether something every Sunday, which we'd missed, and we're supposed to be on Mt. Fuji next Sunday. Shite :(
We try out the metro for the first time and go to Akihabara, the mekka for otakus. God, it was awesome, I bought like 5 mangas, they cost 400 yen each! That's 20 kr, and they're brand new, the used are 100 yen (5 kr). You who use Euro and Dollars or whatever, go convert yourself, I cba right now o/

Tuesday
Argh.. feels like an eternity since it was Tuesday.. Think we went back into Akihabara, yeah, to get a small computer laptop thing converter translator dictionary for me. Costed a bunch, but it can explain kanji and stoofs.
Erm, what else... I checked anime airtimes on the (crappy) computers on our hotel, yeah, and watched a few. Man, some of them are really late, 25:26 in the night, and they're not very naughty or anything..

Wednesday
Ah yes, this was the day we met Tonami-san. Tonami-san is a 60-something year old Japanese man, father of the friend of one of my dad's accomplices.. er, acquaintances. He showed us around where we wanted to go, like Asakusa, Harajuku and Ginza. Ginza is the expensive place of Tokyo, where Gucci, Armarni and Apple iPod stores dominate the main roads. Harajuku is the youth of Tokyo go. There's this street full of gothloli Japanese girls, weird toy/cloth stores, tons of cafés and restaurants. Hard to breathe there, glad I'm two heads higher than them.
Asakusa was where that big shrine was, and I had dango! Woo! It tasted like licking burnt pancake fat though, think I got the wrong ones.
We sat at some café and talked to two Japanese guys who talked a bit moonspeak with me. My dad asked me to ask them if they were married, but I kind of hesitated (I told you he was hapy-go-lucky, Roddy).
Then we went to some basement where cute Japanese girls went all IRASSHAIMASE~BYONG over us, we paid 10.000 yen for free drinks and girls, etc. Lots of smoke, and this big Japanese boss-type man with a mole gave me a Lupin doll.. it smells a bit weird though, but I thanked him and bowed.
Ami, or Ayako, was our girl for the night. She was really cute, but loud, she reminds me of Lala though. Oh! Speaking of Lala, from To Love Ru.. there're these machines all over Akihabara and manga/anime stores called gambaruche.... or something. Put in 100-300 yen, turn the wheel, and get a figurine in a Pokéball-like capsule.
I found a To Love Ru one, and wanted to get a complete set of the girls, but you can see the results of my tries on attached picture.

Thursday
I love my English. The Japanese do too. But I certainly don't love their. "LET'S HAPPY WITH BIG SMILE", lmfao. Japanese TV is win, but there're commercials in between the anime episodes, which is fail.
I bought more manga... and... I remember Thursday to be kind of fast, weeee diiiid--- uh.
Check picture for my manga anyway.

Friday
IT'S LATE OKAY. Dad can probably remember more about these days than me. I think we went to see a movie Friday. Or.. Thursday. Anyhow, we watched The Happening, and IT WAS SHIT. COMPLETE TURD. DO NOT WATCH IT.
It's essentially a continuation of Signs, or so it would seem. Half way into the movie, it ends. It's like how I thought Transformers would be, but actually is. The idea is great, but the whole movie is just... fail. Small review: NY Central Park is attacked by some virus which causes people to: 1, mess up their speech, 2, be physically disoriented, 3, kill themselves. Kind of cool, and lame at the same time, since people suddenly stand still, and start stabbing themselves, but then suddenly picking up a gun and shooting themselves, or cutting their wrists with shards of glass.
The messing up of speech is cool though, but when a mother calls her daughter, puts it on speaker phone and she goes "Calculus .. calculus .. *window crashes*" (She jumped out the window), I just facepalmed. "DURR WE NEED SOMETHING CREEPY FOR HER TO SAY, HOW BOUT SOME MATH, NO ONE GETS A RAT'S ASS ABOUT THAT ANYWAY, DURRR". Would have been way better if they spoke in tongues.

Saturday
Was yesterday. Well, technically the day before yesterday. We watched another movie, The Forbidden Kingdom. I thought it was the "Mummy 3" to begin with, because there was no picture (We just randomly pass by the cinema and watch the movie playing right now), but it was the one with Jet Li and Jackie Chan in it. It was about kung fu and some American kid who was supposed to return a sacred staff to the Monkey King Sun Wukong, aka Son Goku. Cool kung fu effects, but the plot was kind of bleh, and a bit too fast. One second the kid has going "I CANT UNDERSTAND JOO" to Jackie, and he goes "CUZ YER NOT LISTENING NIG" (I lol'd), and the other second they're engaged in an epic battle against the Jade Empire Warlord.
Whatever, cool film if you like string-flying effects and kung fu.
I go ALONE to Akihabara and buy more manga. Or was that Friday... bleh.

Sunday
Oh yeah, we've moved into seperate rooms in the hotel, THIS IS AWESOME, shame it's only been two days. I took a dump and watched Code Geass at the same time. Pic of my room attached.
What else did we do today... Oh, brainfart cleared, we bought a camera Thursday, that's why no pictures of anything before that.
Back to today, or, yesterday, fucking clock, hope I can get up, we went to Akihabara again... I saw some pianos and got all anxious, been a long time since I touched one... oh, and I tried to get a Gundam robot in one of those hook machines. Goddamn moneystealer.
Btw Rukasu, I've bought the full set of To Love Ru manga available, the next volume is out TOMORROW WOO, you should see them. There's lots of ecchi in it, 10 times more than the anime. Oh, and I'll send you a Lala figurine if I can, but costs a bunch to send mail here...

Better get to bed, though my pillow is stuffed with what seems like moth balls. Hard as hell, crunchy, and smells like puke, plus the aircondition makes it vibrate, so I get a headache. God. nn peeps o/

-Fu-kun