Day 17 Japan
Today's plan was to go visit Fujisan and climb around on it for a while. I got up a little later than I expected so I didn't end up on the mountain until about 10.30am.
There's a convenient bus that takes you up to the Mount Fuji 5th Station from a train station about 15 minutes walk from the hostel. The 5th station is where most climbers start their treks these days apparently. Back in the old days you had to actually walk up the whole mountain but everything is more tourist friendly now. #capitalism
The bus was almost full after the first 2 stops with both Japanese and foreigners either doing the tourist thing or climbing the mountain. Judging by the gear most of them were hauling around I reckon most were climbers. It was about an hour from the train station to the 5th station and it was a pleasant ride.
The 5th station is basically a tourist stop but it's also a last chance for climbers to get some last minute snacks or a meal before they head up. Most of it is souvenir stores, restaurants and bus parking. By the time I got there it was pretty packed with heaps of day trippers like myself. Buses full of tourists (many Chinese) just kept rolling in. There's a sign outside one of the stores with Mt Fuji and the date on it. There was a HUGE queue of Asian tourists (not racist ... ONLY Asian tourists wanted a photo with it) waiting to get their photo taken with it. For a change it was quite orderly instead of the usual mob of people trying to take the best selfie.
Fujisan was pretty shy on the day I was there. It was very overcast and there was a lot of cloud covering the mountain almost the entire time. Then occasionally you would get a breeze and Fujisan would lift his skirt a little to remind you he was there. Bit of a tease really.
I had breakfast at one of the restaurants on the mountain (a basic noodle soup) then headed off to my trail. My left knee is really sore (damn you exercise!) so I wasn't planning to do very much climbing. However there's a 2-3 hour trail around the side of the mountain called the Ochudo trail which sounded about my speed.
And it mostly was! It was a nice flat trail going through some nice forested areas with good views of the valley below and the mountain above when the clouds cleared. The path itself was all volcanic gravel which was shifted underfoot a lot of the time. There were a few beautiful plants and flowers along the way and it was just a pleasant stroll. After about 40 minutes the path led downhill for about a kilometre, crossed the road and went down into a small nature reserve which was nice. The walk back up was steeper than I really wanted but it was good to stretch the legs after spending so much time on the train recently.
It was a great walk and I really enjoyed it. I didn't have the sense of accomplishment that I would have had climbing Fujisan but I got to walk around ON Fujisan didn't give myself a heart attack or hurt myself! #fatmanwinning
I captured all the portals at the 5th station (of course!) before heading back down on the next bus. The bus was jam packed and was really uncomfortable. Buses around here are not made for people with long legs. Had a nice chat with the British guy next to me who was on a tour for a couple of weeks and had also done a day trip up here today.
It was his birthday last night and the whole tour group dressed up in yukata and had a kaiseki meal for the occasion. Sounded like fun! I still need to organise myself a kaiseki meal before I go.
I had originally thought I might go for a swim in the lake after my walk but since I wasn't allowed to do that I had considered an onsen as well. But I really wasn't in the mood for public nudity (I'm not sure I ever really will be) so I just headed back to the hostel with a couple of beers (love 7-11!) and the goal of booking some Russian train tickets! I've been a bit slack in this department and with Russian only 2 weeks away I should probably get on that.
So I showered then grabbed my iPad and some beers and sat outside. It was a beautiful afternoon and I really enjoyed sitting there despite the frustration of the new Russian railways website. Their new website is absolutely awful! I don't mind that it's in Russian (to be expected - go google translate) but it just doesn't seem to work! I simply could not get to the point where I was able to progress to the payment screen. It kept giving me nonsensical errors on the passenger data screen with no clue as to what was actually wrong.
Eventually I decided to try booking via the old website and that worked a treat! First time through and it worked perfectly. Someone done fucked up at the Russian railways website transformation project.
So I've now got train tickets from Vladivostok -> Irkutsk and Irkutsk -> Yekaterinburg. The remaining legs have so many trains going between them on a daily basis there's no rush to do them. I think I still need to organise accommodation for Irkutsk but that won't take long and I want to do a tour to the island in the middle of Lake Baikal so I need to do a bit of investigation on that.
Arvin and I went out for dinner a bit later to a place about 10 minutes walk from the hostel. It was a small udon noodle place on a side street in a small complex of 3 or 4 shops. The owner was a nice lady in her 40s who spoke a little bit of English and was very happy to have some customers. Arvin had curry udon and I had some sort of pork udon. There were these little tempura balls that I was instructed to mix into the dish which disintegrated as they melted with the noodles and created a sort of paste which was mixed through the dish.
The woman makes all her noodles from scratch and actually made the noodles for our meals while we were waiting. They were great!
The whole shop is decorated with souvenirs from her own travels or her own arts and crafts. There was a wall with a bunch of frypans she had painted, plates and other various knickknack she had picked up. There was also a wall of bags, scarves etch that she had made. She even had a little dish with sand she had brought back from the Sahara dessert with a couple of little ornaments in it. We took a couple of photos with her so if I can find the place on Facebook I'll put a link to it in case anyone ever visits the area.
When we got back to the hostel there were a couple of American Navy personnel who had checked in to climb Fujisan the following day. One of them had climbed it 2 weeks ago but was doing it again with her friend. #friendship #idjit
Machiko is part of a Taiko Japanese drum group. Tonight she had a practice session and invited Arvin and I to come and watch. I jumped at the chance as I love taiko drumming. It's so exciting to watch. They practice only a short distance from the hostel so Machiko and I walked down.
The group was about 15 people maybe ranging from young kids (6-7 years old) to older adults. They had been going for a while when we arrived so Machiko pointed me to a seat and then quickly took position. The instruments are a variety of drums as well as some wooden flutes.
I sat down and the group start practicing a really upbeat number that involved some fast paced drumming and some yelling from the kids. It was great. I love this style of drumming. The players' whole body gets into it and as an audience member I can feel my heart start to race. Primal is the word I feel best describes it.
It's great also that there are kids involved. They were all manning the smaller drums at the front and we're doing a great job. They were taking it very seriously and trying really hard. Could see some of the adults holding back laughter when the kids got the shout during the song. It was great to see this side of a normally somewhat publicly reserved Japanese culture.
After a couple of songs Machiko beckoned me up on stage and I got to play the drums! I played a couple of different kinds with the "conductor" (?) showing me what to do. I got to do the big drums at the back and the middle sized one as well. I even got to play along with the band for a little while before they politely asked me to sit down and watch the children play a number. I've clearly got a career in drumming ahead of me.
At one point all of the children lined up and introduced themselves to me in English and shook my hand which was really nice. They all spoke really good English though I did have trouble with a couple of their names. Being multilingual from a young age is such a gift to give to children. That and a passion for travel and learning.
On the way out I exchanged a few words with some of the parents and one of them gave me a gift on the way out. Such a friendly and generous people.
This was such a great experience and a highlight of my trip to Japan. Thanks Machiko!
When we got back to the hostel I ended up joining the navy girls in the common room for a chat for a couple of hours which was fun. Tiffany was delighted at the fact that I got the ferry from Busan to Fukuoka. Apparently spending her working life on boats wasn't enough ... she wanted to travel by boat as much as possible too. She didn't realise this route was possible so this is a whole new realm of possibilities for her. For anyone interested check out the website http://www.aferry.com/. I booked my Japan -> Russia tickets through here. Seems to be a pretty good website for Asian and European ferry routes.
Sleep time.
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