Video footage on Mt. Fuji

Alex took this video using his Apple iPhone.

  

Kamakura.....Great Buddha

Today, August 17, 2010, we started the day at a coffee shop down the street from our hotel in Shinjuku. Nice cup of coffee and great little bag of sugared walnuts for later. Headed to the main Shinjuku train station, two stops away from ours, Shinjuku-goymae. From that point on we headed to the Odakya Line to catch the train to Fujisawa. The round trip tickets only cost 1490 YEN, about $15.00 for the day. From Fujisawa, as we got closer to Enoshima Island, the locals started to look more like beach goers. It was soooo hot today. I really think it is more humid than Florida at times. We got off the train and headed toward Enoshima Island to find the cave; however, it was too darn hot and too far. We had some mango/apple ice cream...a main food staple on this trip.....and headed back to Enoshima station to go find the Great Buddha. It was a nice train ride along the coast of the Pacific ocean. I couldn't help but think that during an earthquake it is this community that needs to evacuate in fear of a tsunami. Anyway, we got to our stop in Hase to see the Great Buddha. He was not a disappointment. Got some great shots and some souvenirs. Mom had some gelato....no, this is not Italy, but anything cold will suit her :) She holds up incredibly well for 77 years old. I actually was worried about her today, since her face was so red. I was making her drink lots of water. Plagiarism warning.......
The Great Buddha of Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu) is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple. With a height of 13.35 meters, it is the second tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan, surpassed only by the statue in Nara's Todaiji Temple.
The statue was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were destroyed multiple times by typhoons and a tidal wave in the 14th and 15th centuries. So, since 1495, the Buddha has been standing in the open air. 
We saw ambulances several times drive down the street and we swear it was due to the heat. We headed back to the train station, not before stopping at the 100 YEN store....their Dollar Store and yes, everything was still made in China :) Got a few items and jumped on the first train back to Fujisawa, then the next train to Shinjuku and then the Tokyo Metro to our station near out hotel. The shower is calling....gotta go....we are walking down to Shinjuku to get some dinner. Here are some pics from today....love to all...see you soon!

some locals headed to the beach

local, fresh seafood

had to buy the hat to hide from the sun....

Soon to be World Heritage Site....

PS, last night we headed down to Shinjuku to visit the Tokyo Government Building. The observation tower is open till 11pm for visitors to go up to the 45th floor and take in the view of Tokyo...wouldn't you know I felt sick...such a wimp....can't handle altitude...but managed to make it through Mt. Fuji!!!

We ate dinner at some Odon noodle joint. Alex and Leonel ordered the beef noodles with some type of tomato based sauce. Using chopsticks, which we use for every meal, Alex managed to get more sauce on his shirt then in his mouth!

Hiroshima.....August 6th, 1945...8:15am

This was a very important visit to me. No matter what you think about war, you think differently about nuclear war after visiting Hiroshima. We settled in Sansui Ryokan, which basically means "hostel" and met our host. She was very nice and made us laugh. She has a wall full of pictures of guests and asked us to take our picture for the wall...as she called it "Hiroshima memory". Sure enough by the end of our stay, we were on the wall. My traveling mates are good sports, since our room was down an alley that was no more than 36 INCHES wide....it was too funny. The room was about 20 meters from the office, which is where the shared shower resided :) It was quite an experience and really not that bad. It's all in how you look at it. We would go down for our shower, wait in the office till the other finished and get a chance to meet people from all over the world. We met a young couple, backpacking, one from Germany and the other from Mexico. The room was large, had a/c, kimonos, a bathroom, and was clean...so all was well. Anyway, we headed out to Peace Memorial Park, where the museum and the atomic bomb dome was located.. The park was beautiful. It almost felt a little strange, as Americans, coming to see Hiroshima, knowing my country was responsible for the damage and the pain, but it was something I felt like I had to do. Actually, our first few days in Tokyo we met a lady who spent 15 minutes helping us with a calling card and when I told her we were going to Hiroshima, she said she was really glad to hear that we were going there.

They don't lay blame.....they laid out information....they said it was something that happened. The information in the museum was presented very well, but you couldn't help but feel terrible....such horrific sadness. After the bombing they declared their city a "city of peace". They have been rallying for the end of nuclear proliferation ever since. Every where you look .... it's about PEACE.....world peace.

One building that was left standing is called the A bomb dome. Many countries joined together to save the A bomb dome to stand as an example of the force of the blast.

I bought the book "Hiroshima" by John Hersey in Barnes and Noble in Florida and would read excerpts each night out loud....we had a "read in"....since there was only Japanese television :) The book follows the accounts of five people that survived the bomb. It made the whole experience more personal.

On a lighter note, we found a great restaurant serving Hiroshima's famous okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is one of the most popular food in Japan, especially in western Japan. It is difficult to explain how it is. It looks something between a pizza and a pancake. But it tastes totally different. I cannot explain how it tastes but I can say it is cool. The basic ingredients are flour, yam, egg, cabbage, spring onion. On top of that, you can add anything you like. Usually most okonomiyaki restaurants have pork okonomiyaki and squid okonomiyaki..

 the extremely narrow alley way to our room .... too funny

Hiroshima Okonoiyaki.....delish!

Kyoto....

Sorry my posts have been delayed. Kyoto was busy and Hiroshima had no internet connection.

Kyoto was a beautiful city. It's one of the oldest from the Edo period and one of the few cities that were not heavily damaged by WWII. In Kyoto we visited the Fushima Inari Shrine. It is one of the most photographed shrines in Japan. 

Fushimi Inari Shrine is the most famous of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari across Japan. Inari is the Shinto god of rice, and foxes are thought to be his messengers. Therefore, many fox statues can be found at Inari shrines.
Fushimi Inari Shrine is also famous for the countless torii gates, offerings by worshippers, that cover the hiking trails of Inarisan, the wooded mountain behind the shrine's main buildings. It takes about two hours to walk along the whole trail. 

Needless to say, hiking up through the torii gates was a little too soon after Fuji and it was HOT. I actually think it may be more humid here than in Florida..if that is possible :)

Mom  and Sheena at the Fushimi Inari Shrine

Kyoto is also famous for their Geishas. It is one of the few places where you can find geishas exiting private clubs in the Gion district. Our house was just about a 15 minute walk to the Gion district. We decided to take a walk down there just to get some pictures of the elusive geisha. After about 30 minutes of circling through the many alley ways and streets we decided to start walking towards home. Just to note, you could easily tell the other geisha hunters, since you would pass them constantly and they had their cameras out and ready. On the way down Hanami-koji Street, suddenly we noticed two geishas who just appeared from nowhere...just like the paparazzi, we were running ahead of them to get a good picture...almost getting run over by cars and scooters :)  We got the best pictures we could in two minutes and we went home very happy!

Lastly, in Kyoto...we headed out to the the Golden Pavillion.

Golden Pavilion Kyoto Japan: The Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) is literally covered in gold - gold leaf. The Golden Pavilion is World Heritage listed and surround by beautiful gardens.

Golden Pavilion is the popular name for one of the main buildings of a Buddhist Japanese temple in Kyoto Japan. The name Golden Pavilion comes from the Japanese term Kinkakuji, which literally means the temple of the Golden Pavilion(金閣寺). Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺 Deer Garden Temple) is the formal name of the temple complex in which the Golden Pavilion is found. 

It was a rainy day, but that didn't damper our enthusiasm. The temple was just beautiful. We all took many, many pictures.

Almost forgot....the bamboo forest in Arashiyama....

 

What were we thinking!

Well, I'm glad to say we made it off of Mt. Fuji in one piece. What a crazy adventure. Got up early Monday morning and packed up to move on to Fussa to see Sheena and then head over to Fuji. We said goodbye to Shinjuku, got our Japan Rail Passes ready and headed to Fussa. Sheena picked us up from the train station. Before heading off, we ate Coco's next to the station and had delicious curry meal. Then we went onto her base and picked up our hiking boots and some headlamps for nighttime lighting. Sheena rented a big van to accommodate all of us and our gear! Sheena's friend, Ryann, came along, so we had a total 5 people. Mt. Fuji was about an hour and half away. It was a nice drive. By the time we got to the starting point, called the Fifth Station, it was dark. A little Wikipedia background info on Mt. Fuji: Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan (3,776m / 12,388feet) and is an active volcano. Japanese people love mount Fuji, calling it as Fuji-san. It's a dream for many people to climb up Mount Fuji. It's said that about 300,000 people try to climb Mt. Fuji every year and that 30-40% of them are foreign visitors.Mount Fuji's trails are named into 10 stations, depending on the elevation.We changed into our warmer clothes, since the temperature had already dropped, and headed for the Sixth Station around 8:30pm. It wasn't too bad of a hike to the Sixth Station...we were feeling good. I think it was around 2am that we arrived at the 7th Station...stopped and had some snacks, some water and some oxygen. Oxygen is required due to the altitude. Needless to say, after the 7th Station, it was getting harder and harder. The terrain was literally at times, a 45 degree incline, climbing and traversing rocks for hours. Most of the time I used the chain or rope running along the trail to get me over. Our backpacks were too heavy (novices) and my cousin Leonel was kind enough to carry mine and at times Sheenas and her friend Ryanns....he got quite the workout. Alex lead the way most of the time and did a good job. He was fairing very well. Sheena did great and her friend Ryann did well, but was discouraged by a leg injury. So she really had a tough time, but persevered through the pain. I struggled with light headedness, but worked through it. We all had our moments of doubts, but worked through them. We had battery issues with our headlamps and you couldn't see in front of you without one. Leonel couldn't find the batteries he packed.....5 stations later, he found them in his jacket. I couldn't find the headlamp I bought for the trip. Found it after the hike in my backpack. We could have been a little more organized :)We eventually broke through the clouds and the sky was filled with stars, more than I had ever seen. When we were approaching the 8th station, it looked as if we could reach out and touch the stars.....it was beautiful. The climb was one of the most physically and challenging feats I have ever endured. We felt like giving up so many times, but realized at that point we would have to go back the way we came and we really did not want to give up. So, you just keep taking the next step, knowing it's going to get you where you want to be, even if it's going to take 6 hours. After hiking up a mountain all night to reach the summit before sunrise, we realized that we were not going to make it all the way up in time and settled for stopping at the Fujisan Hotel (on the mountain) to watch the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, while above the clouds. It was exciting since everyone on the mountain trails above you and below you are all looking East to watch the sunrise and as it first peaks out, the Japanese all welcome the sun. It is called "land of the rising sun" for good reason. Well, most of the internet research I read said it takes about 5-6 hours to get to the summit. We figured we would have time to rest at one of the many stations "huts" along the way, but it took us almost 11 hours to reach the summit and had NO time to rest. We got to the top around 7am, collapsed on the ground for a few minutes, used the restroom (for 3 yen) bought some snacks,  checked out the crater and started heading down. Now, we thought heading down would be so easy....NOPE, nothing is easy. We stumbled down that mountain, in the rain (after passing through the clouds) for 6 hours. There were so many switchbacks and it was so hard to keep yourself from falling forward...it was almost as much work as going up! Let me tell you, as much trouble as we had and as slow as we were, we are glad to say we did it. We will probably never do it again. The most impressive part was watching the Japanese people handle the mountain. There were little children on the hike with their parents. They never complained. All of them handled the hike with ease, even going down they passed us up all the time. They weren't mountaineers, but they must be in great shape or eat really well...not sure....but they were impressive! Also, at the 5th station we bought a hiking pole and you get a stamp burned into the wood pole at every station and then the summit as a souvenir. I will be displaying my proudly at home! It was a great experience and I'm glad I did it. Anyways, we had to rush back to Sheena's, return all the gear and the van, but realized we weren't going to catch our 4:06pm train in Tokyo to Kyoto....so, we went to Kyoto to exchange our tickets for their later train at 8:03pm...needless to say, it was down to the minute. We found the JR office and waited in line and prayed that the person helping us knew a little English. She was great and exchanged them out as quickly as possible. We ran through the gates and realized they weren't accepting Sheena's ticket. She is standing there telling us to go and she would come up tomorrow...we were pleading with the agents and telling them that she just got the ticket exchanged....finally they gave her a piece of paper and let her through....we ran up the stairs with our luggage to the platform and the train was there..hopped on with 2 minutes to spare! Crazy, but we did get to Kyoto by 11pm and then took a taxi to our little Japanese styled house...more on that tomorrow.

bathroom at the 5th station....squat toilet....sorry, had to share :)

Alex and Sheena somewhere around the 7th station....my mind was a little foggy

waiting for the sun to rise on top of Japan.....

Sheena and Alex on top of the summit. This is the Torii gate at the top

There is a Japanese saying....."If you never climb Mt Fuji you are a fool, and if you climb it more than once you are a fool",

Day Two

I will try and reduce the size of my postings :) Yesterday was Sunday and we headed out to Harajuku on the Tokyo Metro to see the Japanese teenagers who meet on Sundays down by the train station to take part in Cosplay, (short for "costume roleplay", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, usually anime characters). Also, to tour the Meiji Shrine. Well, the cosplay teenagers were in short supply. I read somewhere that the locals complained about the crowds and noise and it was now discouraged. Here are some pics...

Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine. Shinto is called Japan's ancient original religion, and it is deeply rooted in the way of Japanese life. Shinto has no founder, no holy book, and not even the concept of religious conversion, but Shinto values for example harmony with nature and virtues such as "Magokoro (sincere heart)". In Shinto, some divinity is found as Kami (divine spirit), or it may be said that there is an unlimited number of Kami. You can see Kami in mythology, in nature, and in human beings. From ancient times, Japanese people have felt awe and gratitude towards such Kami and dedicated shrines to many of them. Okay enough of the wikipedia definition :) Upon entering the Meiji Shrine we came across two young people dressed in kimonos and they asked if they could guide us around the shrine to help them with their English. They are University of Tokyo students who are in an English club. They did not want money, but I brought some little souvenirs from Florida, pens that said Florida on them with alligators and gave them to them to say "thank you". They REALLY liked their pens. It really was a great way to talk to Japanese youth and learn from them. Mom, Leonel and I broke off with our separate guides and learned all about the shrine. Funny thing, both mom and I asked our guides what they thought about the move "The Cove". If you are not familiar with it, click here...  When I asked him what he thought of the movie, about the annual, senseless killing of dolphins, he said it was "radical". I was a little surprised, but I know they defend their actions by stating it's part of their culture. He asked me what I thought and I said as much as I try to respect other people's cultures I do have a hard time understanding the killing of defenseless and highly intelligent creatures. I then stated at one point is the suppression of women by stoning them to death for infidelity not a case of women's rights...at what point is the mutilation of young girls in Africa, not cultural, but a case of children's rights, etc.... Just something to think about. The Japanese, on a whole, are so gracious, quiet, and civil, it just seems like such a juxtaposition for them to kill dolphins and whales. Oh, he did reference "Whale Wars". I asked him if other Japanese felt differently than him and he said "yes". I said that is good to have people with different points of view. We moved on, since we were so lucky to see a Japanese wedding taking place in the courtyard. I jockeyed with the wedding photographer for some good shots and I think a got a few. It was beautiful. After the wedding, we exchanged emails and thanked them for their time. I think we learned more from them, than they learned from us. Went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for Shinjuku to take care of some train details for the 10th to Kyoto and check out the camera stores. I didn't find the prices any better than Al could get on the Internet, but I did buy some filters for my lens. Oh, we did find a great place to eat lunch yesterday in Shibuya...the best Odon noodles.

PS...some observations....they are great at recycling (got some pics, of course), there are strangely no flies..I think they are just so efficient with their garbage....also, as advanced they are in technology, it's funny that their electrical wires are hanging all across the streets, similar to San Francisco...I wonder if it has to do with earthquake prone areas...and their toilets are too cool.

Okay...off today to see Sheena and Alex and get ready to hike Mt. Fuji. Hopefully, in my next entry I will be declaring our success with tackling the summit of Mt. Fuji!!!

Love to all!!!

 Our new friends at the Meiji Shrine

Japanese wedding at the Meiji Shrine

Cosplay Japanese teen

in the Shinjuku station...she was kind enough to let us take a picture

The long journey East

It's just after 3am and my time clock is screwed up. So instead of trying to sleep. I decided to blog about our journey to Japan. I still enjoy looking back on my Europe blog and you know, with everything on the internet...it will be there FOREVER. We really had a great flight...long, but everyone made it to where they needed to be, at Narita airport. The flight was over 12 hours, but that wasn't the worst...between driving to the airport at 4am and making our connections...getting our train tickets, exchanging our dollars for yen at Narita to get to our hotel in Shinjuku...we were up over 30 hours straight and we looked it :) By the time the cab pulled up to the hotel we had already met so many nice people, we knew our trip was going to be great. I tried to give the cab driver a 10,000 yen bill ($100) and he said "no"...I was tired :) Our hotel is in a neighborhood outside the hustle of Tokyo and Shinjuku, but a quick train ride away to everything. You get to surround yourself by their culture when you do not stay in a western hotel. That is the way I like it. Yesterday, we went off to search for coffee and ended up a local coffee house, instead of Starbucks, which we will try today. Found a beautiful garden and park for walking. Then went to look for this huge department store that has a basement full of delicious food. What we found was their parking garage. Before trying to head up the elevator, to which we thought was the department store, we were escorted on a bus. A really nice bus, but we weren't sure where we were going or how far. Everyone on the bus was Japanese and did not speak English. Whipped out my Japanese phrases book and found out the they have a bus that takes patrons from the parking lot to the huge store...for free. What an amazing store...the prices were similar to Bal Harbor.... Shoes...$500, jackets $500, cheapest blouse $60...needless to say, I didn't buy anything. But we did a tour of floors 1 through 7 and found the food, which was a feast for the eyes. Just incredible...again, we were like the only anglo people, so we knew we were experiencing what the average Japanese person would do on a Saturday. Some more highlights....
Could not figure out how to use the darn calling card...stopped a lady who spoke English and she spent 15 minutes helping us by calling the phone card company on her cell phone to get directions. It was a life saver, since we had not been able to call home. She was great.
Walked to a local shrine, Hanazono Jinja Shrine, where people come to say a quick prayer. I even saw a lady who just passed it on the sidewalk, but stopped to say a prayer.
Took the train to Tokyo to see the Imperial Palace. They have a sitting emperor who lives there with his family...very interesting...
Came back to the room to upload photos and rest...it was really hot and we were really tired.
Headed back out on the trains to Shinjuku for dinner. Found Ducky Duck....and it was delicious. I spent 15 minutes trying to tell the waitress, who was so patient and polite, that I did not want to eat meat or chicken, only vegetables. We were writing down the Japanese words for meat and chicken and places X's next to them with a smiley face next to the word for vegetable, but it still was not working....to the rescue, a sweet girl sitting behind us that is a senior at Binghamtom University in NY. She helped me order vegetarian and then talked with us throughout dinner. Such nice people. She is studying political science and already has a job back in Shinjuku after graduation....very interesting.
BTW, this whole time Alex is at Summer Sonic music festival in Tokyo with Sheena and her friends. I'm sure he is having a great time. We will meet up with them on Monday, when we leave for Mt. Fuji. Here are some pics..I am going to try and go back to bed...love you all, especially you Al!

Hanazono Jinja Shrine

 East Garden of the Imperial Palace

View of the financial district of Tokyo from the Imperial Palace