We scheduled our vacation time from work around August due to my schedule at work. We haven’t been back to Japan for three years now and it was time for us to visit our parents. When we were planning on what to do in Japan beside do just family stuff, I came up with 2 plans. One was to attend Okazaki firework festival, which is one of the best in the nation, and to climb Mt. Fuji.
I had a chance to climb Mt. Fuji back 1992, however, typhoon was on the way and I missed my chance then. 15 years later, I was once again attempt to climb Mt. Fuji. To get to Mt. Fuji, we’ve bought bus tour to Mt. Fuji from near by train station. We bought just a ride so that we could climb on our own speed with just two of us without any help. This was ideal since toured climb often goes very slowly.
We took a route from Boston to San Francisco and San Francisco to Nagoya. On the airplane to Nagoya, flight attendant told us that Japan was expecting typhoon. Once we landed safely with a bit of turbulences, my father informed us that typhoon 5 is on the way and it’s very windy out because of it. Our climb was about 4 days away. I was a bit concern about this typhoon, which could be an obstacle to mt. Fuji once again.
We went to see Okazaki firework festival 2 days after our arrival and evidently, we were poured on with wind about half way through thanks to typhoon 5, though we stayed and watched the rest of fireworks. Next day, my father fell ill with high fever, and troubled me if we should continue with our plan for mt. Fuji, however, my younger sister who arrived night before to join us assured me that her and our mother will be enough to watch over our father. Typhoon 5 went to Japan Ocean and would not affect our way anymore.
On Monday, August 6th, we woke up around 6am to get ready. Our meeting place was at the Toyota station at 8:40am, however, in the morning around the area was very busy and heavy traffic due to Toyota motor employees commuting in. We need to get dropped off on time to catch our train bound to Toyota station to make it on time. I always prefer heading out early enough so that obstacles do not delay us if they come our ways. We successfully made to our meeting place 30 minutes early. All we had to do was wait.
When bus arrived, a woman who was in charge of getting people told me that I was with a different company and this was not the bus we needed to get on. Before the bus arrived, I found a man who appeared to be waiting the same bus (mountain stick was a give a way). I found that he was waiting for the same bus booked through different travel agency. I saw him getting on the bus and I was sure that we were supposed to be on that bus. I asked the woman one more time and she told me that I needed to wait for my own bus. After asking her to re-check my name in the list that she had - jus in case - she realized that the bus was the one that we needed to be on. Despite of rough start, rest of the trip went pretty smooth except, of course, the climbing part!
continues...
Posted: August 27, 2007 11:00 pm by Shino Ito | 1 comment
Tags: 2007, fuji san, Japan, japanese, mt. fuji, summer
Continuing on from previously post.
We've decided which plan we are going to use. We bought a plan that will take us to station 5 and go up to Mt. Fuji on our own. My husband assured me the signs are in English also and we will not get lost. So I guess we are carrying our own backpacks and finding our ways up!
As long as I don't loose my husband on the way up, I'll be fine. Now, for this trip, we'll need a big flash light since we are climbing up during the night. So we are going to climb highest mountain in Japan during the night. WHY?
We found out that during the day is way too hot to climb according to number of sources. Also if you climb @ night, people will able to see sun rise from the top of the mountain. However, I heard the rumors that there are so many people @ the top that you might not make it on time for sun rise because line is backed up to the top...
You'll know soon or later if we made it...
http://www.his-j.com/ngo/kokunai/fuji-b.htm
Posted: July 24, 2007 11:34 pm by Shino Ito | 0 comments
Tags: fuji san, Japan, japanese, mt. fuji
My husband and I are going to Japan soon so I have been researching about potentially climbing mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan. It stands about 12,388 feet according to wikipedia. We've been hearing about how mount Fuji is ready to blow at any time, so we thought it was important that we do so BEFORE it blows.
To get to mt Fuji is not an easy task. I know some remote locations are not so friendly to foreigners and city people. Bus does not run all day and you have to know where to go. It was good idea to think of potentially climing Fuji san, but how are we going to get there?!?!?!
I start to dig for some answers on-line in Japanese & English. I found a great site that had directions on which train to take where and which bus to pick up. Problem was it did not say what time and name of station was in English, not Japanese.
I didn't wanted to ask my father fear of dissing me not able to translate them (shame on you!), I decided tour bus is a way to go. There will be other people. We wont get lost and ended up in international news - my husband getting lost because of me will be - if we are with bunch of other people, right? Think of headline, "Japanese wife loses her American husband in Mt. Fuji.", may be followed by "Japanese wife could not read Kanji and got him lost!" That'll be bad.
Now, there are so many tour buses to choose from to mount Fuji around the time we are going. There were rates from a bit over $100 per person to $900 premium (they carry all your stuff for you!) - ah~ Luxury. Also I was a bit concern about giving money to unknown tour company, showing up at the meeting place, and nobody shows up... So I've asked my father's guidance since he has been to the top of mt. Fuji before.
Soon we'll depart.
Soon you'll know what we've decided ($100 vs $900!).
note: For those of you who never seen Japanese, we have 3 different types of writing and one of it is Kanji (Chinese Characters). Kanji can be written multiple ways for one sounds. So just because written in roman alphabet, it could be written in multiple ways and could potentially have multiple meanings.
Part 2
Posted: July 19, 2007 1:07 pm by Shino Ito | 0 comments
Tags: fuji san, japanese, mt. fuji
There are a lot of sayings in Japan and I thought I share some of them with you.
* If your second toe (a toe right next your big toe) is longer than your big toe, you are going to be more successful than your parents.
* If you lay head pointing north, it'll bring you bad luck.
* When Swallow fly low, rain ahead.
In America, when things are really easy, you'll say "a piece of cake", but in Japan, we'll say "before breakfast".
More to come...
Posted: July 5, 2007 5:16 pm by Shino Ito | 0 comments
Tags: japanese
A long time ago, there was a young man who lived in a small village. One day as he was on his way home from working in the fields, he discovered something amazing: the most beautiful clothes he had ever seen. He wanted the clothes very badly, so he quietly put them in his basket and started on his way.
Just then, a voice called out, "Excuse me." The boy was startled and said, "What? Did somebody just call me?" A beautiful girl answered, "Yes, I did. Please give back my robe of feathers. I live in heaven, and I just came down to this pond to take a bath. Without my robe of feathers, I can't go back."
The girl looked as though she were about to cry, but the boy pretended not to know and answered, "Robe of feathers? I don't know anything about that." Unable to go back to heaven, the goddess was forced to remain on earth. She began to live with the young man.
The goddess's name was Tanabata. Tanabata and the young man got married and were living together happily. One day several years later, though, while the young man was working in the fields, Tanabata found her robe of feathers hidden between two beams in the ceiling. "I knew it. He's been hiding it," she thought to herself. She put on the robe of feathers and right away began to feel like the goddess she had once been.
That evening when the young man came home, he was surprised to see Tanabata wearing the robe of feathers, standing in front of the house. Tanabata began rising up toward heaven and called out to the young man, "If you love me, weave a thousand pairs of straw sandals and bury them around the bamboo tree. If you do that, we'll be sure to see each other again. Please do this. I'll be waiting for you." Tanabata rose up higher and higher and returned home to heaven.
The young man was very sad, but he knew what to do. On the very next day he began making straw sandals. He continued weaving them day and night. At last he finally finished making his last pair and buried them all around the bamboo tree.
Right away the bamboo tree began to get bigger and bigger, and it grew higher and higher into the sky. The young man immediately began climbing the tall bamboo tree. He climbed higher and higher until he was almost able to reach heaven. But because he had wanted to see Tanabata with all his heart, he had hurried when making the straw sandals and had actually made only 999 pairs. The tree stopped one step short, and the young man's hand could not reach heaven.
"Hey! Tanabata! Tanabata!" the young man cried out to heaven. "Oh, it's you!" Tanabata exclaimed. She extended her hand to the young man and pulled him over the clouds. "Tanabata, I missed you so much," the young man said. The two of them were overjoyed to see each other once again.
Tanabata's father was not happy that she had married a man from the world below. He gave the young man hard work to do, hoping to make him miserable. "You'll guard the melon field for three days and three nights," he said. Watching the melon field made the young man extremely thirsty, but if he ate one of the melons, it was said that something terrible would happen. Tanabata told him, "You absolutely cannot eat one of those melons."
But as the three days went by, the young man grew thirsty and became unable to bear it any longer. He reached for a melon. The instant he did, water burst forth from the fruit and became a flowing river. "Darling!" "Tanabata!" In an instant the two were pulled apart from each other.
The two lovers looking across the river at each other became the stars Altair and Vega. Tanabata's father allows them to meet, but only once a year, on the night of July 7. To this day these two stars face each other across the Milky Way, shining brightly.
Posted: June 29, 2007 6:38 pm by Shino Ito | 0 comments
Tags: japanese, japanese folktale, story, tanabata
