Last weekend I accomplished one of the few goals I had set during my stay in Japan--climbing the mighty mountain spirit known as Fujisan by the locals and watch the sun rise. Timing was critical. The climbing season ends after August so the conditions would only worsen if I waited any longer. Some of the deaths reported in the off season, which I found while researching Fuji, include falling on rocks, slipping on ice, and my favorite--"blown away".
It took a three hour train ride just to arrive in Fujinomiya, the town at the base of the mountain trail by the same name, and then a half hour taxi ride to the fifth climbing station some 7,874 feet high, to begin our ascent.
The road meandered around tight bends through a forest of Asian pine trees with bare trunks stuck out from the ground like toothpicks. Above shined the stars and full moon in the sapphire night sky, against the sharp black visage of the volcanic monolith we steadily crawled upward toward--Fuji.
The eight-hour climb was the most exhausting effort of my life. Every few minutes I had to rest and catch my breath from the high-altitude while the season local veterans, many twice my age and with evidently a much denser concentration of red blood cells, breezed past me. Hallucinatory images skirted in outskirts of my head, seducing me into the state of sleep my body craved so desperately.
Between four and five in the morning the hundreds of climbers convened in a single-file procession, marked by the glowing blue specks of their helmet lights, to climb the final of the journey to the 12,338 foot summit. I found the strength to get up and followed them. Once I set foot on the flat earth, I fell against the side of the Shinto temple at the top and slept. I woke up with a few minutes to spare before the sun rise.
Majestic, breath-taking, awe-inspiring? Sure. But truthfully, having been awake since 9:30 in the morning the previous day I could have witnessed the birth of a new universe and still would have been indifferent in the face of such extreme sleep deprivation. Luckily, my camera captured what my eyes were too weary to appreciate at the moment.
View from Tokyo Tower
View of the Skyline for the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower
Back on Earth, Tokyo by night is a galaxy of lights and concrete high-rises. With so much of the
city stacked up in multi-level buildings, some of the best views are accessible by simply climbing stair wells and fire escapes. There are also a observation decks in some of the famous land marks like the Tokyo Tower--the city's tallest structure--and the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills.
The Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills.
Sleeping off a night of partying on the steps of Akasaka Business Tower.
View of Minato-Ku from a stairwell.
A popular love hotel seen from a rooftop in Akasaka.
Another Shinto shrine tucked in a corner of Akasaka.
Reflection of Tokyo Tower.
Cold Soba noodles with an egg.
The stairwells of office buildings have some of the best views in the city.
View of Tokyo Tower from stairwell.
Another hectic night in Shinjuku.
Shinjuku station, rush hour.
The intimate-sized Milk Bar in Golden Gai.
One of my favorite spots I have uncovered is the Golden Gai section of Shinjuku, a series of back alley bars frequented by the locals after work. I visited one with my camera and the patrons, who spoke better English than my pitiful Japanese, seemed amused that a 22-year-old had even heard of the neighborhood. Some of the guys were thirty-year-old newly weds. One candidly described their state of mind in marriage as "a tiny bit happy." It reminded me of a quote from my poetry professor earlier in the day--"marriage is Thunderdome." The guys brought army ration food with them to the bar, so we appeased our beer munchies with canned radishes and hamburger meat. They asked me what the English word for army meals was. I told them, "dog food." Then I reprimanded them for wasting the rations that we should be saving for battling the Mongolians and they bellowed with high-pitched giggles.
Next week is a baseball game, a Sumo tournament, a media workout at the Grabaka gym as Kazuniro Yokota prepares to fight in the Sengoku MMA card on 9/23, and on next Sunday, my birthday. More adventures to follow.
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