Friday, 01 August 2008

• Currently Gaming Soul Calibur IV By Namco see related

  Epic

  The past week has been eventful to say the least.
  
  July 25th
  I went with Richard to the airport in the morning to say goodbye. Later that day, Dave and I went to Toyota Rent-a-Car to pick up the station wagon we'd reserved for the big trip to Mt. Fuji. The plan was to pack up the car that night and set off for Fuji early the next morning.....but then stuff happened.
  
  I checked the weather forecast and it didn't look good. It would be pouring down rain right around the time that we were scheduled to be a fourth of the way up the mountain. The forecast said it would continue raining for an entire week from that point. Things weren't looking good. Sarven, Dave, Dani and I sat there and tried to come up with some plans while we waited for Calex to return from Nagoya. We considered climbing other mountains, taking a road trip to make use of the car, or just driving to Fuji anyway and seeing just how bad the weather was. Then it hit me. Why not just leave at that very moment, get to Fuji hours earlier, and reach the top before it started raining? A perfect plan, right? Well, no, because it meant we would be climbing a mountain with no sleep. But this was our only chance at climbing this mountain together. We'd been planning on doing this for two years, and that weekend was our only shot at doing it. Suddenly, we all started getting excited about the sheer senselessness of the idea and the fact that we would get to climb Mt. Fuji together after all. We packed up the car, jumped in, picked Calex up from a nearby train station, and we were on our way. The journey had begun.
  
  July 26th, 4am
  Arrived in Fuji Yoshida, the town closest to the point where we would begin our climb. We parked the car and tried to sleep for an hour before setting off, but I don't think anyone managed to get more than half an hour of rest.
  
  6:52am
  After a run to the convenience store for last minute supplies and a little trouble finding a place to park, we officially began our trek up the first half of Mt. Fuji. We started at Sengen Shrine, the same place where pilgrims back in the day began their climb.
  
  7:30pm-ish
  We had climbed 3250 meters. At this point, Dani and Sarven were both suffering pretty badly from altitude sickness, the sun was setting, and it was getting preeetty chilly. Dave talked to some people and managed to get us some sleeping space at the inn even though we didn't have reservations.
  
  July 27th
  Though Sarven felt much better in the morning, Dani was still pretty sick, and Calex had now joined the ranks of altitude sickness victims. Dave was doing alright, aside from heavy sleep deprivation (he couldn't sleep much, due to the accomodations being unbelievably cramped). My legs and feet were pretty sore (understatement), but I was doing okay. A mere 400 meters stood between us and our goal, but our priorities had changed. Everyone's safety far out-weighed the bragging rights and only slightly better view that we could get from pressing onward. We decided to start heading down the mountain, and we started on our way around 5:20am. We finally escaped from Mt. Fuji around 11am, got an appropriately massive lunch at a family restaurant, and jumped back in the car, homeward bound.
  
  For a more detailed timeline of events of the climb, you should definitely go check out Sarven's account of our epic journey. I've uploaded pictures with descriptions from the past couple weeks, including the climb, so check those out, as well. From here, I just want to give my impression of the experience, rather than repeating a detailed account when Sarven's already worked pretty hard on one.
  
  All in all, we climbed 3250 meters (that's like two miles) in 12-13 hours and descended the same distance in about 6 hours. We climbed on one hour of sleep and descended on 3-6 hours of sleep (some slept better than others). Physically, we pushed ourselves further than ever before. It was a pretty big task mentally, too. Parts of Mt. Fuji are incredibly discouraging. You climb and climb and climb, and the path still looks the same. The summit still looks just as far away. The only thing that seems to change is that you are losing energy. It's not just some hike. It's epic. The first half of the mountain is covered in forest and absolutely beautiful. The second half of the mountain, though a bit ugly itself most of the time, provides awe-inspiring views. Simply pushing yourself further than you ever imagined yourself capable of is a hugely significant experience. As Sarven noted, after doing something like this, every other challenge looks relatively miniscule. Making the journey with a small group of close friends is an invaluable experience, because you encourage each other and push on together, overcoming pain, exhaustion, sickness, dehydration, disappointment, and any other obstacles that arise.
  
  I really can't describe the beauty or significance of what we saw and did together. We've all come to hate Mt. Fuji in a way, because what we expected to be a difficult but fun adventure together turned out to be nightmarish at times. It was as if the mountain had betrayed us, but the truth is that we just couldn't comprehend what we were getting into from the start. I'm sure we will forgive Fuji one day, and the bittersweetness of these memories will turn more sweet than bitter. I feel like we definitely returned from Fuji as better people. As you can probably tell, I feel a bit wishy washy about it all. To sum things up, I'm very glad, very thankful that we got to climb Mt. Fuji together.....but once is definitely enough.
  
  July 30th
  My last day at work. The guy replacing me has already started working at my base school, so when I went in on my last day we spoke for a few hours, went and checked out the guitar club, and he invited me to his house for lunch with his family. It was a nice day. I avoided saying goodbye to my coworkers, because I had already done so the previous time I was there, but I still feel a bit guilty about it. I will definitely go back and visit from time to time, though. I will definitely miss a lot of people.
  
  The new JETs arrived in town, so we met one of them at dinner. Looking forward to getting to know the new people, but really going to miss our friends who are leaving.
  
  July 31st
  Dave and I picked up copies of Soul Calibur 4 and hung out during the day. Dani and I hung out with Aaron for a while in the evening, setting off fireworks and saying goodbye. His flight leaves for Australia today in an hour or so.
  
  Today. Today I have a job interview. In fact, I need to wrap this up, get some lunch real quick, and be on my way. Please remember to check out the photo section and Sarven's Xanga for more about the climb. I added descriptions to most of the pictures. Right....well, I'll try to get back to checking my subscription list tonight. Hope you're all doing well.
  
  
  Love. Peace. Adventure.
  
  
  
  
  

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