Today at school was the closing ceremony for the school year. The school year here goes from April to March as I've mentioned before so when everybody returns in April, the students will have moved up a grade and a new batch of students will be coming in.
The next two weeks are officially "Spring Vacation." This doesn't mean that everybody gets to stay home for two weeks and enjoy a free vacation. Many students will likely be coming to school everyday for sports practices and other club activities. Some others will probably come up for extra tutoring and studying if their grades were not up to par this past year. But there won't be any classes or any official things going on. That is until March 30, a random Tuesday, where despite the fact that it's "Spring Vacation," all students and teachers have to be here for the teacher farewell ceremony. In Japan, many teachers get tranferred from school to school at the end of the year and they have very little say in when they go or where they go. The joys of being a government employee. So on March 30 everybody comes up and they have a big ceremony where the leaving teachers give speeches and then everybody who is staying packs up their things and moves to their new desk for the next year. It's quite a sight.
Anyway, we teachers have very little duties during this break so many people take time off. You have to take your paid leave days, you don't just get to go free. So next week, Kelly and I are both taking the whole week off and going to Kyoto for a few days. Kyoto is one of the most historic cities in Japan, and we have yet to make our way down there, so this week is when we're going to go check it out. We're looking forward to getting out for a while and spending a relaxing time sightseeing, taking pictures, and as always, eating some good food. I'll tell you all about it when we get back.
Well, I hope everyone has had good spring breaks and what not back home. The weather here has been going back and forth between warm and sunny, cold and rainy, warm and rainy, cold and sunny. Today is cold and sunny. I think tomorrow is supposed to be warm and rainy. I'm ready for spring to get here for good. We're maybe about a week away from cherry blossom time. I can't wait!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
First Night Hike Recap
We had our first night hike on Friday night. We were doing Checkpoint 4 to Checkpoint 7 minus a stretch of about 6km of open road at the beginning. Altogether the hike was 38km.
We met up at Gotemba Station at around 7pm and took a bus for about 20 minutes to the place where we were going to start. After stretching a bit and getting our headlamps on, we began the hike. Other than the Mt. Fuji climb, none of us had ever gone hiking at night before. So this was sure to be an interesting evening. We walked down a road for a few minutes and then got to the point where we were supposed to turn onto the trail. We turned right and immediately we all stopped, clearly taken aback by how incredibly dark the trail was. After kind of getting over our brief moment of alarm, we started up the trail. I was in the lead at the beginning and my alarm returned when I turned the first corner and in the light from my headlamp I saw a pair of glowing green eyes. A black cat was standing in the middle of the trail. I was like, "Are you serious?" The cat quickly ran away though and we returned to our hiking.
The first stretch was a pretty long one, about 12 kilometers I believe. We basically climbed up a mountain and then back down the other side. There were some pretty interesting moments.
At one point we came across a point where a tree had fallen over right in the middle of the trail. We couldn't really see a good way to get around it, so we ended up just having to climb over it. Only a few minor scrapes occured. There was also a point where we came into this stretch of trail with tall, thick bamboo on either side. It was flat at that point and I got a strange sensation like the scene in "The Fellowship of the Ring" where the Hobbits are in that clearing and Frodo senses that the Ringwraiths are coming and the camera does that crazy zoom down the road. It was a bit creepy. The coolest part of that stretch however was when we got to the top of the mountain and took a short break. We looked out in the distance, and though it was extremely dark and a little cloudy, we could see the snow on the top of Mt. Fuji in the distance. I would have loved to get a picture of it, but it was way too dark so it'll just have to be a picture in my mind.
We finally got to Checkpoint 5, a really nice temple, and stopped to apply some bandaids and eat some onigiri. At least I ate onigiri. Linton had a homemade bacon sandwich which I decided was a great idea for the future. We stayed a little longer than intended at CP5 and then finally I downed a Red Bull and we got going. We got a bit lost trying to get started on the next part, but once we figured out where to go, we made great time. CP5-CP6 has a lot of open road so once we got on the road we got set on a nice, brisk pace and went for it. There's not much to note about that section, really. It'll be a welcome easy part when the actual hike comes.
When we got to CP6 around 2:45am, we realized that we had not seen a single person, car, or anything since we left the bus stop when we started the hike. In fact, the only other living thing we saw besides each other was that black cat. It gave us a sense of really being alone out there. Kind of cool and creepy at the same time.
We left CP6 at about 3am and headed out for the last stretch. This is where things got interesting. By this time, as you can imagine, we were quite tired. We were starting to slow down drastically. We got to a point around 4:00 where we had to go straight up a very steep trail to get up a mountain. It was no gradual incline. It was tough, but it got even worse about 15 minutes up the trail when it started to rain. We managed to get to the top before the big rain started. We quickly threw on our rain gear, wrapped up all of our stuff in plastic, bags, and set out again. The rain was really picking up and fog started to set in. It got to the point where the leader would literally have to stop every 30 seconds or so to see if we were still on the trail because it was so hard to see. We couldn't see more than about 5 meters in front of us. There was a point where we knew we had 2km until our next landmark on our map and we just kept walking and walking and walking. We were sure we were lost. We stopped and had about a 5 minute meeting to decide whether we should go back or keep moving. We decided to keep moving and we're glad we did. It turns out we were still on the trail, it was just taking us a long time because we couldn't see.
We still had quite a long way to go. We were pretty exhausted and started getting delirious. Ashley was asking random questions to keep from going to sleep while walking. I think Linton started whistling. I just walked in complete silence. We were being put to the test. Once the sun came up it got much easier for us to see. That definitely helped our pace. We got to the final stretch of open road and by this time it was really pouring. We walked along the open road for about 4km until we finally made it to town, saw a person for the first time, and made it to the train station just before CP7. We got to the station at 8:15. Altogether the hike took us 12.5 hours. Not too bad!
We learned some things from this hike. We definitely know we're going to be tired at these points, but we learned that positive thinking is the way to go. And we have to continually support each other. We each had a funk during the night at different points, so we have to remember that that's going to happen and not get frustrated if somebody is slowing down or getting edgy. We have to fight through the tests.
We have a few weeks off and then we're going to get back on it after the spring vacation. Sorry no pictures from this last hike. It was pretty dark. The next hike will be a day hike so I'll try to get some up from that.
Thank to everybody who has donated so far. We're getting so much more support than we imagined and getting close to our goal. I think we'll have no trouble reaching it and going beyond. It's really great so thanks a lot!
We met up at Gotemba Station at around 7pm and took a bus for about 20 minutes to the place where we were going to start. After stretching a bit and getting our headlamps on, we began the hike. Other than the Mt. Fuji climb, none of us had ever gone hiking at night before. So this was sure to be an interesting evening. We walked down a road for a few minutes and then got to the point where we were supposed to turn onto the trail. We turned right and immediately we all stopped, clearly taken aback by how incredibly dark the trail was. After kind of getting over our brief moment of alarm, we started up the trail. I was in the lead at the beginning and my alarm returned when I turned the first corner and in the light from my headlamp I saw a pair of glowing green eyes. A black cat was standing in the middle of the trail. I was like, "Are you serious?" The cat quickly ran away though and we returned to our hiking.
The first stretch was a pretty long one, about 12 kilometers I believe. We basically climbed up a mountain and then back down the other side. There were some pretty interesting moments.
At one point we came across a point where a tree had fallen over right in the middle of the trail. We couldn't really see a good way to get around it, so we ended up just having to climb over it. Only a few minor scrapes occured. There was also a point where we came into this stretch of trail with tall, thick bamboo on either side. It was flat at that point and I got a strange sensation like the scene in "The Fellowship of the Ring" where the Hobbits are in that clearing and Frodo senses that the Ringwraiths are coming and the camera does that crazy zoom down the road. It was a bit creepy. The coolest part of that stretch however was when we got to the top of the mountain and took a short break. We looked out in the distance, and though it was extremely dark and a little cloudy, we could see the snow on the top of Mt. Fuji in the distance. I would have loved to get a picture of it, but it was way too dark so it'll just have to be a picture in my mind.
We finally got to Checkpoint 5, a really nice temple, and stopped to apply some bandaids and eat some onigiri. At least I ate onigiri. Linton had a homemade bacon sandwich which I decided was a great idea for the future. We stayed a little longer than intended at CP5 and then finally I downed a Red Bull and we got going. We got a bit lost trying to get started on the next part, but once we figured out where to go, we made great time. CP5-CP6 has a lot of open road so once we got on the road we got set on a nice, brisk pace and went for it. There's not much to note about that section, really. It'll be a welcome easy part when the actual hike comes.
When we got to CP6 around 2:45am, we realized that we had not seen a single person, car, or anything since we left the bus stop when we started the hike. In fact, the only other living thing we saw besides each other was that black cat. It gave us a sense of really being alone out there. Kind of cool and creepy at the same time.
We left CP6 at about 3am and headed out for the last stretch. This is where things got interesting. By this time, as you can imagine, we were quite tired. We were starting to slow down drastically. We got to a point around 4:00 where we had to go straight up a very steep trail to get up a mountain. It was no gradual incline. It was tough, but it got even worse about 15 minutes up the trail when it started to rain. We managed to get to the top before the big rain started. We quickly threw on our rain gear, wrapped up all of our stuff in plastic, bags, and set out again. The rain was really picking up and fog started to set in. It got to the point where the leader would literally have to stop every 30 seconds or so to see if we were still on the trail because it was so hard to see. We couldn't see more than about 5 meters in front of us. There was a point where we knew we had 2km until our next landmark on our map and we just kept walking and walking and walking. We were sure we were lost. We stopped and had about a 5 minute meeting to decide whether we should go back or keep moving. We decided to keep moving and we're glad we did. It turns out we were still on the trail, it was just taking us a long time because we couldn't see.
We still had quite a long way to go. We were pretty exhausted and started getting delirious. Ashley was asking random questions to keep from going to sleep while walking. I think Linton started whistling. I just walked in complete silence. We were being put to the test. Once the sun came up it got much easier for us to see. That definitely helped our pace. We got to the final stretch of open road and by this time it was really pouring. We walked along the open road for about 4km until we finally made it to town, saw a person for the first time, and made it to the train station just before CP7. We got to the station at 8:15. Altogether the hike took us 12.5 hours. Not too bad!
We learned some things from this hike. We definitely know we're going to be tired at these points, but we learned that positive thinking is the way to go. And we have to continually support each other. We each had a funk during the night at different points, so we have to remember that that's going to happen and not get frustrated if somebody is slowing down or getting edgy. We have to fight through the tests.
We have a few weeks off and then we're going to get back on it after the spring vacation. Sorry no pictures from this last hike. It was pretty dark. The next hike will be a day hike so I'll try to get some up from that.
Thank to everybody who has donated so far. We're getting so much more support than we imagined and getting close to our goal. I think we'll have no trouble reaching it and going beyond. It's really great so thanks a lot!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Oxfam Trailwalker Japan - Fuji crew!
Well as I mentioned a month or so back, on April 23-25 I am participating in a team-challenge to raise money for Oxfam International. The event is a 100 kilometer hike that takes place over 48 hours through the forests, hills, and mountains of Japan. It is called Oxfam Trailwalker.
Oxfam Trailwalker takes place in 12 countries around the world, and it is said that the Japan Trailwalker is the most challenging of all. Take a look at the site to read all about the trail and information on the hike.
So you may be thinking, "What does a 100km hike have to do with rasing money for charity?" I'm glad you asked. Each team of four that competes in the challenge is responsible for raising a minimum of 120,000 yen which is roughly equivalent to $1,346. The money that is raised goes to help people in need in places like Congo, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, India, Mogambique, and South Africa. To read more about how the money is used, look here. Last year, Oxfam Trailwalker Japan raised 49,246,830 yen.
My team is made up of Ashley Janssen from Minnesota, John Land from Alabama, Linton Rathgen from Christchurch, New Zealand and myself. We are called Fuji Crew.
So how can you help? You can go to our Just Giving site where you will find more information about our team as well as some pictures and information about how to make a donation. The donation on the site will be in Euros so your money will be transferred from Dollars to Euros to Yen. But no matter what, it'll go straight to Oxfam and help us to reach our goal of 120,000 yen by April 9. Anything above that amount would be great too.
If you have any questions about the event or anything else, let me know. As we do more practice hikes, I'll start to post some pictures on here and we'll continue to update pictures on the Just Giving site. You can see some of Ashley's below.
Thanks for reading and please help us out.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
よし！
Well I did it! I successfully completed the 10K. I came in 125th place out of around 190 boys. Or at least the boy who I raced the final 50 meters or so to the finish line came in 125th place. I wasn't given an actual number. I don't know my exact time yet. I'll find that out tomorrow at school when we get a packet with everybody's times. I'll look up #125 and count that as my time since we finished at almost exactly the same time. But I added up the minutes and seconds of the songs I listened to while I ran and came up with something around 45 minutes! Which is unbelievable! I guess my natural pace is much faster than the 11kph I run on the treadmill at the gym.
So needless to say I was very pleased. And I'm very tired. The unexpected hills really took it out of me. I took the rest of the day off and came home (making a stop to eat a huge lunch at Katsu-ya on the way.) One very bad thing about having this postponed from Friday to today is we have school tomorrow. I even have a 1st period class. So I'm going to rest up for the rest of the day.
Emily took some pictures of me while I ran that I'll post as soon as she sends them to me.
おつかれさまです！
So needless to say I was very pleased. And I'm very tired. The unexpected hills really took it out of me. I took the rest of the day off and came home (making a stop to eat a huge lunch at Katsu-ya on the way.) One very bad thing about having this postponed from Friday to today is we have school tomorrow. I even have a 1st period class. So I'm going to rest up for the rest of the day.
Emily took some pictures of me while I ran that I'll post as soon as she sends them to me.
おつかれさまです！
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Let's try this again
So as of now, everything is a go for tomorrow. We're going to try this one again, drier but much colder. Here is a picture from my Accuweather app to show you exactly what the weather might be like when I'm running tomorrow.
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Or for those metrically challenged...
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I've come to like Celsius because it makes things look more exciting. So I'll probably be running sometime around 11. I'll be wearing shorts although Kelly keeps telling me I shouldn't, but I always run in shorts so that's what I'm comfortable in. I probably will forgo a t-shirt however for something with long sleeves. We'll see.
iPod is charged and ready. Here's hoping this thing happens this time!
.jpg)
Or for those metrically challenged...
.jpg)
I've come to like Celsius because it makes things look more exciting. So I'll probably be running sometime around 11. I'll be wearing shorts although Kelly keeps telling me I shouldn't, but I always run in shorts so that's what I'm comfortable in. I probably will forgo a t-shirt however for something with long sleeves. We'll see.
iPod is charged and ready. Here's hoping this thing happens this time!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Another chapter in a long book of February blah
Well Marathon Day got cancelled today. I was just getting up to get ready when I got a phone call saying that it was cancelled because of rain and that I should come to school because we would be having a regular class day today. So after weeks of looking forward to and preparing for this day, I'm feeling pretty let down and unhappy. It hasn't been cancelled completely, only postponed until next Wednesday. Next Wednesday will be the last chance to do it. Unfortunately the weather report I looked at this morning predicts rain on Wednesday too, so it's likely that it'll be cancelled altogether. I guess I have to keep my hopes up though.
Have I mentioned lately how much I despise the month of February? It seems like February is always full of bad things. There have been a few decent ones mixed in, but for the most part, I have been having bad Februarys for as long as I can remember. And this day and this weather just add to the long list of things I can't stand about this month. Sometimes I wish I was a bear so I could hibernate through February. Just go to sleep on the night of January 31 and wake up on the morning of March 1. Oh well.
Sorry to be a downer this morning. I'm just going to have to go to the gym after school today and run another 9K and keep my preparation going. Hopefully that'll make me feel better.
Have I mentioned lately how much I despise the month of February? It seems like February is always full of bad things. There have been a few decent ones mixed in, but for the most part, I have been having bad Februarys for as long as I can remember. And this day and this weather just add to the long list of things I can't stand about this month. Sometimes I wish I was a bear so I could hibernate through February. Just go to sleep on the night of January 31 and wake up on the morning of March 1. Oh well.
Sorry to be a downer this morning. I'm just going to have to go to the gym after school today and run another 9K and keep my preparation going. Hopefully that'll make me feel better.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
The clock is ticking...
Well tomorrow is the day. It's currently pouring down rain in Fuji and has been all day, but if the rain stops during the night as it's supposed to, 200 high school boys and I will be running a 10K tomorrow. I know it seems silly to be getting all worked up about 10K. It's not like it's a real marathon or anything. But considering that I have never done anything like this before, it'll be a big accomplishment if I complete it. And if I start, believe me, I will complete it.
I'll also be making good on the promise I made to some students last year.
Well today was a holiday, National Foundation Day. No idea what it celebrates. We spent the entire day indoors, Kelly reading her book, me playing Playstation, while it rained outside. You can't do much more with a Thursday holiday anyway.
Wish me luck tomorrow! If I survive, I'll tell you all about it!
I'll also be making good on the promise I made to some students last year.
Well today was a holiday, National Foundation Day. No idea what it celebrates. We spent the entire day indoors, Kelly reading her book, me playing Playstation, while it rained outside. You can't do much more with a Thursday holiday anyway.
Wish me luck tomorrow! If I survive, I'll tell you all about it!
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