Thursday, July 20th, 1989

Note:  This is a series of journal entries from my two years living in Himeji, Japan (1988-1990).  I'm archiving them electronically through my blog.  Last names have been deleted and replaced with first initial only.  For details on this series of blog entries, see this post.

Last Tuesday draws a blank, so it must not have been too terribly exciting.  Ditto for Wednesday, except that in keeping with the awful week, I was almost to the station before realizing I had forgotten my wallet.  So, I had to run home and get it because it had my AR (alien registration) and all of my money in it (actually that was Thursday- nothing sticks out for Wednesday).  Mike called, and said he wouldn't be in, so I had to give assignments to his students.  I missed my train because I had to go back to my apartment, but managed to get to school in time.

Friday's addition to my bad week was a letter from Stephanie, telling me, among other things, about her new boyfriend...Bif, or Jock, or Joe, or something, and about their going to Colorado together to look into colleges.  He's a high school senior...isn't that sweet?!  She says he's her best friend- how "special"!

Saturday I met Chizuru and Mitsuko at the station, and we met Mike & Resa, Daniel & Sheila, Elaine, and later Kimberly at the OS Theater.  We saw "Indy Jones", and "Star Trek: 5".  They were pretty good!  After the movie we went to Murasaki.

After Murasaki we were followed by a guy on a bicycle who kept saying he liked to have sex with young girls, etc.  Pleasant fellow...

Elaine came over and we watched "Tootsie".  I walked her home (part way) afterwards, and she proceeded to jump over my head and land across the street, when a dog started barking behind a gate that we passed.   Jumpy chick!

Sunday I taught a makeup class in Mizoguchi.  In the kodomo class we drew ourselves and learned body parts in English.  Mayumi and I went to a coffee shop, and Kohei didn't come.

Sunday night was bible study and church.  Afterwards was singles.  After singles Kimberly, Mitsuko, Elaine, Dennis, Glenn, and I spent the night at B's.

Kimberly & Mitsuko taught me how to add stitches to my knitting, Mary gave me the details about doing tea boxes, and then I went to bed.

Monday, Mary and I went looking for tea box material.  I found a neat futon fabric with Japanese fans on it.  After that, we went to Lady Daiei in Sannomiya and bought cotton for underneath the fabric.  We went to a coffee shop, then, after that, Mary went to run errands and I went to the Immigration Office to get my reentry permit.

In the afternoon, the Osaka gas man came again to fix my heater, and Kayo came for a lesson.

Tuesday was midterm day.  No problem.  No cheaters caught.  Yay.  Taught at Mizoguchi.  For my lesson with Kohei, I had him tell me about his company, Higashi Maru, which makes soy sauce and seasonings.  Kohei is a researcher.  This is how soy sauce is made:

Kohei said that sake, beer, miso paste, and wine are made in the same general process, except that sake uses rice only; miso uses wheat, soybeans, and rice, but the process ends at the filtration stage, less water is used, and miso only goes through the mash stage for 1-2 months; beer uses malt at the fungi stage; wine doesn't use anything at the fungi stage because fruit already has sugar in it (fungus, malt, etc. breaks down starch with enzymes, to produce sugar).  The yeast converts the sugar to alcohol.  The proteins are broken down to amino acids.  In soy sauce, there is 2 to 3% alcohol because of the yeast breakdown.  Fungus is only used in Oriental food processing.  It was an interesting class!

Wednesday was a faculty mtng.  Enough said.

Thursday I went to school late & left early.  Daniel and I went to Miyuki Doori to buy Sheila's b-day present.

Friday, I gave my drama midterm.  The girls didn't do very well...Machiko sensei approached me about writing a paper together.  We're going to translate a Japanese folk tale into a play for use in a creative dramatics activity.

After the test I left for Mt. Fuji...

I met Junko, Kimberly and Masato M. at Shin Kobe Station.  We took the shinkansen to Shin Fuji Station.  Masami and Mitsuko got on at Shin Osaka.  We had a great time!

 green tea fields along the way

 the self-igniting bento I bought to eat at the train station!

We stayed at the Fuji Green Hotel in Shin Fuji Friday night, then got up Saturday and took 2 buses (3 hours) to the 5th station on Mt. Fuji.

 getting some carbs before beginning the journey!

After looking around in the gift shop, and changing clothes we started the journey- and what a journey it was!

We started at about 2000 meters and, in the course of 24 hours, zig-zagged up to 3776 meters.  It was the hardest thing I've ever done.

Day one was pretty good.  The scenery was great, and climbing up the rocks and walking the trails was fun.  The rest of the group were really slow, so I was always the first one to the stations along the way.  Poor Mitsuko had a rough time.  We waited on her a lot.

 Why are we going DOWN???!!!

 Mr. "Genki" carrying Mitsuko's AND my backpacks!

 

At about 10 we reached the 8th station where we spent the night.  We were all exhausted!  However...the sleeping arrangements sucked!  There were about 75 people crammed into a room the size of my bedroom in Iowa on two layers of "bunks".  We dubbed the room "the slave ship" the next day.  I was between Mitsuko and Junko in the Lily Munster sleeping position most of the time and only got to sleep for about an hour.

At 1:30 we got up and joined the line of about 1,000,000 people who were trying to get to the top by sunrise.  It was so crowded, and slow moving.  I was impatient the rest of the way up, because the line kept stopping & starting.

We left the 8th station late, so didn't quite get to the top by sunrise, but we found a nice spot to watch the sunrise...it was gorgeous.  Mitsuko and Kimberly waited for us at the 8th station.  Mitsuko couldn't continue because she didn't feel well.

In the dark on the way up, before sunrise (and the night before), the scenery was incredible.  We could see the lights of the cities below, and the stars above, and we saw the moon rise.  Day time scenery was nice in places (trees, snow, etc.) but was mostly red lava rock (I always wondered why it was painted red in Japanese paintings).

At the top we looked in the volcano crater, and rested before starting the long journey down.  I felt queasy and had a headache for awhile, but got better as we went down into thicker air.

 necessary for using the Mt. Fuji toilets...yuck!

We went back by bus after lunch at the 5th station, caught the express shinkansen, and I got home around 9:00.

Before we left on Friday, Kimberly and I noticed how inexperienced we were at this mountain climbing stuff.  Everyone else brought cans of O2 and were wearing hiking boots, and climbing clothes.  Kimberly & I showed up in shorts!  But, the trip went well, and I'm very glad that I did it.  I'm sunburnt, have shin splints, and am exhausted (and will never climb Mt. Fuji again), but it was worth it!

Today I got up at 11:15, did laundry, taught the last lesson with Kayo (unless she calls at the end of September to start again), ran lots of errands, and am recuperating from the trip.  It's hot today...I remember wishing yesterday that I wasn't freezing (at the top of Fuji)- now I think it would feel nice...well, maybe not.