Mt. Fuji, Revisited

Angrily asking myself "WHAT WAS I THINKING??" was something I found myself doing frequently this past weekend, when Michelle, Tiffany, Kyle, Shak, Ryan, and I set out to climb Mt. Fuji, Japan's tallest mountain at 3,776 meters (12,388 feet). In theory it sounded great. What could be a more exciting way to finish up our year in Japan than climbing its tallest mountain to watch the sunrise? I should have realized how foolish this was. Back in the summer of 2006, my brother Tyler and I decided that climbing Mt. Fuji would be a fun thing to do. We were wrong. It was one of the hardest and most not-fun things we did on our Asia backpacking trip. Unfortunately over the five years since our climb most of the bad memories faded, as I wholeheartedly went along with the plan to climb the mountain for a second time. There is an old Japanese proverb for people like me - "You are wise to climb Fuji once and a fool to climb it twice."

When we met at the base of the mountain we were pumped. From the base we took a bus to Kawaguchico 5th station, at an altitude of 2,300 meters (7,546 feet), to start our climb (Mt. Fuji is divided into 10 climbing stations, with the 1st station being the base and 10th station being the summit. Most climbers start from the trail at the 5th station). The dry and cool weather at that high an elevation was fantastic. Everyone, even myself, was buying into the illusion that this climb was going to be a nice and fun little stroll up to the top. We set out on Yoshida trail in high spirits at 5:00pm on Saturday. I was immediately winded, but for the first couple hours the climb wasn't too strenuous and we were treated to a wonderful sunset.

Really for the first four hours things went smoothly. The climb was getting continually steeper but we had a good pace going. When the sun went down around 8:00pm it got surprisingly cold. A bizarre experience considering that just a few hours prior at the base of the mountain we were melting in the sweltering July heat and humidity. At 9:00pm though we all started to realize that there were an unusually large amount of people on the mountain. Progress slowed. Our original plan was to get to the 8th station by 10pm to eat dinner and rest for a few hours before continuing our climb to the top. This plan was quickly thrown out the window - every hut was booked solid. As we continued our climb, we started to run into annoying bottlenecks at each hut and rest area. The higher we went, the more people seemed to just appear from thin air. We started to move at a crawl. We finally reached the 8th station a little after midnight, a full three hours after we had planned. The sunrise was scheduled for 4:37am in the morning. At the 8th station with two more stations to go to get to the summit, it became clear to all of us that if we wanted to get there by sunrise, there would be no rest or sleep. We had to hike straight through the night. Any break would put us further behind the massive throng of people that were following us up the mountain.

A river of lights - hundreds of flashlights and headlamps illuminated the trail down the mountain as far as the eye could see

After the 8th station, the situation got bad. The trail was probably operating at five times normal capacity. I had never seen anything like it. At one particularly bad bottleneck it took us 30 minutes to go 50 feet. It was 2am, freezing cold, and we were trapped in a throng of people on a small mountain trail near the summit of Mt. Fuji unable to move. Forget about using the bathroom, the wait there was easily 30 to 45 minutes. The only thing you could do was to keep moving. If you stopped to think you would panic. As we continued up the mountain our six person group disintegrated. Ryan and Shak were somewhere up ahead, Michelle and I were in the middle, and Tiff and Kyle were somewhere behind us.

No matter how far we climbed, the summit seemed to be the same distance away. The two hours of hiking that took place between 2am and 4am were excruciating. We were getting close but progress was so slow we thought we would never get there. We kept pushing through, and finally, at about 4:20am, we saw that we were almost at the summit. With only 17 minutes until sunrise, Michelle and I made a mad dash to get up as high as possible, and finally found a good area to put our packs down to enjoy the view. There could be no argument - the sunrise was one of the most beautiful things we had ever seen.

The sunrise was simply awe-inspiring, and the warmer weather that it brought a welcome relief. We picked up our bags and filed through the last Tori that marked the top of the mountain, where we eventually reunited with our group. We were all defeated. Under normal conditions, it takes 5 hours to reach the summit from our starting point. Because of the crowds, it took us 12 hours of hiking straight through the night to reach the summit, from 5:00pm on Saturday to 5:00am on Sunday. We were hungry, dehydrated, and exhausted. Michelle, Kyle, Tiff, and I wanted to get off the mountain asap, so the four of us hardly spent any time at the top. After a few pictures we set off on our way back down the mountain at around 5:30am.

Tori gate marking the top of Mt. Fuji

View of the surrounding mountains 30 minutes after sunrise

Thinking the decent couldn't be any worse, we once again were sadly disappointed. The decent was horrible. The crowds were smaller but still there, but the volcanic rock and steep slopes made the decent a slow and painful (literally) affair. We had to stop constantly to remove rocks from our shoes (our fault for not wearing proper hiking shoes), and we slipped, fell, or twisted an ankle seemingly every few minutes. The view was great, but the decent itself was an ugly and repetitive affair. The trail carved its way down the mountain for what seemed like an eternity. Michelle's knees and ankles were taking a beating and she was close to crying multiple times, and I honestly wasn't too far behind her. We wanted off the mountain so bad but there was a never ending path of volcanic rock that folded out below us as far as we could see.  

The decent

Eventually, after another four to five hours of hiking, we made it back to Kawaguchico 5th station. We were totally spent. We had been hiking a total of 17 hours on no sleep. We were covered in filth and dust. Our last real meal had been lunch the previous day. There was no high-fiving or partying between any of us. The only thing we wanted to do was get away from that mountain and to never come back.

Writing this now a few days removed from the ordeal, I can honestly say that our Fuji climb was about the most adventurous thing we possibly could have done for our last outing in Japan. As bad as it was, the sunrise was incredible and the time we got to spend together on the climb was great. It will definitely be something we all will never forget, so in that regard it was a huge success. What I do know for sure is that I will never, EVER, climb that mountain again, under ANY circumstances.

Please check out my friend Kyle's post about our Fuji trip! His post can be found here. Kyle also posted an awesome photo gallery of the climb that can be found here.

送別の辞 (Farewell Speech)

My base school's closing ceremony is this week and I thought I would share some of the words I prepared for my farewell speech. English translation follows the Japanese.

皆さん、こんにちは。

今日皆さんの前でお別れの演説をしているのが、信じられません。去年、皆さんの前で初めて自己紹介をしたのが、本当に昨日のことみたいです。この一年間は素晴らしかったです。皆さんと出会えてうれしいです。

先生方：一年間助けてくれてありがとうございます。 問題があれば、いつも本当に助けてくれました。一緒に働けてとても楽しかったです。皆さんの御多幸をお祈り申し上げます。

生徒の皆さん、皆さんと会えなくなるのがとても寂しいです。毎週の授業を楽しみにしていました。皆さんに教えるのは楽しかったです。皆さんも英語やアメリカの文化についての勉強を楽しんでくれていたらうれしいです。また、色々な部活に誘ってくれてありがとう。とても楽しかったです！学校の勉強を頑張ってください。教育は大切です。そして、外国にいく機会があれば、行ってください。世界はとても大きく、素晴らしい場所です。外国の人々と出会い、文化を学ぶのは素晴らしい経験です。

この一年を私たちにとって特別なものにしてくださってありがとうございます。皆さんと会えなくなるのは寂しいですが、決して忘れません。皆さんにはいつでもテキサスに住んでいる友達がいることを忘れないで下さい。

ありがとうございました。

Hello everyone,

I can't believe that I am standing here in front of you giving you my farewell speech. It feels just like yesterday that I came to Oshima for the first time and stood here to introduce myself to you. This year in Oshima has been incredible. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to meet all of you.

To my fellow teachers - thank you so much for supporting me through out the year. Whenever we had a problem come up you were always there to help. I really enjoyed working with all of you this past year and I wish you all the best in the future.

To my students - guys I am really going to miss you! I looked forward to our classes together each and every day. I really enjoyed teaching you and I hope that you had fun learning English and about American culture. Thank you for letting me join all the different clubs with you too - I really had so much fun with all of you!  Please continue to study hard in school. Getting an education is one of the most important things you can do. Also, if any of you have an opportunity to spend time in a foreign country, please do so. The world is truly a huge and amazing place. Getting to meet foreign people and other cultures is an incredible experience.

Again, thank you all for making this year for my wife and I such a special time. I will miss you all but will never forget you. You will always have a friend living down in Texas.

Leaver's Weekend

Leaver's Weekend was tough. Getting a combined eight hours of sleep in a 72 hour period didn't help (nor did the harsh elements or my poor beverage selection), but I managed to survive the weekend and had a fantastic time in the process. So what exactly is Leaver's Weekend you ask? Leaver's Weekend is the title that we give to the last big farewell and party that most of the ALTs participate in before we either 1) start another year living here in Japan or 2) pack up our lives here in Japan and return back home. It's a time of fun, reflection, tears, goodbyes, and everything in between, and riding this emotional roller coaster for three days was exhausting - both for the people who are staying and leaving.

I consider the formal farewell ceremony at Yamaguchi Prefecture's central office, which was held on Friday, July 8th, to have officially "kicked off" Leaver's Weekend. The nine ALTs that teach here in the Prefecture at High Schools gathered together and went through the official "goodbye" ceremony with our contracting organization, the Yamaguchi Prefecture Board of Education. The ceremony was simple but unquestionably Japanese: no AC, lots of sweat, suits, speeches, and bowing. On a very nice note, the head of the Yamaguchi Prefecture Board of Education individually thanked us for our hard work and presented us with a beautiful certificate and parting gift. We also said our goodbyes to Seiki Sensei, the head boss of all the ALTs in the Prefecture and someone whom we all liked a great deal. We capped off the day with our last meal at Nishida's okonomiyaki and hamburger joint, one of our most favorite restaurants in the Prefecture. 

Farewell ceremony at Yamaguchi Prefecture's headquarters

Receiving the certificate and gift from the Yamaguchi Prefecture Board of Education

Seiki Sensei with the the nine high school JETs who are departing

Dinner at Nishida's

The following day on Saturday, we set out to Leaver's Party. This year Leaver's Party was at Omijima Island, a beautiful island near the town of Nagato on the north (Sea of Japan) side of the prefecture. There are around 45 ALTs in Yamaguchi Prefecture and 19 will be heading back home over the next month, and just about everyone made the trek out. We drank, bar-b-que'd, tossed the football, played cricket, got rained on, played a skit game, and crashed out in the cabins in what was a very fun but very emotional party.

Party on the beach!!

I still have no idea how to play cricket...

There was a moment at the party where I took a quick step back to try and take it all in. This group here of ALTs was a diverse bunch. America, Canada, New Zealand, England, Japan, and South Africa were all represented, but even among people from the same country there was a plethora of diversity. For America alone, we had people from Alaska, Boston, New York City, Seattle, Kentucky, Indiana, California, Hawaii, Oklahoma, and Texas. Honestly, if any of us had met while living our normal lives back home, we would probably have never become friends. Every one's backgrounds and interests are so diverse that finding common ground would have been difficult. That's one of the greatest things about living over here in Japan with these people. Despite the diversity, we really are like a band of brothers. We are here together trying to make life work in this very foreign place - all experiencing and sharing the ups and downs that living in this foreign land entails. We all know that these goodbyes aren't like most. These goodbyes are final. After we all return to our small corner of the Earth, we will all continue our lives in a myriad of directions and most likely never have the opportunity to meet again. It's sad, but I know we all will never forget this special time that we got to share together here in Japan. 

Nighttime grilling

Hanging with some of the guys

Sunday morning before heading out

Iwakuni Technical High School

I'll admit it. I'm an emotional guy. I really don't cry a lot or anything, but occasionally things will really get to me. This last Friday, July 1st, was my last time to visit Iwakuni Technical High School (ITS), and it hit me hard. I have been going to ITS every Friday since last September, and have formed great relationships with the teachers and students. I knew my last visit would be tough, but I was shocked by how much of a wreck I became. For most of the day I actually was ok, but after school things got intense. I visited the students while they were practicing in their clubs to say goodbye and to take a photo together. After the photo, the students would face me, do a long and pronounced bow and say sayounara (a goodbye reserved for someone you won't see for a long time or ever again). After a couple of those I was quickly becoming an emotional wreck, but the fencing club did me in. It was my last club to visit, and after their goodbye I had to run out of the room to avoid making a scene. The worst was back in the teachers room, when after I had cleaned out my desk and grabbed my stuff, I bid farewell to my English teachers and Chijimatsu Sensei, the home economy teacher who I sat next to. I couldn't even respond to her goodbye and well wishes - one word and the floodgates would have burst open. All I could do was give her a big hug (which probably shocked most of the Japanese teachers sitting around us, who would never show that type of physical emotion). With tears starting to stream out, I made my way to the door, turned back and did one more deep bow, and walked out. On the way to the train station, with a lot of emotion painted across my face,  I ran into the baseball guys who had just finished practice. We normally horse around together, but all they did was line up, respectfully bow and say " Sayounara, Brandon Sensei...". This process repeated with every student I ran into on the way back to the station. Talk about a long and sad commute back home. I don't think I could of had a more emotional farewell if I had tried. 

Help me now for when I bid farewell to my base school, Suo Oshima High School, on July 25th!

Some photos from my last day at ITS: