A few months ago Guillaume and I  were at our little bar in Tsukuba. I say our bar because, when going there, we would almost certainly be the only patrons. Shein’s bar. The place is no longer open due to the situation described above but on this night we took a seat outside and talked with a fellow from Nigeria.

“Yea Japan is great. But at some point you have to return to reality. This is not the real world, man.”

So here we go. It’s time to go back to reality. I’m sitting at the airport right now. About to depart back to the U.S. What is there to say. Seriously.This is only post 1 of 3 for the final half of my adventure. Included in this post will be calligraphy and Mt. Fuji.

**Interesting side note: There was just a small earthquake at the airport. In a weird way I will kind of miss these little earthquakes.

Calligraphy/Nikhil’s Wedding

There’s a long back story to this one. When I arrived in Japan I was pretty certain that I would miss one of my best friends weddings. He was to get married in August to a great girl who I had known since he met her. I knew when I arrived I wanted to get him some art or something hand crafted from Japan. I thought a nice calligraphy piece would be perfect. But as it turns out they’re not readily available for sale, it’s sort of something you can make yourself or ask a calligraphist to do for you. Well, as his wedding approached I still hadn’t found what I wanted. But now I would be going to surprise him for his wedding in the states, and with the help of a few friends I would even be a surprise groomsman. I had to find something good! As I was out exploring Tokyo with a friend I mentioned to her my predicament. And after a short phone call she said: why don’t you come to my house and my grandma will teach you calligraphy. Being invited into a Japanese home is actually rare for foreigners and on the way there I started to get a little nervous. She said it’s ok, calm down. But when you enter you HAVE to say “O jama shimasu” to my mother. So there I am repeating this over and over. I walk in, and nail it. Perfect. So then her adorable Grandma shows up and shows me the room where we will do calligraphy. It’s a tatami matted room with the sliding doors, and a table in the middle. She has already prepared the ink and brushes and paper. I tell her I want to make the calligraphy 愛 which means love. I do a few practice kanji and then make a calligraphy on nice paper. We sit down and talk for a little and her Mom shows me these miniature models of fruit and food that she makes. Finally her grandma shows me some cards with a buddha like figure she painted on it. Her mom and grandma each give me a sample of their art and I return home. The dog in the picture is Fuku.

Mt.Fuji

Fuji Kitty

Fuji san and his hat

Going up Fuji san

Neat-o guys

My walking stick getting stamped

Miniature holy place going up

Torii gate towards the top of Fuji

Making friends, sharing moments

Hey choose the one you most want a picture with

Picture with the station 8 chef

at the top!

Making friends on the way down

The top of Mt.Fuji is the top of Japan. And, given a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo or even from Mt. Tsukuba. As I’ve learned though this is a rare occasion. There always seems to be a mountain sized hat atop Fuji san blocking all his glory. Often, people will do a night hike up to the top of Fuji san so that they may experience one of the most incredible sunrises of their lives. This was our plan. of course given our last minute planning and poor directional skills we missed the last bus to the mountain. Our plan B was to stay at a hotel and wake up early the next morning and do a day hike. We reached Fuji san early in the morning and began our hike. Unfortunately this time Guillaume was not feeling very genki and stopped about 1/3 of the way up. At this point, being a good travel buddy, he says I can go ahead and he will wait for me at the bottom. There are different stations along the trail as you ascend Fuji-san. We started at station 5 and the top is station 10. These stations act as rest areas where you can have hot tea and ramen to recharge. You can also sleep a little for a (not so small) fee. As I’m approaching the 8th station I’m about to pass a group of hikers. They say to go ahead, but the next break area is only a 5 min walk away. So I tell them no, let’s go together. We sat down at the rest and shared some stories, and one of them actually knew one of the chefs at the station so food was free! After we finished our meals I became one of them. We went all the way to the top together, took some photos, and shared some contact info. The weather was not ideal but in the end the experience was just as special as I could have hoped for. Travelling by yourself tends to open up opportunities you wouldn’t have seen otherwise and for this time it worked out really well.

Up next is Taiwan, Halloween, and Mount Takao.

                                                      Part 2                                                           Part 3