Mt Fuji and Beyond!

So. Here I am. 25 and never been kissed… no that’s not true. But I have seen Mt Fuji! In a stroke of luck, and humbled by Japanese hospitality, we embarked with our drinking buddies from the Izakya a week ago for a day trip hiking around My Fuji. It was my birthday the day before and after several free drinks, a few tequilas and a buffet feast it was hard to get going. I just remember getting in their car… then 4 hours later getting woken up with a tap on the shoulder… look Fuji-yama. The Stats: Mt Fuji at 3780m, we climbed a nearby mountain at 1350m and walked about 14km in 8 hours, we drove 4.5 hours there and another 4.5 back all in one day. It was amazing, we walked up higher than the clouds! We wondered why the Japanese-Father and our other hiking buddies had such large packs… when we reached the 2/3 mark it became obvious. They had a feast planned. It was most awesome, chocolate coated almonds, miso soup, warm whisky, an assortment of sweets, some yummy little sausage things and a whole heap more. I was so full I though I was going to cramp up and roll down to the bottom, but alas we made it. Check out the pictures.

After a few low days in Gifu I realised that a change was indeed needed. And so it was that when the moment arose I jumped at it. Before the holidays started, after the last day of work, I packed my bag in 10min flat and was out the door. I had planned to do some cycling with Dave, but the day I was planning to ride was predicted to be below 1 to 5decC with a -1deC 14kmh wind chill… for 40km on a one speed bike with snow and rain and a 10kg pack… So I decided to just GO, dave had already packed his bag and was about to walk out the door… I was going to ride and meet him in Nagoya the next day. But I packed my bags in 10min, gave away my food and locked the door and was gone! Most awesome exit ever. On the train we did the quick back forth throwing of ideas and possibilities for our travels together… we were beaming. South, north… its all a possibility.

We had a good time finding our way to Maki place… its is such a maze these subway systems. Nagoya is the 4th largest city in Japan. But we know how to ask and say a few things now, so we just keep stopping to ask people. So without bikes we arrived at Maki, alas she was not there and didn’t recieve our communication saying when we were coming… so it was that we went exploring for dumpsters and food in general. We have narrowed the garbage window down to a few hours on a most awesome doughnut shop, we think that tomorrow we will hit the jackpot! A weeks supply of doughnuts… all the shopping centre bins seem to be hidden away. :/ Fruitless we bought beer and fruit :) and sat on the floor waiting for her return… in a stroke on genius I decided to check for wifi… sure enough free internet, so we called maki and she returned :) – Techno -warrior 1, Tourist 0.

Had some nice chats with Maki, long-short she wants to go to nature… so she pulled out a map of Japan… and with my keen eye, in all of 5 seconds I was pointing at an island just of the south cost of main Japanese Islands, it was green, had a mountain of 2000m marked on it and was south = warmer! Turns out what I had selected on the dodgy map was indeed a find, a world heritage listed national park. Complete with the some of the oldest trees in the world, lush subtropical forests, extremely high rainfall, superb trekking, onsens (natural hot spring baths) and beaches. F*#K YEAH! After we all read about the island in the lonely planet and looked at some of maki’s photos from when she was there as a kid we were sold. So we leave tomorrow first thing. Dave has a 1 person tent that we will all squeeze into ;) lol. and we just need one extra sleeping bag. So I put the call out of couch surfers Nagoya forum for a sleeping bag and a tent, on loan with a security deposit. Fingers crossed. Otherwise I might just go buy one.

Fingers crossed it comes together.

Love and respect,

Nathan