Japan: Lessons Learned on Mt. Fuji

Welcome to a lessons learned blog. The discussion of a guys trip and hiking Mt. Fuji sounded more glorious than anything, and I began months before on the stair climber at the gym to prepare for it. What I didn't prepare for was the fact that today I made a lot of mistakes, so I present this post in a very different format: from the perspective of lessons learned. 

Lesson number 1: Plan way in advance. This location is extremely popular. Now in reality it may not be, but when we went to get tickets to this place we found out just how difficult this trip was going to be. Every direct train or bus to the base of the mountain was sold out, which saved over half the time in physically "getting there." We went two days before this and noticed everything was out. So went to plan B, and ended up purchasing another way there on a train that required us to get out and change trains 3 times and was really expensive, which I will get too in a moment. That decision cost us almost a $100 each, but still got us there, albeit a lot later than what we wanted, 11am instead of 8 like we hoped for. Do the math: 3 hours down. Eventually we found another way that got us there an hour earlier, but by bus, which we decided to eat the cost of and do that. That cost us $75 dollars more. We got on our bus, only to then ride two hours crammed with everyone else. 

Lesson 2: Time allotment. Most people go up the day before to Mt. Fuji, hike some, and stay at one of the hostels on the mountain, where you sleep in a single room with everyone else, don't shower, sleep on a floor, which will never sound appealing to me. So we woke up that morning at 3:45, lost an insane amount of time trying to just get up to the base of the mountain, but once we got there we then waited again for the one and only shuttle bus that will take you up there. It was packed, and bus after bus left. So even though we thought we could start hiking at 10am, we still didn't get up there until 11. 

After we had planned that we needed 5 hours to get up and 3 to get down, in respect I don't know why I would have even thought that I could have made it to the top. The last bus leaves the base camp to come back down the mountain at 5, so ya, I know math. We got to the base, looked at our watches, and then came stupid thinking: "well if I go really fast at first where it's flat I might shave some time off and maybe make it up." Now in our group of 4, Dustin and Pete were smart, and just wanted to see how far they could go, so they didn't rush and just enjoyed the hike. Jason and I were determined to try to get to the top, so when we hit the bottom and we just started running. 

This was super dumb for two main reasons. First, it divided our group, which was not the point of this entire trip. Pride set into my mind, "I need to finish this" and it came at the expense of me ditching two really good friends. Funny part was, Jason ended up ditching me anyway about 2km in, so because of pride I was left alone to endure this trek by my onesies. 

You can see here there are multiple ways to get to the top. There are only a few ways up, and one way down, which was another mistake I made on this hike. More to come on that. 

Now I like to run, so the prospect of a 6k just cracks me up. "I can do this easy" I thought to myself, once again, pride stole my better judgement. Little did I realize that this was 6k straight up the worst terrain I would ever hike. In retrospect I don't see why I didn't just "think" on this: "Hey, I am on a volcano, which is nothing by rock, and I have 5 miles to go up and 3 hours less to do it in, hmmmm."

Lesson 3: Some terrain you just can't run through. Lessons of life are often most memorable because of the emotion attached to them. That was the case here. The first 1k was very flat, mirroring a lot of the treks Heather and I had taken with our clan of children. But then, like life, the terrain changed with a single turn, and changed to intense switch backs of loose rocks. I am very glad that I brought hiking polls and had shoe covers to keep the rocks out of my shoes! Nothing like 45 degree inclines in loose gravel. This is where Jason ditched me.

The trail would eventually change terrain here and there, from cobble stone, to large rock, to lava rocks straight up. I dressed warmly at first, then got really hot, then realized over time I would become freezing because of how sweaty I was and the elevation. I would come to parts that were just straight up lava rocks, and seriously just laugh to myself and say "of course it is." That got old real quick I tell you. 

I loved getting passed by people a lot older than me, which caused me to realize about 4k into the hike that my prospect of making it to the top was gone. It was here I actually had a change of heart and started realising the mistakes I had made, all based in pride. It was here I began to say to myself, "just go as far as you can, but enjoy the view." Every once in a while, though, I would get a break in the clouds and could actually see how far I had come, which was spectacular. My legs on the other hand didn't feel that way. Despite all my attempts at supplementing, hydrating, my legs were shot at this point, and seizing every 5 minutes. They hurt so bad. I finally made it to the top of the 8th station and had to stop. I was out of time, out of energy, FREEZING, and alone. 

Lesson 4: Think before you act. Now this trip has this lesson at the heart of it in so many ways, and is the main lesson of life for me. As I started down the hill I came to a decision point. Take one way back down the horrible trail I had just come, or follow the signs that say "go down this way." I started down that road, which if you go back to the top and see the overall map of Fuji with the arrow coming down the hill what do you see? Kilometre after kilometre of horrendous switchbacks, that ends up taking you twice as long to go down. My legs were on FIRE going down these, and I would often have to stop at the end of a switchback and just stretch through the pain. 

I eventually got down to the bottom, and ran into another friend, Christ Strommer, from our Branch at Osan. He was going up, had a better plan, and after briefly explaining the lessons learned I finished the last portion. 

I made it back to the base, never in my life more grateful to be back. I will probably feel that same way at the end of mortality too after viewing it in much the same way, I would imagine. I found Jason, who not only made it to the top but also had been at the bottom for over an hour and half. How did you do that? His answer was simple: "I just came back down the way we went since it was much shorter." Grrr. 

He told me that Dustin and Pete had made it to station 5, then just came back down and caught an early bus back home. I knew they were mad that I didn't stay with them, and they had every right to be. I had made a very dumb decision at the beginning that cost me dearly, but eventually we met up with them and I was able to repent and forsake my transgression of pride. This brings me though to my final lesson though: The stupid stick. 

Lesson 5: The Stupid stick. 

Now what's a stupid stick you ask? This is the picture from the bus at the end, and yes it's just a piece of wood. The cool thing about this trip is that you can buy these sticks at the base of the mountain, and then at each station you pay like 200-500 yen to get an emblem from the station burned into the stick. This results in an amazing momento that you can remember the trail with, a token if you will of staged accomplished, but why is mine blank?

Simple answer: I ran out of money. I had exchanged Yen after Yen on the trip to cover the costs of things that weren't supposed to be cash only, but ended up being cash only. From Mario Kart to souvenirs to changes in transit from trains to buses, I had planned carefully but not enough, and I didn't have enough Yen to even get one. So not only did I not make it to the top, not only was I alone nearly the entire time, not only was I hurting, not only was I overwhelmed in wondering if my two really good friends would forgive me, but all I had to remember it by was this empty stick, my "stupid stick."

Now there was a lesson in this for me, and it's summed up as this: Pride leaves you empty. My stick was empty because I didn't plan for the contingencies (because I wasn't planning on going back ever again and American to yen is an insane conversion not in our favor), I did it alone, and it cost me more than it ever should.

So many many lessons of life on this trip. Yes I eventually was able to meet back with friends and fix my error, and yes, I had a friend who eventually went up the mountain with my stick and got it burned for me, but the lessons learned were lessons I needed to learn. I don't ever want to do Fuji again, but I bet Heather won't let this one go and will eventually make me go up the mountain again with her to finish what I wasn't able to alone.

Japan: Guys Trip to Tokyo

So welcome to my first guys trip, Tokyo! Now we have been wanting to do this for a while, but Heather and I were merely 2 weeks away from moving. So here was my chance to have a last trip with my friends, Dustin Schwartz, Jason Walker, and Peter Brown. We all wanted to go see Japan, so we decided to do a 3 day trip to Tokyo, hike Mt. Fuji, and do some of the most unique things that you can only do in Japan. 

After we landed we hit up one of the local food joints. Japanese food here was incredible, and literally every corner has a hole in the wall where you can eat the most amazing food.

When we started looking for our Airbnb, we had a lot of choices. We ended going with the one that we did for two reasons: 1) it was way close to a metro station, and 2) it was very close to this family mart that was officially protected by King Kong. Seriously, who wouldn't want to stay here. We slept on the floor like most places in Asia, but luckily for me it had an A/C unit that kept my room cool and I had it to myself. 

Our next day was really just a crap shoot. Guys don't plan well, so we just pulled up Google maps and said, "what looks good?" We were planning on doing Mount Fuji the next day, so we really only had two things we really wanted to do: 1) see Shibuya crossing, and 2) Mario Kart racing in Tokyo. We took the metro to the nearest exit and walked over to Shibuya crossing. 

This place was insanely packed, which is why you go. It's a crazy 5 way crossing walk that allows nearly 1000 people to cross at one time. What's crazy is the compliance of the people. They walk across and then it just suddenly stops. No one darts out, no one is dumb and plays chicken, they are just obedient. We found a place you can go up and watch it from above which was super cool to see.

When we finished up there, Jason mentioned that a big thing in Tokyo is these VR cafe's. Now being in Korea it's not really much different, but we found one right in Shibuya crossing that we decided to go up and see. We passed restaurants that advertised the craziest foods, like a hamburger that would put you into cardiac arrest.

When we got upstairs to the VR cafe we were able to pick what scenario we wanted, and I must say it was worth every penny. We picked a terminator mission, which gave us the ability to save some people, kill a bunch of things, and totally win in the end! It was super fun.

From there we found Tokyo Skytree, which is the tallest building in Japan. Now I don't like heights, so after paying to face my fears, we went up 112 floors to the top look out. I got bagged-on left and right by Dustin to come and check this out and then he would push me a little closer to the edge and just laugh. Punk. All the looking down photos are courtesy of him. I would have passed out.

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Now even though I don't like heights, the view was amazing to see. So for that it was worth the facing of my deepest fear! It gave me the greatest impression of truly how crammed this place is.

Now as great as all of these though, besides Mt. Fuji, we had one ultimate guys moment that we wanted to do: Mario Kart racing. Now to put a spin on the Japanese, this is a perfect example of how to appeal to a population: do something Hello Kitty, Street Fighter or Mario Kart. So there are companies that allow you to take street legal go karts out on the streets and freeways of Tokyo, which was the absolute best way to see the city. Not only is it an amazing 3 hours of fun, but it gives you a chance to see some of the sites without having to technically drive there.

Here's the rub though. Besides Nintendo (who was based there anyway) suing different companies for doing this, or Marvel or Sony trying to do the same, or the government saying that the highest crash rate in Tokyo is mid 30-40 American males on go-karts (which was totally not this group of guys), how about you still do it, and let them dress up as they did so.

Trick was though we had to have Japanese sofa licenses. We went to one shop and were turned down, and then one of my general surgeon friends who was there at the same time told me about the one she was doing, and that they let them do it with their Korean Sofa drivers license. We went straight there after booking it online, and the fun began!

After picking our costumes, we got into these beasts which I assure you were super fast. On the freeway we got up 50 mph in them, which was super shaky. Now I know what you're thinking: this is super immature, but that's the point.

After a brief intro on it, we took off and for 3 hours we went around to different sites, totally taken and staged by the lead tour guide, to include a drifting competition in an abandoned parking garage. My e-brake on my car wouldn't engage enough though, so unfortunately I could get it to drift, but Dustin sure did.

We eventually made it to an area that was a huge outdoor park. This is where the gigantic Gundam statue is located, which I didn't even know about. This was hilarious because it's 70 feet tall, and can switch between unicorn and destroyer modes! So four times a day you can see it transform as anime theme songs are played.

Once we were done with the Gundam master, we walked about to go to the go karts only to find a moment of patriotism we couldn't deny: Lady liberty. Take that Staton island!

Our last spot was back at Shibuya crossing, which was amazing. We had so many people taking pictures of us, most likely mocking us, but when you see a bunch of dudes dressed up like kids, some of them bald, hey, why not take a picture.

After all of this, we were spent. We got back on the subway and headed home. I took a picture to show how crowded the metro is, but after Taiwan with the Rusts, Korea and now this, we were pros. No personal space here.

Okinawa: Churaumi Aquarium

Hello there. This is Big Sis and I am going to tell you guys all about me and my families adventure to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The Aquarium was so fun because we got to go with our friends, the Schwartz!

What got me and my siblings heads to prick up towards the idea of going to the aquarium was learning that this aquarium was the 2nd largest aquarium in the world. That fact really made us want to go to this aquarium.

The ride to the aquarium was right after we went to the waterfall, so it only took about 30 minutes to drive there. After parking and walking to the aquarium part of the whole amusement park, we bought our tickets, got in, and started to look round. The first think we saw was a tank filled with Sea Stars and Sea Slugs. When you hear the word "Sea Slug", you automatically think of a super big, slimy, and disgusting thing. But, that really isn't the case. Sea Slugs are big, yes, but they are actually very surprisingly super soft and very squishy. Yes, I touched one, and I thought it was the weirdest feeling ever.

After a couple minutes touching the Sea Stars and Sea Slugs, we continued to walk deeper into the Aquarium. The next exhibit was a very big tank. The tank held a very large section of coral plants and many sea animals. Their where so many different types of coral and sea creatures. The coral ranged between tiny purple seedlings to 3 foot long finger coral.

Then comes the animals. The animals ranged from a very tiny neon blue fish, that looked like Dory, from Finding Nemo, all the way to a 4 1/2 foot long eels. The eel was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen, and there were 2 of them! My favorite part of this specific tank was all the colors and the fish in there. It was so beautiful, except for the 2 giant eels. But, it was still super cool.

About 20 minutes later, we moved onto another tank that was a little bit bigger than the other tank. The tank also had a coral reef, but a few more interesting sea animals. The animals where still the same small fish, but instead of eels, there where giant fish the size of Little A. Dad found the fish first and started to call it "Jumbo". Dad also has some very good searching eyes and found a fish that had a straight up mustache. He started to call that fish "Mustache Marsh". I honestly have never seen a fish with a mustache before.

There was also a green sea turtle in the tank too. It wasn't that big, but it was super cool to still see a sea turtle for the first time in a very long time. It was also super cool how close it got towards us. We also saw many other very large sized fish and many more different colored coral. My favorite part of this tank was the turtle.

When we wanted to continue, we walked into a room that looked like a theater, but instead of a TV screen, we saw the tank which wad the home of the 2 whale sharks, 3 manta rays, 7 sting rays, 10 different types of sharks, dozens of huge fish, and a pod of those silver fish that you can only find in the open ocean. When we saw all the animals in the tank, we all flipped out. It was the coolest thing we have every seen.

Just before things couldn't get any better, we found out that 5 minutes later, the whale sharks where going to have "Feeding time". We really wanted to see "Feeding time", so we stayed to watch. The first thing that we saw where dead squid that where the sharks food that sank to the bottom of the tank where they had there feast. That was really disgusting in my opinion. The fish where feed something. I was really not sure what. Then the whale sharks where feed, I think, very large portions of fish, plankton, squid, and other things. The sharks would come over and simply open their mouth, and let everything be sucked into their mouths. Water and all (the water would shoot out of their gills afterwards!).

After watching the whales have their dinner, we started to keeping walking toward the next tanks. The tanks where the simple things such as jelly fish, crabs, lobsters, and many deep sea animals that where the strangest thing in the world. They looks absolutely disgusting! There was one tank that had the largest lobsters in the world(in my opinion)! The lobsters, from the top of their antenna to their very back feet, where the size of M&M's height from her toes to her head. There were very colorful and very gross.

After the very interesting, and disgusting tanks, we got to the end of the aquarium. There where more very interesting things to see and do at the end. There where many real and dead things to see such as a dead giant squid, a dead mega mouth shark(half of it was dissected so you could see the inner insides of the shark), dead deep sea animals in jars, a whales tooth(baleen is the proper word for a whales tooth), and a dead Basking shark head that was decapitated from its body. Even though some of this stuff sound not that good, it was actually pretty cool.

After we where done with the aquarium, we bought our magnet that we will add to our collection, and we headed home. I loved the Aquarium so much!