East Coast Maori
TRAVEL BLOG,

Well the time has come and it is the last night for me in Japan. I am so looking forward to heading home as I’ve done some miles in this fantastic place.  Had my last lunch today with Ryoji and we went back to the place where we first had our dinner.  The lady in the picture is the owner and we were given a real treat with her taking Ryoji and I to the back room where we could take these photos.  I’ve had the best time here and if Ryoji or the others come to NZ well I’ll have a hell of a job trying to better the help that they have given me here.    So right now I’m in my hotel room and I’ve just ordered a bottle of  SAKE,,,[no not really I’ve just gone down the hall to the vending machine and got a coke zero] and I’m going to have some Japan chocolate almonds on my last night here to celebrate this trip.  My Japan first class rail card ran out today, I will miss that card and shead a few tears as I realised I won’t be using it again.  boooyah, I have to fly  economy on the flight home.   Anyways thanks Japan and Fuji it was a blast, but now this East coast Maori boy has to go back home.  Until next time….sayoornara Japan.

Went to Kasatu today a 3 hour train ride to the most famous Japanese Onsen.  It was pretty good, I had an Onsen and stayed in it for about an hour which was long enough as it was pretty hot.  Took some photos of it and they are attached.  I was on the train heading to Kasatu and an elderly Japanese lady got on and had the seat in front of me.  As she got on she had this heavy bag, so I got up and offered to put it up on the rack, which she was very happy about.  She then reached into her hand bag and took from it an apple which she offered to me.  No amount of me protesting about taking her apple would stop her so I thanked her took the apple and sat down.  I then had the instinctive feeling I had to eat it in front of her as she would continually turn around and watch me.  So me being me, I ate the apple and it was pretty good.  I thanked her again and she had a smile from ear to ear the next stop her daughter got on the train [ I found this out later]  and the conversation was pretty hectic with pointing and waving, the daughter spoke a little english so it wasn’t a one way converstation.  I spent about 4 hours in Kasatu and I’m glad I went, but I left early to catch an earlier train.  I could not get my first class ticket, as they were all booked out, so I had to go back to the commoners section,,stink.  But if I had not of I would not have had the chance to talk [pidgeon japanese] with another older lady who I offered a potato chip to.  In the no reserved seats you just get in quick as you can and get a seat or its standing up all the way.  I had the seat and the elderly lady sat next to me.   Nothing was said between us, until I offered her the chip. She smiled accepted and took one only, then she reached into her bag and offered me a manderin.  I must be the fruit guy today, but it opened a conversation all the way to Tokyo.  Each time I offered her a chip she would only take one, and they were the stick chips as well, but that manderin was bloody nice.   Turns out her father was a retired Police  man and her home town was Gunma where I had just come from.  She loved the Beatles, new Tom Jones and Elvis.  she pulled out her ipod and all english songs it was quite hard work communicating but it was pretty good fun.  I enjoyed today.

Man, this place is crazy, but I’m back in Tokyo and heading up to the Gunma prefecture tomorrow or may be I’ll head to Fucushima I’ve not decided yet, as I’ve  full on time here when I meet up with Ryoji for a few days.  But so far I’ve been to’

Narita, Shin Shuku, Nagoa, Nagano, Shizuoka, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Shin Fuji, Kyoto, Fukuyaman, Chiba, Senday, Miyagi, Mt Fuji twice, Gunma tomorrow, and then Fukushima.  I want to get Aomori which as a national park but probably won’t due to it being right up the far north. But I’ve done a few things so far in my two weeks.  Last week now, and I’ve still got so much more to do here.  talk soon.  ECM

So Monkey park was a blast, It was a long day, 5 hours of travelling and the further out you go in Japan the less english is written on signs and spoken.  I missed my drop off from the bus and ended up friggin miles away all due to the bus driver system not having a Monkey Park horay we are here party.  I was not the only one, a Canadian guy also did not get off the bus so we both chipped in for a taxi back.  But it was the best, you just had monkeys all around you and the baby ones were so dam cute.  the are just everywhere and they swim in the hot pools and shake their heads when they come up for air, it was a fantastic day and well worth the effort.  I had two different trains today.  One I could sit behind the driver and the other the driver was hunkered down over your head in a space he could not stand in and he had to use a step ladder system to get up into the drivers seat. He would then lay back like in a lazy boy arm chair and drive the train whilst you were underneath him, what a view out the front of the train.  Full windows and all, but the best time was the monkeys,,, a great day.

Yes, its true I went back and did Fuji again.  I just could not get over the fact that I was so close to the summit the first time and only due to illness did I not continue so yesterday I jumped on the Shinkansen and got off at Shin Fuji.  3000 yen return ticket to the Fujinomiya trail which is higher than the other side and an average climb of about 4 to 5 hours.  When I left Nagoya it was a beautiful day and I planned a quick climb.  I didn’t book a hut and carried the lightest pack I could.  I only had two bottles of water, three pieces of bread, my warm weather gear, torch and a few other things as I wanted my pack light.  I got shin fuji and it was bucketing down, but still 29 degrees.  I thought it would clear but it didn’t.    Got to the 5th station fujinomiya side and it was raining so hard I was soaked before I started.  But I just took off as I had to be back down by 6 to catch the last bus back to shin fuji.   Now the track up from the west is straight up, scoria rock and not too many dog legs.  It was tough going.  I had to stop at the 7th station and buy a rain coat as all I had was my puffer jacket and they don’t really work when wet.  I paid 2000 yen for a plastic coat and then a couple of japanese heading down gave me the trousers, the back pack covers and the hood that attached to the jacket, so I set off really quickly again.

Fuji summit, nothing but crap…but I made it.

I got the heart beat thing happening about the 3 hours mark and I had to stop as it was causing me some issues.  The weather was still singing and thunder and rain just kept coming down, not seen rain like this in NZ.  I got to past the last 8th station and was only 500 metres from the summit and I was bloody cold.  I had gloves but they were soaked through and I could hardly feel my hands.  and then the gates shrine appeared through the cloud.  It took me nearly a full 2 to 3 hours to go that 50 metres further.  But getting to that ledge area where you take that final step up was fantastic.  even though the area was still raining and I was bloody cold it was fantastic.  The shrine area was around the other side and I had to hurry to get to it.  To walk around full area takes about an hour, but I had to move it and I quickly touched and gone again.  You could not see anything, the rain just did not stop and I was getting close to that cut off time of getting off the mountain.  Now the way down on the west side is very steep, but with it being scoria it was easy to jump and run, jump and run.   It took me just over two hours to get down to the 5th station I as buggared and had about 3 minutes to spare to catch the bus.  I took over the full back seat, changed into dry clothers which I had stored at the 5th and then lay down and died.  My feet were aching, my knees were buggared and I was buggared. Slept on the train back to Nagoya.

Now the west side is not really the side to climb Fuji from if it is your first time.  It is sort of your lost cousin to the east side.  They were not very organised, two of the stations would not let you inside even when it was pouring down, unless you had a reservation, and some would not let you in unless you brought something.  I was fine as I planned to buy water, food on the way up even though it was expensive to keep my pack light, but some japanese people were not happy.  but I’ve knocked off Fuji and I’m just over the moon.  Slept very well last night all my stuff all over the room and I didn’t care.  Needed an Onsen today and when I tried to find it, the maps was crap so settled for a frappa fom star bucks.  Was it a good idea to go back,,,,SHIT YEAH…. end of story.

7th station.

my homes, these guys were on the same bus and saw my tatt and wanted a photo, so what the hell.

14^th August

A day to remember, was up early to catch the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. I had heard about the A Dome [atomic dome] which is the only building standing after the bomb was deployed.  It was a 4 hour train trip and I’d reserved an early seat and a late seat return but to be honest it does not seem like four hours the time just flies by like the trains. Hiroshima was sad, that’s all I have to say about that, was it necessary I don’t know.  I still don’t know why Japan bombed Pearl Harbour which started the Pacific war.  I know the Enola Gay was the B52 that dropped little boy which weighed in at 4 tons and just over 3 metres long and cost a staggering 2 billion American dollars and 130 thousand people to make it happen.  How can such an object of slight proportions leave such devastation behind it.  Little boy detonated 600 metres above the Hiroshima dome hall and deprived a nation of 350,000 people.  The real number is not known as people died from infection to cancers for years.  Whole generations were lost in one small minute of man kind.  We can be so dumb and stupid at times and yet we are our own destroyers of us.

I sat in the court yard for some time and the rain came down like it was hailing tears.  It was probably lynne our friend who was being buried today back in Hamilton New Zealand.  My Sarah was a mess, but I can understand why.

I have a friend who visited Autzwetz who told me that it had the most unsettling feeling he had ever felt and during their tour no one spoke, they just walked and watched with darkened faces.  Well this is what it was like where I am now.  I see an elderly Japanese women bent over with hands clasp in front of her, lips moving talking to the building. She is old, her back long ago bent with aged time, her hair grey and thinned, but eyes so bright she could be younger than she appears.  The rain pelts tearing at her and she stands there sodden and still. Her family holding umbrellas and each arm are next to her.  A boy no older than Lucas  is held by a young Japanese women who’s face is buried in the babies fluffed up hair.  I wonder what secrets this old lady holds in her memories, where are they and will she let them be free to tell the story of the hell she faced.

All around this area it is strained with people hundreds of people in this gardened area, all not hurried or talking.  There is no laughter and no sound of  joyous moments, and I believe this is what this place does.  It brings you to remember and not forget. We cannot go through this again.

I go to the museum and it is full of all sorts of people, visitors from all around the world are here and all not talking.  I stop to watch a video of the bomb and the voice of a survivor telling us what happened, still no one talks.  Children are quickly controlled and told to respect this area.  I sit in the victims rememberance hall.  I sit here for a few minutes and look at the walls which tell me of the areas that once were and of how many lives had been taken.  It is so over powering I just cannot imagine what it would have been like.  I leave a gift under one of the stoned chairs and call to my ancestors to visit here to seek out those still wondering.

In another area there are photos and names of those lost, little babies pictures appear and those of the most beautiful women you could imagine, all gone.  There is another voice of a male who tells of how he searched for days to find his daughter after the bomb and as he could not find her, he went to her school and found ashed bones.  So he took these and buried them as his daughter.  He still did not care if they belonged to someone else he just needed to believe.  Another women tells of how she left her daughter under a pillar as the fires came and she could not get her out, of how she then struggled to deal with her weakness.  Ever night her sisters would sleep next to her for they feared she would commit suicide, she still screams to the gods her sorrow at being a bad mother.

I wanted to come here to see for my self what was left, learn some history and to say that I care.  I’ve done what I set out to do and now it is time for me to leave.   ECM

Some pics, I’ve managed to put up of the hostel I stayed.

I took photos of some food I’m trying, the noodles here are just out of this world.  I bit into one of the dumpling balls on this dish and found squid rings and flavoursome they were.  yum…

Kyoto today was pretty impressive a city full of old Japan in the middle of town.  You don’t have to travel far to see shrines, temples, castles and there are hundreds of them. I really enjoyed the Nijo castle.  I’ll try up load some photos..I took photos of a food stall that I’ve never before seen in my life.  You could watch through windows of them cooking and baking the most unbelieveable dishes……

BRO, where’s your shoes…

Was the best time ever,,,,,buggar, I’m having trouble with the photos,,,I’ll put the writing and see what I can do later on with the photos…

12^th August:

Hey all, this JR Japan rail pass is like gold, or like you are holding gold. You rock up to the station show them the pass and they can’t do enough for you.  I’ve been into places with this card I’m sure no one else gets to go to and when I mention the green card which is Garu sha, they do the opened eyed thing and slap me. Not sure why but something tells me it is a friendly slap to say I’m special.   The seats on the train were great, all electric you could lay back fully, with lights and all air conditioned.   The little Japanese ladies serving drinks and bringing food around and don’t forget the slippers you get when you sit down in your seat.  I had a little trouble finding Mr Miyagies hostel, but after stopping at another fancy hotel to get directions I found out the hostel was across the road, so no dramas.  I’ve put some photos up of the hostel, it was really great and as I settled in and was walking past the common room, I hear this, “Kia ora”. And you guessed it another kiwi from Christchurch so we are all over the place.  Had a catch with Caleb who had been working in Japan for 5 years and spoke the lingo so we chatted about rugby of course and how my mighty Chiefs kicked his Crusaders arse…..haha it was good to see a kiwi face.

I meet a number of different people at the hostel and I must say that the cubicle bed I had was great, I had to walk sideways down the room to get to it, but it had everything I needed and the ladder entry was ok so long as you didn’t want to walk past at the same time hahah.  I slept well and was up at 5 the next morning to catch my shinkansen to Shi Hanamaki.  Easiest trip ever, no issues I just followed Ryojis directions, got off and grabbed another train to Hanamaki, then out the door turn right, #7 bus lane, jump on the bus 100 Yen in the box and 10 minutes later dropped at the front door to the Sumo camp.

Now I’m sure you all think this Sumo thing is just a bunch of blubbery guys hitting each other, but I will never say that again.  It was the most awesome thing I’ve seen, these guys are athletes, they are agile, flexible and strong as mules. I was in awe of the way they would through themselves around this little ring.  I had one of the best seats in the house sitting behind one of the camp owners crew.  The only problem was that when Ryoji told me that I had the best seats I was thinking they were chairs, oh no, you were sitting on the floor in your little squared off Japanese sized area with your sumo cushion.  I could not keep my legs inside my square and knew I would not be able to last from 8 to 3.p.m sitting on the floor so sought out a change.  Which worked out well as I got a chair only a few rows back with the commoners, hhahaha.  I love this first class stuff, I could get very used to this.  Anyways, these sumo guys are big, I’ve taken loads of photos and videos and I’ll see if I can get them up on the site.  There were a number of non Japanese sumo’s there as well and they are very popular and bloody good at what they do.  I see why they stay in Japan as they would only be ridiculed if they went back to their own countries as being fat, but they are talented and its abit like boxing, you have to be clever as well to sumo.  I had the best time ever and did not leave this place until the very end.  And right on 3 oclock, straight after the grand champion finished, everyone got up and left in an orderly fashion.  The Japanese people love their sumo heroes, one of the non Japanese guys came out and sat on a chair, within seconds he was mobbed, people with babies wanting him to hold so they could take photos, everyone wanting to shake his hand, they just went mental and it continued for as long as he wanted it to.

I did try and get a photo with one of the non-japanese sumos, but it was like fighting a war to get to him.

I had the best time ever here, it was amazing and how all these Japanese people just stayed sitting in their little squares the whole time it was on.  Man our kids would be kicking up merry hell if we told them to sit in a square taped off area for more than 10 minutes.

When it all finished I just did the opposite travel back to sendai without any problems.

One thing I can say about the Japanese is that they know how to do food. Food is everywhere and any time, yet for the population you don’t see too many over weight Japanese people, funny I’ve just come from a sumo camp where they are all over 160 kilos and I’m telling you there are not too many fat Japanese.  But food is something they do very well, all sorts western style, eastern eroupean, Arab they do it all and they do it well.  I started taking pictures of some of the food I’ve been trying and I now know why one of my Chinese staff members takes photos of her food when she goes out.  She sends the pictures to her family in china, where I’m taking photos in case I don’t like it  and know what not to order next time.  I had noodles ginger, sea weed with steamed squid dumplings balls for lunch today, it was fantastic.  The squid in the dumpling caught me by surprise, and you order off all the pictures they have in the windows.  I’ve grown quite accustomed to cold green tea so long as it’s not the one you buy in the shop as I’m sure they have put coal dust in it as it takes like crap.  So now off toNagoyato my RCI hotel where I’ll have to do some planning of my next couple of trips.  I don’t want a day to go by with out planning things.  I do know that the green card for the shinkansens work well, but you have to book your seats in advance so you have to be on your game.  I’d hate to go economy that just would not do,,,,hahahahah.  Anyways, I’ll just sign off now, I’m about to change trains at Tokyo so have to get my stuff together.  I was sort of thinking due to my tight schedule whether I was going to go toSendai, but it would have been a mistake to not go, I loved every minute of it. I’ve made a couple of friends, a Japanese guy called Oku who is a nurse who volunteered at fukochima to help out there after the tsunami and came from the southern part of Japan.  A guy from the Netherlands called Byorn and a couple from the states.  So Mr Miyargies Hostel was a blast.

Tomorrow I think I’ll be heading to  Kyoto and see the old japan, I’ll have another onsen somewhere close and do some serious site seeing.  I’ve got Hiroshima down for Tuesday and will need to consult my goals for Japan book before I do any more planning. when I head back toTokyoI’m going up to the Guman area where there is the most famous Japanese onsen ever.  I’ve seen the photos and it looks very relaxing.  until later ECM

had trouble with the photo up loader, but here is the writing.

10^th August

Right now I’m sitting on the bullet train [Shinkansen] heading north to Sendai, where I’ll stay the night before getting up early to go to my sumo camp.  But over the last few days I’ve had some ups and downs all rolled into one, but one of the best times ever was Mt Fuji.  I have to thank Ryoji for his detailed diagrams and maps, they were all spot on and I didn’t get lost once.  So I was in bed, the night of the 8^th at 8.30pm ready to get to the bus terminal which just happened to be one block over to meet the party team Leader Emiko.   I was up at 4.00am and throwing things around and just trying to lighten off my hiking pack, but that wasn’t going so well as the weather reports forFuji were, dry weather, with light rain and thunder storms, but will be a very nice day.  I’m not joking that was the weather report.

Got to the bus, jumped on with about 30 others, foreigners and Japanese and away we went.  A two hour drive to Fujiand the views of Tokyowere quite impressive, but when we got close to Fuji, now that was a site I will always remember.  The Japanese are so organised, as we drove into the 5^th station it was an ordered chaos for the area.  They had guys with light bars directing everyone everywhere and the Japanese people just do as they are told.  But it was manic, so many people up at the 5^th station. We grabbed our guide, who just so happened had been doing this trek for the last 11 or so years.  A quick briefing on what not to do, and that was, don’t  slow the group up and keep up with the guide.  But off we went, it was a beautiful hot day and it was just unbelievable.  Order everywhere, whole families going up this mountain and all in ordered fashion. We had a mixture of people in our group and one young guy named Jonathon ended up our team leader.  A very fit young fella who was the perfect person to keep us all in line. A few Americans, English, , Singaporean, Welsh and then the lone kiwi.  Now I’d done some homework on Fuji but that was nothing to actually doing it. We were down on our hands and knees at times, and the guides were pushing all of us to keep up.  I was struggling and so was a number of others.  There was an American family there with two boys aged 8 and 12 but to be honest they were doing quite well.  An hour into it I realised we had lost two people off the back and  that put the  balloon up and they went into a panic.  We waited on the side for about half and hour before we had to go on as it was getting cold.  One of the other guides went back and found the lost two, one came on to us, the other went back.   At the 7^th station I was struggling, I couldn’t catch my second wind and I just couldn’t get my breath sorted out.  I dug in and just put one foot in front of the other.  We reached the 8^th station some hours later, and I was shot. I’d picked up a massive headache and I was not feeling so good.  We were to get four hours sleep here and then up at 10.00pm ready for the summit which was so close, but I saw the next leg of the trip and new at that point I was in no shape to go anywhere.  They served up dinner, but I was gone,  started to vomit and the head would not stop thumping.  Our rooms were dorm like and we were assigned an area to sleep, all together the whole group and you were assigned a bed pal sort of like marae style but a lot closer. My guy was this Japanese guy who was already in bed, as I climbed in next to him he lifts up the blanket and covers me over with it.  Ok, so this is what happens in this dorm type of set up. Bloody funny, there was this little neck role pillow as well and you had to role your head over this through out the night.  But for me I was having a bad time, felt like someone was sitting on my chest and my heart was thumping like mad.  I got the shivers, then the hots, and then the chest beating thing and an hour later I was up as it was so bloody hot in that room.  It was funny we were like a nursery the guide said, got to bed and we all did.  The guide said sleep and most of them did. I had to get up and went outside to the most beautiful night that Fuji could give me.  The stars where out and they were plentiful.  I said a hello to Fuji and sent my ancestors a karakia to keep me safe. I was having a bad time but the cold outside seemed to help me more so I lay down on the decking and just took in the air and tried to control my heart as it was thumping.  In a nut shell I had Altitude sickness and I was going down fast. I’ve not had this chest thing before and the nausea and vomiting was just wicked, I had no control over the headaches and I just couldn’t take panadol for this as it was killing me.  Just before 10pm I saw emiko our English speaking guide and I had made the decision not to continue on through the night to the summit of Fuji. The guide had already stressed his concerns about my ability to continue.  It wasn’t a difficult decision as I knew I had a long holiday yet to take in and I did not want to be a basket case for the rest of it.  So I regretfully told Emiko I was in no shape to go further.  Funny enough there were others who were not going further as well, for different reasons, but the group did get up and a number of them set off in the dark to climb to the summit for the sun rising.  I watched them go like little ants with their head lamps and then went back inside to see if I could sleep, but it was a shit night, I tossed and turned, the head would not settle and I was up and down most of the night, but still trying not to bother others in the dorm.  We had people coming in at all times of the night and I had a space next to me, when at about 3 am a Japanese family came in,  the father crawled in next to me and I pulled up the blanket and placed it over him as he lay down,  he just said thank you and was out cold.  So I’d gotten used to the fact that we have to share a blanket and when you share your blanket with another JAPANESE man its not GAY.    I lay there for a while and then heard the wind flatting like crazy then the rain came in and I wondered how the others were doing climbing in this weather.  It was cold out side and the wind would not help. I knew some of the others were not prepared for raining weather and especially the cold.  Anyways, I got up a few minutes later and went outside again, a few more trips to the bath room, which in itself is different and I was back in the meeting area lying on the cold floor trying to regain some feeling in my shoulders.  But then, the sun started to rise and I was out on the deck looking at this sunrise, the cloud was lower down the mountain and it was doing its best to hide it but Fuji was putting on a show so the wind started to clear it away.  It was at this point that I wondered what it was like up on the summit, how it would feel being just that little bit higher, I went to the path way leading up to Fuji and looked up at it and thought nah, I’m ok here, hahaha.  I was still not well so made the most of the view I had from the 8^th Station.  It was tremendous and a life time of seeking out this time had come to this.  I was so emotional about it I thought of those who had passed and mostly of my loved ones.  Those people who are closest to me and who I love more than anything.  I had turned my phone off to save battery power and then realised when I turned it on that I had coverage, I rang Sarah and it was great, I can’t explain the scenery to you, but if you picture a blanket of cotton wool all fluffy and tumbling with lights streaming from behind it, and each set is a different story, well that was Fuji.

There were four of us left to go back down this morning, the others were taking another path and half of the family, the father and his 8 year old and one of the Americans plus me attached ourselves to another group.  The walk down was pretty good, but mainly we were getting offFuji.  I still have this little itch that says, what if I’d just got on with it, well I do know that I’d not have made it.  We meet up with the others and the stories were quite bad.  The weather turned nasty, they had to drop one of the girls at another hut and she had to pay another 3000yen to stay there the night, she virtually stopped  half way up she had to  rest.  Good on her, she got further than I did. The young guy Jonathan said he had frost bite on his skin and was a mess, but they all said once the sun started coming up, that it was all worth it. Would they do it again, they all said,  Hell no.

Anyways we got offFujiand on our way to my first ever Onsen [Japanese bath house].  I was so looking forward to this bath house thing. Mainly because I’d not had a shower or brushed my teeth in two days.  The Japanese are so clean and they all know what they have to do.  Everywhere we went, like restuarnts there are slippers for the toilets.  If you use the toilets you take your shoes off at the door and put the slippers on do what ever you do and then take them off for the next person.  The Onsen is no different, you have a complete shower first, sit on this little stool with shampoo and body soap and your little bamboo bucket you soap up like crazy and clean every bit of yourself before you get into one of the many pools.  And yes your all naked, men in one side and women separated off into another area.   I spent an hour just sitting in the outside pool absolute bliss.  And then there is now, I got back into Shinjuku around 4-30pm back to my hotel to pick up my bag, rearranged everything and off toTokyo.  Then on the bullet train toSendaiwhich is where I sit now writing this.  I’ve Sumo camp tomorrow so hopefully will have a lot more things to tell you all.  I’ve a whole lot of photos so will put them all up, not in any particular order but I’m guessing you will all understand as I don’t want to  spend too much time working on my blog site.  Well Sendai is the next stop so until next time, East Coast Maori out.

Was Fuji worth it to me………yes it was.