Mt. Bukhansan, Fuji, and Daisen

Good evening, everyone! It is just past 7:30 in the evening, and here I am sippin' a cold one, listening to Beethoven piano sonatas, and talking to you. Yes, you! I hope you feel very special and loved because of me doing so.

I have done many new things in my one year of being in Japan. One of those new experiences that I am proud of is taking a liking to climbing mountains. More than that, just taking a liking to enjoying nature in general. Cities are fun, but there is something special about living in the middle of nowhere, no matter how lonely it may seem. For better or for worse, it is definitely character-building experience, and I am lucky to have this experience for however long it lasts. 

This new liking of mine to climbing mountains comes from a good friend of mine here in Japan. Ladies and gentleman, meet the man, nay, the legend of Yonago himself: 

Here he is in his natural habitat, singing us all sad indie songs about things and stuff.

This native of New Jersey is a musician, lover, partier, and most likely enjoys taking long walks on the beach (hey, I've never asked, but I can only assume). He also enjoys hiking and running. We have become chums over the year I've been here, and he always has been gracious enough to lend me a mattress whenever I go on one of my famous (or infamous) night outs. 

Mt. Bukhansan

Back in May, he and I took a three day trip to Seoul because we both had a four-day weekend for Golden Week. Besides the usual stuff to do in Seoul, he told me that he wanted to climb a mountain in a national park just behind Seoul. And he wasn't kidding when he said it was literally behind Seoul. Mt. Bukhansan is 2,744 feet, and was the first mountain I climbed during my time here.

Shopping area where you can stock up on hiking gear.

"wut"

Cool wall as we neared the summit.

Remember how I said that Bukhansan National Park was right behind Seoul? There is the metropolis in all her glory! It was surreal. This picture doesn't do it any justice, but the city kind of looked like lego buildings. However, when you realize you are looking at the entirety of one of the biggest cities on the planet, it is quite an overwhelming experience to say the least.

The contrast of the green trees and the jutting rocks is what comes to my mind when I think of climbing Bukhansan.

I can hardly believe how beautiful it is.

And neither can max. In fact, he was quite perplexed as well.

Max looking at Seoul.

One other thing. At the summit there was a wild cat. A lot of the hikers were trying to play with it. I wonder if the little fella's still there?

Mt. Fuji

Back in July, one of Max's friends came to visit him for a week, and she ended her trip with Max and I in Tokyo. When she left back for America and I for Nichinan, Max was just starting a long vacation in Southeast Asia. Before we all went our separate ways, we decided to climb Fuji.

We climbed throughout the night to see the sunrise. We took a bus from Shinjuku (a ward in Tokyo) and arrived at the fifth station in Fuji around 10:00PM. No sleep that night. Because it was so dark, I could not take many pictures. However, I took some just as we reached the summit because the sunrise gave a tiny bit of light.

Right when we reached the top, around 4:30AM. It was very cold up there.

A side shot of the peak.

Max looking at clouds.

The sun now really coming out.

Enjoying some ramen at the top. That is a look of exhaustion, relief, and anticipation of eating the goodness I'm holding. 

The sun now fully out.

There is a saying in Japanese, although I have yet to actually find it (just going from what everyone tells me): A wise man climbs Fuji once, and a fool twice. After climbing Fuji, I can see why. First off, it was unbelievably packed with other hikers. In fact, we were so bottlenecked at the top that what should have been a twenty minute hike ended up being about an hour. Mt. Fuji is also pretty commercialized to take on the massive amount of climbers that visit every year. Along the way, there were these huts that you can rent space in to sleep, and they all had convenience store-like stuff: coffee, beer, ramen (lot's of warm things), bananas, but most importantly over-priced Snickers. I can definitely say I went through too many of those that long, tiring night. Lastly, considering how long it takes to climb (4-8 hours up, depending on who's climbing), it is not very interesting. The path just zig-zagged, and since we did it in the dead of night, there was nothing cool to look at. On the way down, there wasn't really that much of a spectacular view, just the rock and dirt path zig-zagging down endlessly. Good god, the way back down was actually worse than going up.

Good experience, and glad I went, but I could not see myself making the climb again. But who knows?

Mt. Daisen

You may have read my last blog entry about a festival I was at in this area. That festival was at the foot of this mountain. Mt. Daisen is pretty close to Yonago, the nearest city where I live in Nichinan. Max and I climbed Daisen just recently on September 13th of this year. Now, this was actually not the first time I tried climbing Daisen. I went for the first time last November by myself. Here's some pictures of that time.

The trail started innocently enough...

But the higher I got, the more snow and ice appeared on the trail.

 Hikers on their way down looked at me in disbelief because I did not have any proper equipment for climbing; I had no poles, no chain bottoms for my shoes, and I generally just looked like a clueless suicidal idiot. It became apparent that to further continue would be a bad idea, so when I was just over half-way up, I decided to turn back.

One of the last pictures I took before turning around.

Fast-forward to now. Second time's the charm!

At the top, there was a little store to buy chocolate, ramen, and beer. All well deserved, of course.

Shameless selfie Max took of me. Also, just today, I checked my email and saw that my dad touched this photo up from the one that is currently my facebook profile picture. This is the improved one (the other one was darker). Thanks for the touch-up, dad!

Well, there it is. My time here has been marked by climbing three mountains, and I can see myself adding more to that list in my future travels. A special thanks to Max for giving me a fun partner to climb with.

For all those who are constantly waiting on the edge of their seat for a new blog post (I check the hits this blog gets every day, I know there are a couple fans out there ;) ), here is a preview for my next entry: Spiders. Lot's of 'em. Hope you're excited.

Good night!

Where the milk comes from

Greetings, and welcome to another exciting episode of this blog! My name is Tim, and I will show you some pictures of a festival at Mt. Daisen. I was fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to go because of my friend Rie. Thanks Rie!

Mt. Daisen is a great place. You can hike to the summit, and in the winter you can go skiing as well. But Daisen is not just known for it's recreational activities. Daisen is also home to a lot of the dairy products we enjoy here., such as butter, cheese, bacon, milk and so on. In fact, the milk that we drank last year at the middle school I teach at came from Daisen. However, due to some money stuff or whatever, our school picked another company for lunch milk.

And now pictures.

The parking lot, over the watchful eye of Mt. Daisen. 

What's this? A festival of some sort?

"The Daisen Makiba Festival". Makiba means farm, ranch,

Inflatable soccer.

The logo for the milk company.

This ranch is already on high ground. You can barely see it, but up ahead is Yonago.

As with any festival, this one was rife with food vendors. But, what is this? Mexican food? MEXICAN FOOD? I talked to the guy on the left, who is presumably the owner of a new Mexican restaurant that just opened in Yonago. He even spoke some Spanish, to which I replied, "No hablo senior." I will definitely give my money to these people in Yonago when I get the chance.

The other vendors.

All things considered, good taco! Although, they did put a ton of mayo on it. Such is life in Japan.

People chillin' and enjoying an outdoor concert.

Food Vendors.

Chillin'.

'Sup cow?

There was an area with two ponies and a horse. This was the horse.

One of the ponies.

And the other one.

This area was interesting. I think it was hay that was bound up, but you could draw on the hay stacks.

The orange guy in the center is a not-so-well done picture of Doraemon.

Ah, that's better!

Rie asked me to write my favorite Kanji character, so I tried to remember the latest word I just studied. I wrote 模範生でか？ which roughly means, "Are you a model student?" Although I did mess up the first character and couldn't even remember the second one (that is Rie's handwriting). And the weasel? Well, that was yours truly.

Art 'n stuff.

Daisen, with a pasture in front.

To the left, which is not visible in this picture, you could see some cows resting.

Here it is and there it was. Goodnight everyone!