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The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is one of my favourite places to go in Tokyo. There are two observatories where you can get a gorgeous view of the city. Best of all, they're free! I've visited many times, but today was the first time I went when I was able to see the view of Mt. Fuji. I was so happy! Usually when I go there it is night or it's too rainy or hazy or something. But today was perfect! It was also just around sunset, so the sky was beautiful too. What a view!

I'll miss this.

catching up

Oops, busy month. So a couple days after my last entry, I went to Osaka with C-chan. Work was canceled for that week, so we had some free time, and we were sick sick sick of the aftershocks. Osaka was so calm! It was really nice to relax for a little while, although there was some ever-present stress about how much packing needed to be done in Tokyo to move out of our apartments. Anyway, managed to book a room the night before and then shinkansened there first thing Thursday morning. It was a clear day, so we were lucky enough to have a gorgeous view of Fuji-san for ages! Visited the aquarium, had okonomiyaki, met up with some friends. Went to Kyoto as well to visit Kinkakuji and wander up to Kiyomizu-dera (I was devastated to discover that the amazing vegetarian restaurant from my last Kyoto visit was gone). Got back to Tokyo on Sunday; after the normalcy of Osaka, the empty shelves, infrequent trains, and dark stations of Tokyo were really strange. But it didn't take long to get used to it.

Finished work at the end of March. My last week was so hard! I didn't expect to get so emotional. But I ended up crying so much, after classes, during classes, during our farewell party. I was ready to leave, but it was a bit sad too. I'll miss so many people there! I had a week off and then got talked into working a bit longer, but at a different school. So I've been helping out at Toyosu school for a couple weeks. Am going to stay on for about a month more, then hopefully a vacation and then super hopefully another job!

During my week off, I moved. I'm living in a guest house now, which means I've got my own room, but bathroom and kitchen are shared. It's not bad! I mean, the place is ridiculously ugly, but it's kind of so ugly that I just can't hate it. And I quite like the area, and I like that utilities and internet are included in my rent so I don't need to worry about them. Anyway, I'm not homeless, so I'm pretty happy!

Lots of friend time this weekend! And lovely weather! We're still shaking a lot and things aren't back to normal, but I'm feeling pretty content.

Happy (Rather Belated) New Year!

Sorry I've been terrible about updating lately! My New Year's vacation and January just went by so quickly!

I started the year at Meiji Jingu. Do not recommend! It was crazy with people, and we were so far away we couldn't see anything, and the group got separated which ended up leaving me on my own for a long time. Panic attack! The rest of my New Year's holiday was nicer. Shopping, hanging out with friends, traveling to Matsumoto, going to Ueno Zoo. It was so difficult when it was time to go back to work!

Then, like, two days after getting back to work, I got food poisoning. I was over the being sick part in a day, but the effort of being so sick just killed me for, like, a week. And then I caught a cold. I had absolutely no energy. Not great times!

It's been cold this month! Still, I've gone out for a couple long walks. To Takadanobaba last weekend and then just a lot of random wandering about yesterday. But mostly I've been trying to keep warm. And I've had some good food and nice hanging out times. And I bought a new iPod nano and nice new headphones that have been my near constant companions the past couple weeks. And of course I've gone to karaoke a few times.

Enjoy a random selection of pictures from the past month or so. Matsumoto Castle to start. It's unusual because it's black! Then, a random Tokyo view of city and train tracks, Omotesando Hills, some cups at a bar in Omotesando Hills, crowd control at Meiji Jingu, Mt. Fuji from our train to Matsumoto, some lovely English in Matsumoto, bunnies at Ueno Zoo (it is the year of the rabbit, after all), and Tokyo Tower from below.

Fuji-san!

So even though I've been on Mt. Fuji, I have never actually seen the mountain from a distance. Tragedy!

But a tragedy that was remedied yesterday morning when I was able to see a super snow-covered Fuji-san from my friend's apartment building! すごい！

富士山 (Part Two)

Before I went, I thought I would be super disappointed if I didn't make it to the top - like, I thought that if I didn't make it all the way up, I couldn't really say that I'd climbed Mt. Fuji - but I'm really not. I think maybe it's because I didn't stop because I was giving up, but I stopped because, you know, I was injured and didn't want to damage myself more. And before that happened, I was doing great at getting up the mountain, and it was difficult and it was fun and, you know, even if I didn't reach the top, I made it up most of the way, and that was pretty cool. And I got to see more stars than I've ever seen before, and I got to watch a beautiful sunrise, and I got to spend time with all the good-looking guys that worked in my hut. And I climbed Mt. Fuji at night, and that's not an experience you have every day.

Although, if I ever did it again, I would not climb at night. Partly because it just made it harder - especially the rocky bits because it was hard to determine which was the best direction to go - but mostly because it's pretty much the reason I ended up not making it. We had flashlights, but they didn't happen to reveal that particular rock to me.

But I don't intend to climb it again (well, climbing from the bottom to the 5th station might be nice; it's supposed to be pretty), and that's entirely the fault of the descent. Everything up to that point, despite the unexpected snag of injury, was great, but the descent was the worst hell I've ever lived through. I found it so much harder than the ascent; it was endless switchbacks of volcanic rock, and it was boring and they were super slippery and people kept falling down and I thought I would die. With my foot and ankle both swollen and tender, it was super difficult, but it would have been horrible regardless. The scenery got better around the 6th station, which helped a little, but finally getting back to the 5th station was, like, the happiest moment of my life.

Anyway, I'm glad I went, and I'm okay with how it turned out. It would have been nice to reach the top, but even though I didn't and even though my Mt. Fuji experience was not what I expected, I got to have a different experience than anyone else's, and that's kind of great.

It's kind of weird that I've climbed Mt. Fuji, but I've never actually seen it. Like, from a distance. I didn't feel like I really saw it at all until the sun came up and I could, you know, see. And I've never seen the whole thing, so it still seems like I haven't seen it, even though the bits I could see while climbing looked familiar; it looked like Fuji-san should look. But I still want to see the whole picture!

Please enjoy some people enjoying the view of clouds below, the bit of path that was my downfall (it's too bad it was too dark to take pictures of the other bits of the path so you could see just how lame it was that I hurt myself on this bit), the massive amount of people behind on us the horrible descent (there were some tour groups), a view looking up (moments later shrouded in clouds), some trees between the 6th and 5th stations, the glorious sight of the 5th station (and a ton of people ready to start their journey up the mountain), and the curry rice in the shape of Fuji-san I ate for lunch.

富士山 (Part 1)

I visited Fuji-san this weekend, and my experience was not what I imagined. Out of the seven of us who went, four of us made it to the top; I was not one of the four.

We had talked about climbing the mountain for a while, but apparently a lot of other people also planned it (not surprising, since there is only a short period during the year when you can climb), and we could not get the room or bus reservations we wanted. So we ended up leaving Shinjuku at 7:30 on Sunday night, reaching the 5th station (where most people start) a couple hours later and starting our climb.

I knew that it was going to be a difficult climb, but I think it was difficult in different ways than I expected. From the 5th to the 6th station is fairly easy, but between the 6th and 7th there are a ton of freaking stairs. I was definitely not expecting stairs. I DO NOT LIKE STAIRS. I am short, and they were very tall so required excessive amounts of effort to get up on each one, which made me breathe harder which made me really feel the altitude, Luckily I had oxygen with me, which helped so much; I never would have made it as far as I did without it. Anyway, I knew that the path was rocky, but I was not expecting the climb up to the 8th station to involve, like, literally hauling myself up ridiculously steep rocks. I was like, "WHAT IS THIS AND WHY IS IT HAPPENING?!" when first faced with the sight, but I think it was actually the easiest part for me. It was challenging, but I didn't feel like I was overexerting myself. Eventually, partway through the 8th station (which goes on forever), the path got a bit easier.

Of course, that was the point where I smashed my foot into, like, the only rock on that part of the path, both hurting the top of my foot and twisting my ankle. I went back to the hut we had recently passed to rest for a few minutes and see if I was okay; if I was, I would catch up with my two friends I was with, if I wasn't, the rest of the group would come along eventually and I could let them know I was injured.

Yeah, I was not all right. It hurt to step on my ankle, and every step also made the wounded top of my foot hit my shoe. Eventually, two more of our group showed up, and it was decided that I should probably stay put where I was, watch the sunrise, and then meet up with them when they came down later on the supposedly easier descent path. This was around 3 in the morning, and it was getting unbelievably cold. When I had been moving, I was fine, but just sitting there and waiting was not going to be good. Super luckily for me, there was a bed available at the hut, so I got to sleep and be warm for a little while and then enjoy the sunrise and then sleep a little more (I was there about 3 hours, but rest was so nice that it felt like much longer). Then I was able to meet up with the last two members of our group (who only reached the hut right above me, I think - the one I'd been nearly halfway to when I injured myself - and that not too long before we met up) and we could descend together. And then get food together and fall asleep on the ground waiting for the rest of the group.

Please enjoy pictures of various degrees of sunrise, the view down from my hut, the view up from my hut, and the view of my hut.