Samishii and Fuji! (Part 2)

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Round 2 go!

Ok, as promised I'm getting another message out to you, and this time it didn't take four months to prepare. Let's get right into what I introduced at the end of the last blog.

So as the summer started and the festivals began across Japan I was in full adventure mode. It was really heating up in April here in June and we had already planned a thousand things to do over the new few months. It was tough to remember that I wasn't just on vacation and that I had to work five or six days of each week, since my focus was often on all the sporting events, trips and parties that were jammed into any free time I had. But that's not to say that my school wasn't a huge part of my life, and something that I was dedicated to and was really enjoying.

At the time, we had just welcomed a new manager and assistant manager to our school already and then we had to say goodbye to my closest buddy and all around standout guy, David “Beef” Halsted. He was heading home to Canada after finishing up his year at Shiki school and it was tough to send him home. Especially knowing that he was going back to Burlington, which is my home town too, and would get to lounge around by the pool, and eat some ridiculously greasy Canadian food on the patio. Careful man, or it's all gonna finally get you looking extra-beefy around the middle, lol.
But we really did had some good times and we made sure to have a few blowout parties before he went back. And Dave, let's keep some of those videos to ourselves for a while until we get to a point they won't do any damage when they surface down the road! Hope you're ready for your next adventure and you don't forget all of us here in Japan. Your name still seems to come up all the time around here, and for some reason it always brings us around to talking about internal bodily functions or pristine footwear... I wonder why that is!?

So with the departure of the Beef, we welcomed in the new foreign teacher, Jillian, from California. Well she instantly fit in to the school and really took control of her classes with amazing skill. It was no problem for her to settle in to her new position and she had already developed a bigger social network than me in Japan. Not to mention, her Japanese skills were “Sugoi” as well.
So after eight months in Japan I was a part of a completely different staff, and found myself in one of the more senior positions at the school. It's funny how change is always something that brings up anxiety, nerves and sometimes doubt, but it's really what makes my life as exciting as it is. I have to admit I would never have wished for all these changes, but after the fact I wouldn't want to change it for anything. It's learning to accept those things I can't affect and embracing the unknown of the next day that has helped me approach my life in Japan with enthusiasm and open mindedness.

At this point, I've had to make so many adjustments and learn so quickly from my new environment that it's something I've begun to seek out, that idea of change and freshness, that forces me to be on top of my game at all times. What I mean is that I remind myself why I came to Japan, to discover as much about myself as I do about the country, and I know that I'm accomplishing the most when I challenge myself with those new experiences and unknown situations. It's after reflecting on those moments that I can see what kind of person I am and how I can become what I truly want to be, and give the most to myself and, consequently, to the world.

For those of you who know the type of person I am, i'm always looking at my options, planning my ideal future, and looking for ways to maximize enjoyment and get the most I possibly can out of what I decide to do (and minimize effort at the same time, lol). I've always seemed to focus on being the most efficient I can be, without wasting time and effort on stuff I didn't think was important. I've noticed how this often made me impatient, a little selfish, and moved my focus onto the future or comparisons to the past. Well one major thing this new life has begun to show me is that this attitude really isn't the best way to get what I want.
It's having a full-time job, teaching others, and having some commitments to things outside of myself that has stirred this realization. It's when I'm working towards the improvement of my students and thinking about how I can help them reach their goals that I see the best in me being expressed. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I still just want to wing my kids around and give them a little discipline, but I'm only human (half human half giraffe to most of my kids though). But working towards going in each day to do something important, and make some progress, makes me find a sense of satisfaction from a type of work that I previously would have considered less beneficial, or less efficient in helping me get to where I want to be. Hard work really means something? Who would have guessed!?

So of course with this new outlook about some important aspects of life, of course I have grown much wiser and mature, right!? Hahahaha, some things don't change that fast. What do I mean? Let me tell you. Here's a quick tale about the most recent expedition I had with my good buddies in Japan.
After planning and discussing the possibility of climbing the highest mountain in Japan, we finally made the commitment to take it on during the last chance of the year. The summer season is the only safe time as the weather and ice becomes too dangerous outside of a few hot months. So we cleared two days of our schedule to do an overnight climb, planning to reach the summit after eight or nine hours, just in time for the sunrise. Seamus, Shota, Alex and I got our gear together, packed our food and supplies and collected all the research we needed to tackle this challenge. The weather report was perfect with temperatures changing from 25 degrees at the base to 4 degrees at the summit, with light wind and clear skies the whole night. This could change quickly at high altitude with no wind cover so we made sure to prepare for rain or colder weather. Well, most of us did. Of course I brought gloves, a touque, and extra layers just in case things took a turn for the worse. But for some reason I thought that these chicken legs of mine would provide enough heat to stand up to any harsh weather that Fuji through at us. Apparently, all I thought I needed were running shorts and short white socks, and my huge, powerful calves would power my lower body straight to the top without any complaint. Hahahaha, what a dork.

Well, anyway we set out on Sunday afternoon feeling rested and psyched for 13 hours of intense climbing at altitude. Mistake #2: I thought it would be all right to go to a two hour soccer tryout early that same morning in 37 degree Tokyo heat and humidity, and then just mosey on up the mountain after a lunch break. That bit me in the ass. But of course at first I felt unstoppable, and our first few hours was filled with chatting, singing and skipping up the gradual incline between the fifth and sixth station. We were in such high spirits and each of us made jokes about the stories we had heard of struggles, troubles and altitude sicknesses. That all changed after about 5 hours, once we approached the 8th station and the incline and oxygen levels started changing. Shota suffered a knee injury and it looked like we needed to turn back. My legs started to feel numb and there were even some mumbles of hallucinations and visions from members of our group. But, after a quick rest and some onion-soup we powered on and slowly but surely trudged upward, and then more upward.

At that time we experienced one of the strangest things I could have imagined being a part of at over 3500 feet on top of a mountain at 3:30 on a Monday morning. A traffic jam. Ya, seriously there was stop and go foot traffic for the last few hours up to the peak. THOUSANDS of silent, penguin-like people, zigzagging up the path in single file. The only sounds you could hear were heavy breathing, and the occasional hiss of an oxygen tank All you had to do was follow the endless trail of headlights that stretched away in the distance, looking like fireflies trying to escape from a pursuing alligator. This helped a lot, as at this point I know that my mind felt like mush, and looking at the people scattered around the sides of the trail, it was clear that people were starting to shut down. You're not exhausted, but just a little physical exertion requires so much more time to recover compared to activity closer to sea level. But at last we reached the top, with some time to spare before the sun came up. And when it did, all the effort to get there was validated. The view of that landscape when the sun peaked out from beyond the horizon is something I'll have in my mind for a long time to come. It's really true when they say pictures just don't do it justice. It was pure beauty. A sea of clouds being held back by rows of mountains, revealing deep valleys filled with small, glass-like lakes, and scattered peaks that looked like goosebumps from the surface of the Earth. Of course since we were in Japan, the loudest sound became the thousands of camera shutters snapping open and shut to capture the gradual changes of the landscape as the sun slowly rose. So after marveling at the view for a while we set off for the five hour climb down a different, slippery route back to our starting point.

In the end we made it without any serious problems and even Shota got through it with some innovative hobbling techniques and some help from us from time to time. Alex saved me with some extra jeans he had in his bag and we finally made it back to Tokyo the next afternoon, after approaching a full cycle of the sun without sleep. In the end it was about 36 hours before I could get to sleep in my bed and I can easily say that there could have been a category five earthquake that night, but I would have had no idea because I was completely out of commission until the next afternoon. So a fantastic experience, that I strongly recommend if you get a chance to go to Japan. However, once is enough!

So that ended up being a much longer blog than I thought! Hope you got through it all right and don't give up on reading the next ones... I'll try to keep them a bit shorter! I'm off to play in the first game of the season in my new Tokyo soccer league so I'll tell you all about this new exciting opportunity in the next installment. Until then, enjoy, watch a sunrise, hug a tree and go climb something!
One love,

Sloan

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Photos

That's how you climb Mt. Fuji!!
What a foolish fool, lol
All confidence before we started the 12 hour climb

Top of Mt. Fuji!
The most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen, from the top of the mountain, 3776 feet above sea level

Awesome Crew
The usual crew and the Softbank girls after a night of clubbing. After party on the streets

Japan vs. Korea soccer match!
What an insane crowd of fans at this world cup preparation match. Korea won 2-0 but who made it further in the World Cup, eh!?

Conqeuring that insane Roller Coaster!
Celebrating being alive after getting things done on "ii janai ka" at Fuji-Q highlands amusement park.

Jabba that Coaster!
Rockin some sweet Jabba the Hut faces while rocketing by on one of the crazy coasters at the park.

Ritter and Mrs. Nails
Well, looks like my buddies have no problem making new friends when they visit me here in Japan. Who wants to come next!?

Tokyo Giants Ballgame
Just after getting on the big screen and dancing like a fool for all the Japanese fans