Farewell to Japan from the Top of Mt. Fuji

'Minna ni mata aeru yo ni' My Tanabata Wish - To Meet Everyone Again Someday

Its tradition every year for the CA students in Tsuru to climb Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, which is only about 45 minutes from Tsuru. But the climbing season is a short period of only a few months from July to September, so the only weekend we were able to do it before we left was our last weekend in Japan. Shortly after my koto concert dinner ended, a bus left Tsuru at 4 am on Sunday for the fifth station on Mt. Fuji; about halfway up. There are roads going up to the fifth station, and you can drive or take a bus up there. After getting to the fifth station with our backpacks loaded with gallons of water, chocolate, gloves, scarves, extra jackets, and food; we ate, stretched, and headed up the mountain at 5 am in order to make it to the top by noon and back down by 4:30 in the afternoon.

It takes about 6-7 hours to climb up from the fifth station to the top. The problem isn’t how long; its how steep and grueling, and with my lack of exercise over the past couple of months, I was dead exhausted by 7 am. The truth is I never planned to make it to the top; I had only wanted to go and see Mt. Fuji up close, and then wait at one of the stations while the other students finished. But somehow, I kept going; all the other students kept going and I just couldn’t stop when all of them kept on. I was with my tutor Nana and our friend Guchi until the 8th station when I fell behind, but I caught up with Nazuna and Hime-san, who were about my pace (2nd to last). Nazuna and Hime-san didn’t want to go all the way to the top either….but we just never stopped. I’m still not sure what I was thinking. I was so tired I couldn’t think anymore; just kept on climbing and climbing and climbing. Climb, take a break, climb, take a break. Until finally, somehow, we made it to the top. By the time we made it up I was so tired and cold (you couldn’t see anything from the top; it was cloudy and snowy and I could barely see the person next to me) and hungry, that I stupidly decided not to go and see the crater at the top and instead just sat down and scarffed down my ramen. Then we had to leave if we wanted to make it back down in time for the bus, so we just left. I should have just seen the crater while I was up there, but at least I can now say I made it to the top; and it was fun making it up there with my Japanese friends; doing something together one last time.

Unfortunately, on the way down the mountain (even worse than going up; it was so steep we fell down a couple times; it was actually really dangerous), Nazuna got altitude sickness the same moment that Hime-san sprained her ankle. We got stuck up there; until luckily a kinder, older climber gave us some medicine for Nazuna and some bandages for Hime-san. We climbed down with this older guy, who turned out to be a really nice local man who climbed Mt. Fuji every weekend during climbing season. We made it down and back to the fifth station at 4:32; two minutes after the bus had left, and spent the next two hours until the next bus at the cafeteria, eating as much as we could and falling asleep in our chairs. I got back to my apartment at 9:30, took a hot bath for my sore muscles, and passed out for the next 12 hours. Still, it was a wonderfully rare opportunity; and to spend my last weekend in Japan for a while making it up to the top of Mt. Fuji was somehow amazingly beautiful, despite not being able to see much.

The Thursday before our last day in Tsuru, we had a farewell dinner at our advisor/caretaker/Japanese mom Fumi-san’s house for all of us CA students to say goodbye. Marisa made us a beautiful slideshow of pictures of all of us, and we all cooked meals for everyone to eat together, laughing about all the stupid stuff we’d done all year, finally ending with smashing watermelon outside (and getting yelled at for being too loud) and taking a billion more pictures.

Finally, the last Friday night before I left on Saturday morning; we had our final Japanese Speech and farewell party. We each gave a speech in Japanese for our family, friends, and teachers in Tsuru. I gave mine on how Japan helped me realize that I loved teaching, and how I wanted to teach in the future. Others gave theirs on their experiences in Japan, their clubs, their research, etc. By the end of the speeches everyone was a bit teary-eyed. And to make matters worse, the school presented each of us CA students with an honorary degree from the University of Tsuru. We ran around taking pictures one last time with all of our friends, and then our Japanese tutors and Fumi-san, our advisor/caretaker, set up a Farewell party for us and our host families. Nana’s family came all the way from Minobu, where I had visited them over Golden Week, to see my speech, and came to my farewell party as well. They gave me a photo album of Rasuta, Nana’s cute little nephew, and a set of origami books for me to practice with. Rasuta and Miho played together while we ate and played games. I barely ate anything, I was so busy talking to everyone desperately one last time. Finally our host families all stood up to say something about each of us, and as soon as my host mother started to talk; it hit me that I really might not ever see them again. Of course I’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen, and I want to go back to Japan again. But there is the possibility, and I suddenly started bawling. By the time it got to me to say something about my host mother, I had to stop for a few minutes because I was crying so hard I couldn’t speak. I’m so close to my family here in the US that not having a family nearby while I was in Japan made me so lonely; but my host family did so much for me, and they really became my family in Japan and I really grew to love them. I couldn’t believe I wouldn’t see them again soon; and when they left the party at the end of the night, I cried again. Then Nana gave me her farewell present; a photo album and a drama photobooklet (she knows I love Japanese dramas) and we both started bawling all over again. Nana was always there to take care of me and was my best friend there in Tsuru, and to not be able to see her everyday was unbelievable.

All of us CA students and our tutors got together at the end of the party for last-minute pictures in our yukatas, and went for one last round of karaoke until about 1 am. The next morning before me and Kiyoko left on the 11:45am train, everyone came to see us off and take us to one last lunch at the Udon restaurant nearby (I miss Yamanashi Prefecture’s Udon already!). I had gone with Nana to see her off to her job that morning, and Nana started crying again right as she left, which made me cry. You have to understand; I’m not someone who cries easily. I usually have a hard time getting myself to cry, especially at goodbyes. I’d never cried so hard at a goodbye as I did in Tsuru. When our train finally left, with all our CA and Japanese friends there to see us off (Sachiko and Futaba came to see me off too; and to give me sweets and snacks to eat on the plane on the way home), I saw them through the window and started wailing one last time. As soon as I saw Betsy tearing up through the window I couldn’t stop. Me and Kiyoko cried at least 20 minutes on the train until we got to Otsuki station.

I was in denial for the rest of the plane ride home, and for a few days until my jetlag cleared, but finally it hit me that I won’t see them all for a long time. I was also sad that I didn’t get to go back to ICU one last time to see everyone again and say goodbye finally. Most of the people I met in Japan, I most likely will never see again; and that’s sad, obviously, but I feel so very blessed and lucky to have me them all. I LOVED every minute of every day that I was there, and it was worth every bit of hardship and fear that I had while I was there. I’d like to think I learned a lot while I was in Japan and that it helped me to grow up a bit, as well as learn a few things about myself.

But I do plan on going back someday; I truly loved it there and it became a second kind of home for me; and I’d like to think that Japan will be tied in some way to my life and career for a long time in the future. And most of all, that I’ll keep in contact with all my Japanese friends and family for a long, long time.

---

---