2 July 2005 - Fuji-san

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2 July 2005 - Fuji-san
Saturday morning, we met up in front of IES to get on a BUS that would take us to Mt. Fuji. I had decided to try to get close to Sato-san during this trip 😉 On the bus, I began to STUDY, but was unsuccessful, hehe.

First, we hit up some TEMPLE(or was it some shrine, or garden, I'm not sure), where I took lots of pictures. It was nice though. And I liked a number of FLOWERS.

Oh, and check out the progression of Andy's RELATIONSHIP with mystery girl! 😉 Everyone was wondering who the girl was, and I was guessing it was his host sister.

Our next stop was L'Orient, a WINERY. I loaded up on alcohol there, with like 4 bottles, haha. The sakuranbo was good stuff! I think that's like the Japanese plum, but I could be wrong. Oh well, it's not like I'll be corrected :P

After that, the bus was driven over to the peach ORCHARD, where we could eat all the peaches we wanted. And if you didn't notice, I like to take pictures of people in MOTION. Well, you wouldn't notice if you weren't someone I hung out with much, 'cause it'd be weird for me to always take pictures of you, wouldn't it :P

Finally, we checked into our HOTEL, which was situated right next to a lake, with Mt. Fuji in sight. It was a pretty nice view, and I sorta wish we had an extra day to hang around the lake during the day. There were boats you could rent to take out on the lake I believe. Dinner that night was... eh... Cedric, Stephane, and I decided to go out to the closest food store and buy something to eat -- I ended up snacking on chocolate almonds (Meiji, yum) and chips. But at the hotel dinner, it was nice that everyone was gathered together, so I got some good shots.

We lucked out that there was a FIREWORKS show that night, to celebrate the "opening" of Mt. Fuji (climbing season? don't know). It was pretty damn nice. And I knew exactly what that dreamy, longsome look in Ced's eyes were, while he watched, haha. It's a good feeling to wrap your arms around someone special and enjoy a good show 😊 So one of my most prominent memories of Ced will be his staring off into the distance, as he dreams about the day he will spend in any given happy moment with a girl he loves. And I'm damn glad he found her. Or, last I heard, hehe.

Moving on... oh yea, so we had found a nice lil spot on a mound of grass to watch the show, but for the finale, I wanted to run back to our room balcony for a better view... Turns out our roomies (Alex and Joe) were gone, and we were locked out. We heard screaming in the door next to us, and found out the finale was taking place. So yea, we missed it. Crapfaced.

Still, later that night, I made up for it with lots and lots of nice pics. I didn't feel like DRINKING at all, so I had Coke and Orange Qoo. But I decided my job was to get as many girls into our room as possible, so I went off to each room, saying I wanted to have a picture with everyone... The idea was mainly get close for the picture, then whisper to the girl to come back and drink in our room -- hey, I had to be selective, haha. I got a good number to at least drop by, so that was nice, and I'm glad I got so many pictures with IES members. So here's the pics of ME. Hmm... I'm a lil disappointed I didn't get to hit up at least half the people who went on the trip (I thought there were 100). I didn't take one with Shin-san either, or Sato-san. I checked her door twice too, muwahaha. Still, it was a good night. I ended early 'cause I didn't wanna be *too tired in the morning.

The next morning: ... but still, I turned off my alarm instead of waking up, thinking one of my other roomies had an alarm or would wake up. Nope. We hear pounding on the door by Naito-san who looks pretty exasperated and is telling us to hurry up 'cause everyone is waiting and... *SLAM* Woops, hehe. Sorry, Naito-san, we got the idea, so let us hurry and get dressed now. We ended up showing up at the bus 30 minutes past the time we were supposed to leave. I felt pretty damn bad, but that feeling of guilt quickly passed when I found out what a bitch the broke-ass guide-o-san was. She didn't accept my sincere apology (I bowed and everything too!), so she's on my shitlist. I was just worried bout the other people whom I held up, but most seemed to be ok. Or at least, they were good enough friends to make me believe that 😉

So the Fuji trip was only 2 days, and the second day (Sunday) was when we actually went to Mt. FUJI. Some students had opted to go Friday (a day before the actual trip) to climb the mountain, since the climb wasn't scheduled in. The reason given was that it was too strenuous and it would be hard to coordinate since there would inevitably be laggers, and those that couldn't really make the climb. So that day, the bus just drove us all the way up to some station, where we bought souvenirs and looked into the foggy mist :P

After that, we hit up a nice POND place though. There were like 10 ponds that were ranked up there in the top 100 of Japan's ponds, or something like that. Like I said, my room was late, so our schedule was off, and we didn't have much time to spend at the pond place. Most people just hung around the main area, looking at the major ponds, but I ran around the perimeter as quick I could snapping away. I'm glad I did, just cause I got to see this one old couple DOZING off in the middle of a small, dirt path. It was cute. Oh, oh, and I got some good vibes from Sato-san at the pond, but nothing happened. Oh well.

We topped of the trip by going to the Gotemba OUTLETS. I think they're pretty famous, and it did have a lotta cool shops. I wish I had more money to buy some clothes -- I really wanted this one FCUK shirt. Oh well. It was still pretty fun, cause Ced, Steph, and I ran over to McDonalds first to get breakfast/lunch (we missed it by oversleeping, remember?). Then, I ran off on my own to speed-shop. It was the fastest I've ever tried to shop, so it was inevitable I missed out on some good sights -- the guys were hanging out in the dining area and said there was this super hot girl that was there, with a super hot guy. Alex thought it was like, the perfect couple. Man, I missed it! I did see *some cuties walking around when I was running around, but oh well. We got back from Fuji trip around 7ish I think. I didn't think much of Fuji, but the trip was lots of fun. I miss IES!

I hope you enjoyed this lengthy update! I took lots of pictues, and am now free-er to add uncensored commentary now that mostly only you IES kids are reading.

Oops, I lied. I *thought I was done. I separated the folder where I had dinner with MIKA that night too. It was a good dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and we went Karaoke that night for an hour. It was *really* fun that night at karaoke 😉

K, that's it. There'll be about 10 more updates for the rest of my Japan trip, and if I have time, I may update a little on my stay here in Canada (this entry is posted on Aug 3).

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Photos

bus1
"Everybody move back to the bus" - Outkast's "Rosa Parks" is a good song :P

bus2
I got my eye on you Sato-san ;)

bus3
Good group shot of bus #1 heading off to Hakone

study
I fell asleep studying on the bus :(

temple1
Ari and Seth with dorky pose

temple3
If I may say so myself, that is a good picture :P

temple4
This was our first stop on Mt. Fuji trip

temple5
Old-school bath tub I think

temple6
Gotta remove your shoes first, entering most temples...

temple7
Didn't I say I had my eye on you Sato-san? ;) ... oh God, I sound like Robby, hehe.

temple8
I like bridges :)

temple9
The garden was nice too.

temple10
There was a gardener out there working :)

temple13
I hear those Koi fish are really really expensive!

temple14
Bridge with a nice pose. I was proud of the shot at first, till I learned right after that it was fixed!

temple15
Cool painting inside the temple thingy

temple16
Vanessa taking a shot in the doorway. I gotta say that's a good shot too :P

temple17
Some of my brothers: Alex, Steph, Ced