If it was a clear day......

---

So first random story. Was laying in bed inbetween sleep and waking, it was super early in the morning, and I felt my bed shaking. I sat straight up immediately and felt it stop. What the hell was that? I started whispering in a yelling tone to my friend Tony," TONY! TONY DID YOU FEEL THAT?????" he grumbled, "feel what" " I think that was an earthquake! seriously!" he laughed, like I was crazy. So on the bus later, Tony asked what time i got up. I say after the earthquake and he's laughing and mocking me. he tells me I was dreaming, which anything is possible, but i know i was awake, I did not dream that. He laughs and I describe it and Jills head pops out and she says" did you feel that too? it woke me up!" Ah Ha! I knew I wasnt crazy it WAS an earthquake,. or like a tremor really, scared the crap out of me! Nobody else felt it so they think were crazy, but really, so Jill askes someone at the hotel and they confirm for us. Hmmm my first earthquake.....




Alright. big day. Mt fuji, which also happened to be my birthday present. So up early and on a bus heading towards the famed mountain, the tallest in japan.Our tour guide is a very nice japanese lady named Hiro. She is hiarious whether she knows it or not, intentional or not. She has a japanese accent and her english is not super great as in she understands the words, just not how to put them together. So toward the mountain we go. It has freshly snowed which I guess (according to Hiro) is very rare a quite a "treat". huh, unfortunately I do not share her enthusiasm about the snow, but its that fresh snow that probably started as rain so when the snow came it froze to the branches in big ice crystals, so its really pretty. I miss a lot of landscape because I fell asleep, but awaken to hear Hiro speaking and talking about Mt. fuji and giving tidbits of interesting information about the surrounding area. I am not one for bus tours, I dont like the feel of them. Its really not the best way to experience something, but i still think this will be fun. Hiro tells is that because of the snow they have blocked the gate that leads up to the first station in mount fuji. And it is really foggy, so you actually cant see any of the mountain at all right now, "but please, shall we enjoy Mt. Fuji visitor centre and we see pictures of Mt. Fuji, this is ok?" ok, so we check out the vistiors centre.She tells us top be back at the bus in 15 min which I think is a short amount of time, but then soon realize its actually way too much time. Visitors centre sucks. Actually one of the most interesting things that I learned about this area was from my own research on the net. Aokigahara, is the forest at the base of the mountain that they believed had ghosts and demons living in there.This is where they say that the poor people would abandon their young. It is also a place where a lot of suicides take place, second to the golden gate bridge in San Francisco. Interesting hey? I know this fact alone will freak Jill right out.


So its still foggy, so Hiro tells us" shall we eat lunch and try for the gate later? Usually on a clear day, we can see the mountain. usually you can see whole mountain, if it a clear day." She nods and smiles. Ok if she is optimistic, so will I be. So we end up at the local hotel where we have 45 min for lunch. We rushed to the hotel chinese restaurant, which gave me that weird bowling alley feeling, of something so dated and abandoned but still catering to the few people who cross its path. I think we ate so fast,i dont even know what I ate, and rush back to the bus. Hiro is in the lobby and has an announcement. "gate is still closed,So shall we go to museum and enjoy art of mount fuji?If is was clear day we can see, sorry i cant help weather, but lets go to museum and enjoy pictures of mount fuji, shall we go and enjoy pictures of mount fuji?" She says this with a smile, but I can't help but laugh and cringe at the same time. I know that weather permitting, but enjoying pictures of mount fuji was not what I had in mind, but I guess you just gotta make the best of the situation. So Jill and I go to check the museum. Its so sterile and clinical when when you walk in, a huge white space with steele chairs and high ceilings, and not a soul in sight. You can hear the echo off our footsteps and we all crowd in to the hallyway to look at paintings of mount fuji. Which is ironically the closest I got to mt. fuji that day. So back on the bus, and Hiro is feeling a bit rebellious and doesn't want to go down quietly so she proposes, "shall we drive up to the gate of Mt. fuji and see for ourselves if gate is closed?" this is greeted with a couple of nods of agreement, and so off to the gates we go, and arrive to find the same verdict. No go. SO we decide to go toward the second part of the tour which is a lake cruise and a ride in a cable car to the top of this mountain. I plug in my ipod and decide to doze off again. I can hear in the background above the singing of Noisettes, a faint off key tune coming from another human being on the bus. I take off my earphones and can hear, Hiro, in the background, singing a song in her broken English that she had created for us, about Mt Fuji. I think she felt our general disappointment as a group and thought the song would cheer everyone's spirts and maybe ease the tension, and I also believed she just didnt know what to do because she wasn't prepared for this setback. Really, gotta give credit to Hiro, our fearless leader. I do feel really bad that I could not appreciate her song for us as much as maybe someone else did, but it was so random and I felt like I was in a seinfeld episode and I am way too sarcastic for random spur of the moment Mt.Fuji songs. It was really bizarre. All I could think was , where am I? So tour continues with the cable car ride, which was uneventful. the view was actually really pretty and there was a lonely shrine atop the snowy hill. And finally we finish the tour with our lake cruise. We hear the story about the dragon who lived in the lake, and would eat the towns people and their crop. So the towns people decided to feed the dragon their young,( a common theme back in the day????) and Then they fed the dragon rice instead and the dragon turned into a 6 headed dragon and became the towns protector. Very interesting. So onto the ferry.It really was just a trip to the other side of the lake to where the bus was waiting for us. I know it sound like I am being negative about the experience, but not my way of exploring a place and it took up the whole day. That being said the scenery was beautiful and Im glad i saw it. I sill hate bus tours.

So the bus dropped us off at Ginza and we did some walking around,bought more shoes,( had to) and the girls ended up at this great sushi restaurant that Bonnie and I had scoped out earlier. So glad that we went because the sushi was awesome and fresh. While we were eating we noticed a fish that had his head cut off and was still flopping around on the cutting board. I guess you cant get fresher than that!


Speaking of fresh, got up super early this morning to so to Tsukiji market,where they get the freshest of the freshest fish. Got to the market but 5:45 in the morning( we lost half the group with a miscommunication) so Jill Yuki and I headed off to the market to check it out. We missed the tuna auction by 15 min, but saw the aftermath of these massive tunas being wheeled around on wooden gurneys, ice packed in their cavities,going straight to the vendors so they could cut it up right away and get it sold. I have never seen as much fresh fish, huge clams, and everything still alive or freshly killed. We tried to stay out of the way of their business as people were running around, and these forklifts were whipping by us from every direction delivering the fresh goods. It was pretty crazy, and this happens every day. So I guess if you come all the way down here you have to have fresh sushi for breakfast, and their is a couple of famous sushi restaurants o premise that serve the fish they get from the market that morning. Sushi for breakfast seems a bit weird, especially when i just wanted a banana, but you can't come all the way to Japan and not do it. So Jill and I take part in the sushi breakfast. There is a huge line up already outside the tiny sushi bars, but we get in and seated quite quickly. The chef behind the bar speaks japanese to us and we smile and nod our heads. he automatically starts making sashimi for us and puts it in front of us.I look at Jill and she shrugs. The chef is a older man and he had a friendly face and smiles at us lots. So we eat the first piece and it is really really good. he creates a second piece for us. We start thinking, 1. we really didnt want to eat too much and 2. we dont have that much money. so we decide that we will just refuse the stuff we dont want to eat to save our stomach and cash flow. He makes us a red snapper, and it too is really good. Next is ebi, or raw shrimp. I pop mine into my mouth right away and immediately get a mouth full of sweet poison,wasbi. I fricken hate wasabi, its gross and its burning my nasal passage, and how can you even taste the fish? I start choking a bit and try sipping my green tea to wash some of the wasabi off so i could actually taste the shrimp which actually tastes quite fresh. Jill is starting to freak a bit about something so I lean over to her to hear what shes saying. She whispers frantically" I just saw my shrimp move! Its tail just pulsated!" That would be the same shrimp I just shoved into my mouth, oh god, well that serves the freshness question, its definitely still fresh, it was still alive! I dont know whats worse the wasabi burning my insides or the thought of this shrimp possible still trying to cheat death inside my mouth. Oh God. And the chef is obviously very proud of his product and you cant spit it out and you have to eat it. Our saving grace though was this japanese lady sitting besides is who was able to communicate with the chef to let him know that we unintentionally ordered the set menu and we didnt want to eat anymore, and she also negotiated a price for us. so it came to 2,500 yen. not too bad, thats the freshest you'll ever get it! So back top the hotel now, everyone else went back to bed, I think I'll go check out a museum thats close by, and digest.

---

Comments

[anonymous]

Seriously an earthquake??
I can't believe you actually felt an earthquake, how scary is that?? Do they normally get earthquakes there and did they have any aftershocks? I am glad you are ok, but seriously that would have scared the crap out of me. Did you have fun at Mt Fuji?? That is a cool story about the dragon. Miss you.