27 April 2011
Posted by Jay

On my original Japan bucket list was climbing Mt. Fuji, lovingly referred to as Fuji-san by the Japanese people.  Fuji-san is 3776m (12,338ft) above sea level and is the highest mountain in Japan. Officially climbing season for Fuji-san is restricted to July and August as these are the only months where it is clear of snow and less windy.  Climbing Fuji-san during climbing season is very popular and can done by most people with some level of fitness (though I have heard that even smaller kids and older people complete the climb.  It is very popular to climb through the night and watch the sunrise from the top.  It is not supposed to be very relaxing on the way up as you are shuffling up the mountain with thousands of your closest friends and family.

Sadly I had planned on doing the climb in July when we were still planning on being in Japan, but alas it is not to be.  I figured since in 8 months I had never actually seen Fuji-san I would make a trek down to a nearby town that has some of the best viewing of the mountain.  The problem with Fuji-san is that he likes to hide in the clouds on many days of the year.  When I set out on my trip it is was a very clear sunny morning, but this would not last once I got to the viewing areas.

It was suggested by a friend to travel to Hakone which is a resort town known for its hot springs and viewing of Fuji-san.  It was a lot of fun traveling on different types of trains to get there and eventually taking a sky tram up to the top of a crater on Mount Hakone on my way to the viewing areas.  The crater is a very active volcanic area that spews lots of sulfur dioxide and steam.  There is a short walking path here where you can buy eggs hard boiled in the boiling sulfur-rich water.  The sulfur in the water turns the egg shells black, not too bad tasting though.

View out the back of ropeway

Ropeway car

Sulfur dioxide and crater

Boiling sulfur pool

Black egg

Luckily I have short hair otherwise it would be going sideways

This Japanese woman was not so comfortable when we started rocking with the wind

Once I got to the top of this mountain I realized that I was not going to see Fuji-san that day.  The clouds were very thick and the wind was gusting so hard it rocked our ropeway tram up and down. At the end of the ropeway is Lake Ashi, or sometimes called Lake Hakone.  Usually you can take a boat ride across the lake to the actual town of Hakone, but they had the boats shut down due to the high winds.

Boats for crossing Ashi, I think Captain Jack is hiding on it somewhere

Lake Ashi

I spent the next few hours hiking around Hakone and visited a neat museum and went up to a Fuji-san observatory, even though there was no chance of seeing him with the clouds.

Plaque showing where to look to see Fuji-san

Me looking in that direction, really it is there!

Observatory

Old road that lead from Tokyo to the rest of the country, trees were planted to show the way.

After exploring a bit, I stopped for a snack and was given some cherry blossom tea which was good but a little spicy.

Tea

I went into town and found a neat little restaurant with an English menu and had some steamed meat and vegetables. Overall a really nice day once you got past the not seeing Fuji-san part.

Kanpai!

Jay

Next up was white-water rafting.  If you notice in the pictures above, there isn't a lot of white-water to be had around here!  The rainy season is just starting in Thailand so at the end of the hot season there's not a lot of water just laying around.  So how did we whitewater raft, you ask?  The company has a few dams built along the river and when they want to send rafts out, they flood it!  It was a bit of a weird journey because we had to stop at times and wait for the water levels to rise.  \We went in a raft with 2 guides and a couple from Florida - she was even from Minneapolis!  So strange especially since there were not a lot of Americans around on this whole trip.  There were about 10 rafts that went out and people had varying degrees of success down the river.  We did pretty well I think and no one fell out, which is good! 

While we were waiting for the water at one point, a boat full of girls started screaming and jumping out of their raft.  Apparently their guides thought it was funny to put a frog in the boat.  Not just any frog - biggest frog I've ever seen.  After doing a little research, I think it's actually a Giant Asiatic Toad.  And they can be up to 10 inches tall.  I'm sure this one was that big!  Our guides threatened to throw it in our raft too but luckily changed their minds.  Thank goodness.  

The whole trip downriver took about 45 minutes or so and was pretty tame, which makes sense since it's artificially flooded.  In rainy season, they can run the river 7-8 times a day since the water levels are much higher.  We didn't take our camera down the river but here's a few pictures of another group going out.  Our raft companions have some photos and I'm hopeful that they will mail them over, but since it's been a week now I'm not banking on it!





We headed back to base camp and Jason and I were served lunch.  We had enough food for 6 of us!  It was nice to just have lunch the two of us there and most of the larger group had cleared out so it was pretty quiet. 

seafood soup, red snapper, rice, mixed veggies, fish cakes, chicken and Pepsi :)

dragon fruit for dessert.  jay's trying to make it fly like a dragon.  yeah, I don't see it either.



happy, muddy jay



can you see where his shinguards were?

Kanpai!
Jess

...We, the Japanese people, desire peace for all time and are deeply conscious of the high ideals controlling human relationship, and we have determined to preserve our security and existence, trusting in the justice and faith of the peace-loving peoples of the world. We desire to occupy an honored place in an international society striving for the preservation of peace, and the banishment of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance for all time from the earth. We recognize that all peoples of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want..."

19 April 2011
Posted by Jay

Anyone who knows Ella knows that she loves animals, especially marine animals.  With this love for marine animals it makes sense that we would take a whale watching tour while in Hawaii. Ella was very excited for this tour and couldn't wait to look for whales in the ocean. 

Before boarding

When we boarded our boat we had a very nice presentation from the boat naturalist including our guaranteed sighting of a humpback: a plastic model.  Yeah, a little corny, but that is what tours are.  Once we left port we decided to head to some of the higher decks to get a better view.  Even though it was a very sunny blue sky day it was really, really windy so we stayed off the top deck.  Not long after getting out into the ocean Jess saw the first blow of a whale surfacing, even before they announced it on the ship.  From then we basically followed 2 different sets of moms and calves.  Ella was really excited to find them for about 15 minutes, then she got bored.  Luckily the ship had many more activities for both kids and adults to do.

Thar she blows!

Nice shot Kiki!

Mom and calf

My hair was blowing too, can't you see it?

Ella was very busy for the rest of the cruise making leis, playing the ukelele, and learning some hula.  We had a lot of fun and saw a few whales.

Making a lei

Nana and Abby modeling

Learning some chords



Abby dancing, not necessarily the hula

Aloha!

Jay

Posted by Jess
19 April 2011

After the bus dropped me off in Downtown Seoul around 3pm, I had a renewed energy to explore the city.  If only I had a good map...

I followed street signs to an area called Cheongye Plaza, which has a nice pedestrian area and a stream that you can walk along.  This was a recently revitalized area of the city.  And I got to see a K-Pop group practicing their dance for a music video.



I headed in the direction of City Hall and in order to get to N Seoul Tower, an observation tower in the middle of Namsan Park.  I took a few wrong turns and saw a few extra things - including a couple of churches, museums and another palace.  When I finished walking in one giant circle, I decided it might be better to just look up and head towards the tower without using the map.  While going in that direction I ended up back at where the bus dropped me off.   I should have left marks in the tree because I'm pretty sure I walked by that place 4 times on Saturday.  I turned towards the tower and was getting closer when the buildings parted and I saw the park.  It's on a mountain.  No joke.  So I can see the tower but the cars next to me are all going to go through a tunnel to go through the mountain and under the park.  Discouraged and sweaty from hiking around all day, I decided to forget it and headed towards Seoul Station.

After walking for about 15 minutes, I checked some information maps along the way and was at a turning point - Namsan Park straight ahead or Seoul Station to the right.  Or what's this?  Cable Car access straight ahead.  So you don't need a car to get up to the tower, eh?  I can take a cable car?  Alright, I'll bite.  Wrong answer!  I walked about another 20-30 minutes up half the mountain to get in line for the cable car.  It was a steep hike and not many people were headed up that way with me - most were headed down.  If only I were so lucky!  I stood in line for a while and then rode the cable car up.  After the landing - more stairs to the tower.  Fantastic.


The tower itself was pretty average.  It was a clear day but the city looks so ubiquitous from up there it was hard to get a flavor for it.  Plus I was a little bitter about how long it took to get there so it really would have had to be spectacular to get me going!






I did see at the base of the mountain on the opposite side I came from the Grand Hyatt hotel.  I was told by friends before going that this hotel had a great band that played every night and I should check it out.  It was almost 6pm and it was right there so why not?  Now, how to get there?  I started walking down that side of the mountain and got to a bus stop.  I could still see the Hyatt below me.  Next bus in 38 minutes.  Well, it's right there and all downhill, how bad can it be?  Wrong answer again!  I took the path to the left and probably should have gone to the right.  So I was walking and the path was taking me down and away from the hotel with no where to turn off.  And turning around and going back up the hill was not an appealing option.  I kept going and finally at the bottom of the mountain, on the other side of the park, I grabbed a taxi and went to the Hyatt.

I was a little early for the band so I took my time exploring the hotel - had a glass of wine in the piano bar overlooking the city, shopped a bit, ate dinner and then headed to the bar.  The hotel was beautiful and a little fancy, totally out of my price range had they even had any rooms open but if you are looking to go to Seoul, this would be a good place to stay.  The band was called Magenta and they played a mix of rock, pop and R&B.  They were a lot of fun but I wish I would have had someone to share it with.  It was a little lonely there by myself.  I headed back to my hotel around 11, exhausted from the long day of hiking.  I packed up my suitcase, not feeling guilty about my unused workout clothes, and ordered the taxi for Sunday's ride to the airport.

Here are some general observations from Seoul:
1.  There are a lot of churches.  Steeples everywhere.  It's a little jarring to someone used to Asian landscapes. 
2.  The city is dirty.  There is a lot of garbage strewn about and old buildings that look like they shouldn't be standing.  Very different from pristine Tokyo.
3.  This is the cheapest city I've been to in a while - for local stuff at least.  A lot of things in the souvenir shops were $5 or less.  Taxis were pretty cheap too.  Hotels though were not cheap and there's a lot of tax on the hotel bill.
4.  The Korean language is really 'hard' sounding to me.  It is much more abrasive to the ears as a language than Chinese or Japanese I think.  The people were friendly and helpful but not aggressive.  A good balance between the Japanese style and the Chinese style for me.
5.  There were American brands everywhere.  In grocery stores, restaurant chains, all of it - I even saw an Outback Steakhouse and a Bennigan's. 

Sunday was an uneventful trip back to Tokyo.  When I got home I noticed that we must have had a few big aftershocks this weekend - my fridge door was ajar and our tension-rod in the closet had fallen down.  Usual signs of a little shaking - and there was a 5.9 about 50 miles away - one of the closest we've had.  Sunday night I started packing for this Friday's trip to Green Bay to see the girls.  HOORAY!!!  Friday cannot come fast enough!

Kanpai!
Jess