Konnichiwa Fuji-san ...

Our trip to Mt. Fuji it well worthy of a post in it's own right - our intention was to attempt a night-time summit of the 3770m crater rim in time for the 4.30am sunrise. Little went according to plan.

Arriving at Kawaguchi-ko by train, we deposited our main luggage and transferred to the bus for the 1hr journey up the mountainside to 5th station (2300m) and the start of our climb - our plan being to ascend that afternoon to 7th station (2700m) where we'd grab a hot meal & sleep in a mountain hut for a few hours before starting out for the summit at midnight.

After a lung-busting 400m climb in the thin mountain air, we reached 7th station. It was shut. Not only that but we'd also hit the knee-deep snow line, and the descending climbers we met had taken 12 hours (rather than the prescribed 7) to make the round trip in daylight. Plan B was always to make the ascent before nightfall, and then decend to 5th station in darkness. With the added complication of snow we decided it was too risky - clearly what we needed now was a Plan C.

So after a quick snack high above the clouds at 7th we decided a quick return to 5th would have cheated us of adventure. On the basis of a few badly-remembered details from the Lonely Planet, we decided to hike the Yoshiguchi trail to the foot of the mountain. We would later come to realise it was 1500m descent and over 17km back to town. And unfortunately not our town.

The trail was pretty well marked and we marched quickly through the dense cloud forest. We'd been walking for a total of 5 hours, and were starting to tire when nightfall came at 7.30pm - our legs we're starting to feel the strain of the relentless downhill. Shortly afterwards we reached the first information sign - and with it the brutal realisation that the recommended time for the remainder of the trail was just over 4.5 hours.

The best outcome for us now was looking like a night sleeping in the train station - the worst being eaten by the local bear population. The only signs of civilisation were the occasional derelict mountain hut, and a series of increasingly erie shrines - all lovely by day I'm sure, but at this point the evening took on a slightly spooky feel as we were regularly startled by noises from the undergrowth. By this stage my joking comments of "let's persevere together" were failing to raise Mel's spirits. To put it mildly.

Eventually we arrived in pitch black darkness at a rather larger shrine, and a large graveyard. We could see nothing bar the slightly paler black sky above us when we killed the headtorches, but we stopped for a final rest and refuel before the final stretch - the signs indicated a further 150 minutes to go. Here we joined a tarmac trail - surely the first signs we were getting close to civilisation? so we followed it eagerly through the dense forest.

We were about 15 minutes out of the graveyard, when something strange happened - a car came up the tarmac road towards us. Blinded by the headlights, we couldn't be sure be as it passed us but just maybe there was a taxi sign on the roof - perhaps dropping off a climber at the trail? a late night extra marital affair? Yakuza drug deal? we didn't really know, but dared to hope it would come back our way (we'd seen no other), and taxi or not, we agreed to try hitching a lift.

30 minutes later and our hopes of a timely rescue by a passing motorist we evaporating fast. Hearing some a loud noises from the undergrowth to our right, I turned my head expecting the usual nothing. Instead my torch illuminated two pairs of eyes - someway back from the trail but most definitely looking in our direction.

I quickly calculated from the distance between the eyes, and their height off the ground that I either had a squirrel sat on the bridge of my nose, or a couple of large mammals were checking us out. I squeezed Mel's hand and a quick surge of adrenaline quickened our pace as we marched forwards not daring to look back.

First we heard it roar. Then we looked round and saw it rushing towards us, closing the distance at a speed of over 25 miles per hour. We couldn't possibly outrun it. Thankfully it was a taxi - with it's for hire light on. We stood in the middle of the road so it had to stop. I doubt the taxi driver has ever had two more grateful passengers.

I guess we'll never know what was out there, our guidebook suggests deer or bear as the most likely candidates. The post-mortem on our little adventure revealed that we'd left the trail in favour of tarmac at the shrine. But this chance mistake (and a heap of luck) had got us a comfy ride back to town, just in time to rescue our luggage from the station and check in to a comfortable Ryokan (Japenese-style guest house) 20 minutes before curfew.

The wonderful hot tub at the guesthouse just about ensured Mel was still speaking to me the next morning ...

Another footnote;

I've discovered a few more things I can't do while in China ... like update my reading list (can't access the code to link to reviews/images) ... or transfer video files due to pitiful bandwidth. Not to mention riding a bike, but that's got nothing to do with censorship ... although it will do if the authorities ever see me in short trousers ...

What I have added this week is something that I'm sure will be of interest to a lot of you - scroll down the sidebar and I've added league table for local beers. The only criteria for entry being I have to have drunk the beer in it's country of origin. In the course of my very extensive research I suspect I've probably drunk and forgotten a few more - but I guess that's what happens when you're dedicated to your work ...

Fish, fish and more fish ...

The contrast between Japan and Mongolia couldn't be starker.

Perhaps not more so than in the toilet department. Whereas in Mongolia "where the toilet?" was greeted by no more than an arms wave across the surrounding landscape - in Japan they have surely the most technically advanced toilets on the planet.

Most of the toilets we encountered had at least 3 different bidet functions, heated seats, blow dryer & all with user adjustable digital temperature controls.

Our base for the week was Shiodome - like the Canary Wharf of Tokyo - a futuristic world of skyscrapers, underground plaza's all perfectly connected together by a network of pedestrian walkways and elavators - with bullet trains, monorails, metro's gliding above, below and around you.

Mostly we spent our time just soaking up the atmosphere of this incredible city, and enjoying top-notch food prepared with an enthusiasm and passion I've experienced nowhere else in the world. The seafood in particular was superb and the Japanese have no qualms about serving up raw fish with most meals. Even breakfast.

While the star of the show was undoubtedly the food, other highlights included Tsujki Fish Market (above) - the world's largest where you can see the ingredients for your evening meal being traded at frenetic pace & the Ginza Lion Beer Hall - a genuine 1930's German beer hall in the heart of Tokyo's glitzy shopping district.

We ended the week with a traditional English weekend.

Friday night we hooked up with fellow brit Ed who writes Slow Travel and his pal Joe who lives and works in Tokyo. Joe shared some fascinating insights into Japanese culture, not least the expression "lets persevere together" - words that would come to mean a lot to me and Mel in the coming days ...

Then on Saturday, my first soccer game of the trip, Kawasaki Frontale versus Kashiwa Reysol at the Todoroki stadium. The standard wasn't exactly great, but the atmosphere had all the enthusiasm of a Buenos Aires derby match so I had a really enjoyable afternoon.

Finally on Sunday we left Tokyo, planning for a nice walk en route to Kyoto ...

Japan is reputed to be one of the most expensive tourist destinations in the world. What we found in Tokyo was a city considerably cheaper than New York or Paris, with better food, better transport & surely the most polite and helpful people you could wish to meet anywhere. Against my expectations of an overcrowed, overpriced urban jungle - I think we've discovered a new favourite.

Just a brief footnote for those of you expecting to see all my photos from Tokyo. I hadn't managed to name and organise them before leaving Japan - now sat here in China I find that flickr images are censored (as is my blog ... clearly I am a dangerous subversive).

It will probably be 2/3 weeks before I can rectify the problem and bring you all the photos from Tokyo and Mt. Fuji. The photos from Kyoto onward will be fine, as I can work around it if the images are still on my camera ... I just need to catch up with the writing first.

Welcome to the Amazon ...

No, we haven't suddenly skipped across the pacific to South America (not yet anyhow). I've added a few new elements to the site, so you can see what I'm reading or listening to - and if you want to you can link to the reviews (or even buy it) on Amazon. I plan on keeping the affiliate stuff pretty low key - but this offer looked quite good so I thought I'd share it. We did a similar thing before leaving the UK with Love Film and it worked well - although it wouldn't really suit us right now! Anyway hope you like the new stuff - feel free to comment.


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Route to the Rising Sun ...

Not wishing for a repeat of the Pot-Pasta incident, this time we'd come prepared for our 30 hour train journey to Beijing ...

We hit Chinese immigration at midnight, where the only holdup was changing the bogey's - otherwise known as the wheels - as China runs on a different gauge to Russia & Mongolia. Well it would, wouldn't it. At we sat in our compartments the whole train was literally uncoupled, and each carriage simultaneously lifted up while the wheel units were replaced - quite a sight.

As we progressed through China we began dropping through a series of dramatic gorges before reaching Beijing in the early afternoon - after just a couple of hours exploration we headed to the airport where we'd spend the evening before our flight to Japan.

We'd had only had the briefest taste of China - but the cheap delicious food and the incredibly amusing signs in Chinglish everywhere (more on that later) all filled us with enthusiasm for a more lengthy visit in a couple of weeks time.

The road back to civilisation ...

The snowstorm delay meant we faced a choice - either extend the trip by another day, or drive late into the night to get back on schedule. The lure of unlimited hot showers and decent grub was simply too much for us, so we decided on the first option.

I think we must have forgotten about the state of what passes for roads in Mongolia, and pretty soon we were being thrown around the back of the Jeep even more violently than usual as we hit several times the number of ruts and bumps full on. Then about 11pm in pitch black darkness, disaster struck. The jeep lights went out. Permanently.

Eventually we came up with the solution - the Petzl headlight - we fixed a humble LED headtorch onto the bonnet to provide just enough light to get us to the next building some 15km away.

After a deeply uncomfortable 5 hours spent sleeping on the floor of mud-track side cafeteria, we made an early start for our final destination, Ambersaygalant Monastery - where we sat drinking Mongolian vodka "Russian style" (shots, with coke chasers) well into the small hours to celebrate the end of our trip ....

So as the first leg of our adventure comes to a close, it just remains for me to say a big well done to Mel - as of last week officially Mel Starrs MBA (as well as all the other ones I can't remember)

And finally here's a link to the homepage of Mel's friend Georgia, who, along with her friend Yasmin will be driving a 1.0 litre Nissan Micra to Mongolia in the Mongol Rally this July. If anyone is interested in sponsoring her they are supporting some good causes ... I look forward to hearing how the Micra fares on these god-awful roads !