JIJ Vol. 014 Summer is Over...

Hey how is everyone doing? I'm not back in the states yet. I've got about two more weeks to go. Things are beginning to come to a close here in Japan. Summer is pretty much over as fall begins to kick in. In addition to all of that... my stay here is getting shorter. Though in the past few weeks I've done quite a bit of travelling and thought I'd share with everyone.

I spent the last 3 days of July with my Landscape architecture lab. We went on a lab summer trip to Yakushima. Yakushima is a small island off the coast of Kagoshima (southern Kyushu) and is most famous for their special cedar trees. In addition it is the influence for a famous Japanese animation called, "Princess Mononoke" We did a 3 day trip, the first day getting down from Fukuoka to kagoshima, and then the ferry to Yakushima. We spent the first night having a large grand bbq! It was lovely. The weather was perfect, we had a wonderful bbq, a wonderful sunset, and a great view of the stars.

The second day was spent on a 10 hour hike through Mononoke Forest up to Jyoumonsugi. It was quite a hike, but it was a lot of fun. We were in the shade most of the time so it was pretty cool. Though most of the heat and sweat came from us hiking in itself. After spending nearly 10 hours hiking, we ended the night going to a public bath at a near by hotel, and then buying food and having dinner under the stars.

The third day was spent waking up early in the morning, taking the ferry back to Kagoshima, and spending a few hours in the afternoon in kagoshima... eating the local specialities like black pork and 'white bear' shaved ice desserts.


A sign that says Mononoke's Forest


All that moss! XD


Wilson's Stump


Jyoumonsugi, the tallest cedar tree in Yakushima


After Yakushima, I spent the next one and a half weeks on working on a design competition. Everyday was spent at school putting together ideas, concepts, layouts. It was a lot of fun. After the due date, I left for Tokyo right after that. I spent about a week in Tokyo with my intentions to visit some modern architecture in Roppongi and on Omotesando Street. In addition I had planned on climbing Mt. Fuji since it was the last week before they closed the mountain off to the public.

I stayed with a friend of mine in Tokyo and managed to meet up with some of my other friends in Tokyo. It was nice to see people and catch up one last time. I was glad that the weather was nice for most of the time.


The typical Roppongi hill's spider shot


An interesting building while wandering through Roppongi Hills


I haven't done a back shot of myself in a long time...


Being stupid in front of the Prada building on Omotesando


Fuji... I still can't believe that I climbed the mountain. Now I didn't actually climb the whole thing, but did the typical route that everyone does starting at Go-gome (Station 5). I went with a friend of mine who also wanted to go. We met at Shinjuku station and took the first bus out to Fuji. We didn't start climbing the mountain until 10:30am. It took us about 6 hours to climb up to the top. During our climb... the weather was sporatic and random. It was foggy, or sunny, it rained... sprinkled... it was all over the place. I'm glad I brought an assortment of clothing with me. It was about 5pm when we finally reached the top of fuji and the crater. The hike up itself was not too bad... it was the long strech from the last Gold TORI gate up to the top that took the longest. The atmospheric change was a bit of a problem, but we decided to take it slowly, going at our own pace. Breathing wasn't a problem... but rather getting headaches from unbalanced oxygen take in/out. It felt like there was a hammer inside of my head attacking my brain. Though eventually my friend and I made it to the top. We started our descent... and though we came to problems (we should have planned our return situation better...) things worked out. We managed to hike all the way back down (practically in the dark) back to Go-gome and catch the last bus back to the nearest town, Kawaguchiko and stayed over night. In the end i think that turned out better than staying on the mountain itself... because at least we had a nice public bath to run to.

Overall i still can't believe i climbed to the very top, and yet i'm very proud of myself. It was worth the trip... and something that I had planned to do before I even came to Japan. Anyway... photos for those who don't believe me! :)


Life on Fuji...


The weather was all kinds of crazy on fuji. It rained, it fogged... it was hot and cold. Hell i got sunburned. ><;


The golden tori before the last strech of the climb...


Up by the crater.... all that fog @_@;

after returning from Tokyo, i left a few days after that to Goto Retto, a small island off the coast of Nagasaki. It's part of the Nagasaki prefecture and I stayed with a friend (that I met a while back in Fukuoka). It was more or less my "summer vacation" full of me goofing off, sleeping in, reading comic books and listening to all sorts of music. We took a midnight ferry to Goto Retto... and sadly the weather was very gloomy and rainy for about 3 days (spent a good 3 days inside being lazy...). The day I had planned to go home was predicted to be sunny, so I changed my plans and went home the day after that. Goto Retto is a beautiful island! Lucky enough my last full day there was sunny, so my friend drove me (and some of her other friends who came along for the ride) around the island showing us the Islands big tourist spots. The udon is famous at Goto Retto and it definately is! Overall it was a wonderful vacation before heading back to Fukuoka.

Some photos of my vacation:

Us at the 'secret beach'


Beautiful Rock (i forgot its name)


Old cemetary ruins


The sunset


and... us during the sunset


I just got back from Goto Retto yesterday and I've begun packing. I'm more or less spending the rest of this month here in Fukuoka, with probably minor day trips to various places in Kyushu (since its so easy to do day trips by train or bus). But... my days are slowly filling up with packing and going to various goodbye parties for me, and other students. I'm not sure if I'll be updating again before I return, but I will try and keep you informed. I hope everyone is doing well!