Jap Blog 30th of July 1996

Up at 5:30am. No time for breakfast. Raced into Shinjuku to buy a bus ticket to Mt Fuji. 2600 Yen to get there but there wasn’t a full return. The Japanese girl who sat next to me didn’t speak any English or German or French. She spoke enough Japanese to her friends though. We bumped heads while we were asleep and that was funny. Fuji-yama was very much covered in cloud from a distance. Headed off as soon as the bus stopped. Was going downhill to start with and thought that I was going the wrong way. Wasn’t. The fifth stage starts at 2305 metres. On the way up I found a towel. I started to ask people if it was theirs and a group of four people gave me some mugicha and barley sugars along with taking my photo. Not many foreigners trekking. Met Chris from San Francisco at about the time I was feeling quite sick. Two guys went screaming past later and I said to them, “Are you crazy?” To which they replied, “Fighto!” Obviously they were fighters. Altitude sickness descended upon me as I had tried to climb too quickly.

Guess what film was being advertised on Mt Fuji. Not Kodak. Fuji film! I stopped at stage 8.5 at 3450 metres. Running out of time so I started my descent. Took me one hour to run down. Funny sign near the bus station. Bought lots of postcards - all of Mt Fuji. Caught my bus and talked to four Romanians. Met Wayne and Mizuho and then Wayne and I went to a shop called Sofmap which had all the new Zaurus equipment. Back to the Kimura’s and then over to Gusto’s restaurant for tea. Saw a Japanese girl with grey eyes today! She was an albino.

- posted by Hammy @ 8:24 am