Mt. Fuji

Like I predicted yesterday, I was told I could sleep in, but the VP had changed her mind and told Mr. Ho.da to come wake me up. I think the reason was because today, I was able to see the Mt. Fuji very clearly during the morning ceremony. It was really a splendid sight to see. It was really amazing to be able to see the entire mountain without any cloud cover. It was very fortunate and rare because in over 20 years of the program at my school, this was the first year that it was clear. So the VP allowed me and a few other teachers go to climbing again. So that’s what we did after the morning ceremony. We took a car to go up to Fujinomiya, which is a little area about ¾’s the way up the mountain. Then we got out and went for a little hike. It was really dangerous at that point because there was a lot of snow still left on the mountain. The wind was a big factor in that too. It was incredibly fun and something that I’ve been waiting to do for a long time. I finally achieved one of my many goals when I’m in Japan. I almost slipped and fell while climbing on snow. I would recommend not wearing tennis shoes hiking on snow, it gets slippery. I was pretty close to dying, well if I fell. We were at a very steep part of the mountain going to the place where Mt. Fuji erupted 250 years ago. It was really cool too see, but we had to turn back because of time. So all that work was kind of a waste, but it was fun to try even though it scared the living day lights out of me.

When we got back to the mountainside, we went to buy some souvenirs and then drive back to the base at Gotemba. We had gotten there around lunchtime so all the students and teachers already ate. We finished up our lunch rather quickly and then we had a little break before we started to get ready to cook dinner.

No….chi sensei and I went for a little walk around the facilities and decided to play some games while we were there. We played a game of horse, and I lost. Then we played soccer and I won. So the next sport we are going to try is Tennis in summer if I’m still around. By the time the game ended we had to go back to the cooking area. For the next 4 hours, we were going to prepare dinner. The students would have to learn how to cook for themselves. They were learning how to cook and use the tools that were provided to them. They had to learn how to make a fire and then make curry rice. I don’t think it’s too difficult to make and since they are only 9th graders, I wouldn’t expect it to be very difficult. My job the whole time was the chop wood so the students could make a fire. It wasn’t too bad and after 4 hours, I’m sure I developed some muscles. I built a pretty good fire too, so that was cool. The fire I built lasted a long time.

After dinner there was a candle ceremony that I had to attend, since my ride home was going to have to attend too. So we stayed for that. It was kind of like a variety hour where every class had a performance and even the teachers had to do something. I had to sing “Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana” acapella with another teacher in front of the students. A couple of other teachers did some comedy skits and the principal did some singing. It lasted for about 2 hours, but we didn’t end up leaving till about 9 pm. So I didn’t get home till around 11pm, which was a good time to take a shower and get some rest. I was really beat at this time.