Japan

Late August to Early September 1999

Statue of Samurai Warrior outside the Royal Palace in Tokyo.	Tokyo Japan, Near the royal palace. Same trip as the Mt. Fuji trip, but a few days later, Mt Fuji story further down.
A moat surounds the royal palace and is crossed by bridges that have guards standing watch on them.

Water park near the royal palace in Tokyo.
Park in Tokyo.	Entrance to a Temple, these type of structures are know as Torii and indicate the entrance to temples or holey grounds.





Despite all the advancements, all busyness, and all the big things the city of Tokyo has to offer there is still room for a few small wooden fishing boats in this modern city.	A hand washing fountain at the entrance to one of the smaller temples in Tokyo.
Tokyo Reflections (sorry just had to say that)	One of the things I was very surprised and impressed with in Tokyo was the number of very nice, well manicured public parks.

	At the time that I visited this it was supposed to be the worlds largest all metal structure of this type. The view of Tokyo from the platform was rather impressive.
One of the parks we visited had several water fountains in it, this was one that I found particularly interesting, mostly because of the sculpture that you cant really see well here.	A trip to Japan wouldn't be complete without riding the trains. We had no shortage of that as it was our only way to transport ourselves around.
Japan is a mountainous and beautiful county, one day I wish to own it. If memory serves this is the train station near Camp Zama where we stayed for most of our trip in japan.	On one particular occasion as we had a particularly long train ride and we hadn't yet ridden on one, we decided that it would be best, and more interesting if we were to take one of the "bullet" trains to our destination. The bullet trains move much faster and make far less stops that the traditional stop at every point trains. They are also much more comfortable and much more expensive, but hay they go over 100mph right, so it was cool and worth it.
Shortly after arriving at Yokota Air Base Japan via C17. We then faced the task of finding our way to Camp Zama by train which proved easier than we thought, but getting off the train and then finding the base was another story. As it was, after walking down a few roads that were supposed to take us to the base we finally found the base and the temporary housing quarters where we could stay for only a few dollars a night. The next morning after asking how to get back to the train station we found that we had taken the long way around to get to the base.	View from a train window of the Japanese countryside.
End of the line at the train station, everybody quickly disembarked and just as quickly these cleaning ladies moved in to keep things in an orderly fashion before the train took back off again.	View of Mt. Fuji's peak from below the tree line.
Not far from the 5th station; as you can see here we are still below the tree line. If you take a look at my walking stick, a touristy and traditional thing to get you may notice that there are no markings on it. this is because you don't get to have markings branded or burned into it until you reach stations further up the mountain. as each station is considered to be a progressively higher goal and also harder to reach. The brandings hold some significance as not all people reach the top of the mountain, which is of course the station symbol you want the most burned onto your walking stick.
It was quite a unique experience to actually have hiked above the clouds, despite now being in the sun it was still quite cool at this altitude and wearing shorts was no longer a plus.	Another unique experience I would gain that evening was watching a lighting storm from above it, the first and to date the only time I have had the luxury of watching one from that perspective.

Mt. Fuji, one of the stations on our way up. Late August ,1999 the official climbing season closes on the 27th and we, ( Franklin Barrett a friend of mine , and myself ) cut it only a few days short unbeknownst to us. If Memory serves correctly we were within three to four days of close of the season. Not that you cant climb the mountain out of season, but you don't get all the amenities, like food at the stations on the way up the mountain, and a place to sleep when you start out way to late in the evening.
About half of the way we climbed the first day.	Pausing for Pictures, and a break. If you notice that in this picture I have a decent hat, and in the picture on the left I have a hat that is absurdly too big for myself there is a reason. On the way up the mountain a younger Japanese fellow, neither of us speaking the others language wanted to trade me for my hat. Of course I couldn't refuse, no mater how ridiculously too big the hat was for me. The trade seemed like a novel idea to me I will get to trade with this fellow and he with me and more than likely we will both remember it for the rest of our lives. I dare say he got the better of the deal though. I looked ridiculous the rest of my way up the mountain. And he, I'm sure looked rather smart. I had bought the hat initially because I wanted a souvenir for the year 2000, and the hat had a neat 2000200020002000 design that ran around the band near the rim, I had in fact bought one for both myself and Barrett. All in all it works out well because I defiantly wont forget the trip, and I wont be able to forget how badly of a trade I made. I do still have the hat around stoneware, though I doubt I will be wearing it any time soon.

The Mountain is quite steep so much so that most of the the path near the summit was a set of zigzag switchbacks.
This is a map of the rim of the volcano that is located at the top or Mt. Fuji, Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore the rim that morning.

↑↑↑View at the top of Mt. Fuji the day after we started out. We being the strong and fit army guys that we were figured that if we left Camp Zama early around 5:00 or 6:00 AM, got to Mt. Fuji mid morning or so, we would be able to climb the mountain and return the same day. We may even have been able to do it if we hadn't taken us all day to find the mountain. Its a rather large and famous object, you would think that such a thing would be easy to find. And it is if you can read the signs in the train stations and understand what they are telling you to do. Well we didn't do that so well and spent much of our day hoping from train to train trying to get to Mt. Fuji. Finally we did, I think around six or seven in the afternoon, at any rate much later than we had intended to. As we are getting ready to catch the next bus up the mountain a salesman from one of the shops at the base of the mountain approaches me and tries to sell me tickets to the "hotels" on the mountain. First thinking that the man is trying to scan me, I keep repeatedly telling him no thank you, me and my friend intend to climb the mountain and return today. After arguing with me for a while, and insisting that I need tickets to stay at the "hotels" the man showed me that he has sold tickets to other people and had a record of how many people he had sold them too. I of course continued to refuse, we were going to just climb the mountain and return today. The gentleman thought that rather funny and told me that I would have the ticket, and a receipt. If my friend and I didn't use them we could bring them back to him and he would give us our money back. At $45 a piece I paying for both of them as I had more cash on me at the time, about $200 (not the best way to travel in a foreign country) I still wasn't very convinced, but finally consented and bought two tickets. And so after climbing the mountain for several hours it starting to turn bitterly cold and me in my shorts ( I had the sense to bring a jacket, but not enough to bring pants. Go figure) we found our hotel. I would hesitate to call them hotels they are more like huts or shacks on the mountain, but they offer warmth, food and drink. So t about eleven o'clock at night we finally stopped our assent and took some refuge. The huts are rather quaint little structures that are little more than a common room and several bunk style beds where each bed is made to sleep 4 or five people under thickly laid blankets. the Beds are curtained off to provide some privacy and the common area is where they prepare and serve the food as well as there being a hearth or stove of some sort to provide heat. There we slept the next 4 hours before setting off again at about three in the morning in hopes of catching the sunrise. Much to my surprise we were far from the only people climbing that early in the morning as many other people had the same notion as we did. As you can tell from the picture above the morning was rather foggy, and the fog rather obscured our sunrise. And so it was with a sense of accomplishment from climbing the mountain, and a little disappointment from not getting our sunrise we set off back down the mountain. We were late as it was we had to check back in at the billeting office by ten o'clock in the morning or we may lose or rooms at Camp Zama. As we were on our way down the mountain the sky broke into the most blue sky you have ever seen and the sun shown clearly and quickly warmed the air making it a very pleasant day. To see Franklin Barrett's story click Here. You should its pretty good too.
	Just and elderly lady out enjoying a brisk walk up Mt. Fuji in the afternoon, we both needed a rest so we stopped and talked for a few minutes.
This lady is branding my walking stick at one of the stops on the way up the mountain. You pay a small fee for each brand you get but they are well worth it.	Franklin Barrett, my fried whom I made the trip with.
	While I was unable to catch an impressive sunrise I did catch a rather impressive sunset the evening before, If only I had known that the sunrise would be but pale and gray with no sun to be seen I may have spent more film on the sunset. Though that evening I gave it little thought to it as daydreams of the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen danced though my head. Experience teaches you to carry more film and take more pictures.