Adventures on Mt. Fuji

Okay, I am sorry for the long delay in posting stuff. However, managing a blog turned out to be more work than I had planned on. So, I am picking up the adventure with my climb of Mt. Fuji. This was much more exciting than I had originally planned but a lot of fun. I had to make two attempts on the mountain because the weather turned nasty during my first attempt and drove me off the mountain. I made a second attempt the weekend after making a long day trip from Tokyo to climb the mountain. However, it was well worth the effort. The photo to the left has nothing to do with Fuji, I just thought it was funny.

My feet the night after the climb.













Yoshinoya is great for cheap and tasty food in Japan. Ironically, it is a Chinese restaurant.












Sunset over Fuji













Me in front of the Kusushidake Shrine at the top of Mt. Fuji, 12,388 feet above sea level












Kusushidake Shrine













A mountain hut just below the summit













The mountain huts, these huts provided a variety of services such as bathrooms, food and shelter. The classic way to climb Mt. Fuji is to start climbing around noon, stay at a hut for the night and climb to the summit in time to see the sunrise from the summit. Everything costs a fortune at the huts though.







Crowds climbing the mountain. This is near the trail head so the crowds have not spread out as much.











Komitake Shrine, this shrine is at the trail head. It is traditional to come here to offer your prayers to the mountain spirits before you start climbing.











On the train back to Tokyo













The train to the base of the mountain













Fuji Royal Hotel: This was a very nice hotel but they had converted their ballroom into dormitory style rooms they rent for cheap. The perk to this place was that you also got to use their bath and hot springs which was great after a long day of slogging through the rain.








The town of Kawaguchiko located on the Kawaguchi lake just below Mt. Fuji












Entrance to Fuji Royal Hotel with Hydrangeas in bloom












View from the mountain hut I stayed at on my first attempt at Fuji. I spent most of the afternoon just enjoying this view.











The edge of Tokyo from the Hut I stayed at













Me and the clouds














It is a Shinto traditional to carry a pair of bells with you up Mt. Fuji to let the mountain spirits know you are coming. It is kind of like a bare bell only for divine beings. Here people are leaving their bells at an alter to a spirit near the end of the trail as they come down.








View of the huts from top of the first switchback

















A tour group preparing to leave the sixth station and head up the first switchback.












Trail Head Marker

















This is a video I took the night the weather turned bad on my first attempt on the mountain. You cannot see much but you can hear the wind and see the lights of Tokyo in the distance. I hope this video works.

Ryoanji

Ryoanji is the most famous Zen Rock Garden in the world. Open any book on Zen Rock Gardens and you will probably see a picture like the one to the left minus all the people. Since there are plenty of pictures of the rock part I have mostly included photos of the other parts of Ryoanji. There is a large and beautiful park below the rock garden centered around a large lotus pond. These areas are nice because the tourists who over run the rock garden mostly ignore this lower half of the garden. If you are willing to get up early they open the garden gates at 6am and allow people to enter with out charge. Be sure to know the phrase ohayo gozaimus (good morning) as you say it a lot to all the retired couples out for morning walks in the garden.

This is a view across the lotus pond to a small island with a Shinto shrine on it. The large triangle is a support for a pine tree leaning over the pond.










This is a wisteria arbor with benches for sitting and admiring the garden view.













The trunk of the wisteria

















A Buddha sitting on a lotus.













The Shinto Shrine pictured above from across the pond. Even though Ryoanji is a Zen Buddhist temple it is common for Shinto and Buddhist shrines to be combined. Shinto is the native religion of Japan and centers of worshiping spirits in nature and ancestors. Inside the little structure is a small statue which is dressed up and represents a local spirit.






A rock in the rock garden with willow leaves reaching over the wall.













This is the approach to the tea house. You can see the door to the tea house on the right. What was interesting was this pine tree which was growing up through the building.















The lotus pond













This is the wash basin of Ryoanji













This is a close up of the wash basin. Around the edge are four characters which say that the happy person is happy with what they have.











This is the Buddha Hall of Ryoanji. Inside is a statue of the Buddha as well as relics of the temple. This building is new having been built in the early 1980s. What was really nice about it was that it is built from Hinoki Cyprus, which has a rich cedar smell to it. We could not take pictures inside so I can only show you the outside of the building.






A roof decoration on the Buddha Hall.













Ryoanji had beautiful moss. Here you can see it being held back by old roof tiles.

Tofu, Kama River, and Toji Market

One our second day in Kyoto we went on a bike tour of the city. These are a few pictures of the major spots we passed. However, becuase Blogger does not have the an easy formatting system these pictures are actual in reverse chronological order. So the last place we visited, a tofu shop, is the first thing you see. This image is of the abacus that the shop used to tally with packed tofu in the back ground.





This is finished tofu being stored in water. The shop keepers wife got a block out for us and some soy sauce and let us try it. The tofu was amazing. It melted in your mouth.










These are donuts made from the left overs of the soy beans after they have been pressed for their milk. While it does not sound tasty they were great.
















A sample of soy milk












The shop keeper is on the left in this photo showing us the pressure cooker he uses to extract soy milk from the beans.











Everyone crammed into this tiny shop. The shop keeper was a childhood friend of one of our instructors who is in the green shirt.











The outside of the tofu shop













One of our teachers giving advice while we were water coloring next to the river. The botanical garden was behind us which is why the path is covered with arbors. The arbors are actually to hold up weeping cherries that were planted along this section of the river.














A white crane fishing in the shallows of the Kama river.











This is the Kama river, while the river is channelized sediment is allowed to build up in the channel to form marshy areas and provide habitat for fish, birds and other animals.










Crossing the Kama river













All along the river there are stepping stones to allow people to cross from one side of the river to the other. Here you see some people from our class out on the stones.










Stepping stones













A view of the Kama river from atop the rivers embankment. Bike paths run along the entire length of the river through Kyoto.











The gate of the Imperial Palace at full zoom. There is a large delivery truck right in front of it to give you some scale. The truck is about the same size as a UHual truck.










This is the gate of the Imperial Palace with no zoom. All 26 people in our group that day could have ridden our bikes abreast down this "path" and still left plenty of room on either side to allow people to pass us.









This is a bike and pedestrian path project that the University of Oregon proposed back in 1997. Originally this channel was filled with trash and other filth. The University proposed putting a bike and pedestrian path down it. The City of Kyoto liked the idea so much that they actually did it. This is the end of the bike tour we took. The next few photos are from the previous day when we visited the Toji Market.





Sunset over Myoshinji













The moon over a temple roof













The Buddha in the Hondo (main prayer hall) at Myoshinji













A department store in downtown Kyoto. Department store is really a nice way of saying mall in Japan. This super structure is filled with everything you could possibly want to buy: Food, Clothes, Electronics, Etc.









Several people in our group enjoying takoyaki from a fender at the Toji Market. Takoyaki are small fried balls of dough with squid inside of them. They are really good but disappear quickly.










Toji is actually a large Buddhist monastery. Once a month they have a time for people to come and pray to Buddha at the temple. In the mean time the large courtyard inside of the temple is filled with fenders selling almost anything you could imagine. There was the usual Japanese stuff like Katanas and Kimonos. However they also had other things like Micky Mouse watches and flint lock pistols for sale. Several people and I found Yukata robes here for 500 yen, which is about five US dollars. A Yukata is a lite weight kimono.








A row of fenders selling their wears.













A heron taking a break from fishing by the temple's lotus pond.