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[weebnihonja]

Google Drive with all the Photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3rMzUOZXk9Bc0hqZzVlRDFxeEU?usp=sharing 

Side note: Sorry I haven't posted in so long, We've been very busy and to get a good internet connection, we need to go down the road to the Fujisan Club, and I've been exhausted in the evenings.  Also sorry about the text being so big, I had to write this in OneNote and copy-paste it.

Days 11-19

Day 11: MOVING DAY!

We woke up early in Tokyo to take a few trains then a bus to the Fuji area.  We attended a shugendo mountain opening ceremony.  It was super interesting to see the combination of Buddhist and Shinto traditions, for example, scaring away evil spirits (Buddhist) and Torii gates (Shinto). Another part was prayers back to back of both Shinto and Buddhist. The afternoon was spent traveling to the Lake Saiko area and setting up in our home for the next 2 weeks.  Its this cool little place with two floors, covered in Tatami mats. We managed to fit 7 people downstairs and 5 people upstairs. We ended the night by celebrating Kiora's birthday with Andy and Liz, who brought us champagne, which we had alongside some cake.  

Day 12: Fuji Galore

We spent the morning at the Fuji Museum, which had a really cool 3-D model of Fuji that lit up various colors to simulate eruptions and other major occurrences. They had a 6 minute version of the entire Fuji climb up the northern side from the base, which was cool to see what route we'll be taking.  The afternoon was spent at the conservancy center, where we explored for a bit then had a lecture from an active ranger.  I was still tired from the previous day, so I kinda dozed off during the lecture…Anyway we each received a packet of Fuji postcards with photos that the rangers had taken.

Day 13 and 14: Motosukōgen Research

We started the first day with doing research on each of the grasslands we would be sampling with an Wantanabe Sensei, an expert on the symbiotic relationship between butterflies and ants.  Turns out that the Nashigahara grassland is a military-owned testing area, open once a week to the public for whatever purpose, as well as it’s the only grassland that’s expanding in size.  The afternoon was spent scouting Motosukogen for testing sites as well as dividing ourselves into research groups.  I chose to be in the soil group, led by Liz, alongside Nick, Rachel, and Akari, our wonderful translator/lead chef.

The second day was spent collecting data from two sample plots.  The way soil collection works is digging into the ground with an auger to collect various soil depths to measure for bottom of layer, color, texture, and organic matter.  The morning dig went slow, as we were still figuring out how to collect the data.  The afternoon was a bit faster, and we discovered that Akari is great at removing large rocks from the holes we dig.  After the data collection, a bunch of us decided to go swim in lake Saiko, and I got some great diving photos.

Day 15: Work Day

We spent all day working on writing two 500 word posts, one of which was on a common theme we noticed for use of Fuji in Tokyo.  That post was complicated technically, as we had to isolate the data points we used in each of our individual posts into a map, as well as inserting a photo scroll wheel into posts.  The second post was a bit more freeform, as we could talk about anything we've learned so far during the trip.  Unfortunately I was up till 1:15 am finishing it because I take a long time to write.

Day 16: Fuji Geology/Volcanology

The morning was spent traveling half-way up Fuji, first by bus, then by hike on the midway circle trail.  The first bit was difficult because it was a lot of stairs, but the rest was slight up and down, but mostly flat.  We had lunch at the 5th station, where they keep a bunch of horses to haul to-tired-to-move hikers back down from the top.  The afternoon was spent talking to an old volcanologist about Fuji, then going through the tainai (womb caves) to be reborn, which was such a cool experience to crawl through l ava-tree mold caves.

Day 17 and 18: Nashigahara Research

We spent the first morning scouring Nashigahara grassland for good survey spots. Unfortunately, the cars we rented don’t have very good off-roading capabilities, we had to get out of the cars so the cars could go up a steep hill.  We lunched on a field next to the radar museum, which the building used to be on top of Fuji as a weather look out post before satellite technology.  We spent the afternoon sampling the dirt between two lava flows.  I volunteered to use the auger, which we managed to use to dig 140 centimeters into the ground!  Also I got sunburnt, but whatever, it was fun.

The next day we managed to gather data for 4 sample locations, but that was because we were on top of lava flows, meaning the dirt wasn't deep at all, fewer than 20cms. After all the sampling was done for the three groups, plants, butterflies, and dirt. Shawn(Shag) and I had an impromptu rap freestyle session, which was recorded…RIP me.  Once we got back, we went swimming yet again in lake Saiko.

Day 19: Hardhats and Fancy Dress

We were told to dress nicely today, so of course I went all out, slacks, button down shirt, fashion noose(tie) and death shoes(dress shoes).  The morning was spent first learning an overview of commonland and Iriai(common land and its system).  We then put on hard hats for safety reasons and toured the annex of Tokyo Univerity land, learning about the various uses of common land.  For the afternoon, we visited the office of the current commonland president, who is this really cool guy.  Him and some members of his staff told us about commonland and the history of it, as well as answered some great questions other people asked about it, predominantly about how the system works.  After the discussion, we talked some more, and the president pretended to body tackle Nick, in the way a football player would, since he used to play football in Nebraska, which was great to see someone in such high power be so playful.

 That’s all for today (finally!)

[weebnihonja]

Days 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10: Hike, Museums, FOAM VOLCANOS!, review, Fuji in Tokyo, Enoshima

apologies for the long wait since the last post.  we’ve been super busy with work and things to do here in Tokyo, and i’ve been to exhauseted in the evening to either upload or post.  Check out the Flickr by searching for Fuji 2017, and all of my photos will be in a google folder(coming soon).  With that out of the of the way, lets get to the (brief) shenanigains.

Day 5:

The entire day was devoted to hiking up and down Mt. Tsukuba.  I had made the grand mistake of not leaving my heavy and unessecary items in a coin locker at the bus station, so i was lugging a pack that was too heavy for me to keep up with the group, so I eventually transfered the heavist stuff to Liz’s backpack (praise her for that), and traded my pack for Azens’s, just because I was still slow on the climb.  Once we reached the top, we visited each of the peaks, each devoted to Izunagi and Izunami, two shinto deities.  Pro tip: a ramen bowl after a long climb tastes SOO GOOD, especially when followed up by a milk ice cream cone.  The decent was an adventure on my nerves, as most of it was very rocky, steep terrain (sadly no pictures due to my fears).  The train back to Tokyo was very silent, as we were all exhausted from the climb.  I did get to try a Japanese sugar cookie though, which is basically a clump of dried brown sugar.

Day 6:

We vistited the Edo-Tokyo museum as well as the Hokusai museum, which were both interesting.  Fun fact: Betty Boop, the classic american cartoon character, inspired the Manga style of art.  The Hokusai Museum was also very neat, as we got to see most of the prints from his most famous, and pertainent to us book, 36 views of Mt. Fuji.  Turns out he likes to reuse shapes, as well as mimicry in his own paintings, for example The Great Wave.  not only does the wave point to Fuji in the background, but within the wave itself in another Fuji shape.  Afterwards we went to the most popular/touristy Buddism temple, which was pretty cool to see.

Day 7:

The Day of endless lectures.  the morning lectures both talked about the Japanese national park system, which is vastly different from the U.S. system, as it inclueses divided national park land, each owned by private owners, as welll as segmented territory within the park, each withe different regulations.  The afternoon lecture, howver, was very interesting and exciting, talking about volcanic eruptions and mapping lava flows, using light radar(liDAR) to create a represention that shows the degree of the slope, based off how red it is.  After showing us srome maps we simulated lava flows with various viscocities of shampoos, acting as the lava.  to simulate lava eruption, he started to mix polyethelane foam components together, which ten ‘erupted’ and created beautiful scultures.  Afterwards, Nick and I decided to  visit the Pokemon Center, a huge store full of Pokemon merchandise, i picked up a few gifts, including 6 pairs of socks for myself.

Day 8:

the day was pretty laid back, but academically intense, as we reviewd for the first test in the morning, then had a lunch/visit to Meji Shrine, in the nearby Yoyogi Park.  we had two lecturers in the afternoon, one of which lectured on a very trtaditonally-rooted Japanese concept of nature, as well as the process of getting Fuji marked as a world cultiural hertaige site.  the other one talked about hte history of japanese volcanic eruptions, with a focus on Fuji.  Once we were finally done, a few of us went to visit a festival associated with star-crossed lovers.

Day 9:

We had our first of two exams, on everything we had learned withing the past week.  Ast to be expected, I forgot most of the names of importan people in Japanes history and myths.  The afternoon was devoted to going out in groups and finding Fuji imagry in Tokyo.  If you lookm for it, its everywhere.  for example, as we were having lunch (my group) we noticed a fusion of Hokusai’s two most famous prints, the great wave and the Red Fuji, on hthe wall of ther restaurant.  after finding about 25 different Fuji’s, including a traffic cone!, we wantdered back and came across a street festival, which had a group of syncronized daners, which was cool to watch.  Thate evening, we all went out for Karaoke, which was an amazing time, all of us belting out the words of the songs we knew( bohemian rhaposdy was an epic time, as was smack that).

Day 10:

Yet another early morning, its become a trend.  we made our way, via train for 1.5 hours, to Enoshima, where yet another festival was taking place, this time taking the Deity of the town to the river, allowing it to play in the water.  we followed it all the way from the shrine to the central waterfront area, where they switched it to be more water resistant, then carried it into the ocean.  We then visited the caves where supposedly the dragon fron the legends, Benzaiten lives.  we toured the caves, checked out the deep tide pools on the seashore, and generally had a fun time.  We took this tram jam-packed full of people to a Buddist temple, wich was a beautiful place.  We wandered those grounds for a bit, then went about 500 meters away, to a MASSIVE buddah, it had to be at least 30 ft tall.  Since it was a long, hot, day of walking, everyone was exhausted on the train back to Tokyo.

thats all for today! (Note: I’ve been writing this for at least an hour and a half, currently 1:20 a.m. and another early morning is scheduled to get to the fuji area, in addition to filtering through all 1075 photos i’ve taken on this trip so far)

[weebnihonja]

More photos and details from Day 3, didn’t mean to post them to my other tumblr

Day 3: Religions incorporated with Fuji

The day started as it did yesterday, but without all the guiding around.  We(my room) went over to breakfast, which was delicious, I had miso soup, rice with eggs mixed in, as well as fruit, as you can see int the top picture.  The lecturer today was super fascinating, although he had a tendency to go off on various religious story tangents.  One of which reminded me of Princess Mononoke, particularly the part when Ashitaka shot and killed the boar, which happened to be to be a god or a kami.  the story had a similar arc to it, a warrior type-person by the name of Nitta Shiro, hunts and kills a boar in the Mt. Fuji area.  this boar ends up being a kami, so, as revenge, this Kami cursed Nitta with a short life.He then went on to talk about the importance of the caves at the base of Mt. Fuji in terms of religious practices.  by passing through the Tanai cave, which looked like the interior of a body, and labeled as such; the ribs, the vagina, the womb.  pilgrims would pass through these caves to be ‘reborn’.  He also touched on the concept of the mini-fuji, and how it said how the mini-Fujis are clones because they use pieces of Mt. Fuji to build them.  After the 2 hour long lecture on religion,  we broke for lunch, and I got what so see in the second photo, which was delicious as usual for the cafeteria area here.  We all got dressed up and visited a Shinto shrine /headquarters of a  Fuji devotee group.  they blessed us a safe trip up the mountain, as well as cleansed us with fire in a ritual that involved removing all the bad and negative energy from us.  After this ritual was over, we had sweets and tea with on of the members, who told us about some of the traditions as well as answering any questions we might have.about anything.  because gift giving is a tradition, we have him a good ol’ PNW smoked salmon.  in return, he gave us each a handkerchief with Fuji on it that has the kanji for"everyone be happy", one of the Shinto beliefs.  we then were set free(ish) to visit a crazy set of sidewalks, as well as an alley or two full of people with brightly colored shops.  we eventually split up to do our own thing.  I got a breakfast crepe there, which was delicious.  On the way back, Nick, Sierra and I walked through the park near the place where we are staying, and we hear EDM music playing so we went and decide to join the few people dancing to it.  

That's all for today!

[weebnihonja]

[I mean to upload yesterday but the internet crapped out on me and then my computer decided to restart iself]

Day 3 and 4: Religions of Fuji and SOIL!

Day 3

The morning was an average one, breakfast, then lecture and logistics for the rest of the morning.  The lecture was on various religions in Japan, which was intriguing within itself, though the lecturer went off on a many story/related thought tangent.  One of said tangents was a story about this warrior figure named Nitta Shiro who was hunting around the base of Mt. Fuji and killed a boar, but that boar turned out to be a Kami (Shinto god).  As revenge, this boar Kami cursed Nitta with a short life, which reminded me of Princess Mononoke, when Ashitaka kills the boar god to prevent him from going on a rampage, but Ashitaka’s arm is cursed because of it.  He also talked about the religious aspects of Fuji, including the rebirth through the tainai caves (womb caves), with labeled aspects , and how rebirth isn’t complete until you pass through both the male and female tainai caves.  In addition, he talked about how the mini Fujis are litteraly just clonse, since they are made of rocks from Mt. Fuji itself.  The afternoon was more exploring around Tokyo, though we attened a ritual to bless us for our climb up Fuji, then a purificication ritual with fire to cleanse our souls.  we then spent a whiile talking with people assosiateiated with the fujisoka (Fuji cult).  on the way back to the olympic center, we stopped but the iconic Tokyo intersection, full of people crossing just becuase en mass and what can be only described as the neon disctric, where there was a bunch of clothing and food shops, incuding a cat cafe.  on the way back from there, Nick, Sierra and I found a street EDM DJ, so we did the natural thing and started to dance with the few people already dancing there.  At one point one guy came up to me and started dancing at me, so I responded by dancing back, doing the energy sphere through my body.  one thing I learned from that whole venture is that dance is a powerful tool for commuinication.

Day 4:

Early morning (6am early) to get the rest of our gear packed up from the Olympic center just for a night.  We somehow mangaged to navigate the transportation system to an ecology lab to the north of Tokyo, in an area called Tsukuba.  we recieved a couple lectures on a particular type of soil, known as andosol/andeso after seeeing thier test rice fields.  I didnt process much due to the already long-feeling day, a small rasin bun in my stomach, the mild temperature in the room and the dimmed room, leading to me falling asleep then jolting back awake.  After exploring the soil museum a bit and learning how soil monoliths are made from various techniques, such as covering a bit of the wall with resen and then sticking the backing on that to see a soil pillar.  After a lengthy luch break, we mae our way to Tsukuba university where we hade yet more lectures, one on soil (again), this time the distribution across japan and the world.  the final lecture was on various relegious sites around Japan and the land use of those sites.  Afterwards, the ENVSCI students from Tsukuba U threw a welcome banquet,, wich was more of a potluck/socialization event.  Me being me, I was shy at first then I got over that and ended up talking to 5 Chinese women about the american school system.  I then somehow got involved in another dance party thing, and i ended up dancing with this guy from Ghana who was super chill, and again the power of dance shows itself.  we meandered our way to the hotel where we are currently staying, (each of us gets our own 1 person room!) Nick and I sang disney the whole way there, then we started to plan the 4 days we have off from the program.

Thats all for today! {I’ll be posting a link to a google drive where i’ll be uploading all my photos.  also check out the Fuji 2017 flickr[link coming soon])

[weebnihonja]

Days 1 and 2: Arrival and Tokyo Wanderings: 

(sorry the first day is late, I was having issues with connecting to the WiFi)

Day 1:

Finally arrived in Japan after a 10-hour plane ride.  When I arrived at the airport, with 4 other people on the trip I might add, I made it through passport control despite my initial nervousness about it.  After waiting for a while at the airport, the other people on the trip showed up and we made way to the Tokyo-Narita express train, which we took to the station after the Tokyo station.  While on the train we munched on the food we had purchased back at the terminal, mostly onigiri, which is basically some kind of something in the middle of some rice, wrapped in seaweed.  after navigating the train station in the, what felt like,  the middle of Tokyo.  At one point, someone lost their ticket to exit the train station, so she had to buy a new one just to get out.  Other than that, things went smoothly as we piled into cabs 4 at a time to get to the Tokyo Olympic Youth Center, which is basically a hybrid of a hostel and a college campus.  For the 12 students on this trip, 11 of us on the program, one as a translator, we have 3 rooms so of course all of the guys get thrown into the same room since there's only four of us (well three plus me).  Since we were all tired from the plane, we unpacked, got our sheets, and experienced Japanese bathing for the first time, which felt really nice.  Japanese style bathing is where you do all the washing beforehand, either in a shower or at a sitting stand(I have yet to try this) then getting into a huge hot water bath to relax your muscles for a bit and to just relax.

Day 2

impucantStarted early, with an 8 am alarm, though all of us were up by that time due to various degrees of jet lag.  We went to our first Japanese breakfast, which was delicious, (the picture of the tray without the giant bowl of noodles).  We had our first class today, though it was spent trying to figure out a way to the syllabus to everyone, which eventually worked out.   We had a lecture from the same person who we read an article from about the exclusion of women from climbing Fuji.  She also talked about how the cults of Fuji were born and talked a bit about the history of some of the villages around the base of Fuji, which I learned has a total of 10 stages and the first 5 are all in a forest, so you can't see the mountain until you get to the 5th checkpoint where women, historically, had the stop and turn around because of the ban of women on Fuji, which had to do with their 'impurity' known as menstruation.  hover this guy named Jikigyô Miroku turned around that idea by saying that, in fact, menstruation blood gives life and should not be treated as an impurity, but instead as a life giver.  As you can probably tell, I enjoyed the lecture.  Lunch was delicious and such a good bargain, 540¥ which is basically $5.00.  me and two of the other guys, Azen and Shawn, ended up sitting at a table with a Japanese(family?) who was so nice and impressed that we knew how to use chopsticks (sorta).  we then walked and commuted around Tokyo to visit various mini-Fujis, which was built so that women could summit Fuji.  one of the ones remaining was located near a shrine where you could cleanse and revitalize yourself spiritually.  we also visited part of the spiritual grave of Jikigyô Miroku, which is located in the middle of a Buddist graveyard, noted by the wooden slabs with characters written on them, as well as notches on the side to represent the 4 elements.  We also stopped by a third mini Fuji, where there was a festival happening.  the intriguing part of this was that all Buddhist imagery was erased from it, separating the Buddhist and Shinto religions.  We then had time to wander around the festival, I got a slice of pineapple, Nick and Shawn both had shaved ice, Nhi won a bouncy balloon, and  Sierra got a chocolate covered banana.  We wandered back to the Olympic center, picked up some stuff on the way back and chilled for a bit before dinner.  we all, except for Hannah, Liz, and Andy went out for ramen at a place that sells vegetarian ramen.  I had the beef ramen which was delicious.  Since we were all above the legal drinking age in Japan, we went and found this cute little underground bar, where we all tried Sake, which had a mild taste, but some mild spice to it, I'd recommend trying it sometime.

Anyway, thats all for today!