craziest shit...

I experienced something today that I have never experienced before. A thunderstorm for solid 6-7 hours. Yes. It was the craziest shit. I'm talking about that at times it was like flashes every 2 seconds and then when the weather was just chilling, then it took breaks for maybe 10 minutes and then started again. Insane. I took some pictures and videos of this and you better recognize my crazy, ill camera skillz when you see the pictures.
A little bit further to the west, there were landslides and flooded rivers and just happiness all around because of heavy rain.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/JulyVarious

In other news, school is out.

In other news than that the school is out, a big festival is held here in Kyoto every July, called the Gion festival. Gion is the oldest part of town. Most of the Geiko and Maiko live there (Geiko is what we foreigners know as just Geisha (even though it's not the same...), and Maiko is apprentice Geiko). Anyhoo, this festival has been held annually since the 9th century or so.
What I discovered is that even though the festival is a pretty big deal to locals, then to foreigners who are used to different type of festivals, the nights before the festival are a bit more entertaining. The festival itself is on the 17th of July every year. For the 3 preceeding evenings, the busiest streets downtown are closed to traffic and made into pedestrian streets. Food stands then run along the streets, both directions. The atmosphere this creates is pretty amazing. There I finally saw the Japan we are often shown in Western media, with streets so crowded as far as the eye can see. We went downtown on the night of the 16th and I have some pictures up of that as well as a few from the 17th.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gustafh/GionMatsuriYoiyama

Laters.

Candy! Falling from the sky!

It's the craziest thing... I haven't thought about this for many, many, many years...
I have these memories from my childhood when I went downtown with my family to some festival of some sort. This was an annual thing. Then at a certain time, at a certain place, a small airplane (or was it a helicopter??) would throw out candy and then at the ground people would gather it together. 'Every man for himself', sort of thing.
This annual event then stopped and I don't know when. Suddenly the memories of this stop. I was crap at picking up the candy. My brother was fairly apt at it and he would (reluctantly :-)) give me some of his.

I wonder why they suddenly thought it was a bad idea to throw candy out of airplanes and have grown-ups and kids alike battle it out on the ground?
I think it's a kick-ass idea!
I remember whining when I maybe got but just one caramel out of the whole ordeal, but hey, it teaches kids that you don't alway get what you want. Even if it is right next to you. And you are being showered with it.

Mt. Fuji

Last weekend I did something pretty fucking amazing. I climbed Mt. Fuji.

Sometimes, after doing something you don't usually do, you catch yourself afterwards thinking "That was a good experience". While I was climbing I realized that what I was doing was pretty spectacular, compared to my previous escapades. I would say this is one of the most interesting things I've done in my life, if not at the top of that list.

We woke up early on Saturday morning, or around 07:00. We had to take a taxi at 07:30 to the subway station and then ride the Subway for around 30 minutes to the place where the bus was waiting. We departed from Kyoto around 09:00 and arrived at our destination at around 16:00. The bus stopped a few times on the way so we could stretch and use the bathroom and such, so the bus ride wasn't so horrible. Our destination was 5th camp of Mt. Fuji, at an altitude of 2305 meters. That's how far the pavement reached. It was quite pleasant stepping out of the bus at that altitude. Temperature around 20 degrees and a cool wind, instead of the freakishly hot one we are used to nowadays at ground level. Fantastic view from that altitude and it only got better of course. Being level with, or looking down upon the clouds is a pretty cool thing. A supper had been laid out for us in one of the cabins at 5th station and after supper we started walking, sometime around 17:00. At first, the walk was very easy and the ascent gentle. It was too gentle for my taste, actually. You had to walk 100 meters to gain 20 meters in altitude, or something like that. I guess this is necessary though, in order to make the climb suitable for as many people as necessary. This country is crowded with old people and they want to climb mountains as well, I guess. Anyway, the walk was easy to begin with, or until the sun went down, around 19:30. I brought a flashlight and that sure came handy. Around us it was pitch black and at times climbing (not just walking) was needed. Our destination for that leg of the journey was 8th station, which was located around 3200 meters, if I remember correctly. We reached that one around 22:00. It was clearly evident that the oxygen levels in the air had dropped considerably at that height. You could feel that the air was much thinner and the feeling was far from being the same as the one at ground level. There were oxygen tanks being sold along the way up, at certain intervals. At 8th station, we had the chance to rest for 2 hours and then it was scheduled to continue climbing at 00:15. We were provided with places to lie down and take a nap, but I somehow wasn't in the mood and found myself something else to do. The wind had gotten stronger as we gradually progressed up the mountain and it had gotten considerably chillier as well. I am such a sheep that I was VERY underdressed for this trip. At 00:15 when we went back outside, it was like stepping into a nightmare, to be perfectly honest. Going out into this wind and cold and knowing that you would have to stay outside for several hours more and not sleeping for over a day wasn't a very thrilling thought. Some people from our group didn't make it further than the 8th station and one girl started throwing up shortly after the 8th station and then she passed out. So, this wasn't for everyone apparently. We were warned beforehand that mountain sickness could kick in, so they told us to be careful and take it easy if we got headaches and stomach problems.From the 8th station and up we experienced traffic jams. Yup. It is so popular to climb this mountain over weekends in the summer and watching the sunrise from the top, that we were actually stuck for a while in a queue. Insane. What made it bearable was that it was a clear sky and we could see the Milky Way.
We finally reached the top at around 03:30 and the horizon in the east was noticeably getting brighter and brighter. The sun didn't come up for another hour or so, so we waited, freezing our asses off. At the time, my mind wasn't functioning the same way it does at comfortable temperatures. I remember thinking that I would never, ever climb that mountain again. I also remember thinking that I knew that my mind was kinda fucked up and this was only a temporary mindset, so I knew that what I was thinking was all out of wack. Interesting thought... Now, looking back, I think I very well might do this again, if the opportunity would present itself.
After the sun had risen and done its thing, it was time to head back down again. Around 05:00 we started the descent and it took us about 4 hours to get back to 5th station.

This was a pretty amazing experience. On Sunday and Monday I had some seriously sore muscles in my ass... Good old glutus maximus. That's about the only place where I had sore muscles, so I'm quite happy about that. Seems that I'm in a better shape than I thought.

I have added a new album to my picasaweb gallery and there are captions to those pictures that better explain the trip.

Hope you enjoyed that little story of mine.
Later.

Ice cream soda

Smells like bubblegum. Tastes like bubblegum.

Today was the hottest day so far, here in little old Kyoto. Temperature around 35 degrees, but with the humidity, it felt like a sauna.
What better day to pick for a day outside in the sun then... Today our science & technology teacher asked us to meet him at the Kyoto botanical gardens so we could walk around it together. The reason for that was that he had to cancel two classes and having this "field trip" was to make up for the classes he couldn't teach. He made a small, very Japanese mistake though. When he told us last week where to meet, he finished off with saying that we didn't really have to come. No, no, no, no, no. You shouldn't be Japanese to a class of foreigners. They will bite your hand off if they get the chance. That is exactly what everyone did, except for me and H. We are sensible. It would have been horrible for the guy to commute all the way from Nara and then no one would have shown up. So, we took a stroll around a pretty fricking huge garden today, while then sun, the heat and the humidity kept us company. The teacher paid for us and he also gave us ice cream and took us to his car. No. I kid, I kid. But we did get ice cream.
Inside the garden there was a green house and it was pretty huge as well. It had several zones to walk through, like the tropical rainforest, mountain areas and the desert. What was pretty interesting is that when walking into the green house, the temperature was pretty much the same as outside, except there was no breeze. Yeah, it was quite warm today.
Pictures from this in my gallery. Finally got off my arse and uploaded new photos.

This time of year, it is supposed to be the rainy season, like I have written about before. Really haven't noticed that so much, as we have maybe had 3-4 rainy days in the past 3-4 weeks. Our teacher said it was a little unusual this year. I somehow had pictured the rainy season as constant rain for a month. I'm kinda glad that isn't the case since there is nothing worse than being soaked with water in a really humid and hot weather.
On a sunny day, when you step out, it is like coming out of a hot shower in a bathroom with no windows.

The monkeys continue to pester innocent residents of the I-House. A monkey broke into the room next to mine the other day. The girl living there hadn't closed the balcony door properly and the monkey simply opened it and entered when she wasn't there. He found some candy and snacks, tore the bags open and had a feast. They are pretty good at sniffing up where people keep their snacks.

Saw a movie recently called 'Pathfinder'. Horrible movie. It is about this viking kid that gets raised by indians in America. Then he grows up and helps the indians get rid of other vikings. Horrible movie. What made us watch it is that the vikings speak Icelandic. Well, it could be disputed I guess... Grammatically it was good, but the pronounciation? Not so much. Horrible movie. Me and Bragi had the chance to act superior and make fun at the movie, so that wasn't bad.

A few weeks ago I for the first time saw fireflies. That is some seriously magnificent shit right there. I declare that fireflies are awesome and among the cooler things out there.

Next weekend we are climbing Mt. Fuji. That should be interesting. Staying one night on the mountain. Looking forward to it.

Later.