This expression was written in our textbook last semester. It means that it would be silly for me to come to Japan and come back without climbing Mount Fuji. And so, I climbed Mount Fuji. Easy right?

In reality, I had already set as a goal to climb Mount Fuji before I even came to Japan. My sister had done so with Anzu three years ago, and so I had heard a lot about it which had only made me want to climb it for myself. If you want to read about my sister's adventure, please visit:

http://franceinjapan.blogspot.jp/2012/08/conquering-mount-fuji.html

About 3 days before climbing it, I asked my friend Shingo if he could reserve a spot for the both of us at one of the mountain huts. Normally this kind of reservation is done waaaaayyyy ahead of time. In fact, I had planned to climb the mountain with Miguel, who loves climbing mountains and had already climbed it once before, as well as with Shingo and Arisa. But the day we had picked, the weather didn't seem good, so we ended up cancelling. Now this time around, the weather didn't seem good either, so reserving last minute wasn't a problem. Not many people were going to climb it during this type of weather. I didn't have much of a choice.

You see, due to the temperature at the summit, the mountain is only open to climbers during the summer. I was running out of time, and so I had to make a fast decision. On August 31st, I would climb one of the world's greatest mountains.

(The night before)
I packed the necessary clothes, water, and my shoes in my room. I fell asleep, getting ready to climb a mountain the next day. To say the truth, I didn't believe it would be too difficult. I mean, people in their 70s and 80s also climb this mountain, so how hard could it be. That being said, I haven't really climbed many mountains in the past. I wasn't too nervous.

Morning came, and I woke up to my alarm. I showered, ate breakfast, put on my clothes and headed out to the lobby. I found Shingo eating breakfast. Once he was done, he also came to the lobby, and I noticed he was wearing very short pants, and regular shoes. Also he only had brought two layers of jackets. I couldn't believe it. I told him that he should get better clothes. He said he would be fine, but still went to change his pants into jeans... He also brought another jacket, but kept his normal shoes. He said that's all he owned so it would have to do. From the stories I heard from the past, I couldn't help but worry. We left he dorm at around 7:50 in the morning, late for the plan we had made.


After a quick stop at the convenience store to grab our food for the trip, we got on the train at around 8:10. It took us around three hours to get there. Finally we were there. Already 11 o-clock, we wanted to climb as soon as possible. We grabbed more food from a convenience store nearby, as well as a cord for my phone which I had forgotten... and after discussing with the lady at the information centre, we settled to ride the 12:40 bus to the first station of the mountain.

Most people who climb this mountain only climb it from the fifth station. They take the bus up to there, start climbing and reach the top in around four to five hours. Now Shingo and I wanted to climb from the first station, which takes another two hours, or so they say. We started climbing at about 1:10 P.M.














 Now it usually takes two hours to get from station one to five. It took Shingo and I about an hour and a half, so you can imagine the pace at which we where going. By this point, my head started hurting just a bit. I started feeling dizzy, so I made sure I drank a lot of water. Due to the sweating, I didn't need to go to the washroom once until we reached our mountain hut. Good thing too cause it costs about two dollars to do so.















The way down was actually quite difficult. AND LONG!! For more than half the way down, it was just a zig-zag of a sand road. It never seemed to end. Shingo seemed to be tired and refused to go faster, so I ran on ahead, going down at a fairly fast pace. Why was I in a rush: it started to rain. Also, as we picked up our bags from the hut, we were told that it would rain hard around 7 A.M. So I wanted to make it back as fast as possible. But I ended up slipping and slightly hurting my ankle as I went down. I made it to the 5th station, a different one from last time, and waited for Shingo to come. He came about one hour later. We ate a ramen, and waited another 3 hours for the bus to come. I made sure we got on the first bus, not willing to wait another hour for the next bus.

After arriving back at the Mount Fuji station, we rode the train back to our dorm, arriving at around 3:45 P.M. I was tired, cold, stinky, frustrated, but satisfied. I had climbed Mount Fuji...

Last Sunday, I did what I believed I would never do: I went to Disney Sea.

Arisa and I arrived at around 10:30 in the morning. The station in front of the park was already filled with the Disney spirit. From there, we had to take a separate bus to get to the "Sea" part of the theme park, and this bus was of course filled with Mickey shaped windows, handles, etc...

Once in the park, we headed straight to the first attraction: The Tower of Terror. This consisted of us entering an old mansion, and due to an villain spirit, our elevator crashes and goes up and down. Now just to start off, let me say that I don't even enjoy getting on normal elevators. So let's just say my heart beat a couple times more than normal.


At the same time we grabbed a "Fast Pass" for the tower once again. The fast pass is a system they had in place which allows you to reserve a spot in the faster lane within a certain period of time. Arisa really liked this attraction so she had grabbed a fast pass for it. Now you can't just go and grab a fast past for everything. We had to wait another hour and a half to get the next one. Also, the moment you take your fast pass determines when you get to ride the attraction. Quite an interesting system I thought. Saves us from waiting hours and hours in the endless lines. Japan + Disney Land = Long Lines + Long Lines = Very long waiting lines.

After that, we walked around the park and found a place to eat. We ended up eating these kinds of tacos which were fairly good. But in the middle of our meal, some singers and dancers came to entertain the crowd in the food hall! We were handed fruit shaped shakers, asked to get up and sing along with them. They were quite energetic and I must say I was impressed by the trumpet player.

Then we managed to grab another fast pass for around 9pm, which we decided would probably be our last ride. Having quite some time before us, we walked around the different parts of the park. We went from Arielle the Mermaid's kingdom, to the centre of the earth, to a pirate's boat and medieval castle all the way to Aladdin's desert country. It really struck me how wonderful Disney is as a company. It manages to be in everyone's heart and mind in many ways, and it's only once there that I realized it's power. For a few hours, I let myself be enchanted by these wonders they created. The robots, the buildings, the music, the atmosphere, the decorations and the energy. I really felt like I entered a different world.

We ate supper in an italian restaurant, finishing our meal with none other than a tiramisu. Once we left, it was getting slowly darker and darker, and by night time, the view was fantastic. After that, we decided we had time to wait in one of the long lines for a ride. When I say long, I mean we waited... one hour and a half? But while we waited, Arisa showed me many Japanese songs from her phone and I played some music off of mine and danced and sang (I can't sing really because of my throat so when I say sing, I mean whisper the lyrics in a really creepy way.) It finished much faster than the amount of time we had waited for, but I guess I can say it was worth it. After that,  we rode two more rides finishing with the Indiana Jones' car ride.

After all it wasn't so bad.

Now why did I say I never thought I would come here? Well let's just say that from what I could see in the Japanese culture, they seem to take this place a little too seriously. Many girls will buy the Mickey Mouse ears to place on their head thinking it's the most adorable thing in the world. It just seems like they attempt to stay kids as long as possible, which is something that I don't agree too much with. But that being said, not every girl is like that. And no, I did not buy the ears if you were wondering.