Before I left, I had to prepare many things in order to leave without too many problems. I mean, I've been in Japan for one year and three months. There's gonna be a few glitches here and there.

The first task was my luggage. I had to pack over a year' worth of things into two suitcases. Wasn't gonna happen! So I had to send home about eight boxes by boat. Finding the boxes, bringing them back to my dorm, packing everything, getting the right papers, filling them in, calling in someone to pick up the parcels or bringing them to the post office were all tasks that had to be performed to complete this. Yet as if that wasn't enough, many problems happened. My boxes were returned to the post office about three times after being sent out. Why? Because in Japan, they think too much. Haha, no, well more likely because they don't understand the mailing system in Canada, and they didn't believe that the address I wrote down would be sufficient for the boxes to reach my house. A very interesting experience. But the third time the boxes came back, I heard from my friends Yusef and Haruyuki, was the day before I left. They were asking me to go there and sort out the problem, except that was pretty much impossible. So I asked my friends to take care of it, and they did after about one week of panic.

The next part was cleaning my room and getting rid of the objects I no longer needed. I left a lot of things to my friends Nnadi, Yusef, Islam, and Sorata. I sold some other things as well, although I didn't make much money. This included all my kitchen stuff, pans and plates, the appliances such as my rice cooker and my toaster, as well as some other practical objects such as blankets and note pads.

The last part of my preparation was saying good bye to everyone, which in itself was quite a task. Over a year, I got to meet many MANY people from around the world, and saying goodbye to all of them was obviously impossible. So I mainly kept it to my close friends and those who helped me out during my stay here as well as most of the Judo teachers and coaches.
I had already started about three or four months before I left, knowing that I wouldn't get to see them anymore, and so I was mentally prepared for it. I told myself not to cry, and I held back most of my emotions. I gave hugs to dozens of people, people I would most likely never see again, but had been a great part of my life here in Japan. The separation was harsh, but I knew it would come, so I felt in a sense relieved. One other thing that helped was the fact that we will have the Internet to easily keep in contact. So as I stated on my Facebook page, it's not a "good-bye" per say, but more a "See you later" kind of separation.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Mr. Sato has been taking fairly good care of me. But it has come to a point that I can't even believe. First, he helped me at the Yokohama practice. Then he invited me for supper and drove me back to the university. He also said that he would drive me back every Thursday.

But it did not stop there. The next practice on Friday morning, after the warm up, the fighters for that weekend's tournament lined up to throw, as they usually do. They called out whoever they wanted as partner and got to practice throwing before their tournament.

Now I never thought I would ever do such a thing since I'm not part of the team and I have no tournaments. Yet as we were doing our normal uchi-komi during the warm up, Mr. Sato called me and told me that I would be joining those throwing to practice the combination he had shown me the night before. I could NOT believe it. But as the athletes were called up to line up, I kept my eyes on Mr. Sato who soon called out my name and told me again to get in line. That way everyone knew.

My first partner was Fubuki, but I went and asked many different fighters, including Honma, the coach who had accompanied me to the Touin Gakuen University. I think I threw over 30 times in those seven minutes, the most I have thrown since I have been here. Many were wondering why I was up there and one even asked me if I had a tournament coming up. I didn't care, I was up there. It was an opportunity to throw, and I didn't waste any time.

Once that was done, I was quite exhausted. I always wondered why the fighters would take their time throwing. I understood why, haha. Mr. Sato told me I was done for now, and the practice continued. About five minutes before the "randori" started, Mr. Sato once again called out my name. But he also called out Haruka Tachimoto's name. He brought us to one side of the dojo, took a chalk and a belt, and just as he had done for many of the team's top athletes, he made me draw two circles onto the mats. After that, he showed Haruka and I what he wanted us to work on. We had to practice a specific foot sweep while hoping in the shape of the circle. We did this maybe 40 times. He would come back from time to time, show us something new to work on, and we were off again. Haruka is quite a strong athlete and knew much more than me what to do, so she gave me tips here and there. After that, he told us we were done, and we could go back to the normal practice. I thanked him and joined in as much as I could.

By that point, I was quite exhausted. It has been a while since I had done so many repetitions without breaks. The club doesn't really usually run that way. But it just gave me more energy. To have someone look over you while everyone else seems not to care can be quite... moving. Motivating. I am very greatful for him taking the time for me.

Ever since my father and sister came to visit me in April, Mr. Sato had started telling me that once I finish my classes, he would take me to a different university to practice. Somewhere a little less stronger than Tokai, where I could get a more... fitted practice. Well, according to Mr. Sato of course.

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...

We started the day with the weird morning stretching, a little early, and then off to breakfast.



After breakfast, we had to finish packing and get everything completely cleaned from our room before practice. Luckily, I had packed most of my stuff the night before. I finished up my stuff, packing everything so that I could just place my gi in my luggage and go.



At last, here came the last practice. Now by this time, everyone was tired, and you could feel it.

After the first fifteen minutes, I felt something weird with my shoulder, so I decided not to do much that last practice. I didn't want to get a stupid last-minute injury. Which is what Fubuki ended up doing. He pulled his right middle toe during the last 30 minutes of the practice, and will most likely not be able to practice for two-three days.

After practice, we took pictures with our same year students. I normally stand with the 2nd year students, but I talk mostly with those from the 3rd year, so I was told to go in with them for the picture!

We then took the next hour to pick up the mats and clean the gym.



Lunch time, then onto the bus.

As I walked up the hill near my residence in the unbearable heat, pulling my suitcase, I recalled where I was last week, and how far I had come. This week has taught me a lot. A lot about the members of the club. It has shown me how they think. I was able to participate in the training camp with the Tokai University Judo Team this summer. One more goal completed.

Sweat, blood, and fire is what I left back there. But what I brought back cannot be put into words.

In preparation for the upcoming summer training camp, I performed various activities. I obviously packed my bags and such, making sure I had enough shampoo, tooth paste for example. I also prepared my medicine for my throat, making sure I had enough. Since this was my first time going out to a training camp here with the team, I wasn't too sure what to expect, and with my father being worried, it only made me worried. So I contacted many fellow club mates and those in charge to make sure I had the right information. It took many messages back and forth since no one seemed to know anything...


Now one of the biggest parts of my preparation for this camp started two weeks before. In order to perform my best at this camp, and not get any injuries, I had to make sure I was in my best condition. I must say, since it was summer, it wasn't always easy to get myself motivated to go and kill myself doing chin-ups and such. But I managed to get enough exercise in to feel confident.

Yoooouuuussshhhh! Here I come training camp.