Friday, 27 August 2004

more eye...

My eye's in the same condition as it was last night today. Allison at work says it's called "sleepy eye" and is caused by lack of sleep. Could be, but she says that that's just what her mum told her so I'm guessing it's one of those old wives tales. ;) My knee's getting better.

Okay, so you want to know about Fuji, eh? Well as I mentioned, it was raining the whole night. Brenton, Eric and I met in Shinjuku Station and picked up the tickets. It took us a while as me and Brenton were standing in the wrong line for the wrong tickets in the wrong business for over half an hour. Of course once we found the real place it only took us minutes to get the bus tickets I had reserved.

We decided on McDonalds for dinner (Japanese food on Fuji) and then stopped by the 7/11 for supplies and then jumped on bus for Fuji! I sat next to an American guy who works for Toyota. He get's sent around the world to Japan, France, UK, etc expenses paid for his job. He'd actually lived in Japan for a few years but had never climbed Fuji before. This was his first time.

Across the isle were some girls who just happened to be NOVA teachers from Chiba. They seemed to be having a good time and we had a brief conversation before getting to the 5th Station on Fuji.

Mt Fuji is divided into "stations". No trains, just rest buildings with souveniers, food and drink. The highest you can get driven is the 5th station. You have to walk the rest of the way. The bus trip from Shinjuku station takes about 2.5 hours which goes by very fast. Lots of highway and mountains (well outlines of mountains anyway. We caught the 7:50pm bus so it was pitch black!).

We passed the fastest rollercoaster IN THE WORLD which is under Fuji. Great reactions from everyone (including myself). Mostly "Holy Fuck" and "Oh, yeah". The coaster looks insane! I'm talking 15 degree turns here!

More tomorrow... ;)