The Sunday Snapshot

Months of planning paid off - Matt and I returned from an amazing trip to New Zealand. Posts to follow!

The Day on Miyagi Island

Okinawa is part of an island chain and is surrounded by other, tiny islands. Many require a ferry to access, but some are connected by long bridges. One Saturday Matt and I invited our friends to travel across multiple bridges to reach and explore Miyagi Island. While we wanted to simply drive around the island, we also wanted a specific place to search out. I chose a cafe found in one of my handy 100-series cafe guides. While the slim book is in Japanese, the stamp-sized map is fairly easy to follow on a tiny island with few roads. We ate at a cafe on the main island of Okinawa before setting out to find this cafe known for its bread. Specifically, bread in the shape of hedgehogs.

The cafe, known as Boulangerie Cafe Yamashita, was within sight of the bridge leading to the island, so it was very easy to find. We all picked out a bread roll to sample, but only I selected the hedgehog bread filled with a chocolate/ red bean paste mixture. The owner was delighted to see us and asked us what base we were from and how we had found the little shop. We explained the cafe book, and she asked the four of us to pose for a photo for their website. I found the photo on their facebook page a few days later with this (translated) caption: 

Camp Courtney they came from, what a modern art published ' Okinawa hundred series " has been found. Japanese is read, but a photo and map to rely on you to say. (thank you! ) (please come here again! )Photo with you want to go!! And that 'Okinawa 100' also nice!!

We did not stay to eat our bread and enjoy the view as we had only recently finished lunch. I ate my little hedgehog as I was starving at the end of the day. It was an interesting mixture of savory and sweet in a crusty shell, but my American palate wished for more chocolate and less bean paste. 

Too cute to eat... until I was really, really hungry. 

We simply drove the perimeter of the island and stopped the car whenever we found an interesting site. There was the seawall covered in colorful murals done by school children. The seawall also had a ladder so we could climb over and see the beautiful turquoise ocean. 

The water was such a beautiful color!

 We found views of beaches from the top of cliffs, and we drove until we found views of beaches surrounded by the same cliffs. There was a sign warning away swimmers, so we simply enjoyed the water from the ankle-down. I highly recommend a day simply spent driving around Miyagi Island. And if any fellow foreigners want to try hedgehog bread you will be treated like celebrities. 

The Top of Mt. Fuji

The view from the fifth station.

This is Matt again with a blog post about an adventure I went on without Amanda. I knocked out an item on my bucket list: climbing Mt. Fuji. The mountain is iconic and can be found on almost all the famous art depicting Japan.

We planned our trip to Tokyo during the summer climbing season, but Amanda informed me she would not be making the trek with me. We found friends who did want to climb: our neighbor Dave and one of my best friends Asa who flew all the way from the states for this experience.

We traveled with a tour group that Amanda booked. The group left from our hotel lobby at two in the morning. When we arrived at the mountain it was still dark, around four a.m, and a brisk breeze was blowing. Some of our fellow hikers scoffed at our shorts, t-shirts, and very light layers from beneath their heavy parkas. We purchased our fuji sticks (a souvenir hiking stick that you can have have branded at the different stations on your ascent) and, in our impatience to get ahead of the slower group, we set off on our path. Turns out it was the wrong path.

Sunrise from above the clouds.

After coming to our first intersection we took what we considered the logical choice. The trail began to narrow and meander through a thick tree line. We traversed some steep and not-so-well-marked trails to reach the sixth station just as the sun was rising. As we stopped to apply sunscreen our tour group casually strolled up the paved access road that we missed when we took our first turn.

"Where did you come from?" I asked our tour guide.

"The only authorized trail. Where did YOU come from?" she asked in response. We had no good answer.

As our tour group stopped to shed their heavy winter jackets now that their bodies had warmed during the climb (hah! We win!), the three of us raced off again to keep ahead of the group. This time we followed the signs.

We climbed, the winds picked up, and the slope increased. The trail, though clearly marked, was often a jumble of rocks with plenty of places to roll your ankle if you are not careful. We decided that the fuji sticks were a practical investment and that climbing the mountain at night would be terrible. At each station we stopped to pay the 200 yen for branding our sticks and admire the view while resting. When the tour groups with over one hundred people neared our station we would take off again. As we climbed higher the switch-backs became more frequent and we took a lot more breaks to admire the scenery as the air became thinner. Pretty soon we were admiring the scenery every two minutes. While I knew the physical aspect of the climb would not stop me, we were all aware that we were winded very quickly and had started to develop headaches. We still had several stations to go, so I decided to purchase an oxygen canister. Dave and Asa decided they would tough it out, a few more stations and neat brands later (and after we had all shared my oxygen) we were starting to near the top.

The entrance to the summit is guarded by a torii gate. We stopped to take pictures and made the final ascent. The view from the top, despite being nothing but clouds, was still breathtaking. We purchased a traditional bowl of hot noodles and our last brand for the sticks and admired the caldera. We had plenty of time to make our way down before the bus left.

A reminder that this serene mountain is actually an active volcano.

At the bottom we changed out of our sweaty clothes and boots into flip-flops and went looking for more snacks and a solid nap.

The climb was a great experience made even more so by getting to do it with my friends, but I truly understand the famous Japanese proverb. "A wise man will climb Mt. Fuji once; A fool will climb Mt. Fuji twice."