Hawaii Time

 

Went to Hawaii to see my sister strapped to the side of a plane. Wait...I didn't go to see HER strapped to the side of a plane... Anyway, although it was f-f-freezing and LOUD, it was free!!!! What a great way to fly.

 

Everyone stretched out on their blankets and slept.  One of the girls said that this is the best way to fly with a baby. 

I arrived at around noon, hopped in a rental car and hit the beach.  Two turtles came out to welcome me.

 

 

We ended the day with dinner at Genki Sushi (a converyor belt sushi place) and the poke was ono!

 

We got up at 5am to beat the crowds at Hanauma Bay.  The first thing we saw, before even seeing any fish, was a large turtle.  Despite the fact that it was right next to us, we kept poking each other and pointing to make sure we were seeing the same thing.

   

We swam with 3 turtles and about a zillion fish. We had the beach mostly to ourselves until about 9am. 

 

Although I don't remember all the details, it's safe to say we ended the day with ice cream. We ended EVERY day with ice cream.

When the beach got old (just kidding) we went hiking.  It was so pretty I didn't mind the 50 or so mosquito bites.  Plus we ate fruit right from the trees along the path.

 

One day (all the beach days are blending together) we drove almost all the way around the island.  Then we were tired so we had ice cream.

 

The parking spots were all taken at Waimea beach.  So, instead of jumping off the huge rock, we decided to see Waimea Falls and this bird.  I think Rachel's trying to give me bunny ears..or maybe she's ordering a double scoop of ice cream...

Rachel, Stephen, Cadence (the dog), and I had a picnic. We ate sandwiches and Cadence ate sand.

Played a little bocci ball before the sun set.  Rachel and I kicked butt!

Bye beach!  I'm going to bowl, watch a movie, go on a field trip to the mall (with Rachel's students) and pig out at a luau. 

Mt Fuji

Okay, Crystal went off to Hawaii to visit with her sister, Rachel.  Since Crystal already climbed Mt. Fuji back in high school and since climbing season was coming to a close, I figured I better get hiking.  I bought some supplies and food and hopped on a train for Kawaguchiko.  Along the way I took a picture of Fuji in the distance.  

Hmm, pretty daunting.

I heard that a night hike was a good way to experience Fuji.  It allows you to get a view of the sunrise from 3700 meters up.  So, I arrived at about 8:00 PM at the fifth station (the tradition starting point, although it's possible to start way down at the base, but not recommended). It was here that I bought a hiking stick.  At each station you can get it branded to mark your progress.  It's also an indispensable tool to aid in the difficult climb.

Here's my hiking stick.  On the left (going up the stick) are brands for the 5th, 7th, and 8th stations (I missed 6 for some reason).  On the right is the top of completed stick with the brands for the Fuji summit.  It's a little dirtier and a little bloodier (from my hands) from when I bought it, but it sure was a help. 

Okay, here's the 5th station.  You can see the hulking outline of Fuji in the background.  Gulp!

A night view of the surrounding cities from around the seventh station.  The blank areas without any lights are lakes.  Very nice places to visit for views of the mountain.  It got really cold on the mountain.  While it was probably around 70 F down at sea level, it was below freezing at night up above 3000 meters.  C-c-cold.

I stayed in this little hostel/lodge to get a little rest and eat some expensive cup-o-noodle.  This is the eighth station right around sunrise.

A very tired, very sweaty Erik ruining a nice view of sunrise. :-)

Still not done with the hike, I had a few hours to go.  This is what the path looked like most of the way.  Pretty much just a lunar-like landscape.  Honestly, not very attractive...

...but the view out from the mountain was really nice.

A good idea what the climb was like.  Tired just thinking about it.  The air at 3000+ meters gets really thin and what looks easy normally suddenly become quite a chore.  Huff puff.  There are many, many switchback up the mountain.  Basically, it's just climb for a while, rest for a while.  It seemed that no one was making fast progress. 

Well, I finally arrived at the summit. Woohoo! There a torii gate marking the entrance to the top.  Whew!!

As you know, Fuji is a active volcano, which means there's a crater up top.  Here's what it looks like to look down into Fuji. 

The hike down was possible harder than the hike up.  The decent was remarkably difficult.  It's all gravel and sand for miles at a considerable slope.  My knees and feet were really unhappy with me. 

I'm thankful to God for protecting me and for the great weather.  The views were fantastic and seeing the sunrise from two miles up was quite an experience.  The saying is something like "'He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool."  I think I'll keep my wise status and just enjoy Fuji from afar from now on.  :-)  Just check out the view from Lake Kawaguchiko:

One of our old pictures from wintertime but it really shows off Fuji.

Our Tokyo anniversary trip

What's with the hats?  That will be explained later.

We went to Tokyo for our anniversary.  This might sound funny being that we technically live in Tokyo, but we really live a least an hour away from the main city by train.  We stayed at the New Sanno Hotel in downtown and used that as a base to go out and explore the city.

The New Sanno is located in Hiroo, a neighborhood considered the ritziest part of the city.  It's where most of the various embassies are located.  We saw around 10 Ferraris and Lamborghinis in our short time staying here.  Apparently you get paid well to work at an embassy.  I always find it funny to see people driving around in such expensive sports cars when nearly everywhere you go in the Tokyo area is stop and go traffic.

DAY ONE

The first day we traveled around the nearby Roppongi Hills area.  Very nice area with huge buildings, lots of shopping, food, good views, and big spider statues.

Why  is there a big futuristic spider in the middle of Roppongi Hills?  Don't know, but it looks cool.

We went to an art gallery and saw a lot of works by Chinese modern artist Ai Weiwei.  Ewww, modern art?  Yuck!  No, I hate to admit it, but some of his works were actually pretty interesting. 

It's hard to tell, but this is actually a set of large wooden boxes with circular holes carved in them.  When looked at from one end of the room to the other, through all of the boxes, you can see each of the phases of the moon. 

A bunch of seemingly randomly placed logs, but when seen from above, it's actually in the shape of China.  Odd, but interesting.

We went up to the observation deck of the Mori Tower to get a view of the city.  It's funny, Tokyo Tower is supposed to have one of the best views of the city, but when you're in Tokyo Tower, you can't see Tokyo Tower (obviously).  From this building, however, not only do you get a higher view of the city, but you also get to see Tokyo Tower in the middle of it all.  Obviously a much better view.  Notice the color. It's about 7:00 PM when this was taken.

We next walked around in the Sky Aquarium located in the observation deck of Mori Tower.  It's basically a bunch of smaller aquariums laid out in an artistic fashion.  Here some pics:

He's alive and well, just really weird.  I think he's holding his breath.

Aquarium kaleidoscope.

After the Sky Aquarium, we ventured up to the heliport area on top of the Mori Tower (238 meters up). 

About two hours later, Tokyo Tower has changed colors. Didn't know they did this.

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DAY TWO

 

We took the day to walk around Odaiba.  It's basically a big entertainment area built on a man-made island.  We didn't really think it through though, because this whole week was a Japanese national holiday which meant everyone and there mom was at Odaiba.  It was crowded and hot. 

 

Walking around, we ran into a monkey show.  This little guy did all kinds of tricks and acrobatics.  Unfortunately, videos, including ones I took showing off his skills, are not uploadable to the blog.  So here's a pic of him standing, showing off.  He kept standing like this for some reason.

 

We ducked inside to escape from the heat and found a cool little candy shop with all types of sugary goodness.  This includes candy cigarettes and beer candy for kids.  Japan is so politically incorrect sometimes.  It's a nice change.

 

Going back outside, we found the famous 1:1 scale Gundam statue.  I don't know much about Gundam, other than it's a really popular and been around for 30 years.  I also now that this huge 18 meter tall statue is really worth seeing.

Talk about attention to detail. Check out the advertisement for the Tokyo Olympics in 2016.

Quite impressive.

Okay, so we were getting antsy for some dinner, so we walked over to the other side of Odaiba to a big mall called Palette Town.  Part of Palette Town is a nice shopping area called Fort Venus (I know, oddball names. That's the norm in Japan) which is similar to the Venetian in Las Vegas with painted ceilings and stores.  Very nice mall.

We found a Hawaiian restaurant called Hale Moana.  As we were enjoying our meal, I looked up to see this guy come walking in.  What in the world? 

After this we returned to the New Sanno.  We took these pictures from our room.  What a view!  The second one is the fountain at the hotel entrance.

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DAY THREE

Today we spent the afternoon at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno neighborhood. 

It's amazing to see objects like this container that are in respectable condition. This one is from the 5th millennium BC!

Some cat-themed Ukiyo-e prints.

The most famous of Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji.

Okay, time to explain those hats...

We returned to the hotel that night and went to the Hawaii luau.  Good food, music, and hula.  Fun time and goofy hats.  Good way to finish up a awesome anniversary trip.  I love you Crystal!  Isn't she beautiful? 

Japanese hawaiian music band

Japanese hula dancers