I live this everyday and I still do not get used to the silence in the morning and everything in order: no race, no shout, no one speaking by phone, talking… not even praying… Nothing. Just calm, order and introspection: newspapers, books, nap, english course,… And, of course: one after the other.
Where would you start a visit to Tokyo? Exactly, anywhere but in the electronic quarter… Where did I start? Yes, you are right… Akihabara, the area where you can find all kind of shops with all kind of electronic devices. You can find there:
…sirens… (quite a niche market)
…a pink stand with a pink laptop… (and probably they do sell it)
Many people think, Japanese eat sushi every day, but it is not like that, and it is even difficult to find places with good sushi. Today, I found one on my way home, and I decided to buy some for dinner…
… and just for 9 euros. Not expensive at all, right?
Interesting experience. I had heard about it, as a must for long-term stays in Japan/Tokyo including summer: climb Mount Fuji and observe the sunrise from there… together with 10000 more people. What??? I thought we were climbing a mountain… 10000 people hiking up? Two ideas came to my mind at this point: either the figure is an exageration or it is not that hard… I was completely wrong. 10000 people is a good figure for that kilometric queue hiking towards the summit during the night… and it was not that easy.
We had to climb from 2305 m to 3776 m. So, around 1500 m, quite a lot. At the beginning, everything is ok, not many people, wide paths, and softer slopes… But, after a while, the paths are thinner, the people who were waiting in the different stations join the way up, the oxygen reduces (and you do notice the difference), and the sunrise is closer. Not everybody reaches the summit before the sunrise, but it is quite ok if you are already around 3500 m as we were.
The worst part was after the sunrise, when everybody who had stopped decided to go up at the same time. It took us a couple of hours to reach the summit, but we did it. And, after eating something up there (good business) and taking a look to the crater of the volcan, time to go down, which was even harder than ascending… At the end, 30 hours without sleeping, and the proud to have reached the ceiling of Japan… and this is just the beginning. I still have more than 5 months left here. 🙂
Any way, I agree with the japanese. It’s a once-in-a-life experience. There will be no second time, that’s for sure. 😉
