Girl's Weekend at Shirotori Dance Festival

Last weekend, Melissa went to Shirotori (about an hour and a half from Gifu) with Yuka and Yurie to stay with Zelie for a "girls weekend" while Frank went hiking and camping with the guys. We had a great time! On Friday night we went out to eat to celebrate Yurie's birthday.

On Saturday, we went to a park that had fields and fields of blooming flowers. We walked around for about an hour. It was beautiful!

Shirotori Dance Festival: That evening, we all dressed in yukatas (which are summer kimonos) to go to the Shirotori Dance Festival.

Shirotori Dancing is done every summer as a way of welcoming back the spirits of past ancestors...whatever that means! Around 8 pm, people came together from surrounding towns to dance around a float that was placed in the middle of the street. On the float were singers and musicians which provided the music.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was definitely surprised with the difficulty of the dancing. It reminded me a little of country line dancing in the sense that everyone did the same thing at the same time, but of course to Japanese music. Also, they not only danced using their feet, they used their arms as well. Each song had a different dance, which made it entertaining to watch.

Since Zelie and I were the only foreigners at this festival, we got a lot of attention. Many people asked to take pictures with us and would go out of there way to give us food, fans, etc. It was great! One woman was literally feeding me and Zelie fish with her own hands! The picture below is of her feeding Zelie.

Here is a video of the dancing:

Here is a video of Zelie and Yurie dancing...I was unfortunately too uncoordinated to dance!

At 11:00, the festival ended and we went back to Zelie's apartment. This was yet another great memory of our time in Japan!

Climbing Mt. Fuji!

On Sunday, June 15, we climbed Mt. Fuji

with Matt and Chelsea. The entire climb
took 11 hours (7 hours up and 4 hours down).
We climbed all night in order to get to
the top for the sunrise. This was our experience:

Preparing for the Climb: A few months ago, we started training to climb Mt. Fuji, which is the tallest mountain in Japan. We trained about 4 days a week by jogging 3 miles, climbing Mt. Kinka, and going to the gym.

We also wanted to make sure we had the right equipment. Since we weren't sure what to expect, we tried to prepare for anything that could come our way on the mountain.

We carried backpacks, a 3 liter CamelBak water container, a 1 liter water thermos, a small stove with a gas container, a bottle of oxygen, rain jackets, rain pants, backpack rain covers, hats, gloves, cushions to sit on, wind breakers, down jackets, fleece jackets, head lights, and a lot of snacks to eat along the way.

About Mt. Fuji: Mount Fuji is 3,776 m (12,389 ft.) tall, making it Japan's highest mountain.

It is a dormant volcano, which last erupted in 1708. The climbing season is July and August.

Getting to Mt. Fuji: We had planned to climb on Saturday, but to our surprise, Japan was hit by a typhoon! It rained ALL day on Saturday and had really strong winds. We decided to postpone our hike to Sunday after the typhoon passed. On Sunday morning, we drove 4 hours in a rental car to Mt. Fuji. Once we found the mountain, we ate a huge pasta and pizza dinner at an Italian restaurant to load up on the carbs. We then drove to the 2nd station on Mt. Fuji to park the car while we hiked.

We then took a bus to the fifth station to begin our hike. In order to adjust to the altitude, we waited at this station for an hour. While we were waiting we bought hiking sticks which we got stamps branded on at each station, which made for a great souvenir (picture below) and post cards to mail to our parents from the summit. Can you believe there's a post office at the top of a 12,389 foot mountain!

Our Trail: There are 4 main trails up the mountain. We took the Fujinomiya Trail, which is the shortest route to the top, but the steepest. Below is a map showing stages and time in minutes.

The Way Up: We started hiking at 9 pm and got to the top at 4 am. The view along the way was nice. We have NEVER seen so many stars before! One great thing about climbing this mountain are the stations set-up along the way (pictured below). About every 45 minutes, we would come across the next station and take a break. Some people pay to sleep at the stations over night, but we opted to keep going.

About 1/2 Way Up: Once we got about 1/2 way up, the temperature dropped and the winds picked up significantly! We had every layer we brought on once we got above the 8th station. We were also at a really high altitude, which caused Frank to get altitude sickness. He had a headache and felt nauseous for the rest of the way.

At the Top: Once we got to the 9.5th station, Frank was still not feeling well. When we realized that the route to the summit (10th station) was closed due to snow and ice, we decided this was as high as we would climb. We were able to see the sunrise at 4:30 am. It was beautiful being so high above the clouds.

Rainbow: After seeing the sunrise, within minutes a rainbow appeared on the other side of the mountain!

The Way Down: At 4:30am, we started our decent down, while Matt and Chelsea made their way to the summit. It was nice actually being able to see where we were going now that the sun had risen. The way down was a bit more challenging for us...we were exhausted, Frank felt sick, and their was a constant mist that never ended. It was also pretty steep and the rocks slid under our feet easily.

Finished! We made it back to the fifth station at 8:30 am. Wow, what an experience. There is a famous Japanese quote that says "A wise man climbs Mt. Fuji once, a fool climbs it twice." We are making plans to climb Mt. Fuji one more time in August in order to reach the summit...what does that say about us?

Sumo Wrestling

On Sunday we went with Matt and Chelsea to Nagoya for the opening day of Sumo. We arrived at 7:30am to wait in line to buy general admission tickets that went on sale at 8:20. We weren't sure what kind of crowd to expect, so we went inside as soon as we got our tickets to claim our seats. Little did we know that the majority of people start coming around 3pm (once the professional wrestlers begin). We, along with about 30 other people, watched the tournament from beginning to end, totaling 10 hours of watching sumo!

When we first arrived, we watched the amateur wrestlers. They varied in size, but most were really small compared to the professionals.

Here is a video of some beginner sumo wrestlers.

As the day progressed, the wrestlers got bigger and better. The average sumo wrestler weighs 412 pounds and is 6'2" tall.

Each match usually only lasts a few seconds, but some can last a couple of minutes.

The winner of a sumo bout is for the most part determined by two rules:
The first person to touch the ground with any part of his body other than the soles of his feet or the first person to be pushed out of the ring loses.

Towards the end of the day, the professionals participated in many ceremonies with the referees and were given envelopes filled with money after winning. The top sumo wrestlers, known as the Yokozunas, make an average of $25,000 a month.

After the last bout, everyone in the stadium threw the purple cushions they were sitting on in the air. We are not quite sure why, but it was fun to watch! Everyone sitting in reserved boxed seats sat on the floor with cushions! We were actually glad we bought general admission tickets...they were cheaper and we sat in chairs.

Here's a video of one of the last matches of the day!

After spending the entire day watching sumo, we feel we now have a good grasp on the sport. It was definitely a memorable experience for us!

Nagoya Baseball Game...Go Dragons!

On June 23 we went with 9 friends from work to see a professional baseball game in Nagoya. It was the Nagoya Dragons against the Fukuoka Hawks. Of course we were cheering for the Dragons, since we live really close to Nagoya, but unfortunately they lost 4 to 6.

The game was held in the Nagoya Dome. It seats 40,500 people and every seat was filled. Surprisingly, we didn't see any other foreigners.

We recently realized that the Dragons is the team Tom Selleck played for in the movie "Mr. Baseball."

We had a great time at the game, especially cheering for all the players! Each player has a different cheer and the fans all chant together in perfect unison. Here's a video of the stadium cheering.