Bring on Everest.....

We left Sasebo friday afternoon to start the 12 hour drive to the mountain. Along with 33 other people we started the trek to one of the more popular tourist attractions in Japan. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain right around 0600 and I was getting anxious to start the ascent. After changing into our hiking outfits, last check of equipment and gear, and the purchase of our walking sticks we were ready to go. After previous years of losing people on the mountain, MWR made it a requirement to stay as a group all the way up and all the way down. (This will come into play later). The passing of a recent typhoon had cleared the weather and made it almost perfect. We took off at 0704 and started the day long climb. Being on several hikes before and constant cardio training had me well prepared for this task. I wish I could say the same for everyone. In order for the group to stay together we had to travel at the speed of the slowest person, which in our case were two 50 somethings who thought they had something to prove. Not even an hour into the hike and we were already moving at a very slow pace.

Along the trail were several rest stations. At each one were little shops to get some water or food to snack on. Also there were the branding pits where you could get your walking stick branded for a small price. Each station had a different brand. Getting your stick branded at each station was a good souvenir for the trip. The trail up the mountain was in the pattern of a "z" and in some places were very steep. The two at the front made the trip up very slow, taking about 10 steps and then having to break. Of the time spent stopped it gave us a chance to stop and look around and enjoy the view. Many of the pictures I took I put on my website . After several hours of climbing we finally reached station 9, the 2nd to last one. We were currently at 3250 m (9750 ft) and were starting to feel the take of the journey thus far. The top was in site and was ready for our arrival.

The higher we went the steeper the mountain got. And now staring up to the top from the ninth station, it was nothing but straight up. The thin air and bright sun were taking it's toll. After what seemed like ages with the aging thrill seekers at our front, we finally got to the top. While they were crying and embracing each other I passed them at the last torii gate and got to the top thinking it was all over. The top caught the breeze from the other side of the mountain making the summit very windy and cold. I enjoyed a nice bowl of ramen and got my stick branded for the last time. Time 8 hours and 14 minutes.

After several pictures and a bathroom break we started our descent. The path was in the same "Z" pattern of the climb at the lower levels of the mountain. The paths were loose and eroded which made for a quicker climb down. The constant downward steps proved to much for the knees of several of the hikers. And that made for a slow descent. Before we got to the bottom the sun set and had us walking in semi-complete darkness. Having planned for the worse we had been required to bring flashlights so we didnt need to all hold hands. Coming down we saw several hikers going up, climbing all night to see the sunrise in the morning. 4 hours since we left the top we arrived at the bottom, we got onto the bus and headed for the closest bath house and restaurant. After a nice soak in the saunas and a good meal, we got back on the bus and headed back.

Overall it was a good hike and one that I might do again, the last year I'm here. At 12,388 feet it's not a hike I want to do often. I was looking at a chart of the tallest mountains in the world and saw that Fuji-san is about number 64. Mt. Everest is over twice as tall. Maybe someday I'll climb a higher one but for now I need to nurse the calves and tend to a sunburn.

Root Canal

One of our working dogs recently broke off one of his canine teeth while attacking the arm sleeve used to get the dogs to bite. Since infection was a possibility the vet decided to perform a root canal on the tooth. Since he had never performed the procedure, and the navy dentists were more than thrilled to come and practice their skills on the large tooth we enlisted their help to come to the clinic. The procedure is just like one that is performed on a human, though the root of the canine goes much deeper in the skull and nobody sees a bill. After about thirty minutes of removing all tissue in the tooth and filling it with cement, the procedure was over. The dog woke up fine and was quickly back to his old self.

Working and going to school, gotta love it....

For the 1st term in the 2005-2006 school season I enrolled myself in American History and Government, which start on the 22nd. These two classes are going to be a pioneering experience for me as my teacher is going to email me the assignments and I need to email them back to her/him by Sunday at midnight. Looking at the syllabus it looks like Im going to have to write a couple 5 page papers, woo-hoo!! I thought I spent too much time in my room, but it looks like these classes will make sure I stay here. A portion of the class is on a CD-ROM that came with the giant textbooks, so I will be doing alot of on-the-computer learning. History has always been an interest of mine so maybe it won't be so bad. It'll definetly give me an excuse to watch the History channel now.

Captain's Cup

After the end of the season softball tournament, MWR held another tournament for the coveted "Captain's Cup". For each sporting event's final tournament, points are awarded for each command. At the end of the year, the command with the most points receives the trophy presented by the captain of the base. I was asked by a former teammate to join the CFAS team, after they didn't have enough people to field a game on Wednesday. For this tourny, some of the teams didn't participate so every team in it was a hodge podge of different teams and players allowing me to just jump aboard the team so late in the tournament. They had already won once on Monday so this mandatory forfeit put them in the loser's bracket. It was good to get back on the field and play with a team that wanted to be there and knew what they were doing. We won the first game and that put us up against the #1 seed. Since we lost earlier in the tournament, we had to beat the number 1 seed twice and was fortunate to do so. In one of those lowest scoring games we won game number one, and then the bats woke up a little in the second game and we were glad to come away with a close game, 9-8.

Protestors

Even though we couldn't read any of the signs, there were about 100 Japanese citizens and monks dressed in gold robes protesting outside the base yesterday. The one that was in English said "No More War".It got so bad that they completely blocked the main entrance to the base and had taken up one and a half lanes of the four lane highway right out side. I don't know if this was because of the recent anniversaries of the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki or if it was for the on going war in Iraq. I didn't care to ask, but I thought, who protests out in the desert in front of the Al-Qaida? Whose holding signs telling them to stop bombing? Nobody wants to be at war, but don't both sides have to agree to stop?