Hangzhou by bicycle

We flew into Hangzhou in the morning, a vacation spot for many Chinese people ("Above there is heaven, on earth there is Hangzhou"). The lake around which the city was built had a nice trail around it, so we all rented bikes and spent the afternoon being tourists.

Pagodas were everywhere around the lake.

Dragon boat. Why not?

Suited up on our cheap rental bikes.

The lake was quite pretty.

That was about it. This stop seemed intended as just a relaxing stopover on our way to Shanghai.

Land of the Rising Sun

Getting to Mt. Fuji was more difficult than we anticipated. We left Kyoto about noon and didn’t begin hiking until about 9 PM Monday. The plan was to hike all night and reach the summit before the sunrise at 5:41 AM. I was prepared enough to have my hiking boots with me but foolishly left my one jacket in my luggage in Korea. It had been sweltering our entire time touring Japan, but climbing up 3,700 m in the dark can get quite cold.

So eager. So naive.

Fortunately we had a full moon to help light the way.

Yeah, that says 385 minutes (~6.5 hours) to the top. And we just started.

The hike up was difficult but not painful. We took breaks at all the way stations and started early enough that we could eat ramen at the last restaurant on the way up. Really we just wanted a break from the wind, which was a good thing because the food was terrible. Towards the top it really started to get crowded, but we managed to find a good spot to sit well before the sun began to rise.

Viktor took this excellent shot looking up the trail.

Well look at that. A vending machine on top of a sacred Japanese mountain.

It really was a fantastic thing to see the sun rise over from Mt. Fuji, one that can’t be captured in pictures. In just a few seconds the blood red sun was completely over the horizon and people began their descent.

The beginning of the sun's rise.

Yah I made it! But damn was it cold.

Group shot at the top.

Really we were just delaying the inevitable trip back down.

The return part was something none of us prepared for.

Looks a lot different by daylight. Because you can actually see.

Walking down (off?) the mountain.

After spending the whole day traveling and the whole night climbing, the alternate downhill path was grueling. The switchbacks were entirely too steep and the path was laid with essentially loose gravel, making it very difficult to keep balanced. Almost 5 hours later I was at the 5th station where we started, hungry, tired, and in a lot of pain. I pieced together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and we got on the bus back towards our hostel and unused beds. The owners were kind enough to allow us to shower even though our room was already occupied by another group. We dressed and packed in the lobby and started off for Tokyo.

The final official weekend

This is it, the last weekend of the program has come and gone. It's the first weekend where I didn't have some extravagant trip planned.

My dorm. I don't think I'll miss this part so much.

My roommate Sungmin and his girlfriend like seeing plays (well, more just his girlfriend) and I was interesting in seeing one of the nonverbal performances, The B-Boy and the Ballerina. The title pretty much says it all, but we met at Lotte World to check it out. I didn't know much about Lotte World, but it's like an indoor Disneyland with shopping, restaurants, and a very expensive hotel all connected. And an ice rink, you gotta have one of those.

The Lotte World ice rink. The whole place was packed with people.

Sungmin and his girlfriend, Ee-young Choi.

There were balloon rides on the ceiling I wanted to try.

We got some snacks from Red Mango before the play started. The yogurt tastes the same, but their menu options are a little different. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get mochi cubes as a topping, but fruits are hard to come by in this country so the kiwi and mandarin oranges were a welcome refreshment.

Yogurt, waffles, and a mango smoothie. A light snack, right?

The play was very entertaining with plenty of break dancing and only a minimal amount of ballet. The ballerinas seemed there only for the funny guys in the b-boy crew to rip on, who essentially had a distracting comedy routine while the girls did their pirouettes. Obviously the story was not very deep but there were some awesome b-boy dance offs.

We got dinner at a ddak galbi place, which I had been craving since Farzad took us in Jeju. We went out for some makoli after that, but missed the last train home afterwards. It was raining pretty hard so we tried to wait it out at another bar, but it wasn't letting up so we ended up getting wet finding a taxi ride home. It's amazing just how easy it is to find somewhere to sit down and order a beer or snack at any hour. I like it.

Sungmin being a regular gentleman and passing out the chopsticks and spoons.

A clam and noodle dish, golbangee somyun, to go with the makoli.

I spent the rest of the weekend shopping, which wasn't a bad way to end the trip. Mostly I revisited places I had already been, but I did finally get some things for myself. I think. Maybe I'll end up giving them as gifts too, we'll see.

This next week I'll be packing and doing presentations for my lab and the NRF closing ceremony. Friday I'll leave for Japan. It still doesn't feel like the program will be ending yet, but that's probably because I still have more than a month before I head back to the States. A lot of the other students will be heading home immediately or within the next week, though.

And now, I may stay in LA to visit Hiromi, delaying my return home even more! It's a good thing I don't have a job or classes to get back to, though that just makes me want to find a way to stay here for another 3 months.