que pasa

I had a fantastic time in Tokyo hanging with Joy, Seng and Jukebox.  I don't think we were in Tokyo city proper, but that was just fine, I was just there to chill.  Didn't go shopping or even step into Shinjuku or Ikebukuro - will do that on my way back. 

Just followed along with whatever Joy and Seng had on - which was quite a bit actually.  We went to Joy's kids' club, camping with their neighbors, hung out/had meals with their friends, and climbed Mt Fuji.  I didn't have a camera but you can ask Seng if you wanna see pics, or maybe I'll try to copy some from Seng and upload them here.  

Anyway, here are some highlights from my time in Tokyo. 

City mouse proclaims captured trout "so fresh!"
As part of our camping trip, Joy and Seng's neighbors brought us to this small artificial pond en route to our log cabin.  Basically the owners catch rainbow trout and throw them into the pond and you use these bamboo rods with fishing lines attached to catch the fish using salmon roe as bait.  The pond has quite a lot of fish so technically, you can't possibly not catch any. 

But of course yours truly tried three times with no success - those sneaky fish had figured out a way to eat my bait without getting caught on the hook - and I was starting to worry that I was a total loser.  Finally, after a positive demo from Taka (neighbor, Japanese male) and moving my bait to a "high traffic zone", I caught my first fish.  Determined to prove that it wasn't just luck, I caught a few more. 

There was this particular one though that just kept twisting and flipping as I pulled it out of the water. It seemed extra energetic and so I (obviously a city mouse here) exclaimed, "Hey look at mine! It's so fresh!" Yes, yes, I know, Jukebox was also wondering how my fish could be any fresher than the rest of the fish that were also captured alive.

Anyway, we were so amused by the entire experience, the girls were squealing and shouting, I think the neighbors were probably laughing at us secretly.

Smoked fish speaks to catcher: "Hello Joy, you catch me!"
We had a really good barbecue at the log cabin. Taka smoked the fish - it's the first time I've seen it done like that. And the fish were super yummy, and yes, so fresh!  Anyway, we had all eaten our fill and there was one fish left.  This was Joy's but she has some issues with eating animals that she has seen alive prior to them being served on the plate.  

We tried to reason with her that this was her share and that the fish was really delicious but she was having none of that.  Then Taka suddenly used his hand to mimick a fish talking and made a squeaky voice, "Hello Joy, you catch me!" which had me burst out laughing.  Because Taka seems to me like a man's man kinda person and I certainly wasn't expecting him to be funny like that.  We started to add on in our squeaky voices, "Eat me! Eat me! I'm yummy!" but that didn't do anything except tickle me even more.  (In the end, Jukebox, Seng and I ate up the fish - wasn't going to let something so good go to waste)

This still tickles me when I think about it.  I don't think my description does justice to how funny the moment was.  It's one of those things that you have to be on-site to watch to realize why it was amusing to me.

Jukebox discovers new superpower/ability
It seems that some are more blessed than others, and some have stranger gifts than others. Jukebox is called Jukebox because she knows almost every song you can think of.  She has this amazing storage of song lyrics and melody and can probably identify any song within 5 seconds of hearing any part of it.

On this trip, we also realized that she can sleep anywhere anytime - sometimes in this strange Spiderman position, like she's scaling a wall or something.  She can even sleep a good 2 hours in the cramped and poorly ventilated cabins of Mt. Fuji where Joy, Seng and I were barely able to catch forty winks.

I'd like to see the writers of Hero or 4400 write in a character with her superpowers/abilities, it'd be interesting to see those in play in the plan to save the world.

5 minutes of sunrise
Just when I thought we were going to miss it, we managed to hit Mt. Fuji summit right on time to see the sunrise.  It was gorgeous. Most definitely worth the climb.  Watching the ball of bright chrome yellow quickly break through the clouds and head on up and looking around the surrounding peaks of nearby mountains peeping through the sea of clouds quietens you as you take a moment to ponder on the beauty of the things Papa has made.

It felt great to have made it to the top, and I was all ready to say that I had conquered Mt. Fuji, except that I was only halfway through.  The worst was yet to come - EHOD.

EHOD - Eternal Hell of Descent
If you ask me, conquering Mt Fuji is really a test of willpower.  I don't think you have to be very fit to get up and down, but you must stay the course to finish.  And as far as I'm concerned, the descent is much tougher than the ascent. I can't run down or stride down the gravelly steep slopes zig-zagging down the mountain because I'm not that confident of my footing and I feel like I'll just slip, roll and fall off the ledge 2000 meters down the mountain.

You know how some people belief there are 18 levels of hell, or that hell is like a cauldron of super-hot flames and destruction?  Seng called this a modern form of hell (tongue-in-cheek of course) - they just keep making you walk down steep gravelly slopes that hurts your knees and constantly makes you feel super unsure of your steps.  This goes on for like 4 hours! It was most definitely torturous.