"What are you anyways?"

I've been asked by several people, as all travelers are inevitably asked, "Why did you came to Japan?" And for the most part, the answer is mood dependent. It runs the gamut from "I like sushi" to "I want to find myself, and become more independent". I suppose the second answer is more to the point. Recently I came across an animated short that really sums up the true answer for me.

What are you Anyways?

Although I can't say I identify with all of the themes in the film, the title alone struck home for me. When I was 10, a girl a little younger than me approached me on the street and asked me, word for word, "What are you anyways?" I replied "human". She didn't understand, decided for herself that I was Native American, and walked away.

Being here has answered a lot of questions, some of which I never thought to ask before, but most importantly it has answered the question posed in the above film.

What am I anyways?

Canadian. 110%

Things I've Mounted Lately...

Last Weekend, myself and a few brave souls climbed Tateyama. This is the second of the three Holy Mountains in Japan I've stood on the peak of (after Mt. Fuji) . That tiny bump slightly right of centre is over 3000m high and the goal of the climb. It also has a shrine and a place to spend money.

This is the early trip optimism shot while we were on the trolley going up the mountain. We started our climb around 2400m up.

The journey begins...

We had to stop several times on the path to let people pass. It was barely wide enough for one. That kid up there slipped and fell right in front of Graeme, and so we did what any good person would. We laughed at him.

This is the section we climbed in the dark. On the bottom right is the lodge where we stayed the night. The hump in the middle is the tease that makes you think you're at the top, but you're so not. The top left is where the monks were surprisingly unappreciative of us dropping in at 5am.

Although we woke up at 3am and climbed in the pitch dark to see the sunrise, there was nothing but gray fog at the summit. So this beautiful sunset shot will have to suffice.

The shrine at the top. It looks like we're about to pass through the gate from purgatory into our respective destinations.

Me and Will at the very very top. Looking cold.

Gaijin in the mist

Although it's early July, there's still 2m of snow on the ground. I climbed all of this in running shoes.

Onward to Hell. After we came back down the mountain, we decided to trek through hell. It's actually a large sulfur pit called Jigokudani (Hell Valley). It smelled like rotten eggs and the clouds were strong enough to tarnish my silver ring.

Graeme and Will, go to hell.

There were sirens on all of the paths to warn you if you were about to suffocate from all of the gas. There were also several warning signs, such as this one telling us not to punch the clouds...

But Graeme did it anyways.

I call this the devil's chimney.

Greetings from the stinkiest place on earth. Wish you were here.

More Tateyama fun at Graeme's blog

Happy Canada Day!

Poutine in Japan!

Those of you reading this comfortably in Canada can’t appreciate how difficult it is to make poutine in Japan. First off, the gravy came to Japan in dried packet form from Canada, because it’s next to impossible to find gravy in Japan. Secondly, cheese is 3 – 4 times as expensive in Japan, and you can’t get real cheese curds. We had to settle for pizza cheese. We also opted to cut the fries ourselves because no one has an oven, so a cookie sheet of McCain crinkle cuts is out of the question.

Our previous attempts had been a combination of frozen McDonalds style fries, demi-glaze sauce (which, although brown is definitely not gravy), and convenience store cheese snacks (which, to our chagrin, were not actually cheese, but some sort of processed fish cheese substance). Needless to say when we attempted to consume it, somewhere a Canadian flag spontaneously burst into flames.

But with this triumph, we have spread the joy of poutine and restored out Canadian honour.