Busy Summer Continued - Climbing Mount Fuji

Before we came to Japan Cliff and I talked about how cool it would be to climb Mount Fuji when we got there. Cliff was a lot more serious about it than I was, but I liked the idea. It seemed like a worthy goal. We found that the logistics of tackling this mountain are a little trickier than you might expect, though, during a sea tour. The guys are rarely home in the summer and climbing season is only during July and August. Cliff was gone last summer and who know what next summer will bring. We had a couple of weeks to work with this year and we jumped on the opportunity. I had a good friend from church watch Lilia for us and we went for it. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning, drove Lilia over to our friend's house, and were on the road by 5:15 ish. We arrived at the 5th station of Fuji by 7:30 only to find that there was NO PARKING to be found! Crap! What were we to do? We waited in a line of cars for 20 minutes before giving up and driving back down the mountain. We found some spaces between the 3rd and 4th stations and hailed a cab from there. $40 dollars later we were at the 5th station with our trademark climbing sticks in hand, ( popular souvenirs of the great climb.) The day was gorgeous and we felt confident... oh boy was that to change...

We got started and it was all "oohs" and "ahhs" at first. at the fifth station we are still below the timber line so there is a startling contrast between the blue sky and greenery.
Even after the parking debacle we are happy to be here!



The clouds and convection currents were so cool! We truly had a breathtakingly beautiful day for our climb.

Aww... we look so happy this early on...

Still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!
Getting our sticks stamped
Looking back at our progress. Still so far to go!
Some of the paths and climbing were preeeeetty steep
I was starting to feel it. The sun... my quads... So I will take this opportunity to describe what the remainder of this climb was like... Silly me, I had Thai curry for dinner the night before, and for lunch... and for breakfast. What on EARTH was I thinking. I also don't like to exercise...at all... so this was a lot of physical exertion for someone that never does much of anything. This stupid mountain nearly KILLED me and I had to visit every bathroom on the way up... what else can I really say? It took us sooo much longer than it should have and I was miserable for 3/4ths of the time.

I actually got a little vertigo too. I had to stop a couple times and regain my bearings. The horizon made me so dizzy every time I looked out. Cliff told me to tilt my head to make the horizon straight... and I almost threw up. No thanks sweetie....NOTE: Cliff just informed me that he did NOT tell me to tilt my head but to hold it straight! That's not what I remember!!! ( Oh, ok, he just explained that he told me to tilt my head to show me an EXAMPLE of vertigo. GEE THANKS!!!)


At this point I was just over it. Cliff was practically dragging me up the mountain and I was dead on my feet. I had headaches from the altitude and was short of breath.
Clouds...


Ugh... Can we just be done now?
The shadow of the mountain on the clouds
I'm almost there... but I kind of want to sleep...
I manage to smile when a polite Japanese couple offers to take our picture
Awesome shot of the shadow of the mountain over the torii gate
I made it! (I am wearing my Georgia shirt in honor of my sister who wanted very much to climb this Mountain.)
Caldera shot. I had completely forgotten up to this point that Mt. Fuji is a volcano! Duh!
Me at the Caldera.
And now for the descent... It took Cliff and I so long to make it up to the top that the sun was just starting to set for our descent. We had not prepared for this outcome AT ALL. Thus, we made our descent almost entirely in the dark. What took us almost 9 hrs going up only took us 2 1/2 going down, though. We all but ran down the steep gravely slopes. I was SO ready to be done and go home. Everyone told me the descent would be harder, but I disagree. I thought it was pretty crappy, sure, but it was all pretty crappy past the 6th station. At least the descent meant the end was near! I thought that my knees would hurt a lot the next day, but they really didn't. I was a little sore for about one day and then I was good to go. Good enough to go again? Not quite that good....

What a BUSY Summer We've Had - Bon Odori

This summer I had the opportunity to learn traditional Japanese dances and then to participate in said dances in three local festivals! We practiced all throughout July and into August and it was a lot of fun! Never in a million years did I think I would be dancing through the streets of Yamato in a traditional summer yukata with hundreds of Japanese spectators, but I did! Lilia was too young for me to leave last summer and next summer we will be moving, so I knew I HAD to jump on this chance as it wouldn't some around again. I was also lucky to have close friends join me in this venture. Together we learned over 10 dances and preformed in Yamato twice and at Atsugi base once. I wish I had more pictures from the first two festivals, but unfortunately I forgot my camera. Most of these pictures are from Atsugi's Bon Odori festival. The Bon Odori festival takes place in August each year on base as a way for us to celebrate and come together with the community at the culmination of "Obon" or just "Bon." During this week the Japanese welcome their deceased ancestors back to their homes. At the end of the week there is dancing and celebration as the families send their loved ones off again and await their return for another year.

Chrissy and Brittany and me at the Torii gate.

Me and the babe
The 51 girls that danced.
AOSA dancers
The little family :)
This is a totally awful picture of me, but very cute of Lilia.
A few of the dancing ladies. Brittany and I were the only ones pictured to dance in all three festivals.
The actual festival on base. We danced in the center ring and on the stage.

Lilia at 16 months

It's been a while since I have updated everyone on miss Lilia! Our little girl is growing up so quickly and her little personality develops more and more each day. She is such a sweet heart and a ham! She loves to perform and draws a crowd EVERYWHERE we go. There are Lilia fans all over Asia now. Recently we traveled to China and the people in Beijing couldn't get enough of her. By association Cliff and I got a taste of what it would be like to be famous. We were stopped all the time to have our pictures taken with our little blondie girl. She's a trip. Here is what she has been up to!

Princess Lilia walking around in her robe of royalty.
Lilia graduated from EDIS this week! We no longer need our therapist to come over and work with her! This means that Lilia is meeting all of her milestones including... WALKING! Lilia took her first steps about 2 1/2- 3 weeks ago and although she isn't walking everywhere yet, she is taking as many as 10-15 steps at a time and becoming more and more confident. She still doesn't push to standing in the middle of the floor, but Tara (the therapist) said that that would come with time and confidence and not to worry.

Pig tails!
Lilia LOVES shoes right now. She is already trying to put them on and when she fails she brings them to me to put on. THEN she brings me my shoes and requests that I put them on too. What a girl.


This picture is just funny
Lilia's panda from China.
Lilia monkeying around on our bed in China.
Check out that hair!
In other news and milestones,

-Lilia has lots of words now, but many of them are signed rather than spoken. Her favorite word right now is "Wow!" which she learned at the Great Wall. She loves to make animal sounds too and can now imitate a dog, cat, cow, lion, snake, elephant, and jelly fish.... we also have a fish face that we do and giraffe...(we have to get creative for some of these animals in her books.....)

- Lilia knows all of the parts of her face and ours and loves to point them out for people. She usually isn't shy about performing in public - she LOVES attention!

- Lilia loves to sing and dance and we have dance parties when daddy comes home. She also loves to watch "Elmo" and if we ask Lilia what Elmo says she will sing his theme song, ("la la la la...") She says "go go go" for Diego.

- Lilia has started some imaginary play. She pretends to talk on the phone and hand the phone to us, (often the phone is one of our remotes.) She also loves to play with her baby doll. She gives baby doll kisses and rocks her to sleep and then covers her with a blanket and pats her on the tummy! So cute!

- Lilia loves to watch airplanes and helicopters and has sounds for both. We get to see a lot of them around here.

- She is trying all different kinds of food now. She especially likes grilled cheese sandwiches and jambalaya! She also likes just about anything that we are eating EXCEPT cold squishy fruits of almost any kind. Silly kid. She does like banana, though, which is good because Cliff might disown her if she didn't.

- She is NOT sleeping well right now. I don't know if this is a consequence of teething, learning to walk, traveling, or what, but we are ready for this little bout of defiance to END! Cliff will leave again soon, and I can't be up all night!!!

- She has not gained much weight over the past 6 months or so. In fact I don't believe she has gained more than a pound or so. This is not a bad thing.

- She has learned recently how to be very affectionate. She loves to give kisses and hugs and she likes to pat us on the back too. Soooooo sweet. The other day I was upset about something and completely distraught. Lilia noticed and came over and put her hands on my cheeks and gave me some kisses. Oh she melts me! She has been so fun to take out places and most of the time she is just the best little buddy. It has been incredible to watch her grow and learn so many things in such a short time!

Don't be fooled by the silly cheeky grin. This girl is a tornado and she is up to something.
I literally walked out of a clean room for 30 seconds and came back to this.
Why bother picking up... ever? But then she smiles again and you can't help but laugh. She's our little sugar bear!