Before my swim (with new wetsuit)

The westsuit was  made it easier to raise my head and look for the markers (otherwise it is easy to swim in a wrong direction and end up zigzaging along); also made it warmer, and probably made for less resistance from the water.

A bit crowded at the start; hard to avoid bumping others; later it gets easier, as the field thins out.

Time was about 34 mins — but the distance was not exact, so it doesnt mean much. Placed about 130th out of 250 — reasonable considering I’m a slow swimmer.

Below I’ll add a couple of pics, showing the finish and the general course (for a later race).

Finishing Area

Swim course for 1.5 km race

To make it entertaining he takes some view of a place and pushes it as much as he can — negative about Japan, Vietnam, USSR, etc.   Makes the odd silly statement e.g. with the bullet train you can get easily thrown around due to the high speed — the opposite actually applies. Skips parts that could be interesting, e.g. coming back through Europe from Moscow to London (only a few lines).  Good on describing his fellow passengers, even if most of the descriptions are negative ones.

Fourth time to climb Mt Fuji, with our local “oyaji-no-kai” (dads club).

Meeting time sceduled for 3.45 am (!) at bus stop for 4 am departure. We (me + son2: Ren, age 11) arrived in plenty of time at 3.55 — found that everyone else was already there, sitting on the bus, waiting patientaly for departure, no one late (exept me, “late” meaning 5 mins before departure!).  Japanese punctuality…

Arrived at the 5th “station” (2400m) on the mountain at 6.05 am (45 mins on highway, 15 mins at service area, 60 mins up the mountain road), acclimatised till 7 am, then started climb.

As happened last year and the year before, Ren got altitute sickness at around 3100m, had to sleep an hour or so, (even on the rocky mountain path, with no shade), then struggle back down to the 5th station (2400m), throw up once, fall asleep again, then recovered.

Sun very strong, unlike last year, when it was cloudly. It was hot, though no humidity as down at sea level.  Very crowded, with queues on the mountain track here and there.

Below is a pic taken at 6.45am at the starting point (2400 m):

Not much to see along the track except volcanic rocks, and specks of green on the lower slopes:

Then altitude sickness happens…

]]> http://nmurtagh.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/fuji-x-4/feed/ 0 nmurtagh http://nmurtagh.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/comparing-paul-theroux-and-bill-bryson/ http://nmurtagh.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/comparing-paul-theroux-and-bill-bryson/#comments Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:58:40 +0000 nmurtagh http://www.niallmurtagh.info/blog/?p=29 ]]> “The Pillars of Hercules”: Book about travelling around the Mediterranean, clockwise from Gibraltar to Morrocco. His trip involved zigzagging, taking a few months off to go back to US, skipping some countries and coastline. Map in the book (Ballantine edition) is fuzzy, stylized, hard to read. Would be good to see the route clearly.

Route he took was, starting from Gibraltar, going by train along Spanish coast, took ferry from near Alicante to Mallorca, another ferry back to Valencia, train along coast (mostly) as far as Nice, ferry to Corsica, ferry to Sardinia, ferry to Silicy, train (ferry) to mainland Italy, along Adriatic coast all the way round to Slovenia, Croatia, no overland access to Albania, so he took ferry back to Italy, then across to Albania, then to Corfu (Greece), then back to US for a few months.

Next part of trip was on luxury cruise ship from Nice to Istanbul; he missed his train to Anatolia, so took Turkish cruise ship to Egypt (Alexandria and also visited Cairo),  Israel, Turkish Cyprus, back to Istanbul, overland to Syria, Jordan (skipped Lebanon) to Israel, by Greek ship to Greek Cyprus and on to Istanbul.

Then the narative jumped to Tunisia (ferry via Sicily), no ferry available to go directly to Morocco, so he jumps to Algeciras, close to Gibraltar (took ferry to Sicily again, then thru Italy, France, Spain) , then ferry to Morocco, Tangiers.

He skipped awkward or dangerous countries (Lebanon, Libya, Algeria), didnt follow the coast line after Spain and France (admittedly it would take a long time, and lots of buses, cars, walking to stay near the coast).

Met several writers, mixes in references to many writers, books, etc. Not much about history, recent or ancient; lots about crumbling Yugoslavia, Albania. He often comes across as being negative, criticising, but captures realism.

Camping is good for
- getting a change in lifestyle, fresh air, sunshine

Camping is not good for
- sleeping well, due to hardness of ground (must bring an airmat next time), lack of blankets (must bring a sleeping bag next time).

- noisy campsite, with loudspeakers announcing things and bells ringing at various times of day; noisy partying campers till late at night (must bring earplugs next time)

Hard to get back into capsized kayak. Must learn how to do this.

Recently 3rd generation Japanese Brazilian, Yamazaki Chizuka, released a movie about this topic, called GAIJIN.

The emigration continued during the recession after the Russo-Japan War (1904) there was the high unemployment, while Brazil was experiencing a shortage of labour due to the ending of slavery. Over 250,000 people migrated up to 1970. This flow reversed in the 1990s, when the demands of Japanese industry let to the Government allowing 2nd and 3rd generation Japanese Brazilians (JB) the right to live and work in Japan without restriction.

Yamazaki points out that although the Nissei were taken in as part of government economic policy, they were still called GAIJIN. Nowadays, the 4th generation Nissei have problems fitting into Japanese schools. The number of returning JB at 310,000 is larger than the number who emigrated from Japan. In particular the problem of the children of returnees dropping out of school and not fitting into society is a problem.

Hamamatsu-shi which has a large JB population is providing teachers and support so that the children can learn through Portuguese if necessary. The national government should also provide support here and not just leave it to local authorities.

As the population of Japan decrease the treatment of JB will be a touchstone for Japan’s receptivity of foreign workers.

JB were successful in Brazilian society because Brazil was open to receiving people of a different culture. It is to be hoped that Japan will also enable JB to be absorbed into society and to support them in raising their children.

1. train (+walk to station): 55 mins

2. train (+bus to station): 50 mins

3. bicycle: 40 mins

4. run: 65 mins (5 mins/km)

5. jog: 80 min (6.5 mins/km)