Japan With My Sister Part 3

A long bus ride later and we're at Kawaguchi-ko, land of the five lakes. This is where Fujisan resides. Can you imagine waking up every day, going to the supermarket, watering your garden, or taking a short stroll with Mt. Fuji towering over you? Incredible, a perfect dormant cone volcano watching over you. But before we arrived in the town of Kawaguchi-ko there was a little trouble in Tokyo...

"What do you mean you bought tickets for 6:30 am in the morning. You idiots, I want to sleep in! I don't want to wake up that early to catch a bus to go to Mt. Fuji that early! You dumb-asses!" My sister was furious. (I cleaned up the language for you.)

My husband and I were to plan the trip to Mt. Fuji. Buy the bus tickets and train tickets to Kawaguchi-ko, check into the hostel and plan our first day there. We asked her if an early bus ride was do-able for her and she said, "Yeah, if 9 am is taken then get an earlier one." So we did. Apparently 6:30 am was too early for her.

After an evening of anger, venting, and regretting traveling with her my husband and I woke up at 5 am, packed our things, caught the subway ride to the bus station and left without her. Before we left we did exchange her 6 am ticket for an afternoon ticket for her to pick up and join us later. Yes, we were angry with her and were happy to leave her behind but we're not callus enough to leave her stranded. Although it did cross our minds.

It's late October when we visit and the autumn chill fills the air. I had my layers going on when we walked off the bus at Kawaguchi-ko Station. It was there when I realized it was 10 degrees centigrade outside and discovered my new favorite Japanese item-heated toilet seats! I'm not kidding. It was a surprise to see a toilet with buttons along the side of it, and electric cord plugged into the wall, but a pleasant surprise to sit on a warm seat when it's freezing outside and inside the station. Oh, how I would love to bring one of these toilets home with me, I thought to myself. I bragged about it to my husband.

Outside the train/bus station was Mt. Fuji, serenely sitting there in the background. It was an awesome sight to behold. Waiting for our hostel shuttle to arrive while resort buses picked up and dropped many Japanese tourist, my husband and I putted around and snapped a few photos.

Pick up and dropped off at the hostel, take off shoes and leave at the main entrance again, check in to our Japanese style rooms, this means no beds and sleeping on the floor; we want an authenic feel. Ok, so it's cheaper than a western style room with a bed but at least we get a spacious room. Plus we had a great view of Japanese rooftops.

We have no idea where my sister is or when she's coming and we don't care. We take a very touristy bus to all sorts of tourist traps and have fun. We go to a drive by a large portion of the lake, visit a batless bat cave, a howling cave and buy wild Japanese blueberry jam-all without my sister! We had a great day! We stay out rather late and catch the last tourist bus back to the station in the bleak cold darkness of the surrounding forest.

Not to sound mean or anything but we reach our room slightly disappointed to see my sister there. We weren't completely disappointed because she know Japanese and was our translator but once we saw she was calm and happy again we were relieved. Grab some fast food Japanes style and early to bed because we're hiking Mt. Fuji tomorrow morning.

The floor wasn't as comfortable as we thought it would be. We were given bamboo mats, cushions, plush blankets and pillows but it's not the same as a bed. But thinking about it it's probably better than a springy pokey mattress. Nothing like sharing a bottle of sake to put everyone in good spirits and sleepy state of mind.

Mt. Fuji is full of tourist. October being the off season for hiking to the top we're discouraged to hike to the top. Inexperienced westerners known to have gone on their own have been swept off by the chilly autumn/winter winds. Summer is the only time hikers climb to the top with ease, elderly folks can make it to the top and back down easily to the fifth of the eight stations.

On our trek to the sixth station from the fifth we encounter a cliff overlooking the Kawaguchi-ko lake and the surrounding town, melting ice and icicles on the side of the volcano which both my husband and sister swing their large hiking sticks to break the ice wall and icicles apart to my dismay in front of all the Japanese tourist. Yeah, I was embarrassed to be associated with the two giajins (meaning foreigner) assaulting the sacred mountain god. "Relax Gabby, it's not our God," my husband jokingly tells me as I snap photos of him, I can't help myself.

On our to the seventh station my sister's bad knees start acting up and my husband is fatigued and I quicklu become upset my nonathletic family. On the way down we begin talking about food and what we want to eat. Spotting a little kiosk selling grilled squid at the fifth station, my sister and I know what my husband is going to buy.

Next stop and last in our tour of Japan, Gunma-ken prefecture where my sister's teaches English, Matsumoto Castle, and the Alps of Nagano.

Circuits!

Welcome to our second track workout session of the summer season! After a mile warm-up and dynamic stretching we did a circuit workout. What are circuits? Read below.

• 15 bicycle kicks
• 1 minute plank
• 20 lunges
• 20 second side planks, both sides
• 25 real push ups (not the fake girly kind)
• 20 crab lunges, both sides
• 1 minute bridges
• 50 sit ups
• 20 clams, both sides
• running one full lap (400 meters) between each work out session
• equals one fit, happy, sore Gabby :-)

Running To Eradicate Cancer

Today we had our second coach led run at Hellyer Park, an old picnic stomping ground for my family, lot's of great bbirthday parties, walks and training wheel rides around the pond, feeding the ducks and geese and their young ones, a lot of good memories, and now I get to add one more! This is the first time I ran-walked under 101 overpass. It was so cool! I only heard my uncles and aunt talk about it as a kid but I never walked under it!

Ah, the memories.

Coach Tim and former TNT Coach Ed held their valuable Beginner' s Clinic. Running over 40 marathons combined these guys are full of useful running advice-advice from proper running shoes, hydration, fueling up before, during, and after a race, stretching and the infamous ice bath. Brrr.

Eating prior to your long run is important!

An important topic that they discussed is Jeff Galloway's run-walk interval training. It works wonders by reducing muscle fatigue and helps prevent injuries. As a nice introduction to the run-walk I ran a 4:1 new participants.

Under US Route 101!

I ran five miles with my peeps Brandy, Katie, and Lisa. Lisa and Emily in the photo above are taking a short walking break.

After the run everyone sat down in the lush green grass to hear Honoree Ellen Cirigliano's life altering and poignant story about living with cancer and her fight to find a cure. Read her story here. The money we raise really does help save lives and touch many peoples lives. Anyone can train for a marathon but we TNTers run for a cause-to eradicate blood caner! Donate today and keep in mind that no amount is too small.

Ellen Cirigliano in the Honoree shirt.

It would not be a proper run without eating. Our Captain Steve invited the whole Team over to his house for the traditional Waffle-Fest. It was waffles, pancakes, and berries galore, bananas, sausages, orange juice, banana bread and some of my banana-nut muffins. Yum. It also gave us a chance to meet new people and learn more about our Honorees.

Me, Honoree Mike, and my peep Katie.

Buddy Run

It's still the week of firsts and this morning we had our first Team In Training Buddy Run. Here's the group I met up with at 6am over at Campbell Park! Way to go team! This is what I call dedication.


From left to right: Janine, Troy, Brandy, Hao, Jennifer, Victoria, John, Jesi, Tim, Corina, Ryan, Sarah, Steve, Lisa, Emily and Toni. Plus me the camera girl, that's 17 of us! What a great start to the season. We hope to convince a few more peeps to join the coolest and most dedicated buddy run group of the summer.

This Buddy Run is only a small fraction of the many runs that occurred early this morning and will occur this evening all over Silicon Valley to help raise funds against blood cancer! There's 100+ of TNTers running out there in their TNT gear. If you happen to see a group of us, or just one person in their TNT gear give a little shout by saying, "Go Team!" to show support. You may also support us by donating just a few dollars here. Thanks!

Our Beloved Swing-Set

Today's Theme Thursday is Swing. I have two stories to share with you about "swinging." The first about a swing and the second about two people swinging hiking sticks and breaking icicles on Mt. Fuji. Thinking it over I realized that Mt. Fuji will be a separate story and will be posted later this weekend, Part 3. You can find Japan With My Sister Part 1 and Part 2.


"We have our very own park!" we screamed with delighted tiny voices. Our parents had surprised us with a swing-set in the summer of 1987. Considering that we have a pool in the backyard out new toy was placed in the font yard. Two swings, monkey bars, rings, a hanging bar and a slide, we were envy of the whole neighborhood. Situated on a soft lush green lawn and surrounded by colorful rose bushes, blossoming peach trees, a pear tree, tangerine and lemon trees, honeysuckle, and a fragrant white hibiscus type flower-the sweet scents of spring and summer growing up-it was a great and loveliest gift our parents gave us.

Little mothers and grandmothers walking their children to and from school would often pull and tug their little childrens' arms. "Mira los colompios." Look at the swings they would say in a sing-song way with bright wide brown eyes. They would often stop and grip our rusting white fence only to have their little arms tugged.

Our swing-set was our paradise. I'd swing for hours and hours and never wanted to get off. I swung so much that my dreams were infiltrated by it. Wonderful dreams of swinging and flying. In the dream I would swing so fast and so high that at a certain point the swing would launch me into the sky and I would start flying. I would fly over the house, over the pool, over our grammar school a few blocks away only to have my mother bring me back down. On the flip side to great dreams the swings also gave me nightmares.

The nightmare would always switch between two things: being strangled by the chains or swinging so hard that I wound around the bar holding the swing up. Strangling came from kids being kids and twisting around and around the swing. Fingers were almost always snagged, along with long strands of hair, and my mind took off with that. The second nightmare, and the one that would never ever happen scared me the most, swinging and winding around the top bar and ultimately crushing me. As scared as I was from that dream it didn't deter me, my siblings and cousins from always trying to complete at least one 360 degree swing around the bar.

Starting from the upper left corner going clockwise: me at the age of 6 gripping the rings, my sister at 5 on the swing, my brother at 3 on the second swing, and finally the baby at the age of 2 in 1991 on top of the slide.

Aside from the great swings, monkey bars and slide, which we transformed into a water slide the following summer to my parents dismay-we flooded a portion of the lawn, trashed the yard with wet soggy paper grocery bags, which we used to sit on to make the slide slicker and to prevent from getting wet (it didn't prevent us from getting wet), and one or two of us slamming into the ground hard-it was our fantasy vehicle. It was our pirate ship filled with gold treasure we had to keep safe from other pirates, a deserted volcanic island which enabled us to play lava, our space space to Mars and the moon to fight alien scum, and occassionally a battleship from World War II. (Hey, my father watched, still watches, a lot of WWII movies and documentaries and is still a big fan of Ridly Scott's Alien series.)

We had a great imagination and a wonderful childhood. We always, I should say I always found a way of getting myself into trouble and endangering myself and others. Jumping off the top of the monkey bars with an umbrella to see if the wind would catch and lift me into the sky or at least slow my descent to the ground, convincing my younger cousins from jumping off the swing in mid air because it was fun and I did it all the time without getting hurt, to climbing everything in site, and roller skating down the slide, how did I survive childhood? My poor parents.

I was most content swinging on my swing. Feeling the warm sun on my face, the cool breeze run throw my hair, soaring higher and higher into the blue sky, hearing the chatter of my parents and uncles and aunts surrounding us at family parties, the laughter and giggles of my younger siblings and cousins, the swing was my favorite toy.

The next time I'm at Campbell Park I'm going to swing on the swing and feel the air brush against my face and flow throw my hair. But unlike bold young me I won't be jumping off the swing anytime soon.

Traaaack!

It's June and it's cold. This weather is not right for California, not right at all, and as a native I'm picky about the weather. Talking to other women after track I realized that we're all picky and we're almost always cold. And as much as I like to complain about how cold it is outside, it was cold and overcast all evening.

Everyone bundled up after our run and ready for core.

Our first track of the season was a great socializing relay. We broke into teams of three and ran half laps. Not a large distance but keep it up for 45 minutes and at the pace you want and it's tiring.

The first wave of runners coming my way.

Everyone had fun running, gabbing, and meeting new people. Can't wait for our buddy run Thursday morning!

1-2-3-GO TEAM!

Today was the first training run of the Team In Training (TNT) summer season of 2009. We met at 8 am at Los Gatos High School. Everyone in my little group ran between three and six miles!
Here are all seven of my Mentees plus another participant, Irfan, standing behind me. (Irfan being the fun guy that he is just jumped into the picture.) From left to right: Nicole, Sparsha, Mike, Brandy, Lisa, Stephanie, Katie and me. This is just a small portion of the entire summer run team of the south bay chapter.

Everyone on the Team has joined for many different reasons: for a family member or a friend that was diagnosed with Leukemia, and many join the Team for a challenge or to get healty. But we all share the goal of fund raising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. For inspiration TNT have Honorees, people diagnosed with some form of blood cancer, come out and share their experiences living with their dieseases.Here are the Honorees that made it out to our first training! Honorees from left to right: Leah, Patti, Honoree Captain Debra, Ellen, Keith, Debra, Doug and Jack. You can read their bios here.
The Honorees are a great group of people that volunteer at water stops, help set things up and several even run with the participants!

I can't wait to see everyone on the track Tuesday! Click here to view more photos from today's run.

Japan with my Sister Part 2

What time is it? In Tokyo, it's always time to eat!This city has great food. This week's Theme Thursday is clock. (Stretching it here a bit but there are two clocks in the photos presented here, try to find them!) Click here for part one.

Day 1
Ueno, a ward in central Tokyo, has a huge train and subway station. It's so big it has a mall and several grocery stores! Passengers are also greeted with a delightful smell of freshly baked bread when they exit the trains. I fell in love with the Ueno Train Station.

There's a clock in this photo.



Every individual item is preciously wrapped as a gift. Considering how expensive the imported fruits in Japan are they are considered gifts!

After walking around the train/subway station in awe we headed towards Ueno Park to visit the National Museum of Tokyo. The Samurai armor we saw were intricate, intimidating and incredible. Forcing my sister to read the three different Japanese scripts (kanji, katagana, and hiragana), mimicking her like parrots, and teasing her when she didn't know how to pronounce something or how to read it was incredibly fun. The amazing part of the museum was seeing the similarities between early Japanese and Peruvian costumes and pottery. But no amount of educational material we saw or read, nor the amount we poked fun at my sister's expensive, nothing beats eating.

Walking around and taking the sites my husband finds something intriguing in Akihabara, Octopus Balls. It's not what you think, at least you don't exactly know what it is. It's large pieces of octopus dipped in batter and deep fried. But that's not all, it comes with a mayonnaise and a mustard sauce. It doesn't sound appetizing but my husband sure liked it. Not wanting to be outdone by my husband my sister and I take a ball and eat one.

Akihabara is also the electronic shopping center. My sister's eyes grow big looking at all the digital cameras. It's also the obligatory spot for anime fans-my sister. My husband doesn't mind walking through the shops and window shops while my sister looks at comic books and anime films. I'm bored out of my mind and wonder the up and down the many levels of the shops only to have single lonely men stare at me and hide their naughty magazines and cartoons. Ew! I ran down the stairs and hang around outside and attempt to snap a photograph of a little Lolita handing out flyers. She's swarmed by men and photographers and am unable to snap a photo.

Later that evening we return to Asakusa to eat Dozeu Nabe, a small eel like fish simmer in miso and green onions. It's cooked on a small iron pan over burning charcoal. The smoke over comes the three of us and we all beginning coughing catching the attention of all the patrons. As if three gaijins, or foreigners, did not catch their attention already.

Day 2
Today we wonder Asakusa! We visit the Senso-ji Temple. The first gate has two guardians on either side leading into a colorful market decorated with autumn leaves and multicolored flags. The market is filled with shops selling trinkets, clothing, souvenirs and food to out of town tourist. After the second gate we walk into the plaza. On the second gate hang two large sandals that are believed to be Buddha's shoes. Off to the left of the plaza stands a five story pagoda, the second tallest in Japan.

As we were walking out ready to find something to eat we stumbled into a parade of a golden dragon being called to the temple. Soon thereafter we went to eat.

Tempura vegetables and perhaps a nice cold soda or beer from a street vending machine. How about both! Next we hit the streets and see what we can find.

Times Square in New York does not compare to every other corner in Tokyo.

The second clock is in this photograph.

We found and ate the best falafels roaming the streets. No photog of this, we were so hungry after walking all day we just ate away. My husband also tried out Japanese McDonalds and had a tasty shrimp burger.

Day 3
The Tsukiji Fish Market is world's largest operating whole sale fish market. My husband was a kid in a candy store seeing all the freshly caught seafood of every kind. After whetting our appetites we had a great breakfast of sushi.

After breakfast my sister and husband elect me, Miss I never get lost, to navigate our way to our next destination--I don't remember what that destination was because I took us down the wrong street. We didn't realize we took a wrong turn until several large blocks later but no one was mad because we discovered a little jackpot of street food! Chicken yakatori, squid ink ice cream, yes it's black ice cream, fruit, and beer and sake from the vending machine all after sushi!

Next week Mt. Fuji.