20ish years ago I was tasked with coming up with "village" names based on mountains for the grade levels at our church's elementary kids camp. Several of the tallest mountains are not easily pronounced, like Kangchenjunga. And in my ignorance, I named one village McKinley and another Denali (not realizing till later that those are two different names for the same mountain). Back in 2017, Lucas and I checked both of those off the list (at the same time. Ha!) on our couples trip to Alaska. One summer (2013, I think), I was the lead counselor for the 4th grade girls village that I had named Fuji. We came up with a silly cheer --
FU to the FU to the FU to the JI.
JI to the JI to the JI to the FU.
FU to the the JI
JI to the FU
Fu JIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!
Never in a million years did I dream that 13 years later, I would be seeing Mt. Fuji in person with my 5 sons (I only had one at the time).
Apparently, Mt. Fuji is visible only about 20% to 30% of the year. God blessed us with great visibility on our day in Shimizu/Shizuoka. After watching a beautiful sunrise over the mountains as we pulled into port, we woke up the boys and got ready for another day of adventuring. Like usual, we had a general plan of some things to see and do but also just started exploring.
Heading off the ship!
This was when my tripod camera blew over from the wind.
Colson's head is right at the top of Mt. Fuji (it was hard to see on my phone since Fuji was still hazy and distant)
We found a geocache and started walking toward a train station. We were hoping to buy transit cards for each of us, but they're only available at certain stations. It was at the Family Mart next to the station that Calvin got to experience his first Coolish. It's like an applesauce pouch but with ice cream.
We kept walking toward another geocache which led us to a shotengai (covered shopping street) where Carter played a song on a piano as shopkeepers opened their stores for the day.
(these signs with the zigzaggy people are funny to me!)
And we stumbled upon our first pitiful, typical Japanese park with little grass and old, tired equipment. This is a bit baffling to me because the Japanese put so much effort into their food presentation and cutesy kawaii culture and robots and automotive industry, but for whatever reason, parks seem like a low priority.
(He's a little too tall for the monkey bars)
(How is this bench even comfortable?)
We were happy to see a sign right near another station with a huge sign proclaiming "Jesus is the answer!" Unlike our last random church on a weekday, this one was locked.
We ran into the Nicholson family from our worldschooling group that we had eaten with several nights in the main dining room. We were both looking for the water bus, so we decided to stick together. The water bus ended up being more expensive than we expected, so we opted for a city bus. The whole system was new and confusing for us because you get a ticket when you get on the bus and then deposit the ticket when you get off the bus and pay in cash. Only we didn't quite have enough cash. And Google maps said we had another stop, but the bus driver insisted that it didn't go any further. So we set off on foot! Arukou!
I was happy to discover a tomato "vending" machine along the way. Kind of like a roadside vegetable stand but with separate locked compartments, and you put in a coin to unlock the one you want. What fun! (and they were delicious).
We finally made it to Miho Beach where the kids played and played with the driftwood and bamboo and waves and black sand with Fuji-san in the background like an island floating on a cloud.
(Can you see Fuji peeking out from the cloud?)
What a fun day at the beach together!
On the walk back, I spoke some Japanese with some locals day-camping by the beach who had some extra water and ice to refill my water bottle. There was an outdoor shower to hose off (which became a highlight for the boys), and the bathroom had a squatty potty! I hadn't seen one since 23 years ago in Thailand. When you gotta go, you gotta go!
(This was the boys' dinner buddy Royce. Cactuses are normal for him since he's from Arizona, but they're a rare sighting for us!)
We took the water bus back (one way was cheaper than if we had done roundtrip). It was fun to have a small boat take us to our big boat. We got back on the ship, and I immediately wanted to go back out.
So after helping the little boys wash up and change, I went back out. The city of Shimizu hosts a port-side festival whenever a large ship like ours comes in. They do cultural performances and have many food trucks and craft booths set up. But the best part was the kindergarten drumline! Seriously, cutest thing ever! I got to watch them practice, and I spoke Japanese with a few of their parents. This wasn't just tap-a-drum-and-the-parents-are-proud. This was a mini set of quads, mini bass drums set (of varying sizes, just like my NCCHS percussion days!), bells, mini keyboards, a flag guard, and even a drum major! WOW!
I hurried back onto the ship to meet up with our family for our final dinner on board. We heard that the little kindergarteners were doing their full performance, so we went to the deck to watch them. What a sendoff!
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