The Road to Mt. Fuji

I spent the first month and a half here in Japan thinking that I brought my bike over to Japan just so I could ride to Rengejike park and to the beach in Yaizu. But for some reason, somehow or some higher power intervenes. I was walking towards Fujieda station just past the Circle K near where I live. There is a clothing store at the corner there. Now keep in mind that shopping for clothes in Japan would be a waste of time for me. Nothing would fit. But this store looks pretty cool so I decided to poke my head in have a look. The store is nice looking, a smell of incense in the air. My eyes move up to the wall and I see 2 mountain caliber bike on display as decoration. Oooh I think, whats this? I didn't act on it right away, I wasn't ready to approach the owner about the bikes because I felt my Japanese wasn't good enough.
I went back a few days later. I introduced myself and asked about the bikes. Then I asked "Doko Dae Mountain bike ni norumashta". Where is the mountain biking? Funny how quick things can change.

This is Jimmy. He actually speaks pretty good english so there really was no need for my intial retreat from his store. Typical. Jimmy is a nice guy who likes to ride and surf. We spoke for a while, I told him about my recent trip to Mexico. After a fair bit of getting to understand each other foriegner type chit chat, Jimmy told me about Unno bros cycle in Fujieda. I would head that way a few days later.

That visit I would meet Kaz Unno, the shop ownwer. A few days later I would go back at the right time and meet of few of his regular customers. Meet Koji, far left, Kaoru in red and Kaz in white. This picture, btw, was taken while they were watching a copy of ROAM i ripped off the internet. They seemed to enjoy it.

We made tentative plans to go to Nagano last week but just like life in Vancouver, our plans got rained out. No matter.

I was training Karate the following thursday. As usual we were at the Shimada high school. I ran into Kaoru there who was working on his jujitsu there on the tatami with a buddy. I managed to talk to him for a bit and he told me about the ride that was being planned for Mt Fuji. Without hesitation, I told him I was in.

I rode saturday morning with another group and trained Karate that morning as well. The next morning, Sunday, I was up at 6 and off to the meeting place.

I think my friend IFO needs one of these Toyota vans. All the bikes and enough room to shuttle everyone up in comfort. Kaz, Kaoru and I rode in Kaoru' van to Mt. Fuji.

This is the view up the hill out of the parking lot. From here we would push up the trail to the place where we would start our desent.

We took water break and were met by a few random hikers, photograhers I think. They stopped to talk about our bikes. We continued our push up the hill. About 30 more up on foot. Again, I held out quite well I thought.

This is the crew in all there were 8 of us. Behing them is where we would head to start our ride down the mountain.

Behind me somewhere is the peak of Mt. Fuji.

The ride to start with was on very loose ground, rocks and baby heads. I scootered down it again as I'm still not used to not being in total control of where I go.

We got ourselves into some very tight trails. Everywhere I rode there were branches sticking out trying to knock me unconcious. Often we would have to push the bikes along because the trail was soo tight, with lots of corners and fallen trees.

There was a lot of this on the trail. We would have to push our bikes through, over and under fallen trees. These fallen trees are courtesy of an avalanche that took place here last winter. There is not much of a ride community on Mt. Fuji, no Volunteers to clear the trails I guess.

Towards the bottom it cleared up nicely tho. The ground was still loose with lots of volcanic rock. It was nice enough to ride, but we only had about 40 minutes of this until the trail ended.

At the end of the ride we packed up our gear and headed out for lunch and beers. It's still all the ways we are alike that amazes me here.

The road to Mt Fuji is not just about 1 mountain biking trip. These riders are the first friends I have made that are not through Karate, English teaching or inherited from Robyn. (BTW, I just came from dinner and drinks with Hide and Naru. Fine gents indeed.) It could be that this is the beginning of my trip. The experience that is mine and no one elses, and trip that is unique from anything that Robyn, Andrew, Lisa or anyone else has had here in Fujieda.

I remember back in May, I was picking up my bike from the Cove bike shop in N Van. I had just dumped all my money into it too. Not 2 hours later did I get the call from Kathryn that I could go to Japan if I wanted. It seemed like inconvenient timing then, but 4 months later, at the bottom of Mt. Fuji, that has been replaced by a sense of profound providence.