The Beautiful Mt Fuji

Well, I am so excited to share a small episode of my
latest adventure to the top of Mt Fuji.

They call Mt Fuji "The heart of the Japanese people"
with numerous poetry, paintings and photographs
written and composed about Mt Fuji. It is the most
photographed mountain on earth and it is easy to see
why cause of its appealing connical shape and it's
stature towering above the Japanese Alps at 3776m asl.
It is towering cause the average height of the
mountains around it is 1500m.

The round trek took us 12 hours to complete staggered
over a 2 day period, the first day we started at the
5th Station (2500m asl) and walked to the mountain hut
at 3250m. THis took 4-5 hours depending upon weather
and at 7pm at night it is not fun walking in 200km/hr
winds and horizontal rain with a flappy raincoat
acting like a sailing boat! People have been known to
have liturally blown off Mt Fuji and I can see why
cause a few times I nearly flew off with them.

It is a nice feeling reaching the warmth and
hospitality of a mountain hut, with fires burning and
a hot Japanese curry waiting with steamed rice. The
plan was to sleep for 6 hours and wake again at 2am
for the summit climb to see sunrise.

Waking up the next morning I have this terrible
throbbing headache, i thought i better drink some
water and then I realised I only brought a 300mL water
bottle from a vending machine yesterday and I had
already drank it all. Its pitch  black outside and
pouring rain, about 3 degrees and windy as a flying
sheep. I also remembered I forgot a torch!! Teiko
seemed quieter than usual and tired, climbing this mountain
together was a special event for us! I was going to
support her in every way that I could and be with
her every step of the way! If it needed I would carry
her as far as I could. I could see that she was
determined to do it and this was very impressive
cause she was really trying! I was amazed!! Something
very special happened between us on that mountain and
I will never forget what it was on the 6th of July!

We set out, the fog is thick, you can see
approximately to the end of your nose at best, plus we
had no torch! So we stumble on into oblivion, every 5
mintues stopping and catching our breath, the air is
noticably thinner.

Suddenly we meet a japanese sports university of about
100 people climbing, they are making good progress and
we tag on the end of their line, I also noticed about
half of them were using oxygen. THis is not nessesary
but i can see the appeal and would not mind a wiff
myself but naturally we are here to do it the original
way!
The sun quickly rises and everything becomes quiet,
dead quiet! There is no wind, no noise, just white
fog, its peaceful! How long has it been since you have
heard dead quiet??? I think mountains are spiritual
places and this experience of dead quiet and an
presence really surprised me. It made me feel more
connected to my surroundings and respected the
mountain as if it were personified. No wonder this
mountain is so special in the hearts of the Japanese
psyche, it is pure, simple, yet powerful!

Suddenly the clouds break, the fog lifts and we are
left we the most unforgettable view out across the
oceans of clouds, each cloud level has a different
texture and direction, colour and pattern, we are
nearing the summit well above 3600 m now and well
above any clouds. It looks like the view out of an
aeroplane but we are on land? It is just too difficult
to describe in its full magnitude.
We reach the top and everyone is celebrating, hugging,
singing, dancing and a cool japanese guy comes up to
me says "Congratulations and says give me five man!" I
was pleased, i smiled and said, yeah man!! Thanks!!!
How wonderful!!!
There are various snow drifts around, a large crater
filled with snow elusively sticking to the shaddows...

There it was, something i will always treasure. And I
will leave you with a thought I had at the top,

Like the fast flowing stream
Water is together
Then a rock
Splits it's path
However water
Does not worry
Cause it knows that
It will join back
Together again
Somewhere down the path

The Floorwalker Returns

Well ,
I have been quite a busy chap the last month, negotitating deals, contracts, salaries, scholarships but after all i am returning to my home country! I have been away now the longest time I have ever been out of the country, verging on 10 months. It's been an adventure like every day!
I have managed to get a pHD offer back at ANU and it's on a very exciting topic! It's top secret, sorry dudes :). I will be back in Germany twice per year on Business and hopefully we can make some great progress on this promising technology...

So see you all in this wonderful world, somewhere, sometime, somehow!

Adios

Floorwalker!

Travel

Travel is not a place that your looking for,

It's a feeling that you may discover inside you,

It's a moment,

If you find this moment,

This wonderful feeling will be with you,

Forever,

This moment makes time stand still,

But only for a moment.

A slight Setback to being a Global Citizen

Well, this is a slightly annoying phenominen that I have been experiencing lately. I need to book a series of flights from Germany back to Australia and my travels to India, Japan and Thailand.

This requires the need of a credit card which I do not have quite yet, I thought that this would be a minor setback and I will be able to get a credit card easily seeing that I am an Engineer working here in Germany. However....after applying to Kardstat, (A major German Bank and Shopping chain) 22 days later I got a mail back asking me to come in and talk to them, show my passport (again), my work visa, my living registration documents and my salary documents. Two days later I recieved a letter in German telling me that I have failed to meet their selection criteria and I cannot apply again. They did not give me any reason at all?

So then I went online and tried applying for the Virgin Credit card in Australia. This was easy until they asked where I lived. Germany, being an Australian living in Germany I do not fit their selection criteria, however on the website I fit all other criteria including being an Australian Citizen (since birth) and a permanent resident.

Now I am thinking, holly cow dude I am living in a loophole here or something? Come on so many other people must have this problem right?

Extreme Toursim

Well I just got back from Munich and I have this wonderful idea now! It's a new thing spreading across Europe! EXTREME TOURISM!

The idea is you only have a 45 day Eurail Pass, yet you have unlimited usage! So you got to get your money's worth! I met these two funny Korean guys and they were fully into it! They had hydration back packs, protective high performance clothing, I-rivers, Digi cameras, man they were fully kitted out. They were at Euro Youth Hotel in Munich. They told me that there aim was to see every country on the Eurail pass in 45 days...so they eat power bars, get up at 6am, go to bed at 3am go to the site, take 500 photos and then download them to their I-rivers. They also have those Hdration back packs for drinking on the move.
Extreme man, I was an extreme tourist for a weekend with them and we went to two castles, a soccer match and a beer festival, I missed my train at 6pm from Munich to Leipzig so I had to get the next one at 0:01 am, I got in to Leipzig at 5:37am and then had a shower and went straight to work!! Extreme dude!

Have an EXTREEEME DAY!

Lately work has been Extreme also, I made 2 million Euro profit for the company so they are EXTREMELY happy! And we all get an Extreme bonas! Wooooooooooo

Everyone is Irish on St Patricks Day!!!

Well my laddy's, a good ol day up to ya all! St Patty's day, ahre, me ol Irish Lepriconish accent is getting a wee but tested!

Today is one of those special celebratory days of the year! One must oblige and drink a wee Guiness! Wear something green and have a jolly time!

My second name being Patrick names me, I am named after the old patrant st of Ireland, I must uphold my Irish heritage and celbrate! So put down your pen, clap your hands out louad and yell, we are all Irish on St Patricks day!

U2 says it with the Song, 'A beautiful Day' So naturally I must play this song for you today!
Cheers my friends!

Goodbyes

Well today was one of those horrible days where you have to say goodbye to a loved one.... You don't know how long till you see them again, where you will see them....someone who has been there everyday for you for the last 4 months....someone you can talk to and someone you can listen to....someone who laughs at your jokes and has an everlasting smile..suddenly, there is emptiness, that someone is not going to be there anymore. They are gone! This is very hard to think about and upsetting and it hurts too. I can't wait again to see her!