Cell Phone Signal is Everywhere

In case you were wondering, in case your life is incomplete without this information, in case you're atop Mt. Fuji and want to order that supreme pizza with extra cheese, cell phone signal is alive and well, bowing not the slightest to the full 3,776 meters (12,388 ft) of Mt. Fuji glory. 

You may ask, "Why in the craziness of all crazies were you carrying a cell phone on a 12 hour hike?" or "Did you call anyone from the top?" or "Are there doughnuts at the peak?"

Read on and the many questions besieging you shall be allayed.

So, before getting to the important business of question management, a little bit of story and rambling is in order.

Tram. Think TAMS. We were in the same year, graduated together and knew each other via a lovely physics tutoring arrangement the memory of which I'm sure she relishes. Anyway, she and her sis Ly traversed the Pacific just to hang out with me. I mean, who wouldn't want to. Ok, reality check. There were other primary motives, such as research, but I don't mind ignoring those.

So, in the midst of their travels around Japan, we decided to meet up and hang out on a week of vacationing, sightseeing and climbing Mt. Fuji.

Which brings me to the questions. Number one. Well, there was no particularly well thought out, super convincing reason. I just did. However, it seems that this isn't a peculiarity at all because the literal thousands of people on the hike the same day as us all seemed to have cell phones. A couple times I even overheard someone taking care of business. Japanese, indeed. Oh, and no, that "thousands" isn't a typo. The particular trail we took (Yoshida) was holy-crap packed. So much so that the last quarter mile of the hike took about two hours to complete. Which sort of stretches the whole meaning of hike, the experience being more like waiting in line for the Rattler at Six Flags. Wait thirty seconds, move forward for five. Wait another thirty or so, and... well, that's the gist of it.

Question two. Nope, I didn't make any call in fact along the hike. I thought about it, but it was ridiculously early for most. We actually started the hike at about 10:30 the previous night, planning to arrive at the peak by the crazily early Japanese sunrise time of 4:30 am. In short, we were 2 hours late. But, but... the sunrise emerging atop a sea of clouds. That's gorgeous. At 3000 meters, you're looking down on the clouds. Anyway, we did make it to the top, exhausted, sleepy and smelling pretty interesting.

Question three. Unfortunately, I don't think there are doughnuts on the summit. However, if you want Beer, a candy bar, or even to use a vending machine, you won't feel gipped for your effort. Your wallet might, though. I wonder if $6.50 beer tastes any better than the same exact brand in the same can at $1.50 down at the base?

Speaking of doughnuts though, on Day 1 of our sightseeing excursion together, we decided to break our fast with the unequivocally champion-making Krispy Kreme. Truthfully, I think it was my first time. And in the whole excitement of doughnuts, I ended up eating like six (that half a dozen). Doughnuts are like Trojan horses for sugar. They look all delicious and pretty, not to mention smelling awesome, but once eaten it's like Soviet Russia in your stomach—where you don't eat the sugar, the sugar eats you. This was the start of our 10 hour train trip to Nagano.

The trip didn't need to take 10 hours. It was more a matter of monetary economy. You see, there's this nifty wifty thing called the seishun jyūhachi kippu (青春１８きっぷ), and you can use it to ride the train unlimited on any five days you pick during the summer. So, for a hundred bucks, that's a steal, considering that one normal round trip ride of about four hours to Mikimoto Pearl Island would cut about a $50 hole in your wallet. The catch is that you mustn't use the fast trains, including the super über fast shinkansen (that's the "bullet train"). However, the upside of this is the bonding and cheerful traveling your can share with your friends. Right?

On a side note, if you ever come to Japan as a tourist, you can get a sort of beefed up version of the previous ticket which will allow you to use any train unlimited for some block of days that you choose. It's really convenient, especially since you can travel the equivalent of San Antonio to Corpus Christi in 15 minutes by the shinkansen. Those living in Japan, sadly, cannot buy such awesomeness. So, when you come visit me, :P consider getting this ticket, the JR Pass.

Wow, so there's really a whole ginormous quantity of nonsense I could ramble on about with the trip. But I'll save it for later posts, focusing in on some particular non-Fuji-related details later.

Questions? Comments? Please ask.

Over and out.