it's not life that matters but the journey...

Its been raining all day, quite a change from the last few days which were hot and sunny.  of course its still humid, especially with the rain.  We've been making some more changes to our living area by running the cable up into our room so we can surf the internet upstairs - up to now we have had to use the internet in the room on the second floor, which doesn't have air conditioning.  and that is the room we plan to use for our classroom - if we can ever get the wallpaper replaced!  Also, we rearranged the furniture lately and it is very cozy now.  So cozy that a nice big cockroach decided to come into our room tonight - completely uninvited!  It was actually Leo who alerted us to the cockroach being there - he started freaking out and staring up at the ceiling - if he hadn't seen it, I might have found it after I went to bed!  scary thought!  that was the second cockroach I saw in a week - the other one was in the bathroom!

Yesterday, we decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to the 5th station of Mt. Fuji, which is where you can begin the long and difficult ascent to the top.  It was so nice to get out of the heat, and as soon as we were halfway to the halfway point of the mountain (does that make sense?) it was already 10 degrees cooler than the city!  The air was clear, and it was so nice to be where its quiet and peaceful - we are very lucky to be close to beautiful nature here where we live:  it took us only an hour to get to the mountain, and it takes only about an hour and a half to get to the lakes in the next prefecture.  Of course we didn't climb to the top yesterday for many reasons, one being that we are both too out of shape.  Its an excessively difficult climb!  But we did go from the 5th to the 6th station, which is at about 2500 meters (the mountain at its peak is 3,750 meters, so we would have quite a climb from the 6th station to the top - maybe next year!) and took a few pictures:  http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/at2500meters.jpg  http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/onmtfuji2.jpg

 Its quite a weird experience being on Mt. Fuji since its an active volcano and the earth is very unstable - wherever you step, the rocks just slide out underneath you, and you can actually grab pieces of the mountain as they are very loose.  Unfortunately, the weather was quite cloudy, but it did provide a very mystical feeling with all of the mist:  http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/onmtfuji1.jpg   and the clouds were amazing : http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/fujiclouds2.jpg

we plan to go back again in the fall - not really to climb, but just to experience the awesome nature!

it looks like I will have more free time than I had thought:  Naoko told me on Saturday that she found someone to work on Wednesdays - I had told her that I would only work until 8 pm and she needs someone until 9.  I don't want to do that since it gets me home way after 10!  So I will only be working on Saturdays (four classes) and tutoring on Fridays.  But Naoko also wants me to do lesson plans from home, for which I will get paid about half of the teaching rate, so its not bad.  Easy work!  She added a class to my load on Saturdays - an older couple who can't speak English at all!  Its a semi-private lesson so it should be challenging -and I can improve my Japanese!!