Climbing Mount Chokai

The background image for this blog is Mount Chokai, which is a lone volcano right on the coast of the sea, which is pretty rare. The vice principal of the school was gushing over it during my welcoming party, saying how the snowmelt from it lets them harvest oysters here in the summer, which can't be done elsewhere, and calling it their "treasure mountain". Well, seeing how it's almost October, climbing season is almost over, so if I didn't want to have to wait until next year to climb it, I would have to do it soon, so I did it last weekend.

The first thing was to get out there, since I don't have a car and the trailhead is fairly distant. Luckily there's a bus that goes out there during climbing season, but it's only by appointment. It's hard enough to communicate in person, so I really wasn't looking forward to trying to make myself understood over the phone, but luckily I realized that the bus was run by the same company that runs the community bus here in town and has their office right on my way to work, so instead of calling I just stopped in and made my appointment for it. It was $30 each way for the 40 minute trip, which seemed pretty steep, but without a car it was the only alternative.

So the bus left at 6:20 in the morning, so I had to get up at 5:30 to have a quick breakfast and catch it. It would arrive at 7 and then the return bus would leave at 4:20, so I had a little over nine hours to make the hike up and down the mountain. What I could find online said to plan on 8-10 hours, but I figured I could make it near the faster end of that estimate, so I just had to watch the clock to see where I was at the halfway point of 11:30.

I saved a couple pictures with trail maps and time estimates on my phone, as well as a description of the hike in English saying which way to go at which junctions, and took a 2L bottle of water and a couple of rice balls for lunch. It was supposed to be a warm day, and I'd be hiking the whole time, so I wore jeans to protect against ground plants or bugs or whatever, but just wore a t-shirt. I thought about bringing my fleece, but I figured it would be too warm to actually use, and just more weight to carry, so I didn't bring it. [Foreshadowing.]

The bus was just a shuttle van, but there were six other people taking it, so it was full up. The ride up was uneventful and we got dropped off at the middle of the small trailhead complex. There was some parking lots, a building with bathrooms, a lodge for people staying overnight, and a little restaurant. It took a minute to find the actual trail, but then I was off.

There were quite a few people on the trail already, even that early in the morning. I was trying to get up as fast as possible so I could make sure I had plenty of time to finish and make it back for the bus, so I was passing a lot of people. Most of the people on the trail were older people and couples of various ages, but a couple small families too. Pretty much everyone was decked out in almost identical gear: a floppy hiking hat, a windbreaker type jacket, and a hiking rod or two. About half the people had bear bells on their backpacks, because:

It says "Bear Warning".

Most of the first half or so of the hike only was gently going up, and sometimes even down. The trail reminded me of the Inca Trail in Peru. Sometimes it was just dirt or gravelly, sometimes paved with stones, sometimes steps:

Oh yeah, and occasionally just a ladder next to a cliff:

The scenery was a lot like the Andes too, mostly just low grass, but becoming more stony and volcano-like further on:

Most of these pictures were actually taken on the way down. Only about an hour after starting off it was already getting foggy, because I was literally hiking up into the clouds. About halfway through there was supposed to be a nice lake in a little valley off the side of the trail, but the fog was too thick to see it on either the way up or down. And it did get thick as I got further up. It was condensing on my ponytail, and I had to wipe off my glasses every fifteen minutes or so because they had gotten coated with so much mist.

At this point I was realizing that I probably should have brought that jacket after all, since not only was it a bit cooler on the mountain than it had been at sea level, but the foggy mist especially didn't help either. But even though my skin was getting cold at times, I was generating plenty of heat from the actual hiking, so I wasn't really cold at all for most of the hike. As I got further up where it was colder, there were plenty of people asking me whether I was cold though. (Samukunai?) Up on the ridges there were some really strong winds for a few minutes, so those combined with the fog were the only times that I was actually cold. And I guess it takes a certain temperature to keep this thing frozen here:

So even though I had a copy of a trail map and some instructions, I ended up taking a wrong turn anyway and going around the loop trail in the opposite direction that I wanted. Not a big deal, except that I would be reaching the summit at the end of it rather than the beginning of it, so I wouldn't be able to judge the time at the summit and skip the loop if I didn't have enough time. But I had made excellent time going up, I was already a full hour ahead of the estimate from online, so I figured I was okay.

There wasn't much to see because of the fog, so the only remarkable part was when I got over to the false summit. It was basically just a rocky flattish area like the top of a rocky hill, and there were little Buddhist altars or whatever all over the top of it. It had a lot of spots to sit and rest, so there were a lot of people here doing just that and eating a snack or whatever. I didn't hang around though and continued on through towards the true summit.

I took this on the way down; I actually approached it from on the opposite side. The two small rock piles aren't directly on top of the hill like they look in this picture, but some ways off behind it. That hill is actually pretty flat on top and there's a hut to sleep over and some bathrooms (and not with flush toilets either), but that's it. But I only got to that point after coming down from the summit.

Gradually the path had been getting steeper for the last hour or so and since it had become more like constant climbing rather than just walking up an incline I had been getting more tired, so it was taking more conscious effort to step from rock to rock rather than just hopping around like I had been earlier on. The grass had given way to just whatever scrubby pine bushes could grow out from between the rocks, and eventually those went away too. The final climb was literally just a rock pile, and it was pretty crazy:

The sort of thing where one misstep has you at least tumbling a few dozen feet down a rockpile, and at worst just plain off the side of the mountain. But there were some nice messages on the way up at least:

And one of those rock piles with space for about six people on top was just a bit taller than all the others, and that was the the summit:

It was just starting to clear up a little at this point, the sun had actually broken through for the first time just as I was on the summit, but it was still foggy for most of the time. I had hit the summit at about 11 and once I got down from it and got to the hut area I rested for about half an hour and ate my lunch, so once I started off to head back down it was 11:30, which was exactly halfway through the nine hours that I had to complete the hike, and that was after already completing the loop trail, so I had plenty of time to get back down without missing my bus.

It was the same route down as up, but just a tad clearer so I could take some better pictures (the ones above). The main difference was that now I was exhausted, and my knees were killing me. But I still made good time down and got there about 2:30. Near the bottom this one guy got to talking to me, so we chatted on and off the the last 45 minutes or so. It was funny because the people I'd talk to would always ask where I was coming from or where I was staying in Japan, and I'd tell them Kisakata, and they'd assume I had misunderstood and that was just where I had started the hike from, so they were always surprised to learn that I was actually living there.

The valley next to the trailhead looked nicer in the afternoon than it had in the morning too:

So then I just read some Sherlock Holmes on my phone until the bus came. So here's what you need to get to the summit of Chokai: good knees, good balance, water, and food. And here's what you should bring besides, but don't absolutely need: a jacket and a hiking stick.

The JET Application Process and Acceptance

So I've been into anime for a long time, and from there Japan in general, so I've wanted to try living in Japan too, just to see what everyday life is like, how the yearly cycle of holidays go, etc. The only way to actually live there long-term though is to work there of course, and the only way to work there is to either have business level Japanese, or teach English. (There are other methods of course, like being a student, missionary, spouse, etc., but work is the only method really available to me.)

So there's a well-known English teaching program called the JET Program that basically sets you up in the public schools as an assistant English teacher, which is really the perfect way to do what I wanted, so I applied for that straight out of college (the vast majority of applicants are recent college graduates). I didn't get an interview, and I applied again the next year, but nothing then either, so I just entered the rat race at that point and forgot about it.

I looked into private English schools a couple of times, but the benefits and support are much less than for the JET Program, and most of the hours are nights and weekends, which I'm not a fan of, so I never really decided to give those a shot. I thought about getting an actual computer programming job too, as there are even ones occasionally which don't require great Japanese, but that didn't really sound like a great path either, with the overbearing nature of Japanese corporate work culture.

Well, a couple of my friends had gotten accepted to the program out of college and spent some time over there, and ten years later, last summer, one was coming back from a second three-year stint on the program, which pretty much just reminded me that it even existed. I figured that now having a little more life and work experience might help give me an edge over the college kids and decided that I might as well try applying again to see what would happen.

So the application process is pretty complicated. They want a copy of your school transcript, so you have to get that, some proof of graduation, like a copy of your diploma (as one of the requirements for the program is a four-year degree), some proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate (since you have to be a citizen of some country that the program works with), then they have you list any Japan-relevant college courses on the application, work experience, volunteer or extracurricular activities, teaching experience, criminal history, all these sorts of things. Then you also have to get two letters of recommendation from academic or professional contacts, and then write a two-page essay (Statement of Purpose) on why you want to go to Japan, what you bring to the program, how the program will help your future aspirations, and how you'll spread Japan once you leave the program.

Well, as the letters of recommendation have to be from only academic or professional contacts, I pretty much had to get them from people I work with, preferably managers. You can imagine it's sort of awkward to ask your boss for a recommendation for another job, especially as only a tentative thing without actually stating your resignation at the same time. Well, the big corporation I worked for had local 'matrix' managers at our branch office as our direct managers were in the main NYC office, and I had good relationships with them, so they were a much better choice to ask for such recommendations than my direct managers.

Also, at this point, having been burned twice not getting accepted into this program, I didn't even intend to tell any friends or family I was applying, since I would likely have to explain a few months down the road that I got rejected again and I didn't feel like having that conversation a dozen times.

So I got the letters of recommendation, and using the expert BS skills I had accumulated over four years of corporate work, I wrote an amazing essay that I was sure would get me to the interview stage. Now every applicant eventually has to get an FBI background check, but those who have a criminal history of any sort have to get it at the initial application stage, rather than after being accepted for an interview. So, having a minor criminal record, I had to do that. That requires filling out an FBI form, getting your fingerprints taken, paying the fee, and mailing it in.

So where does one get their fingerprints taken? The police station is the first choice, but my city's police station said they hadn't done that for people for a few of years. I called a suburban police station, but they didn't do it either, although they gave me the name of a company they said I should check with. I did, but it looked like some company that other companies can contract out to if they need that sort of thing done, and not something really open to individuals. It looked like the state police would do it, but their office was way outside the city. I had actually gotten my fingerprints taken for work, by security right there in the office, so I figured it was worth asking them if they could do it, but of course they wouldn't since it wasn't work related. Finally I found out that the county police would do it, so I made an appointment with them, which I kept, but they didn't (the guy had called in sick), so I got another appointment and finally got that done.

The application is only open about a month to let you get all this together, so it was pretty hectic, but I finally got it done and got the appliation submitted at the end of October. They confirmed it and then there would be no further contact as they sorted through the applications until early January when they announced who was getting an interview. So it was pretty much a matter at that point of just forgetting that I ever actually applied and waiting for further contact.

So in mid-January I finally got an email which said... log into the application portal to see if you were accepted or not. So I logged into the application portal and there was a message that said... I was accepted for an interview! So then the NYC consulate sent another email a little bit later giving me my interview date, which was only a couple of weeks later, so I had to rush to book a flight and hotel and figure out what I was going to do with my luggage during the interview, since they specifically said that we couldn't bring any bags into the consulate, but I would already have to be checked out of my hotel room, but I managed to get all that straight and took the couple days off work and flew down to NYC at the beginning of February for the interview.

Now there's a lot of random information about what the interview process could be like online, with lots of people saying that it's very good cop/bad cop, with a lot of pressure to try to get you to crack to make sure that you can deal with the stress of moving to Japan and an unpredictable classroom environment. Things like they'll tell you there's something you wrote on your application that you know you didn't, but they insist that you did, because they want to see how you'll handle that situation, or that they'll test your knowledge of Japan by asking about recent news stories, or who the Prime Minister is, or if you can name any authors/directors/etc. But anyway, that was all crap because in the end it was just like any other job interview. They wanted to confirm what was on my application, and then give me a chance to cover for any weak points in it, like lack of formal teaching experience, etc.

The other thing everyone else freaks out about online is that there's supposed to be an example lesson where they'll give you a topic, or ask you to pick a holiday in your country, or something, and have you spend a couple minutes just trying to do a little lesson about it off the top of your head. So I picked a holiday and kind of tried to practice that a little too.

So the interview was done Japanese style, which means there was a table with three people behind it, and a chair in the middle of the room, not at the table, that the interviewee sits in, like you're in front of a tribunal. One guy worked at the embassy, the woman in the middle was a Japanese language professor at some NYC college, and the third guy was a former JET. So the first thing is that the woman mentions that I put that I had some level of Japanese on my application, so could she ask me some questions in Japanese? So I say sure and she asks me what time I woke up this morning. I can answer that, so she goes on with what did I do after I woke up today, so I managed to say that I got up at X time, ate breakfast, left the hotel, put my luggage in storage, and came over to the consulate. They she asked me some long question which I could only pick out a few words of, so I asked her, in Japanese, to repeat it. It was something about pick a famous American and explain why you think they're great. So I kind of couldn't think of anyone off the top of my head but like actors and musicians, which I couldn't really think of an answer to the second part of the question for, so I went with the only other person I could think of, Obama, and I managed to get out something about how he thinks people's health is important. (Later I realized that the second part of the question was why I chose them, not why they're great. The two words are similar, erabu vs. erai.) Then she asked me to describe Buffalo a little, so I started off with the fact that it's famous in the US for it's snow, and she asked if there was any snow there right now, which actually there wasn't, so I was like, actually, there's not, which is really rare, and she kind of seemed to like that answer and she ended the Japanese part there.

So then they asked how I first became interested in Japan to begin with. Now all the people online are adamant that you don't say anything about anime or manga or games or whatever in your application, and I didn't, but the point is to just not write your whole essay about anime or whatever, so I answered that I first got interested in high school through anime, but then that got me interested in the language, and the language got me interested in the culture, and the culture got me interested in the history, and so I took the language and a history class in college, and kept studying after college, and they were totally fine with that answer.

So then they mentioned about how I don't have any formal teaching experience, but I had a couple things on my application about working with kids, like the Boy Scouts and my old church youth group, so they asked me to talk about those to sort of support my application. Then the consulate guy asked me if I read any Japanese newspapers online or anything and I told him I manage to keep aware of the biggest stories through some of the Facebook pages I subscribe to, and I threw out a couple of examples of recent stories. Then they mentioned how I had put in my essay that I'd try to get the students interested in English by relating it to their individual hobbies, but they asked if there was anything general I could think of that might interest all students. I pretty much was drawing a blank, and the consulate guy suggested games, and I agreed and then mentioned maybe cartoons too, but I really didn't have a good response to that question.

Then they actually had me do the practical portion of the interview. There was a white board easel there with a marker and they said to pretend like they're a middle school class and to walk up from the back of the room and give a five minute introduction, and do anything with the white board that I wanted. Well, despite my sort of practicing for this, I don't think I even managed to put out thirty seconds of content, just basically saying my name, drawing a little picture of the US and showing where I was from, and saying a couple hobbies. But at least it went smoothly, no nervousness, loud, clear voice, etc.

Then the JET guy asked why I chose the specific locations I had put on my application (since there's a spot where you can list up to three prefectures/regions that you want to be placed), so I told him that I wanted some place with similar weather to Buffalo, but that I was also sort of interested in dialects, and the how region I chose has its own dialect. And finally they asked me about my interests besides Japan, so I mentioned liking reading and physics, and recently art.

And that was pretty much it. Overall I felt like it went pretty well, I didn't act overtly nervous at all really, and for the most part I really wasn't, and as far as I could tell the whole demonstrating the ability to stay cool and have a positive attitude under pressure was an important purpose of the interview, so I thought I did pretty good there.

So at this point it was just going to be another waiting game again until April when the results came out, so it was just another round of pretty much trying to forget I ever applied until some random day when I heard something back. A couple weeks later then said that the FBI still hadn't gotten back with the background check results, so they wanted me to rush and get a state background check done, and check with the FBI about my application, so that was another $60 and a short-term deadline to meet, but I did that and it all went fine.

So then finally the day comes in April that I get another email which says, Congratulations! You've been accepted... as an Alternate. So basically, there's three possible buckets: Either you're shortlisted, you're in; or you're rejected, you're out; or you're an Alternate, you're waitlisted in case any of the shortlisters drop out. And they say that could be anytime from now until mid-December. So it's in some ways the worst response you can get, because you don't know the extent to which you should move on with your life, and then if you do get upgraded, you'll have less time, maybe only a couple of weeks to wrap up your entire life and get on the plane.

So basically your odds aren't great to get in at that point, but it's still possible, and there's three main times that the Alternates get upgraded: Almost immediately, because some of the people that were shortlisted have already committed to other things and JET wasn't really their first choice; second, about a month later after placements get assigned, and some people decide they don't want the boonie town they got and they drop out; and lastly just around departure time in late July as people get cold feet or whatever. And then of course for any other random reason if anyone drops out, but those three are, in decreasing order, the majority of upgrades.

Well, I didn't get upgraded that week, so the first bump was out. Then after placements came out I didn't get the ugrade either, so I pretty much had given up on it at that point and was trying to figure out where I wanted to go from there, because I was pretty much getting sick of my job at that point and wanted some sort of change, so I was planning to wait until this one project at work was wrapped up around the end of September and then quit and actually take a tourism trip to Japan for two or three weeks, and then come back and go from there. But then working from home one day in mid-July I had Gmail open in my other monitor, since I was using Google Voice for conference calls, and in pops an email that says JET Upgrade.

So basically you can imagine that I figuratively shit my pants and spent the rest of the day hyperventilating and alternating between bouncing off the walls and cowering in a corner as I alternated between excitement over getting what was pretty much a life's dream, and despair over what would at least for a little while, be the most stressful thing in my life, having to quit my job, pack up everything, and start all over in a country where I barely spoke the language.

So before posting it on Facebook or anything I had to let my parents know first, so I called them that night. Since I had figured that I should let someone know I was travelling when I went to NYC for the interview, I had let my dad know that I was going, although I hadn't told him why. I told him I'd let him know in April (since that's when the results would be announced). Well, since I still didn't know if I was going to be going or not at that point, since I was only an alternate, I didn't say anything come April, but he remembered and asked, so I let him in then that I had applied and was an alternate. So when I called him the situation wasn't completely new to him, although of course he was still surprised. My mother on the other hand knew nothing so when I called and she asked "What's up?" I just said "I'm moving to Japan" and let that sink in and told the story. Needless to say she was shocked and surprised, but happy for me. Conveniently, I had my mid-year review at work the next day, so that was basically "Yeah, I'm quitting in a month" and the beginings of succession planning.

There was still work to be done on the JET end though, because although the shortlisters had to get their medical reviews and tax forms and things done at the time, alternates had to wait until being upgraded to do that, so now I had to get all that paperwork done. They wanted it all done ASAP, and things like the IRS form and accident insurance form were easy enough, but I had never actually been to a doctor since I moved back to Buffalo, so I didn't have anyone on hand to complete the medical form. So I went to one office that was covered by my insurance and they said they could take me on as a patient, but couldn't schedule me in for a couple of weeks, but I needed this thing pretty much by the end of the week. So I went to this one urgent care clinic that I actually used to work at as a security guard, but they didn't have any openings either, but they did give me a couple references to other clinics that might be able to help. So the one kind of specialized in medical reviews for employers, and they were able to schedule me in for just a few days later, and it wasn't even that expensive. (They weren't covered by my insurance, but it didn't really make a difference anyway since I had a high-deductable plan and just paid out of my HSA.) So I got the medical check done and sent that in to the consulate and all that was out of the way.

The next thing was that I would have to send in my passport to get my visa, but I was also going on vacation to Canada in a couple weeks and would need by passport to get back into the US. I had no idea when they would be asking me to send it in or how long they would have to have it for, so I figured I better get the enhanced driver's license, just to be safe, so that was another expense. Then I had to find a self-storage place that I could store almost everything I own for at least a year. Luckily there was one just a few blocks from me, and they had openings, and even offered a 20% discount for a year's worth of prepay, and even discounted truck rentals, so that worked out nice. So after my last day of work and my Canada vacation the next week, I had two weeks left to pack up everything. I went to U-Haul and lugged boxes back to my apartment three times and got a little bit of packing done every day. At the same time I had to make my list of what I would be taking to Japan and pack that as well. But all in all everything went pretty smoothly and I got everything packed up and taken over to the storage place in the last couple of days.

Aside from cancelling my internet and gas, the final thing was what to do about my mail. I figured I could have it sent to one of my parent's houses who could then forward it or whatever was necessary, but I didn't want to do a post office address change because I get so much junk mail. My dad said he was fine with that though, so I did direct address changes with the organizations I knew were important (my former employer, 401(k) providers, etc.) and filled out the postal form to catch everything else.

And then on Monday, September 5th, my mom came into town and we went out to dinner and she took the last couple things I had in the apartment (like my cable modem and router; I had to have internet up to that last day!) and the rest of the food I couldn't manage to use up, and then she took me to the airport and I was gone.