started out great, although i didn't sleep that well. woke up at 0530hrs wanting to go to the onsen. jonathan came along as well or so i think. dessy and aljw were still sleeping. or was aaron awake? wait! i think he came along as well. yes. he did. only desmond was sleeping. eugene preferred to shower at the room although i think he came to the onsen in the night.
anyw, tied that yukata thingy, tying it wrongly. but who cares! i wanted to go to the onsen. so we all ran there and you know what? the onsen was effing hot and effing crowded. daryl was kind enough to help all the newbies there, telling us what to do. rumour is that daryl was at the onsen all the time. but it's not a rumour anymore. cuz we saw at the onsen most of the time, and he was always in his yukata. showered. entered onsen. massaged myself for 5 mins. came out. went back in. came out. showered and left.
and guess what? all the guys came late for breakfast. mr koh was super angry with all the guys. he was at the 2nd and 3rd floor, where all the guys were apparently rooming and asked us to quickly go to the banquet hall. after that, we started eating breakfast. i was sitting opposite ganesh and beside koganti. the pple at the special food table were asked to eat properly due to the hike. i tried to eat as much as i could. there was some meat and rice. i just ate it. then, we got our jackets and stuff and went down to the lobby, after which the hike began...
it was kinda screwed... we first went to the shrine. apparently, according to mr tony, we disrespected the gods there. that's why our hike was screwed up... but it was quite obvious that many pple weren't respecting the gods in the shrine properly. i mean like ganesh proclaimed that one of the gods looked like yx, which i find really disrespectful and extremely stupid. it started to rain. we then got onto the bus, and went to Mt Fuji and we began our hike.
the stupid balloons. we had to blow them for our physics experiment. we blew them on the bus and we slowly trekked with our groups up the mountain. at the beginning we were together. i think we were together with gillian's group and ms low. in fact, my group was always with gillian's group because of mich and jovena, but that's besides the point. after a while, i saw eunice, holding onto henry and i saw henry complaining that his group was slow because of her. jonathan, henry and i trekked most of the journey together. yea. so. lemme continue. eunice came to hold onto my bag as well, but i told her that she should just stick to henry's bag. did that sound rite? haha. after a while, like 1 hour, i realised that we had just reached station 1. wtf. nvm. the rest of the hike was like that. after station 3, everything screwed up. there were lots of muddy ramps. i needed lots of help to climb up those slopes. and i nearly fell in a few. wanna thank those few guys, being lq, henry, nazri and a few others... after those few muddy slopes, our formation kinda changed. since there was only one teacher, ms tey, who was having lots of difficulty, rearranged ourselves. henry was in the small group in front of me, pushing them on. i was the guy right at the back, making sure mark, jonathan, zq and olivia, ms tey and a few others were alright. zq was apparently nice as he helped to carry oilvia's bag. hmmm. after a while, he couldn't carry her bag anymore. i offered to carry her bag, but mark agreed to carry her bag as he had no bag and was only listening to his mp3 player in that friggin cold weather. we all took a group photo at one of the stations. a lot of things happened after that.
after we crossed the original station 5, we trekked on, it was starting to get a bit chilly, but i was well-protected cuz i was wearing 4 layers of clothing. kiasu to the core. a lot of others couldn't take the cold weather.half way up to the restaurant, i saw this whole group of pple running back. i was rite at the back, so i didn't know what was happening. suddenly they all formed a huddle, and started crying. i didn't know what to do. suddenly, one guy shouted at me, "it's cold. no one can take it. what to do?" i just asked everyone to move to the shelter as quick as possible adn waited for everyone to come. i saw a lot of pple crying, which was kinda disturbing in a way. i saw ganesh crying in the cold. then i saw him wearing only a t-shirt. SMART. anyw, after a while everyone came, and the last person to come was dw with someone else nuder an umbrella and laura, who seemed unaffected by the cold. interesting. mr ng and mr koh came after a while. i think it was after sandra called them. i'm not sure whether henry called mr koh as well, but if he did, i'm quite sure he tore 3 phonelists in the process. haha... just kidding.
it was a really mixed feeling when i saw everyone huddle together in the cold. i felt so helpless that i couldn't do anything, but at least everyone was together. we were in it together, motivating each other on. i heard some stories of peanuts and biscuits as well, and these stories as testament to what i said.
i was with the v12 guys cuz i couldn't find anyone from our class. they were really great company. after a while we started walking to the restaurant, that small group of us. the van stopped half way and picked us up. oh, the relief. after an extremely bumpy ride, we reached the place.
i really didn't want to say this, but we reached the place as though we were a bunch of tsunami victims. the moment the van opened pple came rushing to help us. i remember ms toh asking us to go into the restaurant. the first person i remember giving me something was dessy. it was a cup of hot tea(which i didn't really like) and a towel. i think it must be some illusion. it couldn't have been dessy. haha. just kidding. thanks a lot anyw.
after that, i rushed through my lunch, and tried to help everyone who came. this first batch of guys who came were great in the sense that they helped everyone really well. i was irritated by a few of those guys but who cares. after a while everyone left, and we helped a few pple get their bags. suddenly, everyone went missing only a few of us were left behind to clean up the place with the teachers. last guy to get onto the bus, and couldn't find a place to sit. found one beside marj. sat by the window. according to marj, i was snoring. man, i must have been really tired. after reaching the hotel, i literally ran to the onsen depsite all the cramps in my legs. i really wanted to go to the onsen. saw ganesh on the floor at the onsen then rean inside. it was great.
all in all, thinking back, i feel that the hike was not so nice in some ways, and really great in a few others. and in my opinion, when compared to shibuya, the sake factory, ginza, miraikan and disneyland, it was only during the hike that i learnt the most throught the trip to japan.
and i really hope there will be some trip like this next year, although i think there won't be one. maybe greece?
