it was really cold and windy at the top, originally uploaded by docfranxusc.

This is LIsa and me at the top of Mt. Fuji. Check out the volcano behind us. What you can't tell is that we are FREEZING, the wind was blowing so hard we thought we might fly off, and we left shortly after this was taken...

The whole Fuji thing was quite the adventure - and fiasco. The first few pictures in this series shows you (click on the picture to see them) that the weather was miserable on the first day we tried to climb. We got about 2000ft up the mountain from the 5th station (already about 7000ft up) and 6 of the 9 of us turned around. Justin, Dustin and Sara kept going - but w/ wind whipping at sustained 25mph winds and gusts much higher w/ rain and sleet and snow...the triumphed and alighted at the top - but it wasn't pretty. (Mission complete, however). the rest of us (well mostly Lisa and me) wallowed in our coward and vowed to go the next day when there was better weather. And sure enough, we did.

It's a tough climb - i mean the air gets a little thin at 12,000feet. Some breath taking views, though. The tough part was really the downhill -- seriously, those of you who know me best KNOW that I'm not a downhill kinda girl - and this was 3hrs of sliding down volcanic ash at 45 degrees

Lovely mountain. COnquered. CHECK....

In other news, July was a busy busy month -- and i'm SOOO behind on our posts. Tony was here for 2 weeks (AWESOME time, so good to have him here, and good for him to relax). Friends from DGAR here. We even ran into our friends from oKinawa, and a girl I went to college and med school w/ whose dad is retired military, when we were at the New Sanno -- SMALL WORLD!! And it gets smaller and smaller... Lots of work work work in between. Staff is down, so workload is up. Figures...almost off to EMF Afghanistan, but then not...

New friends are coming to Japan - new opportunities to see it through their eyes. We've been here ONE YEAR already. Kind of insane. My Japanese is not really any better. I still love the food here. OUr house is a little more settled, ours lives really aren't ....Justin, at the moment, is on a camping trip w/ the Japanese boy scouts. HE recently starting cycling -- hmmm, this is GReAT for his triathlon dreams, NOT good for his poor joints, as he falls of the bike. (I do too, still, because i just can't get out of the clips!) WOrk is still sparse but there are some good prospects.

overall, we are having a GREAT time...and there are only more adventures to come.

anyone want to come visit??