I should've known it was going to be the start of hell.
That very day, a group of about 12 of us plus 2 japanese students made our way to Machida via the Yokohama Line. When we arrived at the bank, we immediately ran into problems. First off, because there are so many people in the Machida area, the bank is split into two buildings: one building is strictly for atms and foreign money exchange while the other building is reserved for other services such as setting up a savings account, etc. We decided to try the main building first. But the officier redirected us to the atm machine, but of course since it was all in japanese, none of the international students knew how to work it or knew what the hell was going on so we let our japanese friends give it a shot. After 15 minutes of fiddling around with the machine, it was decided that we should go to the main building to ask for help. If Japanese people can't even figure out their own atm machine system then obviously something is wrong. We ended up at the main building and the same officier there told us that we had to try the atm machines again only except this time he gave us a tutorial paper to guide us on its usage. If only they offered that damn paper near the atm machines (or better yet why didn't he give us that damn paper the first time when we walked in?) we wouldn't have wasted 15 min to begin with. After that, the process went by smoother and we were able to deposit our money and retain our spots.
Fast forward to the weekend of the retreat.
The retreat was to last for two days. We would leave bright and early at 8 am sharp from the Obirin bus stop and spend a night at the retreat. Then we would return on Sunday around 5 pm. Sounded good to me.
Well I should've taken the atm fiasco as a damn omen.
To begin with, I'm not a morning person. To call me before noon on the weekend is like asking for a premature death. Needless to say I was not all that thrilled to be getting up at 6:30 am so I could trugged 20 min to school in order to make it on time. Oh we made it on time alright....but the buses didn't. It turns out that the buses or the drivers were late so by the time the time hit 8:45 am we were taken on foot to the bus parking lot where we were told to hope onto the buses. Unfortunately, it turned out, one bus was a coach bus with all the luxuries of comfy seats, cup holders and the likes (but not enough leg room. people in japan are short) and the other two were regular school buses with seats that made your ass hurt after 20 min of sitting in it. Not only that, but the type of regular buses were were given were the kind that alloted extra room for people who are standing. So only one row had double seats (that could really only fit one westerner comfortably) and one row of single seats (again with not leg room). I was cramped next to my swedish neighbor and tried to sleep my whole way there (though I think my neighbor enjoyed the ride despite the cramped leg room.) We eventually made it to the retreat after 2 and a half hours of driving and one pit stop in between.
When I arrived the area was quaint enough. Apparently the property was owned by the YMCA and was used particuarly for these types of college/high school retreat purposes. The whole establishment was usually rented for an infinite amount of time to a group of people. The cabins were nice and the such. Unfortunately, during the first couple of hours we were forcibly split up into random groups and forced to play ice breaker games. Thinking that this was a retreat I was looking forward to some time to just sleep and relax. Apparently that was not happening. It was worse than camp. We had designated eating times at designated tables with our groups and scheduled activities. Now, when I first signed up I knew that we were going to be doing some group activities; in fact I was informed that I would be playing sport games for my first "sport period" and tennis for my second. I just didn't know that they would fill all of the extra time with more group activities when I all I wanted to do was sleep.
With the little free time that we did have between lunch and dinner, most of us ended up at the lake near the camp ground. It was beautiful. Since it was very cloudy and overcast like it was going to rain, you couldn't see anything too far away. But you could see enough that there seemed to be a mountain a head of us and the lake wound around the mountain. There were also a few houses around the lake and a guy out on a fishing boat. It was quite pretty despite the weather. We spend that time taking pictures of one another.
We spent the first evening performing scheduled activities and eating with our group. The food was horrible. The only thing that I did like was the snacks and the soup that was served as a side dish. We spent the first night sitting around a fire (that they refused to let us get anywhere near) and sang songs from The Sound of Music. I thought that it just couldn't get worse.
When we had arrived at the cabin, we were instructed to take sheets for the bed as well as the pillow. I grabbed my sheets earlier in the evening so that I wouldn't have to walk across the camp in order to get them when all I wanted to do was pass out. When I finally retired to my cabin I realized that I had no pillow. Out of 32 beds that were in our cabin I was the only one without a pillow. So I went to the camp office. Their reply was that I had to make due without one. They apparently didn't have any extra. Fortunately, one of the guys was kind enough (or fed up with my pestering) to give me his pillow. Honestly, I couldn't understand the big deal about the whole thing. I paid for the cabin space, I needed a pillow, you are running a camp ground where people sleep at...doesn't it make sense to carry extra of everything that you SHOULD have? After falling in a restless sleep (it was way too hot in the cabin) I awoke to the gray and dreary of the next day. Since we were up kind of early for breakfast at 7:30 am I decided to take a walk by the lake we had gone to the previous evening. The morning was clearing up pretty nicely. When I finally made it through across the bit of forest to the lake the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.
The mountain that I saw the night before was not a mountain but actually Mt. Fuiji! It was so beautiful to see it from the lake shore. Soon everyone was out by the shore taking turns taking pictures of themselves.
Several group activities and a meal later we were on our way back to Machida. Even though the actually camp experience wasn't that great, I have to say that the many pictures that I took of Mt. Fuiji was worth the 4000 yen.
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