I am the lord thy DJ

When discussing iconic images of Japan, there are a few things that come to mind immediately: bullet trains, cherry blossom trees, and of course, Mt. Fuji. One of the most easily and widely recognized mountains in the world, Mt. Fuji always seemed cool in principle but never really held any draw for me in theory. However, when, a few weeks ago, we were presented with the option of going away to an ‘international camp’ for a weekend at Lake Yamanaka, which is situated at the base of Fuji, I clearly did not turn down the offer. We were told that for the very reasonable fee of about 20 dollars we would be provided transportation to and from the camp, and lodging, food, and activities while there.

Upon arriving at the camp at Yamanaka, we all immediately piled out of the buses (it was about a 3 hour ride or so), and ran to the lake itself. Before us was one of the most magnificent and literally breathtaking sights I have ever witnessed in my life. Stretching up to the sky to a degree that I had previously thought unimaginable was Mt. Fuji. Neither words nor photographs can describe or accurately represent the sheer size of the thing; it dominates the scene and is the biggest behemoth of a single object I’ve ever encountered. I can now understand the reverence that people, Japanese and otherwise, have for the monument. Unfortunately, as it is October and therefore warm, the mountain lacked its characteristic cap of snow. This, however, is like complaining that the Mona Lisa is smaller than you expected it to be: a minor issue that by no means reflects on the overall work.

The camp itself was nothing short of absurd. First of all, we were not informed that this was, in fact, a Christian-themed camp where Jesus is law and all is Jesus. As part of this, we were expected to go to Mass on Sunday morning. This put me off considerably as A) I am not religious whatsoever and would rather spend my time doing something productive and B) the mass was entirely in Japanese. So, myself and a few of my fellow heathens concocted a devious plan wherein we walked towards the church when everyone else was going there, and then in an ingenious twist, turned away at the last second. They never saw it coming. So it came to pass that while everyone else was listening to a sermon nihongo de, about how Jesus is the DJ of the world and lays down phat tracks of forgiveness (I’m not kidding), my friends and I were wading in the waters of Lake Yamanaka and taking some of the best photographs that I’ve ever had the opportunity to take. To be fair we’re all going to rot in hell for all eternity, but at least I got to see a cool mountain