{"id":4226,"date":"2014-07-01T12:04:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T03:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/?p=4226"},"modified":"2014-07-01T12:04:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T03:04:33","slug":"perspective-above-mount-fuji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/2014\/07\/perspective-above-mount-fuji\/","title":{"rendered":"Perspective above Mount Fuji<\/b>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I am not a sport\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s person. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a dog person, occasionally a cat person, but I definitely do not like sports. However, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an exception to every rule, and I have finally found a sport that I like. Love. Want to do over and over again, maybe even multiple times in one day. It involves harnesses, and strapping someone to your back\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re into that kind of thing.<\/p>\n

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Skydiving.<\/p>\n

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Skydiving is my new chocolate (and when I say chocolate I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6). It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredible. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exhilarating. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d expect when you imagine jumping out of a plane: lots of air, adrenaline, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153holy sh@ts!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The idea of skydiving was planted by my Japanese professor in college. Shortly after arriving in America, she decided to go skydiving. She thought it was the next step after leaving her life in Japan and permanently moving abroad by herself.\u00c2\u00a0 She had already taken a metaphorical leap, so why not go for the real deal? Apparently her English wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when she went, but the fear of misunderstanding an instruction made it that much more thrilling. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Did he say left or right?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d literally became a life or death question.<\/p>\n

The experience made her feel more confident, not just with her language skills, but in every facet of her life. Also, she\u00c2\u00a0said that it was freaking\u00c2\u00a0awesome. Boom. Inception. Skydiving was now lingering in the space of my mind that rarely gets visited, waiting for inspiration.<\/p>\n

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In January, I received my failure notice for the JLPT 2. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t study, but if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m honest, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like I needed to. I was living in Japan! I studied Japanese throughout university and did a study abroad. My grandmother was Japanese! Surely if I could navigate the metro system and order things off a menu, then I could pass a test. It really sucks to be wrong. It really sucks to have a piece of paper that verifies that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how to read all the things that get passed around the office. That verifies that you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the joke Kocho-sensei told at the enkai. That sometimes you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what your cousins are talking about in their emails.<\/p>\n

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\"IMG_1782\"<\/a>It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that same day, but around that time I looked up skydiving in Japan. Being the master of independent research as I am, I googled: skydive Japan. I found two drop-zones, one in Tajima and one in Saitama. Although Tajima is by far closer than the Saitama location, posts from people who have been to both said they preferred the Saitama drop for the scenery and experience. I went to the Tokyo Skydiving Club<\/a> ( http:\/\/www.tokyoskydivingclub.jp\/<\/a>) website, found the tandem jump schedule, picked a date and signed up.<\/p>\n

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I really lucked out for the dates. As far as weather goes March is really a hit or miss in Japan, but that weekend was glorious. It was perfectly spring, sunny, and lovely. I’ve been to Tokyo many times and never seen Mount Fuji so clearly.<\/p>\n

The Skydiving Club is situated in two caravans set up next to the drop site. Most of the crew understand and speak English pretty well, and were very friendly. The training was super-fast. I got into a suit, the kind that gas station workers wear, and met my sky-diving teacher, Keizo. After pleasantries, the first question was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you understand Japanese?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I answered yes, and from there on, English was out. He strapped me into the chute-suit, made sure it was on right, then taught me the basic skills of the jump. He taught me the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153banana bend,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a jump position \"DSC00026\"<\/a>which prevents neck injuries, then led me to his truck and had me sit on the back and dangle my legs over. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do before we jump.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That terrified me. I imagined the world beneath the truck, beneath my dangling feet, ant-like and small.<\/p>\n

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Five minutes later we were in a van being driven to the plane, a teeny, tiny box of metal. They packed twelve of us – literally butt to butt – onto the plane and took off. The flight up was only a few moments – moments I spent trying to avoid eye contact with the cameraman who was filming what could have been the end.\u00c2\u00a0 Keizo firmly squeezed my arm from behind me and told me to put my goggles on. It was go time. I watched in horrified fascination as the others jumped before me, feeling the airplane dip and lift every time one left. When it was our turn we crab-crawled to the edge of the plane. I swung my legs out and saw Mount Fuji, so beautiful, so small. I could see my neon sneakers hovering over Saitama. It was so clear. Keizo asked if I was ready.<\/p>\n

\"DSC00019\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For one whole minute we fell at full force. It was very uncomfortable. The air pressure made my eyes water annd my cheeks puff apart like a dog sticking its head out the car window. I kept trying to touch my face, to adjust my goggles, to hold it together, but I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t move my arms out of a flying squirrel position.<\/p>\n