Flying over Detroit: Very cold looking below

Sunrise above the clouds.

One of the best parts of training was going to Camp and do fun bonding exercises as a team. We did low and high ropes courses. I was really scared of the high ropes, because I do not have much upper arm strength, but in the end I mustered enough courage to try the easiest course. It was encouraging to have people cheering me on from below. At the end of the course though, I was happy to have my feet on the ground again.

The morning glory flowers my dad planted were smiling sweetly today.

Just this last weekend, I had the chance to go with threewhite to a city in Shizuoka prefecture to help at the photoshoot for a company we are working for. During the days before, we were busy with last minute preparations in the office, like painting a sign on a wooden panel, finalizing schedules and constantly checking the weather forecast. The company facilities is located at the foot of Mt. Fuji, so a beautiful background view of the mountain was a key component to the photoshoot. Unless it is a sunny day, it becomes difficult to see the mountain. Unfortunately, the rainy season has lasted longer than usual this year, so we were wondering how that would turn out…

Then early Saturday morning, we headed off with a photographer specializing in natural scenery, and took the Shinkansen bullet train to Shizuoka prefecture. It’s surprising that at 5.45 AM in the morning, many people were already bustling around the train stations. The shinkansen, which departed at 6.30AM also had many passengers.

Before long, we arrived at another train station and then went by car to the company facilities and agricultural lands. The skies were cloudy, so we could not see the moutain in the morning, but everyone kept their hopes up that Fuji-san would show his face later in the day. By the afternoon, the skies became blue, but only Fuji-san was hidden by the last of the morning’s clouds. We still kept our hopes up, saying that even if we can only see the mountain during the last 10 minutes of the day, it would be worth it. So the company directors and assistants, the photographer, and threewhite all worked together to take good photos of vegetables in the fields, the local water springs, and other necessary sights. These are just some memory snapshots that I took.

By the end of the photoshoot however, Fuji-san was still hidden away by the clouds. Our photographer said that this is Fuji-san’s way of saying that we should visit him again. In the car, on the way to the train station to go home, we were watching the beautiful landscape flash by and then- all of a sudden- we saw Fuji-san appear in front of us! It felt like it really was asking us to come see it again sometime- the sight was breath-taking. It was the perfect end to a day of collaboration and hard work.