Fuji Adventures (Part I - The Planned Part)

Mount Fuji is the highest point in Japan. (Incidentally, I have also been to the lowest 'mountain' in Japan - Tempozan. It's a grand total of 4 meters high, and considered Japan's lowest mountain.) Mount Fuji is a dormant volcano - it last erupted in November 1707. It's 3776 m (12388.45 feet) above sea level. There are many climbs you can do, the longest taking over 20 hours. We decided to do a shorter one (limited time, large group with various fitness levels) - and took a bus to the 5th Station. But I'm getting ahead of myself... let's start from the beginning...

I jumped on the bus at Namba, and dozed until Rumiko got on in Kyoto. We had a lovely trip, with intermittant sleeping and ice cream at 2am. Doesn't get much better than that! We met up with Matt at Shinjuku, when we finally arrived in Tokyo. Getting off the bus I was almost chilly, but it soon warmed up to that nice Japan summer... sticky and sweaty and hot hot hot! The three of us explored Shinjuku and Shibuya. Rumi and I were on a mission - we wanted to bring a cake up Mount Fuji. It was Alex's birthday the week before, and we decided to have a surprise-on-top-of-Mt-Fuji-party for him. We found a nice caramel cake that wouldn't squish too easily in my backpack.

We headed back to Shinjuku for 3pm to meet the rest of the coop students, and caught our bus to Kawaguchiko Station. Even the bus ride up was fun....a little napping, and a little snacking, and some giggles. Alex had brought a big bag of banana chips, nuts, and dried plums. (I've learned that you can always count on Alex to have some kind of awesome food, or find some. I think like hanging around with this guy!) I haven't seen banana chips since I got here, so I was pretty psyched to try some (so was Rumiko) ...."Banana Chips?!?"

At Kawaguchiko Station, we had some lunch (Horse meat, anyone? Actually tasted pretty good!) and caught another bus up to Kawaguchiko 5th Station at 2305 meters. We started climbing by 9:30pm...

The first part of the climb was great - we split up into two groups, one a bit faster, and headed up the mountain. Since it was evening, the hot sun was gone, and we were moving pretty quickly. We stopped to chat and snack and have a break. Partway up, somewhere after the 6th station, we caught upto the people. It was a little crowded, but not too bad - we moved our way through and still kept up a good pace. But after one of the many 7th stations, the people multiplied. By this time, we had split up a bit further; Alex and Keith and I were ahead of our original group of 7 or so. Alex booted it on ahead from there, and Keith and I hiked together for a bit. We took four steps or so, then waited, stuck in the crowd, for a few minutes. 4 more steps. Wait. 5 steps! Wait. 4 steps..... we were able to go around the crowds a bit, and get ahead, but it was still slow going. Alex got bored and waited for us, then the three of us kept moving. Slowly. Keith got lost in the crowd somewhere, and Alex and I finally decided we had had enough. It was after 3:30am, and we wanted to make it to the top for the sunrise. So, we got serious. We dodged and weaved and pushed and shoved (only a little) and fought our way up and around the masses. And we made it!

We got to the top just after 4am, stopped at the bathroom then booked it for a peak on the mountain, to watch the sunrise. Just as it started, a body fell on us from behind, and Keith rolled beside us to watch, too. There are no words to describe how incredible it was to watch the sunrise, so I'll just let it speak for itself.





We waited for the rest of the group to catch up. The top of the mountain was freezing cold, and everyone was pretty exhausted.



Rumi and I quickly organized the impromptu birthday party for Alex, everyone had a bite of cake, and we decided to go down. Everyone was there except 3 students; one was waiting for us partway down, and the other two had been left together, moving at a slower pace.

You know those movies where people are walking through the desert, without food, water, or hope. Their limbs are limp, their feet drag...their faces are dirty and their eyes are glazed over.



That was us. The 'trail' (if you can call it that) down has no vegetation, no shade, no grass, no life. It is endless switchbacks of red dirt and rock, in 40 degree heat. I felt like the living dead, and probably looked it, judging by how some of the other people looked. We were tired, hot, hungry, and the switchbacks just kept on coming....

We finally made it down around 10am, and gained a bit more energy - having completed the climb, and conquered Mount Fuji. It had been about 7 hours up, and 4 hours down. We had met up with the one coop student on the way down, and were just waiting for the other two to make it down. We tried calling them, but cell service was pretty off-and-on...so we sat in some shade (still ridiculously hot, though), rested our legs, and waited. Little did we know, our day was just beginning...

More Pictures...