Fuji-San!

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The Wind Atop Mt. Fuji

I have not yet had free time enough to sit and add all the pictures and write about the events of the past weekend, but since some manner of futuristic rogue cyborg mosquito is currently terrorizing my bed area and preventing me from sleep, now seems as good a time as any to get a-postin. That thing has to have a freaking cloaking device. I cannot find it for the life of me. But I'm getting bitten, that's for durn sure.

Anyway, Thursday we woke up bright and early to go toe to toe with the one and only Mt. Fuji. Originally we'd planned to climb up part of the way on Thursday, and then stay overnight, and climb to the top to see the sunrise on Friday. Plans changed for whatever reason and we ended up doing the whole thing in one day.

So the start of our four-day weekend had us waking up at 3:30, meeting at the college at 4 am to start hiking by 5:30 am. Friggin sweet. We had received a little briefing the day before on things we should bring on the trip, including waterproof clothing, heavy socks/hiking boots, plenty of food, some money, plenty of water, a warm hat, etc. Luckily they had written the essentials on a list in English, because I had no idea what that guy was saying.

I mention this only because some of the guys in our group were not only bright enough to not eat a substantial breakfast, but also bring no food or water on a 12 hour hike. Way to be guys.

The trail to the top of mount Fuji is frought with perils unforseen in the western world. Tigers with the heads of rhinos to my right, ninjas to my left, horrid abominations of science behind me forcing me to press on - it was an excruciating trek.

Actually it is pretty safe and very clearly marked, it just takes a while to climb up. We ended up reaching the summit at around 12 am - that's six hours of climbing UP. I think the pictures do a better job of telling the story than I can right now.

The summit of Fuji is about 3,700 meters high, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 11,000 feet, which means there is very little air to go around, which was the hardest part of getting up. After about three steps my heart was racing. One of the tutors, Hiro, was not only fit enough to go up and down between stations a couple times, but managed to work in a smoke break at every station we stopped at. Now that is impressive.

The top of Fuji was pretty wild. Since it is a Volcano, there are basically no plants or animals living on it. Just a bunch of crazy lookin' black and red volcano rocks. Usually, you're supposed to climb above the clouds and get some amazing view of Japan from the top of Fuji, but we were not so lucky. The clouds enveloped the top, and so we had an eerie little hike around what basically felt like the surface of the moon. Walking through the haze we saw the Mt. Fuji weather station and post office, which was pretty interesting.

After checkin out the scene, we started our 5 hour hike DOWN the mountain. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me that if it took 6 hours to get up the mountain, it would take roughly that amount of time to go back. Live and learn I suppose!

In Japanese, the word "tsukareta" means "exhausted" for the next two days that became the official word of the tutors and the students. It was good training though. We climbed the mountain as boys, and came back only to become samurai.

What will happen in the next post? Will Hiro give those carpet baggers what-for? Will Toby stick it to those fat cats in washington? Will Lex Luthor finally gain the upper hand on our hero? Will Bruce Wayne finally figure out a tax loophole allowing him to write off the bat-cave and his laboratory as charity donations? Will Spiderman get his hair cut? Will The Flash run into a wall? Will Superman eat a BLT sandwich on rye?

All this and more in the next exciting episode!

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Photos

Fuji-san!
5:30 am at the fifth staton of Mt. Fuji

The peak of Fuji
From the fifth station, which is already a couple thousand meters up, this is what the top of Fuji looked like

Pre-Climb
Everyone looks so happy and ready to go...

The View From Fifth Station
Be-yoo-tee-ful!

2700 Meters
Easy cheese!

Don't Throw A Stone
Come on people, seriously.

Don't Throw A Sign?
Ain't no sign sayin don't throw no sign..

What the!?!
I did NOT know he was doing that! For Chrissake....

Actually Being Blown Away
At about 3,000 meters, the wind was the strongest. I was actually knocked back by the wind a couple times while climbing. One girl in our group is under 100 lbs and couldn't continue past this point

No Sweat
A quarter of the trail had to be like this

3100 Meters
Only 600 to go!

3250 Meters
That 150 meters is a LOT harder than it sounds

The View from 3250 Meters
We never broke the cloud line, so this was the lovely panoramic view of Japan at 3250 meters. It wasn't disappointing b/c it made for a pretty interesting experience at the top.

Finally!
After six hours of climbing, me and hiro reach the top.

The picture isn't crooked, the building is
This is the small shrine/gift shop on top of Mt. Fuji

The Rim of Fuji
This is a picture of the weather station set up on top of Mt. Fuji. Because of the clouds, it we couldn't see too far ahead of us, and it was pretty creepy - cold, quiet, a little dark, and wet.

The Polack Dojo!!
Finally, my journey was complete!!
Actually, almost as strange as a polish dojo, this is the post office on top of Mt. Fuji. From here you can send post cards, if you catch it for the couple months during summer when they're open

Back at Station Five
Once again, at this point I am not nearly as happy as I look. However, I am stoked to not be rained on and going home. Fuji-san is a cruel and mysterious mistress. Do not trifle with her, or she will cut you like so many men before.

Comments

[Christine]

You do know that I now expect you to re-climb this mysterious mountain at a time when the post office is open and send me a postcard. :-) 12 hours of exercise for you, a really cool piece of mail for me. I think we both win on this one. :-P

[Joe]

Oo! I want one!