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Published: September 5th 2008
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Getting Started
View from the 5th station I decided before coming to Japan that the one thing I was definitely going to do while I was here was climb that mountain! I had talked about it so much and the reality of actually climbing it seemed like years away. Yet here we were getting off the tour bus on the 5th station of the mountain. Looking up I knew the next couple of days were going to be tough! Megan, Renee and my self decided it would be better to go with a tour guide as appose to doing it ourselves. Manly because organizing transport to the mountain, a hut and getting home again just wasn’t worth the hassle. This way we had an English speaking guide who knew what they were doing and knew we could pick their brains about any questions we had. I have to say now I am so glad we did it that way, it made our experience a lot more comfortable! There were about 10 other people in our group who’d be climbing up the mountain with us. Along with the other 1000’s of people who were there to conquer the FUJ as well. There was only one other girl on out
Getting Started
View from the 5th station hike ‘Rachel’ who has been living in Tokyo for 18months. The rest of the group was men some older, some younger and from all walks of life. After a briefing from ‘Chris” (our tour guide) we set off at 12pm. First couple of hours was great and surprisingly easy. The view was already breath taking from where we were as the clouds filled the sky. The weather was the best Chris said he had seen all year so we were pretty lucky. This was Chris’s 7th climb of the mountain! WOW there is a proverb which goes “He who climbs Mt Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool” yet he seemed to love it, as for me; once is enough. We walked quite slowly because of the streams of people on the mountain sometimes we were at a stand still. There were toilets every hour or so - but as you can imagine they weren’t very nice at all. It cost 100yen to use them to help with the maintenance but to tell u the truth the smell nearly made me vomit! We took regular breaks which were good and we made sure
Getting Started
Renee, Me & Megan to keep up our food and water intake. You can buy water on the mountain but the higher you get the more expensive it is. And you have to carry your rubbish with you up and back as there are no garbage bins anywhere on the mountain. We were given Mt Fuji sticks at the 5th station; where at every station on the way up you got a stamp to say you had made it that far. The stamps were burnt into the stick, because we thought - well if we get one on the summit it means we made it to the top! The terrain was very different all the way up from gravel and dirt to sand and rocks. The rock climbing part was my favorite, definitely lots of fun. We made it to our hut at the 7th station around 4pm hungry and tried we piled in and finally got to sit down. Because we were part of the tour they had a special surprise for us and we got to actually stamp our own sticks! Of course I wasn’t very good at mine so in the end it read: ‘200008’ instead of course 2008 ah well
memories I suppose! We were starving by the time dinner came around which was curry and rice YUM. We all went to sleep in one big giant bed with lots of other people for about 4 hours before been woken up at 11pm by Chris to conquer the final stage of our hike. I have to tell you the first 4 hours was quite good. Not too steep lots of paths and a lot easier then what I thought it was going to be. Needless to say I had no idea was coming next! During the day it was sweating hot but when we ventured outside that night to start our hike it was FREEZING! About 4 degrees with the strongest winds, there were some stages I was SO cold I didn’t think I was going to make it - but I live to tell the tale. We were only 200m from the top and it took us 4 hours to reach crazy but true. The last 2 hours were hard, the mountain got steeper and it got colder. If I could see what we were climbing on the way up that night I think I would have turned around!
Getting Started
The 5th station We finally made it to the summit tears in our eyes from our efforts. It was 430am we had 1/2 hour to wait until sunrise. We picked a spot, which Megan manned while we went hunting for hot chocolate! The sunrise was breath taking and absolutely amazing. The colors we unbelievable and no pictures we took could truly described what we saw. The hike to the top was well worth it! However we had no idea what was install for us on the way down. It was tough, we made it down in 4 hours - 4 VERY long hours! We started our decent at 5:30am and reach the 5th station by 9:30am I lost count the amount of times I fell over on the way down. All we girls went at different paces - whatever was easiest for us. Renee took the lead but Megan and I lagged behind not wanting to go down too fast due to altitude sickness. Renee waited for us near the bottom so we could walk the finish together and apart from having sand and dirt in nearly every part of our body it was an awesome feeling making it to the end. As
Getting Started
The 5th Station we got back to the 5th station looking like we’d been lost in a bush for weeks and only just making it out; we smiled at all the upbeat excited hikers about to take on the mountain we had just conquered and just like us they had no idea what was in store! Our tour bus was there waiting and we were on out way to an Onsen. For those of you who don’t know what an onsen it, it’s a hot spring with separate bathing areas for men and women. The reason that is so is because well, you’re naked. You cannot go into the hot spring with any sort of towel or clothing on! The thought of this horrified me as I am not use to getting naked in front of anyone let alone 100’s of people! When we got there we were so tired and dirty we really didn’t care. First you have to bath and wash yourself then you go into the hot spring. Now I have to say it looked more like a public swimming pool then a hot spring! Not what I expected at all. Megan and I chickened out, we had a shower
Getting Started
The 5th Station and got out of there and dressed quick smart! Renee on the other hand plucked up the courage but I just didn’t seem to have any! We got back to our hostel very tired and sore - my calves ached for 2 days afterwards, but overall the experience was well worth it. I wouldn’t change a thing!
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