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Published: September 7th 2006
Last Saturday night I did something that is considered unwise: I climbed Mt. Fuji for the second time. There is a Japanese saying which states, "A wise person will climb Mt. Fuji once, but only a fool will climb it twice." Well, I guess I am a fool because at 7am on Saturday morning I boarded a bus with 42 other Hiroshima prefecture English teachers and embarked on the 11-hour bus ride to Station 5 of Mt. Fuji.
I think it is important here to clarify that it was not entirely my decision to climb the mountain for a second time. Actually, I didn't really have a choice, and neither did Casey. Within the JET Programme community in Japan there is a national organization called AJET, which then branches out into prefectural groups. This year, Casey and I are the lucky ones who have 'volunteered' to co-chair this organization. As Hiroshima AJET leaders we are responsible for organizing gatherings such as charity events, cultural trips, etc. Mt. Fuji was our first major trip of the year (actually I should be saying Casey's first major trip of the year because she was the one who ended up doing all
Fuji Group 2006
43 English teachers from Hiroshima prefecture.. and one really big mountain!of the planning since I was away in Tokyo). Anyways, as the Hiroshima AJET representatives it was kind of a given that we would attend this trip, even though we just climbed Fuji last year. Without the pressure to climb again, I probably wouldn't have.
Okay, that said, I will continue with my Fuji talk. After arriving at Station 5 at 7pm everyone had an hour to get changed, grab some food and relax a little before they started the ascent. Unfortunately for my hungry stomach there was only one restaurant left opened at this time and the only thing they were serving was katsu-don (basically breaded pork cutlet on rice?) and curry and rice... nothing I could eat. So, vegetarian survival instincts kicking in, I headed to the gift shop and bought the 'healthiest' looking box of cakes I could find. Dinner was served!
γγγAt 8pm we began our hike. Even before stepping foot outside I was dreading it!
From there we basically just hiked up a really big hill for 9 hours, stopping every 40-50 minutes each time we came to a rest station so that we could sit down for 10
minutes or so and gobble down a bunch of chocolate and dried fruit. Energy is key!
Although I went into this adventure not really wanting to be there, I have to admit, I enjoyed the hike much more this time around. I think there were many factors which contributed to the success of this climb, the main one being that I was prepared and knew what to expect the second time. For instance, last year I went into the trip knowing that I was about to climb a mountain, but yet somehow not mentally registering that I was REALLY going to climb a MOUNTAIN. I think I figured that because older people also climb it, it was going to be like following a nice little pathway up a big hill...I certainly was not expecting to be pulling myself up by chains over boulders! I guess because I was dreading the climb so much this year that when it actually did get bad, it was not nearly as bad as I had mentally prepared myself for, and it therefore seemed much better than I had remembered. Another factor which contributed to this year's success was the actual knowledge of
just how COLD it gets on the way up, and how numb one becomes while standing at the summit waiting for the friggin' sun. This time around, I wore 6 layers, and made sure that I had a complete second set of layers to change into halfway up... once my body was soaked in cold sweat. I honestly think this change is key. So yep... although being slightly cold at the summit is impossible to avoid, I did manage to evade the painful numbness which makes people contemplate death rather than another minute atop Mt. Fuji! (Haha, I am pretty sure that anyone who has climbed major mountains like Everest would read this and think I am a major baby, but really, it is cold up there!)
In terms of weather, we were extremely lucky. Besides the unavoidable cold, we had absolutely PERFECT conditions... second year in a row! Actually, this year was almost better because at one point when we were climbing I noticed what I thought were fireworks in the distance.. haha, and then Casey immediately laughed and pointed out that it was a lightening storm (I deserve a break here, I had been climbing a
Group Shot at Station 5
This picture was taken after the bus dropped us off. We had yet to begin our ascent, which explains all of the smiles! mountain in the dark for 6 hours, and was exhusted). Anyways, to be climbing up above the clouds and look down at a lightening storm, and then to look up into a perfectly clear, starry sky was something most people will never get to experience. It was really cool! (And on top of that, having clear skies for sunrise is something that probably only 30 or 40% of people are blessed with on Fuji, especially at this time of the year!)
So, conclusion: Although the saying goes "A wise person will climb Mt. Fuji once, but only a fool will climb it twice," I am quite happy that I was that 'fool' who went for round two, because I thoroughly enjoyed my trip the second time around!
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Climbing
OK - so I won't mention how climbing 800 meters to Cody Caves just about did me in !