MT. FUJI!

Ok, so we left my house at 6am on Monday morning, met up with our tour group, left Tokyo on a bus and arrived at station 5 of Mt. Fuji around lunch time. There are either 8 or 9 stations on the way to the top, the vast majority of people start climbing from station 5 though. From station 5 to the summit is 6.3 kilometers, which is somewhere around 4.5 miles I think (I'm not good at math). Station 5 is at 2,305 meters above sea level; the summit is at 3,776 meters (or 12,836 feet).

It took us 9 hours to reach the summit, which unfortunately is longer than normal. But we were in a group of 42 people, including children and some elderly people, so I guess it couldn't be helped. Hollie and I are positive we could've done it quicker than that on our own, but we're glad we went in a group since we were novices. It was such a challenge! I never imagined how rocky and steep it would actually get, or how unattractive the mountain is. We did surprisingly well with the air pressure change as we climbed. The higher we got I noticed that it made me a little dizzy sometimes (definitely not a good thing on those rocks!).

It was humorous to us being the only three foreigners in a group of 42 :-) Life is never mundane here. We stayed a few hours at a lodge on the 8th station to sleep and eat a little. I wish I had more pictures of our accomodations for you! 42 people slept in a space about as big as my parents living room. The set-up was kind of like bunk-beds, except very hard ones since we are in Japan. You were sleeping next to strangers in a very tight space, so making yourself comfortable was a little difficult.

It was extremely crowded so when we neared the summit you could look behind and see a trail of flashlights reaching behind you. We had a great view of the surrounding city lights at night. When we finally reached the top I'd say there were several hundred people waiting for the sunrise. It finally came through and it was absolutely beautiful. I would've loved to stay up there all alone for a few hours.

The descent, believe it or not, was the most difficult part. The trails were nothing but steep, slippery rock and gravel and it took a lot of effort to stay on your feet. You definitely didn't want to venture too near the edge either. As we went lower the view got even more amazing. It took us 4 hours to get back to station 5. We had a good time climbing, but we were thrilled to be finished and get cleaned up.

Now for some pictures:

Natalie, me, Hollie near the beginning of our journey. We look a little more tired in the pictures once we reach the summit :-)


The picture can't really capture it, but maybe you can see some of what we climbed.


Natalie and Hollie forging ahead.


Natalie and me in the clouds.


Our 'we made it' picture.


Obviously, the sunrise.


Natalie, Hollie, our guide, and me. (Can you imagine having his job? No thanks.)


Don't be deceived by the picture...the descent was hard!

That's Mt. Fuji in a nutshell. We're definitely glad we had the experience. It was totally worth the effort!