On Top of the World... or just Japan!

Last weekend I got the chance to climb to the top of Mt. Fuji, Japan`s tallest mountain! It was absolutely incredible! We had a three day weekend so my three German friends and I made plans to go climb the mountain. We decided to meet at our bicycles at 6 AM to ride to the train station. When I showed up at 6, only one of the guys was there. One of them had gotten injured falling down the stairs and another one had spent the previous day in Tokyo and was too tired to come so it was just Philip and I going.

After buying our tickets and checking the train times, we stopped by a 7-11 to get a few snacks and buy a flashlight for Philipp. We spent a while trying to figure out what size battery to buy. When we left the store, we opened the flashlight and decided that we needed the bigger size so we went back and somehow managed to communicate that we needed to exchange the batteries. Then we left again, opened the batteries in the parking lot, and discovered that we actually needed the original batteries so we had to go back and exchange them again. Thank goodness people are nice in Japan! With all of the exchanging, we managed to miss the first train... oops! So we had a lovely breakfast in the station. Once we got to Tokyo, we hopped on a bus for Mt. Fuji's 5th Station, which is halfway up the mountain. If we hiked the entire mountain, it would take a day or so; therefore, most people start from halfway up.

The 5th Station was full of people getting ready to climb. It looked like a little mountain town with cute little shops and restaurants. We looked around for a little while and then set off up the mountain! It was raining a little bit off and on when we started, but the weather changes so fast that never rained continuously for very long.

We made a lot of friends on the way up, mostly by gesturing to them to ask them to take a photo of us. There were a lot of people our age there and even a few people that were much older. I was so impressed that they were able to climb to the top of the mountain. They might have been moving slowly, but like the tortoise in "The Tortoise and the Hare," slow and steady is sometimes the way to go. We even made a few friends from the U.S. and Canada. It was a group of about 4 guys and 1 girl that here for a year to teach English. We had a nice break with them and then parted ways. However, we continued to run into them, despite the fact that there were hundreds of other climbers that day. First we found them at our mountain hut. Then we saw them at the top of the mountain for the sunrise, and then again, once we got down to the 5th station.

As we neared the 8th station, the sun began setting. The clouds were incredible! We made good time going up the mountain and were at our mountain hut at the 8th station within 3 1/2 hours. By this time, it was almost completely dark and getting very cold! I was glad that we decided to stay somewhere for the night, instead of hiking the whole way at night! They recommend staying somewhere for the night to help your body get adjusted to the different altitude and the decreased amount of oxygen so that you don't get altitude sickness. Our mountain hut was very cute and warm! When I looked online, it listed the number of people that could stay at each mountain hut. Our's could supposedly hold 250 people so I was expecting a huge mansion hotel on the side of Mt. Fuji, but it was quite small... then I saw where we would be sleeping. It was a long room with 2 big top bunks running the whole way down both sides and 2 bottom bunks under them. We were given only enough space to lie on our backs and were beside complete strangers. Blankets were 1 per 2 people. We also had to fit our packs and everything into the bed with us, which was no problem for me, but poor Philipp is about twice the height of a Japanese person so he was not quite as comfortable.We had a wonderfully warm meal of chicken curry (though I never saw the chicken) and warm tea. Then we headed to bed at 7:30 to get ready for our early morning. I was quite cozy at first since I was cold, but when I woke up around 10, I was very hot, which is not a good combination when you're sleeping very close to other people.

They woke us up around 2 to get up and head to the top for the sunrise. We took our time getting ready, thinking that we would have no problem getting to the top by 4:30 or so, but we didn't anticipate the massive crowds of people that came out of nowhere! The entire trip to the top felt like being in rush hour traffic! Stop, go, stop... It was painfully slow and as the sky grew lighter and lighter, I became very worried that we would miss the sunrise. The higher we climbed, the colder it became! Luckily, we made it in plenty of time and tried to find a spot as sheltered from the strong gusts of wind as possible.The view was absolutely breathtaking! We were actually above the clouds so we were looking down on the clouds! They were gorgeous; puffy, rose, yellow, orange. It felt like we were in Heaven. Pictures just couldn't do justice to the images that we saw that day. It was an incredible feeling! And then we watched the sun quickly ascend into her throne. Since our fingers were about to fall off, we decided not to walk around the crater (Mt. Fuji is actually a dormant volcano that last erupted in 1707) and just tried to make it down the mountain (to warmer air, trees, and oxygen) as quickly as possible. 3.5 hours later, our glorious mountain journey was complete (although not our return trip, which included 1 hour on a bus, another 2.5 hours on another bus, and 3 hours on a train, plus a 30 minute walk back to ARI from the train station because someone had taken part of our bike tires and they were flat, but such are adventures sometimes)!