Climbing Fuji-san

We did it!   We have conquered Mt. Fuji.  Perhaps you've seen it?   In most pictures the top is covered in snow, however the snow melts for about 6 weeks from the July through August, which is the climbing season. The summit is the highest point in Japan, at 12,389 feet.   It is considered a dormant volcano since it hasn't erupted since 1707. 

You'll see that we have a wooden climbing stick.  We bought it at the bottom of the hill, the 5th Station. There are Stations 6 through 9 and a few extra huts along the trail.  They sell some snack food, drinks and cans of oxygen (yes, I bought and used one).  There are restrooms (200 yen to pee!) and some of them even have a space to sleep, so you can climb part way up in the evening and wake up to the sunrise on the mountain side, then finish the hike.  Anyway, back to the stick:  The huts also have a couple guys who will brand the stick with a stamp.  Some of them are kanji characters, some are pictures, and some say the elevation.  The last stamp at the top is red and goes at the top of the pole.


Now I knew that this was going to be hard, especially since I have asthma.  However, I didn't really think about how thin the air is, and therefore has less oxygen.  Oops!   And I didn't know that elevation sickness also brings on headaches.  So along with the pain of the actual climb, I had to stop about every 10 (and sometimes even more often) minutes.  I had two asthma attacks, but I recovered okay.  I am very grateful for having a supportive husband who was patient with me during the entire climb, from 7am until 1:30pm.   I wanted to give up so many times, and it was oh-so-tempting whenever they had escape routes from the 7th and 8th Station, but I was too proud to quit.   I wanted that red stamp on the top of my pole, signifying that I made it to the top.  Telling people I made it to the 8th Station isn't nearly as impressive as telling people I made it to the top.  At times I thought I was causing us to move too slow and we weren't going to make the 7pm bus ride home (which would mean we would have to pay for a taxi to the train station, which would cost several hundred dollars all together) but I couldn't let myself stop.

The top of the summit had several buildings.  One serves hot food (curry soup and rice and ramen), there is a post office that sells post cards that you can have postmarked as being the top of Fuji (sorry kids, no postcards sent since I thought we were running late).  There are several other souvenir stands as well.  And oh yes, the crater of the volcano!  It's nearly as cool as I was expecting, but that's okay.

The climb down was of course a lot quicker and easier! The terrain is still rocky, but mostly small pebble size rocks, but still a variety of sizes.  It was still tricky and a lot of people slipped and fell, but we found if we almost jogged, not only did it go quicker, but we felt more secure and slipped less.   Bryan had a few times where to save himself from falling he did a spin or two and busted out a dance move.  It was fun to watch :-)   And, happy ending: We made it back a lot quicker than the average person, so we made the bus ride home!      Not so happy ending: While I'm almost blister-free, my big toe nail just might fall off since it was constantly be jammed to the front of my shoe on the way down.  It's kinda purplish and hurts a bit.  But it was worth it, totally worth it.

We have no idea what is about to happen.

Happy group :-)

Some of the stores at the 5th Station.

Jimena took this one and I like it a lot!

Close to the bottom.

One of the 5 lakes at the bottom of the volcano.

Right after asthma attack #1.

One of the guys who brands the hiking poles for us. 200 yen (about $2.50)!

Some rough terrain.

The slope of the volcano can be seen pretty well in this picture.

Going through the last Tori gate at the summit!!!

How fun are these guys?  I bought some bells with purple tassels to put at the top of my climbing pole.

Sky high!

Proud climbers.

Group at the top.

One of the more level parts of the decent.  The surface is a volcanic pumice stone.  The dust flies up everywhere and we were covered with it by the time we got to the bottom.

Some of the huts on the way up.

How did he get halfway up this volcano??

 

A higher up view of the lake and mountains.

6 hours later...and still hiking up.

Almost to the last Tori gate!

The top of the volcano.

Cheeeeese!

The restaurant/resting area at the top.

We got ramen, but Adam and Jimena got curry soup and rice, which was amazingly delicious.

Trying to get some fun shots in the clouds.

Couldn't pass up this fun photo opportunity.  Fun fact:  Japanese people are NOT into PDA, so this may have been frowned upon.

Returning to the 5th Station.  There were several hundred people still getting ready to leave when we got back at 5:30.  They'll be spending the night part way up and getting up to see the sunrise.