Sumo and Fuji-San

yikes.


pretty.

This part sucked.

Also, don't Throw a Rock

Going up

To Station 7

This is my Nat Geo Shot.

In the Clouds.

The Crater.

Almost there!!



miso ramen= best meal ever . Had it at the top.

This is what's on top of the mountain

The crater.

Mt. Fuji from the base.

Desending into the clouds


The day before our climb was a lazy one. John and I spent it betting on the sumo matches on T.V. He claims that the smaller guys always win, which they don't. I always betted on the fat guys, this because they just have way more mass to push with. All in all, I won the bets and am now up by three. Sumo is actually quite entertaining to watch. We watched it for a good while.

Then the climb. We woke at an early 1:45 to drive over to Fuji. When we got there at 5:30 we went and used the Facilities, which cost us 100 yen to use and smelled worse than a honey bucket. As soon as we got there, we were given these wooden hiking poles that you get stamped along the way with branding irons. It came with a flag on it and some bells, but Calidghe and I immediately took them off, because we didn't want to hear the jingling of bells all the way up and down. We started climbing, and it started off easy, but only got harder and harder. There were times when you were literally climbing the hill, grabbing rocks and such. When we got a little over half way up, the air was getting so thin that I started to experience some light altitude sickness. You couldn't go as far as 10 yards before stopping to catch your breath. At one point while we were slowly working our way up, a Japanese guy gave me a look that said "we're crazy. why are we doing this?" and I remembered one Japanese phrase that I read about and it's gambate, which means don't give up, or something like that. I said "Gambate!' and then responded in Japanese which I took as," thanks, you too." When we got to the next station he nodded in my direction and gestured what I read as "yes! we did it!" Then he said something to me as I headed up after a break, which I took as "good Luck." You know I couldn't understand him but then again I did.

You know somethings up when the people branding our poles had you use a machine to keep the fire going. That's how thin the air was. All the way up the mountain are these small stations, where you can get your pole branded, get a cup of noodles, water. At the top when we finally got there, there were all sorts of trinkets for sale, and even a restaurant. All their supplies were shipped up by bulldozer. Eating noodles at the top of a mountain, I felt like I was in tibet, at the foothill of Everest. There were even some tibetan prayer flags. The Top was nice and was busy! There were many people getting beers and such and I was tempted to get one myself but bought a 500 yen bottle of water for the way down. I didn't have enought yen for both. The way down sucked. It was all just gravel and rocks and was steep enough that all you were doing was sliding down. I had gaiters, which I wore, but one of them was broken so rocks kept on getting into my shoe which was so annoying. Also, the way down sucked because it never ended. even when we got off of the mountain, we still have to hike back to the buses which were further away because the descending trails were on the another side of the Mountain. Going down was way worse. And the dust! Goodness. My Japanese Gambate buddy waved to me as he pasted me on the way down. That was the only nice thing about going down. When I finally got to freshen up in the bathroom, I looked quite freaky, all the dust on my face made my eyes look shallow and ghostly. I bet I scared off a ton of Japanese people who were heading up the hill when we were heading down. They being all clean, and eager, snapping photos, running with their clean clothes and cheery disposition. I was an image of death. I was covered in red dust, one of my gaiters was being held up with a shredded piece of twine, I was sunburned, dirty, and zombie-like. After I cleaned up and changed my clothes I felt right as rain. Got sunburned badly on the ears, got a good blister and my butt hurts a tad, but all in all I'm good. I've spent all day today doing nothing but lay around, watching desperate housewives. It's wierd to think that I will be leaving Japan soon. I'll have to make the most of these next days.