The Pwnage Of Fuji-san

Monday and Tuesday after Tokyo and the Himatsuri were spent studying for my chuukanshiken (midterm) on Wendesday. It went pretty well. Japanese colleges don't have nearly as rigorous tests as American colleges do, so it was like a big quiz. Anyways, we had Thursday and Friday off, with Thursday being our big Fuji trip!

We left at 4 AM (ewww!) by bus. It's not a very far ride; I know it's about 3 hours away by foot. I brought with me:

Sweartshirt, jacket, camera, phone, iPod, lunch, water bottle, extra change of clothes.

What I should have brought with me:

MORE FOOD & WATER!!, walking stick, durable gloves

I didn't realize how much I would want a Calorie Mate or other kinds of okashi (snacks) on the hike up. Even though we took a bus half way, that was the half that was smooth enough for a bus to go up! The second half was seemingly broken into two sections: The first half was dangerous but a lot of fun, with strong winds and wet rocks to climb up. For about the entire first half I only used one hand and had to lug an extra 100lbs up the mountain (Brianna was too frail and scared to climb by herself, so I had to basically pull her up). After she decided to go back down I got to go up some of the rocks by myself, and THAT was a lot of fun - going on all fours to be faster, or just trying to hop from rock to rock, picturing myself in some kind of anime or something. I didn't actually get any pictures of the type of rocks I climbed up since it was wet, windy, and, well, I was either holding onto Brianna's hand pulling her up or trying to keep my own hands warm.

Cool cloud formations at half-way at Fuji, where they had various gift shops.

Beautiful clouds.

View of the nearby town

Cool sky-slice

The beginning of our hike looked like this, then it became a lot more of a climb than a hike

Cool trees...at least if I lose my balance and fall they'll catch me :P

It was a little windy :P I didn't put my sweatshirt on till later, hiking built up enough heat as is.

Also watch out for barrels and Gorons

The total climb took about 5 hours up and 2.5 hours down.

Can you hear me now? Actually you were able to get phone reception pretty much anywhere on Fuji-san.

The second half was basically walking back and forth on a large, flat, steep path for 2 hours. That's when the walking stick that they sold at the base would have been REALLY helpful. I put on my iPod and just trudged along. It was the safest part of the entire climb, but also the most boring. I also don't have pictures of what this looked like, though the pathway back down looked very similar.

Aaron looking like Mickey Mouse with his yellow shoes, white gloves, and other similar-colored clothing.

The view down from near the top...we had to zig-zag like that all the way up to the top for the second-half of the climb.

Stations like these were abundant, usually about every 100 yards or so. You could buy food, water, or sleep here if it was too dangerous to press on.

Me next to a monument around the summit of Fuji. Behind me is a souvenir shop where I bought a bell and a rice pusher thingy.

So we thought this was the very peak of Fuji-san, but apparently we were wrong. There's a yubinkyouku (post office) at the top, along with a monument marking it. I might go back and climb Fuji-san again to go check it out. However, this is still at the summit, just on the opposite side, and a little lower. This specific spot is where people will drop off suzu (bells) and other objects, such as cash, in what I imagine is respect to the Fuji-san god.

Maybe if I train on top of Fuji-san I'll be able to run faster, jump higher, lift more...

View from the top of Fuji-san...can't really seem much since we're above the cloud line, though.

Checking out the view (probably of the available ramen) while resting at the top of Fuji-san.

I assume that'd be us?

We walked back and forth like this for about 2.5 hours until we finally hit the bottom. The ground was really soft, so we got a ton of rocks and dirt in our shoes. Every few rows we'd have to empty all the crap from our shoes. One of my socks ripped.

Down...down...down we go....

Which one is more epic? Picture A...

...Picture B...

...or Picture C? Cast your vote now!

A cool view on our decent down.

The next day my legs didn't really hurt. I was surprised I wasn't sore all over; guess I'm in better shape than I thought ^_< I was pretty exhausted though, but the weekend was far from over, for on Saturday we were to be participants in one of Tsuru's biggest matsuris.