Four days into my week-long workshop I was teaching at in Shizuoka Prefecture(which kisses the Southern side of Mount Fuji), I finally had a chance to breathe and reposition my focus on figuring out plans on how to make my way to Gogomae, the fifth station on the Yoshidaguchi Trail at Fujisan where I was to meet Erin, Doc, and his friend Dane, at which point we were to begin our ascent of Japan's most famous mountain, Mt. Fuji. Things before this point has been a whirl, with little time to research let alone plan and prepare for the climb of Fujisan(mountains take the formal ending of "-san", just as you'd use when speaking formally to a person, ie. Yamamoto-san, Munoz-san, Daniel-san, etc.) I had left most of that up to our friend Doc, who took the reigns in organizing this adventure, which served duel duties as his birthday present to himself, and to Erin who had a bit more time to burn this summer, compared to my hectic schedule of teaching engagements.So, as I sat at my computer that night in my hotel room, I began my research with a train route search to the station which Erin e-mailed to me, which we would meet to catch a bus together to the fifth station. The route comes up, and I'm floored with first, the cost, then second, the time. Here, I thought, I can see Fuji from my hotel window, how can it cost me like 7,000yen(about $70) and take four hours?! This can't be right. I was struck with confusion. I did a bit more researching and learned that I was on the wrong side of the mountain! Well, at least the wrong side to meet at the planned meeting point with Erin and the others. Doh! Hadn't planned for that. That's what you get for growing up in the Midwest with flat lands and hills(and sand dunes in Indiana and Michigan), you don't think of mountains as massive three-dimensional earthen structures that you just can't pop over in a car or bus, or on a day hike with your cub scout troop. Chalk one up to ignorance. So, my mind is flashing options, cost and time-effective solutions, all pulsing with a new fire of stress I've created for myself. I frantically e-mail a flurry of correspondences with Erin, which probably wasn't the best thing to do(since she had her own planning to consider and prepare for), and eventually settle into the task of figuring this out.
With the help of my friend and co-teacher/worker, Nami, I asked her to help me find a more direct route to the station from where we were at. The train route I looked up earlier, because of the railway, had to take me East to Shibuya in Tokyo, then back West to the Northeastern side of Fujisan. We found a bus that was a fraction of the cost and time of the train... hurray! With plans finally set, I finished up the last days of the workshop, had our show, and decided to stay at the hotel one more night to leave in the morning to meet Erin. Poor Erin, she had to take a night bus from Nara to Tokyo(about 6hrs), then a train to the station, Kawaguchiko, where we were to meet at(2hrs), then the bus we would catch to the fifth station on Fujisan(1.5 hrs), then we would start our climb. Upon finally seeing each other after a week of me in Shizuoka, she was bright eyed and pretty cheering(despite the hell ride of night bus she took, broken chair and noisy kids).
We took the bus to the fifth station, a common starting place for climbers(especially amateurs like ourselves). We picked up any last minute supplies, our traditional hexagonal Fujisan walking staffs, and began our hike just before 5pm. The plan was to hike to the past the eighth station, where Doc had booked a place for us at a "hotel", where we would eat and rest for a bit, then wake up early to finish the climb to the top and catch the sunrise. I say "hotel" because, really, it was pretty much a bunk room, with rows of sleeping bags packed like sardines on two levels.
So, off we went. In my pack I had: 1.5 liters of water, cold weather clothes, rain gear, a couple flash lights, some snack foods, a can of oxygen, my camera, an umbrella, my Gerber multi-tool.
The first bit was only a slight incline up a well defined path. We ascended easily and after an hour or so we reached this station hut, where we got our first of several brands on our walking staffs. It's a cool way to adorn your wooden staff, though, at 200yen a pop sure adds up. But, I'm glad I got most of them. Some of the brands indicate the elevation, which I thought was really cool.
We continued our
climb and felt the sun set, stopping at each hut to brand our staffs and take a breather. We were above the clouds at this point, and night was falling around us. We put on our headlamps, and
kept on truckin' in the dark. We also met a cool girl from Australia, Lucy, who was climbing by herself and we invited to join us. She's an actress currently living in China(or Korea?) The higher we hiked, the more rocky the terrain became and now we had to, at times, maneuver our way up and between rocks and boulders; in the dark, none the less! The air was definitely thinner up there, and the climate was cold and windy, a far cry from the summer sun and humidity we left at the station we started from. We got the eighth station, but were informed that the place we had booked was still about an hour and half up! Doc and Dane hauled ahead of us, and Erin, Lucy, and I steadily walked in the dark, in mostly silence, passing other climbers, pacing ourselves and our breathing, stopping once and awhile to suck up some pure oxygen and take a drink of water. On our way, we had also met another climber, Johann from France, who joined us. He's a young archaeologist on vacation in Japan with a 1yr daughter and wife who stayed back in the hotel while he was climbing. Randomly, to our surprise in conversation, we learned that he happened to stay with a mutual acquaintance while he and his family stayed around Kansai.
So, we finally made it to our hut-tel by 10pm. We were just about 15mins behind Doc and Dane, who were getting ready to eat our modest dinner of curry, rice, and hamburg. *yes, I meant hamburg, not hamburger. In Japan, a beef patty, usually served on a hot iron skillet is called a hamburg steak or just hamburg, and the latter, hamburger, refers to the thing you get at Micky D's. Though, they'd pronounce it as, "ham-baa-ga" at "mac-u-do-na-ru".... seriously.
After our dinner, we were asked what time we wanted to get up. It was suggested if we wanted to see the sunrise, we should make our way by 1:30am. Not much time to sleep, so we got in our sardine bags and tried to rest for a few hours. It was the most expensive "floor" I slept on, but I did manage to get a bit of sleep. I can't say that was the case with Erin or Doc, but the rest was welcomed.
We got up, geared up, and readied our selves for the final kilometers to the top. As we stepped out of the door, we were greeted by a cavalcade of climbers, all packed and foreheads illuminated by headlamps, crowded front to back like rush hour on the Dan Ryan, focused on seeing the sunrise from the top of Fujisan. We merged into the crowd, and step by step, drudged our way to the top. It was cold and slow, crowded and congested like the morning commuter trains. It took us about three hours to climb those last few kilometers to the top. Thankfully, I was warned that it would be like this, cold and crowded, so it didn't bother me so much. Again, Doc and Dane made it to the top first, and Erin and I stuck together and reached the top together, hand in hand. 
Despite the headache I had been nursing for most of the way up(probably mild altitude sickness), I was happy we got to the top, safe and sound, together.
We did see the sunrise.
You know all those people we climbed up with, they were all there too... and then some. It was quite cold up there, and Doc and Dane were freezing. I luckily had extra clothes, so we huddled for a few pics, got our staffs stamped, and began our way down the treacherous path. I say treacherous because we had been warned by friends who had climbed and descended Fuji before that the way down is the worst part of the Fuji experience... and they were right.
Imagine sliding down a decent incline with loose rocks and red gravel underfoot tripping and you and providing uncertain ground for your footing. The landscape looked like what you'd see in pictures of Mars. Add to that, groups of other people all negotiating their way down at the same time, the fatigue of the climb you just did up the mountain, and the rapidly changing climate once again. I took a more daring technique and let gravity do most of the work for me, as I skipped and skidded down the path, weaving around people and wearing out the bottoms of my shoes in the process. This was going well for me, expending less energy than trying to fight my way down, but I kept tabs on Erin's slow progress down. She's got pretty bad knees, so she couldn't foot "ski" down the rocky path like me, instead, taking it one step at a time. To lighten her load, I took on her backpack(along with mine) at about a quarter of the way down. This act of kindness did have me alter my descending technique, since my weight distribution was now uneven and top heavy. I continued my way down, a bit slower now and the fatigue was really coming on. I took a few breaks and even managed to take a 15-20min nap, but I tried to stay on course and eventually made it to where we started at the fifth station just before noon. Erin had met up with Lucy, our friend from Australia who we climbed up with, whom she came down with for the last part of the descent. Doc and Dean had already made it down before us, and, tired and exhausted caught a bus and train back.
All in all the climb of Fujisan was a thrilling and great challenge for me. Even before we got to Japan, I had talked to my brother Francis about his climb of Fuji, and also our neighbor, Julius, who climbed the mountain a long, long time ago. It's one thing I really wanted to do in Japan while we were here, and I finally accomplished it. I'm so, so proud of Erin for doing it too. She had reservations about joining the trip, and even the days before the climb I had e-mailed her my concerns if she was up for it. I'm thankful that we reached the top together and came down unscathed other than sore bodies for several days afterwards. Fujisan is the highest and most famous mountain in Japan at 3,776 meters.
Check this link for complete album of pics on Facebook, http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28696&l=f5db3&id=507939118
