Fuji-san: Part 2: Going up

Today we continue our trip to the top of Fuji-san.

First things first though:

This cookie goes to Mark for guessing the company that gave the town Toyota its name: Toyota!! Congratulations!

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After the cut more of Fuji-san and pictures of an exhausting hike

After resting for maybe half an hour at station number 5 we went off.  The first part actually went down which made us wonder how we can reach the top that way. One thing I immediately noticed is how STEEP Fuji-san really is.

If there were no clouds you could probably see very far

After maybe 30 minutes the real ascension began. As you can see there are slopes to make the steepness at least bearable

People from our travel group. The next huts are not even visible now.

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Maybe I brought too much water, maybe the air was too humid/hot, the mountaint to steep and I did not train enough but going up was already tough here. The slopes went on and on, you focus on setting one foot in front of the other.

These huts appeared out of the clouds. These huts offer food, drink and places to sleep for completely ridicolous prices. A snickers down costs 120Yen, up at the top 300 Yen. One of these resting places had a “punishment”-price for sleeping in their toilets unallowed in case of rain: 50000 Yen!! The prices of drinks rise just like that, going to a toilet costs 100Yen (which is uncommon in Japan, usually all public toilets are free).

This is kind of understandable, because all these goods have to be transported up which is a lot of work. There are kind of roads for tractors I guess, but still to supply with so many things is not an easy task.

Arriving at station 7. The first snickers was already eaten and the “calorie mate” (Japanese energy bar) with cheese taste was tested and found… wanting

Phew. A rest, something to drink and another energy bar. As you can see its starting to get dark.

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One of Yujis pictures (more will be in here). There is a kind of way marked but its really not THAT different from the rocks around. We had/should put on our gloves here, probably because the stones can be quite sharp.

Changed my jacket to a pullover and a rain coat at the next break. The plastic raincoat was good at keeping the cold wind away, but on the other hand my sweat could hardly get out.

Well, people died of cold, not of sweating so the decision was easy.

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From now on we would climb in the dark, using only our headlamps as illumination. Those things really are helpful. Forget keeping a flashlight in your hand, you need your hands for keeping balance and climbing

It maybe another 3 or 4 hours hike, so lots of time in the dark.

The feet hurt and you notice how the thin air makes it hard to give full power. The heart is beating like wild to supply the mustles with oxygen.

It was absolutely dark besides the headlamps and the far-aways lights of the stations (which were by the way powered by generators). We had the most amazing few from up here with an absolutely clear sky. The lights of towns below and the whole milkyway above!

At breaks lots of people used to turn off their lights and the sight was absolutely mind blowing. Hundreds and millions of stars sparkling in the night as if to cheer us on.

Attempt at capturing the valley’s lights.

Finally finally after what seemed like an eternity we arrived at our designated “hotel”. Here you see Greg, one of two british English teachers who were part of our travel group. Really nice persons to have around and love the real british accent/pronunciation!

First thing to do was to stuff our stuff to the general sleeping room. All our ~30 people shared this room, and it was crowded! Between 2 of the columns 4 people were sharing the floor. And it really was only a wooden floor, lots of covers and a small “headroll”.

When I tried to lie down on my back my shoulds touched my 2 neighbours, but that was still the most comfortable way to sleep on the hard floor.

But before that we had dinner:

The guy standing is mountain guide. Before I forget to mention that: he basically climbs Fuji-san every day. One day up, next day down, up again and so on… To the left of him is tourguide, a super nice person by the name of Takuya. We exchanged Email adresses and will help each other learn english/Japanese.

The common room was not too big but everybody found a place on the floor for dinner.

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Me enjoying dinner after a long day.

Yuji enjoying his tea.

Our dinner enjoying being eaten. Rice with a meaty-thing and a saucy-soupy-thing. To the right was our breakfast they also provided us with. I decided not to eat it after waking up (at 1:45 am) but take it with me and eat it on top of Fuji-san at more human times.

After that it was off to the toilets and trying to get some sleep. Somehow that did not work out (the sleeping part). Maybe because of the height or the hard floor, but after getting up with everybody I was feeling as beaten as before. No use complaining as theres only one way to go, up to the top!

The kind of tour we did (climbing a big part, rest, get up in the night and climb the last part to see the sunrise on top) is the most popular. On top of that we took the most popular route up the mountain (several routes with differing difficulties on different sides available). As you can see lots of people getting up in the night.

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Its getting colder and more windy now so layerd clothing is a must.
Somewhere here the flash of my camera broke down for some reason >_>

A glimpse of sunrise, and still so much to go. This made (at least) me nervous, because the last thing I wanted to do is see the sunrise standing in the middle of a steep wall trying to keep hold of some rope.

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What I don’t have a good picture of is the sheer MASS of people going up… We had a human traffic jam on the last 300 height meters as everybody was RUSHING to try to get to the top in time. A step, wait half a minute, 2 steps and so on…

Becoming nervous now. But its already beatiful.

A shaky impression of the amount of people.

At last I was also speeding up, trying to catch up with Yuji who already rushed ahead. Motivated by seeing our goal so close before us we tried to weasel our way through the crowds.

The last moments of “darkness”. You can still see the lights of the city in the valley, still lying in darkness.

At last, the top!!! Group picture with the 2 british english teachers, Yuji and me. There are 2 lion statues lining the way.

Then a Tori and you are finally up!!!

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We made it just in time! Some more meters up a small hill on top to get the best view, away from the dense crowd.

And this is where we cut today Still so many more pictures and no time left today. In the third part you will see pictures of an amazing sunrise and the descent to 5th station again.

Today in the evening I am going to watch a Baseball game with Yukky, one of the local AIESECers. I will still try to put up part 3 tonight though.