Mt. Fuji

From left to right:

Me, Christi, Kami, Masa, Thomas (top)

Hitomi, LeeAnn, Tracey (bottom)

Last Saturday, July 15th, I climbed Mt. Fuji with another 7 people. I have always heard stories about the adventure, but had never really gotten to the point of organizing a trip to climb the mountain. When our friend Masa mentioned the idea, I did not get very excited since there was a church retreat scheduled for the same weekend. However, a few days later, I figured I'd better join the group to Fuji because there might not be such an opportunity anytime soon. Unfortunately, Mansur could not make it, since he had to work in Kobe... ZANNEN!!!

It was a hard climb. The weather was terrible. There was rain, wind, snow, sleet, etc. It was BAD! We started climbing from the 5th station at about 7:30 pm. There are 10 stations in total. We had planned to have dinner at the 8th station, followed by a short nap, but the resting area was completely booked and we had no choice but to stay at the 7th stop instead. It was cold and by the time we reached the restaurant, I was sweaty on the inside and therefore felt really cold... Because of that, I could not sleep at all. It would be a tough night ahead. We continued our climb at midnight, hoping to reach the peak by sunrise at around 4:20 am. We had no clue what was ahead of us though. The weather changed from bad to worse. We were miserable. For nearly 1.5 to 2 hours, it was a total typhoon up there. If I didn't hold on to the rope along the track, I'd probably had flown off the mountain or rolled all the way down. However, with no shelter in sight and no turning back, there was only one way, move forward! It was awesome to have so many friends for support. I could not imagine being in that situation alone... By then, we were a total of 7 people, since Christi decided to stay at the 7th station.

When we got to the 9th station, it was almost 3am and in order to reach the peak by sunrise, we had to leave pretty soon. I basically told everyone that I would love to go to the peak but not in such weather, and that my vote was to stay where we were for a few hours until it got a little better. Almost everyone agreed. LeeAnn was the one who desperately wished to reach the top of the mountain by 4:20 am. When she said she'd continue the hike no matter what, Thomas offered to join her and the two climbed away, in extremely nasty weather. The rest of us sat down and ate expensive cup noodles (they cost 5 times more at Fuji) and prayed for better weather!

This picture was taken on the way to the peak, the following morning. The sun was trying to shine, but the clouds covered it up. The white you see on the picture is snow!

When the sun illuminated our way and the wind decided to give us a break, the 5 of us, waiting at the 9th station, started the final climb to the peak. It was a hard one, and though you could see the top, it seemed so far away. Our bodies were starting to get pretty tired and all I could think of was the way down. I had done my best to get the the top, but it was still half the way! We reached the peak and entered a shelter. The sky was not clear at all, and it was very hard to see anything around us. After a few hours at the peak, we started to descend.

The way down was scary! I had a hard time finding a secure way to step on the rocks. Everything was wet and it was so slippery! I felt like it took forever to get to the 7th station, where we were supposed to meet the whole group to head to the 5th station together.

God is good! No one got seriously injured. There were just a few bruises here and there, from slight falls! We were all proud of everyone's hard work and when we reached the bottom of the mountain, all we could talk about was going to an onsen. It was the best bath ever!!!

Masa had reserved a hotel for Sunday night and we sleep WELL! The following day, we headed down to Kansai and it was around 10pm when I got home. The following 2-3 days were blessed by a strong muscle pain and fatigue. However, now I can honestly say that this trip was awesome. I am so grateful for the opportunity of climbing Mt. Fuji. Now, all the mountains I see in Kobe seem so tiny and easy to explore. Who knows... Maybe I will become an adventurous mountain climber!