Episode 28: (delayed post, Fuji-continued)

Konnichiwa Mina-san!

Well, since Laura and I didn't finish the posts from our trip around Japan, here's some more pics, experiences, and fun that we had.

We got picked up from the Bus station here in Tsu, right close to the station. Yumi-chan (my old co-worker back at my home branch), her boyfriend Hiro, her father, and her sister all met Laura and me bright and early in the morning. We were all packed up, and excited to climb the highest peak in all of Japan. Measuring in at a whopping 3776 meters, it's a huge mountain, and so lovingly adored by the general populace that it's referred to as "Fuji-san."

Through a couple naps and a lot of conversation, we arrived at the fifth level of Fuji-san with lots of energy and ready to go. Here's a quick pic of the group.

Fuji is divided up into ten different 'levels'. Not like RPG game levels, but just levels of height somehow distinguishable from each other. Laura and I paused to take a photo on each level, and had a great time doing it, as I'm sure you can see by this one taken at level 7.

Now one thing that I should mention was that we started the climb about a half-hour late. Not only that, but there were a few kids and elderly people on the trip, most of whom were not very good at climbing a mountain. (go figure). It was a pretty hefty hike up the mountain, and we were really worried about oxygen deprivation issues, so Laura and I bought a couple of cans of Oxygen to bring up with us. Anywho, we ended up being fine, but the children and elderly people had a lot of trouble, and we had to pause very frequently to wait up. This meant that by the time we reached out resting spot at level 8, we were quite late, and pretty much had our two-three hour sleep reduced to a shabby 55minute freeze fest. Instead of sleeping, poor Laura pretty much spent an hour shivering in those thick and very cold blankets. It wasn't the fact that the mountain was really that cold, but our 'mountain bunks' had some freezing cold blankets that took forever to warm up.

At about 2am, we got up, used those terribly stinky toilets (we honestly almost spewed from the smell) and started up the last legs of the mountain. The view was incredible, and I'm sure you can see from the pictures that we were given some great weather to see the sun and sky.

We hung around up top for a good little while, soaking in the view, and then began our long, LONG, decent back to level 5. I don't want to say too much about the walk down, but let's just say that there were a few moments were it was very difficult, and our legs were pretty tired. We paused every once in a while, and took a couple pictures to bring up our spirits. I especially like this one here on the left.


After a LONG long and almost never ending walk back down, we had finally made it! Yosha! To celebrate, Laura removed her long worn hiking boots (which at this point she made her hatred of them quite vocal) and then placed her Birks on her feet, which made her quite happy.

The Bus ride home was long and we all tried to have a nap... though none of us succeeded quite as excellently as Yumi and Hiro.






Finally we got home and though we had to wave good bye to the Mori family, I think we were both pretty happy to have accomplished something like climbing a mountain together. Of course, if you were to ask us whether we'd do it again, you'd probably get two very different answers. :)

ja na,

-benjamin