Hiking Fuji-san

"A wise man climbs Mt. Fuji once. Only a fool climbs it twice."

This weekend four others and I took on the opportunity to hike Mt.Fuji, also known as Fuji-san. Many of our friends said the weather would be bad, but I chose not to listen and to make plans for our trip. It ended up to be the perfect weekend for the climb. It was beautiful. It was sunny.

We started out from Shinjuku station, taking a train to Otsuki and then transferring to Kawaguchi. We then took a bus up the 5th station. I was told at information it would take us 6 hours to climb to the 8th station (where we were staying). It took us 5 1/2 hours. We took small very minute breaks (maybe 5 minutes at most). We stayed at the Tamoekan Hut, going to sleep around 8:30 PM. We woke up at 1:30 AM and began hiking again in the dark. With only a flashlight and our tired brain, we hiked up some pretty steep rocks. We then arrived at the summit around 4 AM. It was very cold up there so we all huddled next to each other. Around 5 AM the sun began rising. Words cannot describe the beauty of Mt.Fuji and the clouds and atmosphere. The hiking was amazing also. It was not an easy climb but it was a good feeling to do the climb. I loved climbing Mt.Fuji and would do it again. But to avoid the being a fool, I'd have to climb it one more time. Descending was harder than ascending. Ascending all you were worrying about was time and then the hard part was the air getting thinner and the temperature getting colder. The descent was sort of steep and the whole time you had to put your feet out to stop you from sliding or walking into someone. By the end the muscles were sore from the descent.
But overall I cannot live the experience through pictures. It was just too amazing to understand!