Into the thin air of Mt. Fuji !

※間違いを赤で修正。
（もう文法は教えられないわ）

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Guess where it is?

On Aug.8th, I was above the clouds! I don't know what driven drove me to do this, but I finally took the challenge to make the climb of Mt. Fuji with my mom.

We started at about 9:30 on Friday morning at the 5Th of 10 stations, which is the common starting point for climbers. The 5th station was packed with people, and I was actually a bit surprised that climbing Mt. Fuji is very popular not only among the Japanese, but also among foreign people. People of all nationalities, ages, shapes, sizes, and background's come to climb the mountain!

I was really nervous if about whether I could make the climb, since I didn't even have enough time to do some walking. No practice time. (I know, back in Kyoto, my coworkers and my boss were betting if i can could make it!)


At 3400 meters, 2008/08/08, 5:00pm.
The climbing itself was not really challenging but the altitude (3400m!)definitely put a heavy strain on my lungs.


The world below must be very hot and humid on that day, but here above the clouds it was a totally different world, less than 10℃.


2008/08/08, 9:00pm
We reached our rest hut at about 4:30pm, and there we had a light meal and got rest until about 1:30am. After I took that this long break, my worst fear became reality. Yes, I finally got mountain sickness because of the this altitude and the thin air...my head started aching so much and I felt dizziness. It was a really really hard time. 10pm, 11pm, 12midnight, 1am... time goes but the huge headache and nausea did not stop and I could not sleep at all... Meanwhile, I saw some people giving up the climb and going down the mountain. I also thought that I might have to turn back.

I knew that the right judgement is would be critical, since, in the mountain, my safety depends only on me, and no one else. I was very afraid of continuing the climb, but eventually I took a the challenge. "Everything is on me" - the simple principle in the mountain, I liked that idea of self-responsibility.

At about 2am, we were off again trying to reach the top before the sunrise. From the hut to the top, the route was the hardest with real rock climbing, and of course we were in the dark, using headlamps and flashlights. Besides, so many people were heading for the peak around at the same time, and the the trail actually became a traffic jam of climbers.


Yaaaay... !!! 3776 meters high!!!
at 4:30 am, we got to the top in time to see the sunrise around 4:45. Everybody was holding the a camera and waiting for the sunrise.


I was expecting the a thicker "cloud-sea" than this, but there was not as much as I expected:-( but anyway, I happily viewd the the sunrise above the clouds. (Actually I could not enjoy this view so much because of the sickenss)


2008/08/09, 4:45am


The most challenging thing (physically) in this summer!

Returning from the top was actually more exhausting. The trail weaving back and forth going down on the surface of the mountain. Deep sand, and rocks, and our exhaustion, were by far much worse than anything we had dealt in with going up. It felt like forever... Took us about 4 hours to get down.

After the climb, we went to an Onsen(hot spring) near the lake Kawaguchi. The whole time in the mountain, we had been wet with sweat , and muddy with dust, and but finally we got relaxed in the bath.