富士山 (Part 1)

I visited Fuji-san this weekend, and my experience was not what I imagined. Out of the seven of us who went, four of us made it to the top; I was not one of the four.

We had talked about climbing the mountain for a while, but apparently a lot of other people also planned it (not surprising, since there is only a short period during the year when you can climb), and we could not get the room or bus reservations we wanted. So we ended up leaving Shinjuku at 7:30 on Sunday night, reaching the 5th station (where most people start) a couple hours later and starting our climb.

I knew that it was going to be a difficult climb, but I think it was difficult in different ways than I expected. From the 5th to the 6th station is fairly easy, but between the 6th and 7th there are a ton of freaking stairs. I was definitely not expecting stairs. I DO NOT LIKE STAIRS. I am short, and they were very tall so required excessive amounts of effort to get up on each one, which made me breathe harder which made me really feel the altitude, Luckily I had oxygen with me, which helped so much; I never would have made it as far as I did without it. Anyway, I knew that the path was rocky, but I was not expecting the climb up to the 8th station to involve, like, literally hauling myself up ridiculously steep rocks. I was like, "WHAT IS THIS AND WHY IS IT HAPPENING?!" when first faced with the sight, but I think it was actually the easiest part for me. It was challenging, but I didn't feel like I was overexerting myself. Eventually, partway through the 8th station (which goes on forever), the path got a bit easier.

Of course, that was the point where I smashed my foot into, like, the only rock on that part of the path, both hurting the top of my foot and twisting my ankle. I went back to the hut we had recently passed to rest for a few minutes and see if I was okay; if I was, I would catch up with my two friends I was with, if I wasn't, the rest of the group would come along eventually and I could let them know I was injured.

Yeah, I was not all right. It hurt to step on my ankle, and every step also made the wounded top of my foot hit my shoe. Eventually, two more of our group showed up, and it was decided that I should probably stay put where I was, watch the sunrise, and then meet up with them when they came down later on the supposedly easier descent path. This was around 3 in the morning, and it was getting unbelievably cold. When I had been moving, I was fine, but just sitting there and waiting was not going to be good. Super luckily for me, there was a bed available at the hut, so I got to sleep and be warm for a little while and then enjoy the sunrise and then sleep a little more (I was there about 3 hours, but rest was so nice that it felt like much longer). Then I was able to meet up with the last two members of our group (who only reached the hut right above me, I think - the one I'd been nearly halfway to when I injured myself - and that not too long before we met up) and we could descend together. And then get food together and fall asleep on the ground waiting for the rest of the group.

Please enjoy pictures of various degrees of sunrise, the view down from my hut, the view up from my hut, and the view of my hut.