富士山 (Part Two)

Before I went, I thought I would be super disappointed if I didn't make it to the top - like, I thought that if I didn't make it all the way up, I couldn't really say that I'd climbed Mt. Fuji - but I'm really not. I think maybe it's because I didn't stop because I was giving up, but I stopped because, you know, I was injured and didn't want to damage myself more. And before that happened, I was doing great at getting up the mountain, and it was difficult and it was fun and, you know, even if I didn't reach the top, I made it up most of the way, and that was pretty cool. And I got to see more stars than I've ever seen before, and I got to watch a beautiful sunrise, and I got to spend time with all the good-looking guys that worked in my hut. And I climbed Mt. Fuji at night, and that's not an experience you have every day.

Although, if I ever did it again, I would not climb at night. Partly because it just made it harder - especially the rocky bits because it was hard to determine which was the best direction to go - but mostly because it's pretty much the reason I ended up not making it. We had flashlights, but they didn't happen to reveal that particular rock to me.

But I don't intend to climb it again (well, climbing from the bottom to the 5th station might be nice; it's supposed to be pretty), and that's entirely the fault of the descent. Everything up to that point, despite the unexpected snag of injury, was great, but the descent was the worst hell I've ever lived through. I found it so much harder than the ascent; it was endless switchbacks of volcanic rock, and it was boring and they were super slippery and people kept falling down and I thought I would die. With my foot and ankle both swollen and tender, it was super difficult, but it would have been horrible regardless. The scenery got better around the 6th station, which helped a little, but finally getting back to the 5th station was, like, the happiest moment of my life.

Anyway, I'm glad I went, and I'm okay with how it turned out. It would have been nice to reach the top, but even though I didn't and even though my Mt. Fuji experience was not what I expected, I got to have a different experience than anyone else's, and that's kind of great.

It's kind of weird that I've climbed Mt. Fuji, but I've never actually seen it. Like, from a distance. I didn't feel like I really saw it at all until the sun came up and I could, you know, see. And I've never seen the whole thing, so it still seems like I haven't seen it, even though the bits I could see while climbing looked familiar; it looked like Fuji-san should look. But I still want to see the whole picture!

Please enjoy some people enjoying the view of clouds below, the bit of path that was my downfall (it's too bad it was too dark to take pictures of the other bits of the path so you could see just how lame it was that I hurt myself on this bit), the massive amount of people behind on us the horrible descent (there were some tour groups), a view looking up (moments later shrouded in clouds), some trees between the 6th and 5th stations, the glorious sight of the 5th station (and a ton of people ready to start their journey up the mountain), and the curry rice in the shape of Fuji-san I ate for lunch.