Monday, July 26, 2010

Mount Fuji? Been there, done that!

With the strong desire to get away from this treacherous heat this past weekend (there's been 50+ deaths related to this weather, according to Zoom-In Japan!), we decided to conquer Mount Fuji, the highest point in Japan.  It *must* be cooler at ~4000 meters high, right??

After a long bus ride to Yamanashi prefecture, we arrived at the 5th station on Mt Fuji to start our trek up to the summit.  They boys got ready w/ some of this:
What better way to kick-off the start than w/ a tall glass of cold beer?

Here's a "before" picture that we made sure to take while we were all smiles and full of eagerness:

Look how happy we looked in the beginning!  This didn't last long.

This is where we spent 7600yen to crash for 3.5hrs:
Literally a slab of wood w/ sleeping bags right next to another.  Prob 40+ people in one room.  That's right.

This is why we got up at midnight to climb to the summit to see - the famous sunrise atop Mt Fuji:
Simply gorgeous.
Truth be told, we didn't actually make it to the top in time for the sunrise at 4:30am.  With 300 meters to go, the line of climbers was at a halt.  So, we plopped a seat and viewed the beautiful mix of colors from just below the summit, but personally I think it probably looked just as good :)

With a picture of the sunrise safely taken, we restarted our very slow trek to the top.  Here's Nancy near the finish.  Almost.  Done!!

Omigosh we finally made it!!
Can you tell I got my wish for cold weather?  I was freezing my tooshie off!

To warm up our bodies, we ordered some hot miso ramen:
I have never been so excited to eat some overpriced instant ramen

The hubs and I had to take our token pic together, this time with the crater in the background:
That's me taking a celebratory swig of sake

After a loooong descend back to the 5th station (why does there always have to be a down after an up??), we rewarded ourselves by ordering one of eeeeeverything they had here:
Lured by the smells of yummy goodness. 

Body covered all over in dirt and belly full of random foods I took in throughout our hike.  Satisfied?  Fo sho'! 

3 comments:

  1. wow, congraaaaats! That looks pretty amazing :)

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  2. I seem to vaguely remember our uncle taking us to Fuji-san like 25 years ago...am I correct?

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  3. no, no..i think it's some random local mountain in Kyoto.

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