I’ve been basically dead for a week. I blame it on Mt.Fuji.
So, what happened was that Masaki and I got the great idea to climb Fuji-san a few weeks ago. He searched the net for some tours and found a good one. Last Sunday we got up early and headed off to Shinjuku to catch the tour-bus. After about 2-3 hours (the highway was pretty congested) we finally arrived to the 5th level on Fuji. There’s 10 levels. If you’re hard-core, you’ll start at the 1st. But then again, why the heck do that when you can take the bus to the 5th?
The 5th level where most people start climbing from.
We chilled for about and hour and got changed, then our group gathered (together with like a zillion other groups) and started the climb. Sorry, I mean hike. To start with it’s not so much climbing as it is hiking. Once you pass the 7th level you’ll start sort of climbing at some parts. Or rather, it’s like walking up a very steep set of stairs. With irregular steps. Slippery ones too.
It was a hot day, you know, typical damn Japanese summer. Humid. Eww. Even before going, I had checked several websites on hiking up Mt.Fuji, just to be prepared. All of them wrote something like “getting altitude sickness is common, and the only way to cure it is to climb down again”. “F*ck, I’m sure I’ll get that” I thought, but what the heck, let’s do this. And sure enough, already on the 5th level, as we arrived on the bus, I could feel a beginning headache. Great.
Anyhoo, the hike started and it went alright up to the 6th level, which took about 2 hours I think. Fuji-san is a volcano, so we were walking on lots and lots of volcanic stone, old lava you know. Tiny round little things that made it hard to walk and easy to fall. Loads of people hiked, in our group only we were about 30. Then add the other zillion groups to that and you can understand why the hiking went sloooow! In one way it was a good thing, getting the body used to the height, but at the same time we had to walk much slower than what we could have, which tired us more (and took much longer time).
This is what you walk on…
As we climbed, my headache got worse and worse. Thank god we had bought the walking-sticks! Even Masaki, who had been reluctant to buy one at first, agreed that it was a good buy and that we would have been more exhausted if we didn’t have them.
Masaki and our new best friends.
6th and 7th level reached and passed and we were all beginning to wonder if it really would take those 8 hours to climb, as our tour-leader had said. We started to climb ad 13h, and would reach the 8.5th level at about 21h…really? 8 hours? My headache was horrible and I was already exhausted. 4 more hours to go…really? Please say you’re joking!
We were far above the clouds, really cool to see them from above, without being in an airplane. I kept seeing (and hearing) people using these little oxygen-bottles, and I wondered if I should have bought one myself. As we climbed and got the to mountain-huts and rest-houses on the 6th and 7th levels, not only the water, but everything else also got disgustingly expensive. If a normal 500ml water bottle costs 110 yen normally, it cost 200 yen at the 5th level…and kept getting more expensive…
It felt like we’d never arrive. Nightfall came and we could see the light of the towns far below starting to pop out like stars. And the moon, by the horizon, was scaringly red. Is it always that red before getting higher?
Very bad picture, but that’s supposed to be a very red moon above the city (but under us)
We took out our headlights and cheered every time our guide said that we could stop and rest. And moaned every time he said it was time to go again, way too soon. But finally, finally we made it to the 8.5th level, our stop for the night! My headache was killing me and I felt nauseous…oh god… Masaki kept asking me if we should stop and climb down again, but I was hesitant and wanted to reach the top. It would probably be our only climb up!
There’s a Japanese saying “if you don’t climb up Mt.Fuji at least once, then you’re stupid. If you climb it more than once, you’re also stupid”. As we climbed, I recalled these words and thought to myself “oh sooo true! I totally understand! Who in the world ,in their right mind, would go through this more than once!?!?!”. Even our second tour-leader, who walked at the end of the line, got sick and had to climb back down. To the man’s defense, I have to say that he had climbed up the day before as well…
Finally in the mountain hut, the last one before the top! I collapsed and had a hard time getting off my shoes and then getting to the table to get dinner. Hamburgers (not the American kind with bread and all, just the meat and some rice). I felt my nausea getting worse. I took two bites, then grabbed on to Masaki’s arm and whispered “I really don’t feel well…”. His eyes got big “should we go outside, to the bathroom?”. “Yes…”. We got up from the table and started walking…too slow! Luckily one of the staff from the hut saw that I was about to vomit on the tatami-flooring, so he ran up with a plastic bag for me and the moment I got my face down in it, everything in my stomach came out. We managed to get to the bathroom, where I went to the ladies’ room to see if my stomach had something else to say, while poor Masaki took the bag and went to the gents’ to empty it. After a while, we went back and I managed to eat the rest of my hamburger and a bit of rice. Masaki also got me a small oxygen bottle, which I clung to for the rest of the time. (It cost us 2000 yen up there…I wonder what it costs normally?)
The hut at the 8.5th level.
At 21.30, we finally went to bed, squeezed together in hard, wide bunk-beds where they jammed in as many people as possible. Luckily we were only supposed to sleep until 1.30, when we had to get up and start the climb again. Masaki asked again if we should go down instead, but I figured that we were so close to the top, that what the heck.
1.30, get up, get more clothes on, cause it was freezing cold (and of course I didn’t have a good coat…). Start the climb again at 2, then climb for 2 hours to the top. I puked again on the way up, and our tour-leader kept checking on me and several others in the groups who didn’t feel well. Many people had given up and climbed down again. I didn’t want to be one of them. I didn’t want to have to climb up the damn thing again!
So, 2 hours later, at 4, we finally reached the top! We got in to a bigger hut, where they had food, and rested there for an hour. Apparently the sun came out, at least that’s what the pink clouds told us. Yes, on our first and ONLY climb up Mt.Fuji, it was cloudy at the damn top! All we could see were pink clouds! And people taking pictures of the pink clouds.
Sunrise at the top of Mt.Fuji.
There’s this extra tour, to get to the real top (not far up), which takes you around the crater and from where, on a nice day, you can see the view all around Mt.Fuji. This was closed due to bad weather. Just our luck… Apparently there’s a bunch of shrines and temples at the top, built out of stone! Stone!!! Who the heck brought up all that stone and material to make, not only one, but several shrines, temples and other huts/shops all the way up there??? I had problems just getting myself up there! The Japanese truly are amazing… We even found vending machines up there! And guess what the water cost? 500 yen!!!
Vending machine at the top of Mt.Fuji.
After one hour, at 5, it was time for out tour to go down. 10 hours in total to get all the way up! Guess how many hours it took us to go down? 3! THREE!!! But, it was not so much walking/hiking as it was sliding/falling. Our tour-leader told us that we could walk freely after passing the 8th level, and so we did. It got hotter and hotter and we kept stopping to take off clothes, rest and get oxygen (well, me at least). Funnily enough, my headache got better while at the top of Fuji, but once we started going down again, it got worse. Strange…
Going down was actually harder than going up, because of the steep slopes and tiny round lava-stones. Both of us (and tons of people around us) kept falling backwards when going down, it looked kind of funny. But finally, when we got to the 6th level it got easier to walk. At about that time we also thought that it we were almost there, soon done, but apparently it was longer than we thought. Still, we arrived at about 8.
The lake that we kept seeing. I wonder what lake it is…
Finally down, we went to the huge tatami-room which is used as a changing-room and chill-room for all the climbers. We were the second couple to get in there and got a good spot. We washed our faces, ate some then fell down like dead and slept for about 2 hours. When we woke up, the room was full of climbers, just as tired as us and sleeping. We ate some in the restaurant, walked around for a bit and then it was time to gather with the tour again, to go to an onsen – hot spring – to go wash ourselves.
I can tell you this – onsen has never felt so good, ever! Hot water, washing my body clean from all the dust and dirt, pure heaven! On the way back to Shinjuku, both of us fell asleep in the bus, exhausted.
The next day, Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), Masaki had the day off from work, lucky bastard. But I had to go to work… So, alarm set at 6.45, time to get up. Or so I thought. Even changing positions in bed hurt like h*ll! I tried to stand up but my legs screamed in pain. Or was that me? I called my boss, head banging, legs screaming. Don’t remember what I said other than that I had climbed Mt.Fuji and couldn’t walk. Then back to bed, knocked out and slept until 14.30. When we woke up, all dizzy and tired, Masaki started teasing me and calling me “my penguin”, since I couldn’t walk properly. I couldn’t even stand up without using my arms to mush myself up with. What horrible pain!
And now, a week later, my calves still hurt… At least I can walk properly though, but it’s been painful. Anyway, since Mt.Fuji was cloudy at the top, does that mean that we have to climb up again? As Masaki said, “If we could be 200% sure that the weather would be nice, so we could see the view and walk around the crater, then I’d go up again. If not – no way!”
But hey, at least we’re not idiots anymore, right?
Fuji-san, seen from Hakone (taken in October 2009)
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