Fujiisan: Color Me Humbled!

Konbanwa!

In case some of you haven't heard, Daniel and I decided to take on Mt. Fuji this past weekend. Hooo Boy, what a journey!...

First, a little background:

At 12,388 feet, Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan. It is open to climbers for about 2 summer months per year. On the other months, it is actually illegal due to the extreme cold climate and super strong winds -winds that can literally whip people right off the mountain! They say approximately 200,000 people climb up Fujisan [what the japanee folk call it] every year!

Aaaanywho.. here's how our travels started.

After packing all the essentials, taking the fuzzies to the pet hotel, and buying even MORE supplies at the NEX (just in case), we were ready to embark on this journey.

I must also mention that for the past 2 weeks I have commited myself to wearing my hiking boots all day, everyday (to break them in). We have also been good about training at the gym -rockin' the treadmill and stairmaster everyday after work. I HATE the stairmaster.. but my biggest fear was being that one person who would slow the rest of the group down.

We went with a group of 29 predominantly young, healthy folks. This tour is run only two times a year by the Outdoor Recretion Center [OREC] on Base. Their motto is like that movie Lilo & Stitch: "No one gets left behind." And here's why I'm a terrible person: While we were all getting to know eachother at OREC, I was also scanning the group for people who may potentially be slower than me! I fixed my focus on this kinda big guy, (who looked like a much taller version of Silent Bob) who was taking out a pair of NEW hiking boots from an NEX package. SO BAD YAH!? but aside from my evil thoughts, the group looked like a fun bunch of people ;)

The first challenge: Survive the 15 hour shuttle bus ride.

During the first 2 hours, everyone was excited that they passed inspection and were on their way to hike the great Fujisan. Everyone was chatting it up, playing their nintendo DSs, ipods or reading. Daniel and I were ready too: we had a word search book, two of those "spot the differences" books, a magnetic Chess & Checkers set, a travel-size Connect 4 game, a DS, a PSP and an ipod ;)

We stopped at a rest stop every 2 hours. It wasn't too bad... at least for the first waking hours.... :\

After our dinner stop, there was nothing left to look forward to but trying to sleep on this uncomfortable bus that stops every 2 hours! :(

It's pretty safe to say that none of us got a decent night's sleep.

But then we finally reached our destination. And with the excitement, everyone got a new boost of energy. We got dressed, loaded up, and bought a plain wooden hiking stick from the souvenir shop.

Here's the entry of the hike. That guy right there is Walter, our hike guide. This is the same guy we got our Kayaking Certification from. Yep, the same guy who paddled circles around us. I tell you, this guy is a machine! You will hear more about how amazing this guy is a bit.

So here we go, hiking sticks in hand, merrily embarking on this glorious adventure...

We started at the 5th Station of the mountain. This is where most hikers start since there is paved road and car passage up to this point. Since we were already pretty high up, we started our hike with a view of the morning light.. it was BEAUTIFUL! I must've sighed at least 3 times!

So there are 5 stations till the top. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to each station. It was mildly strenuous but doable..at least until the 7th station! Till then, it was a zig-zaggy rocky, dirt trail. 3 hours into the hike, we all started to realize that this hike was going to be harder than we thought. The tight group was starting to thin and spread out. Then the guide in the back, (who acted as a sweep), Charles hollered for Walter in the front. We all had to halt. 3 people had given up. They said they could go no further. Dan (The volunteer guide -who also happens to be Daniel's supervisor) took over as the lead guide while Walter went back down to escort the 3 people back to the bus. He told us that after he gets them back to the bus, he will catch up with us. He's crazy. We just hiked 3 hours and he's going to go all the way back down and come back up to meet us?! geez. At this point, Daniel had nicknamed him "The Terminator," and everyone laughed and agreed.

And with that, we sallied forth. We were lucky, it was a nice day. Cool and breezy, but still sunny. Even with a good coat of sunblock, I got pretty burnt. At the 7th station we got the first of many hot stamps. Each station has a couple of huts that serve as rest stops. At these huts, you can get your wooden walking stick hot-stamped with a design unique to their hut. Each stamp costs 200 yen (about 2 bucks). Some stations have a special 2-design stamp that they offer for 300 yen. But I tell yah, it really adds up! 2 sticks at 10 bucks each, with 15+ stamps on each stick! Cha-ching. It was worth it tho. It was patiently done the old-fashioned way with a hot coal pit and a small metal brander. The people who ran these huts also lived there during the hiking months! They even had small sleeping areas available for hikers if they wanted to sleep there -for a price of course! I ain't gonna lie, shit was REALLY expensive up there... and the price got higher and higher as we ascended! For example: bottled water: 400yen, Cup-o-noodles: 600yen!! Oh, and a small can of oxygen (yes, they had those): 1,300yen!

Nearly every station, we stopped to "refuel." We both had camelbacks full of gatorate and a backpack full of beef jerky, powerbars and gel packs. The gel packs were surprisingly tasty -like fruity, chopped up jello! It made up for the powerbars -bleh. I really wasn't feelin' those but I knew I had to eat. Walter told us that even the fittest of hikers can collapse due to lack of intake. So I gulped mouthfuls of gatorade and choked a powerbar down at every station. Speaking of Walter, he caught up with us at the 8th station!

It was pretty much the same stuff until the 9th station. But it got colder and colder and we lost sight of all "green life" down below. Now it was just rock, pebbles, ice and CLOUDS! Our walking sticks were pretty full of stamps at this point -all we needed was that final stamp from the hut at the top! We were exhausted. Everyone gathered together to rest one last time till the final frontier. The last stretch was a DOOZIE! It was nearly 3 times as long as the trek from the 8th to 9th station! It was pretty funny tho. When you reach the 9th station, the hut that sits there blocks the view of the trail to the top... so every person who walked around the hut to see it, let out a big sigh or a classic: "Holy Shit!"

Needless to say, at the 9th staion, someone decided to give up and Walter had to escort yet another person down. But this time, he decided not to come back up and join us -I mean, we were almost there!

I can't even begin to say how hard this was. Physically AND Mentally. We were moving SOOOO SLOW. It was discouraging how much futher we had to go, even tho we had already made it this far, there was still this monumental stretch of nothingness. It would feel like we'd walk forever -then when you look back to see how far you went, you'd realize that the 9th station was still RIGHT THERE! Waaaah! When we reached the halfway point, we felt a mixture of relief and dispair.

Then there it was.. the gate marking the end! We summed up the last vial of strength and FLEW up the last "zag." It felt fantastic. I wanted to jump up and down and do a dance,.. but all I could muster was throwing my arms up and giving a big toofy grin.

It felt weird to be up at the top. There was so much activity! But even with all the hustle and bustle, I could really see how spiritual all this could feel -With the cold, thin air, the sky all misty white ...and our endorphin-filled bodies... ;)

We quickly got our last stamp. It was perfect: A simple "Top of Mt Fuji, ALT. 12395 ft" burned with a thick circle around it. It was still warm when they handed it back to us... yes, I had to touch it to believe it :)

We decided it would be a good idea to eat something up there so we took a seat in one of the shops. The seating was weird. The whole area had about 4 rows of long wooden boxes. Each one was covered with tatami (japanese matting). People sat on both sides of the rows. There were no tables. You just had to hold your food with one hand and eat with the other. The food was EXPENSIVE too. But that was to be expected. We ordered a Miso Ramen to share. It costed 800 yen. It was delievered to us in a small bowl, filled with barely enough ramen for ONE person! And it tasted a lot like the Sapporo Ichiban, 65 cent ramen that you can buy at Longs! ...But lemme tell yah, after eating nasty powerbars and guzzling 2 liters of fruit punch gatorade for 6+ hours, it was the tastiest instant ramen EVAR!

[Oh! by the way, remember the "Giant Silent Bob" guy? yah, well he was pretty much ahead of us during the ENTIRE hike! That'll teach ME to judge by appearance!]

After resting up at the top for about 45 minutes, the group gathered, took a quick swing over to look at the crater. We found it amusing that this big ol' crater had only a few skinny metal posts and some flimsy rope to keep people from falling in!

Then we began our 3-4hr descent. This was WAAAAY easier, since going down is a different trail. The trail was mostly pebbly and dusty. Which means it pretty much sucked if you had people in front of you. We all felt like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown.

Even tho it was easier that going up, walking down a trail covered with loose pebbles had it's own challenges. But within the first hour, we learned to tolerate having little rocks in our shoes and perfected our "slide-step."

The first hour's decent was pretty bleak. Just a red and gray trail against the white sky. But we did stop to play with a wall of ice!

[Side note: You may notice, that there are no pictures of JUST daniel. That's because it's pretty tricky operating a camera with gloves! Not to mention, I DID earn the nickname "The Destroyer" since I was a wee child, so we didn't want to take our chances...But I DID manage to get a shot of him during the warmer parts of the hike -but that one came out too dark! poor guy. Aaanywho, moving on...]

So here's a couple pictures taken when we finally DID see something worth shooting!

On the right, I call this a picture of "mokomoko clouds."

And below is a panoramic shot of the view below, once we got out of the "whiteness."

When we hit solid(er) ground, Dan told us that we just had one more UPHILL stretch to overcome and we'd be back to our bus. He called it the "Heartbreak Ridge." How appropriate. It was about a mile more. The sun was low (it was going to set soon) and blaring directly in front of us as we trudged along. Then all of a sudden, I started to feel queazy. I couldnt look ahead because of the sun, so I looked down at the rocks. But then the rocks started to vibrate. My tummy was starting to hurt. Uh Oh. Since I drank all my gatorate during the descent, I didn't drink or eat anything on the way down -big mistake. The awful feeling in my gut escalated pretty quickly and it was hard to even think straight. ARRRGH, not now! It was so frustrating. More than ever, I wanted to finish this. We were WAY too close! I couldn't stop now! Daniel still had some gatorade left, so he gave it to me. He told me to hang on to him and focus on something other than the rocks. So I walked behind him, holding on to his backpack for guidance and directed my attention to the lush greenery on our right. Even if I felt lousy, it was quite a sight. It felt a tiny bit better. All the while there was a mini battle in my head: One side, whining like bratty children -asking me to stop and rest. The other side sounding like a drill seargent shouting that I'd be a complete wuss if I listened to them....but the next thing you know,.. we had made it to the parking lot. Thank the lawd!!!

Since we had "conquered" Fujisan faster than expected, we were treated with a trip to an onsen. But during the ride, my queaziness turned into full-blown dizziness and nausea. I've never felt so messed up. Then it got worse. My vision was blacking out. With eyes wide open, I could barely make out anything in front of me. This mixed with a light head (that felt like it was going to disconnect and float off ...) and a heavy, painfull churn in my belly, pretty much freaked me out. Daniel tried to tell me that my body was just experiencing over-exhaustion and I needed to calm down and try to relax. Two guys, Kurry and Cai, who sat close-by who happened to work in the medical field, heard me talking so they got up from their seats to check on me. And folks, lemme tell you how lady-like I am: When they asked me various medical questions, I responded with: "I dunno guys, but I gotta either puke or take a crap -either way, something's gotta come out!" NICE. :\

When we reached the onsen, Walter told me that this exact thing happened to another lady 2 hikes ago. He said that I just needed to eat carbs. I told him that I ate a couple of powerbars and stayed hydrated, but then he said that either I didn't eat enough or maybe my body wasn't taking the powerbars well. Hmmm...come to think, before this hike, I've never had a powerbar! Nor have I ever drank so much gatorate before! He reenforced his previous comment and said "Trust me, you just need carbs." Daniel dug thru our bags and found a tuna & crackers set. He ripped it open and gave me just the crackers to eat. (Tuna sounded so disgusting at the time.) There were about 6 crackers in the pack. By the 5th cracker, I felt 70% better! wow. Magical crackers! I was well enough to take advantage of the onsen. Now THAT felt GREAT. After we got out, Daniel bought me some sweet bread that they sold there. It almost seemed like I felt better and better with every bite.

After that, I was an eating machine. It was funny, Walter just happened to be passing by everytime I had food in my hands. He commented, "Wow, you're really taking my advice to heart!" he started laughing around the 4th time he saw me and said: "Man, I'm impressed!"

On the bus ride back, 3/4ths of the people were sleeping... and the rest of us were challenging eachother in Connect 4! :)

Well I guess that's it guys! I hope you found this blog informative and useful -in case you should feel so compelled to take on Mt Fuji too! Remember folks: Bring carbs, liquids, cold-weather & rain gear and LOTS of yen and determination!

And now I leave you with this fine discovery at one of our rest stops: SPAM Curry!

Oh, and to the right of it is WHALE Curry... yikes.

much love, me