Fuji

It was a dark and foggy night...Honestly!

As we approached Fuji I was doubtful that there was even a mountain there. All you could see was a mass of green and white. The fog blanketed the bus on all sides and instead of the sharp drop-off, all you could see at the edge of the road was a wall of white. A theme that would be repeated throughout the night.

We bought a few things at the 5th station, including a flash light and a large plain hiking stick with some bells tied around the top. The stick is great because you can get brands burned onto it at each of the rest stations, making it one large useful souvenir. We started hiking as the sun was starting to set. We walked into the green forest and actually started by hiking down for a bit. But soon we were climbing a wide moderately angled slope. Our guide stopped a few times in the greying light to point at some path markers and make very clear something we should or should not do if we got separated from the group. We did know that if we took the wrong path back we would end up on the wrong side of the mountain and would have to take a very expensive taxi home. However, we had no idea how our guide's instructions pertained to that. We just took the opportunities to rest and look at the fog rolling across the path. I guess at this height, 2300m, we were probably walking through low clouds. My hair was dripping with condensation.

As we climbed higher we were taking breaks about every 30-40 minutes. Breaks just meant stopping where you were and sprawling on the path for about 10 minutes. If we were climbing during high season that would have meant creating a traffic jam, as hundreds of people start climbing at the same time we were starting. However, because we were climbing in the off season, we only crossed a few hikers coming down the mountain.

We passed a few huts that were closed for the season before reaching the 6th station. A quick branding (for the stick)and bathroom break (for us)and we were on our way again. The stations are spaced about 300m apart, but our guide was moving at a very deliberate pace to accommodate the varying levels within the group and we were now stopping every 20-30 minutes for a break. So it was taking us about an hour to reach each station. Another thing that was slowing us down was that the path had narrowed, so that it was only safe to walk in single file. And the path had gotten much steeper, going from 30 degrees, to 40, up to I think 50 or 60 degrees of weathered, hardened lava rock. I was contemplating just how awful a step off of the path would be when a short, spry, yet elderly lady in front of me missed a foot hold and fell backwards onto the path, her foot still stuck on the rock. We just grabbed her in time, luckily she was all right. We stopped soon after at another closed hut.

One of the benefits of the frequent breaks was the opportunity to gaze at the stars. I so seldom get to see the stars away from the glare of the city, and we were well above the lights of the nearest cities glowing from beneath the clouds. We were above the clouds now, but it wasn't that cold. Our breath didn't even fog, so there was nothing to obscure the amazing sky. It was odd to see familiar constellations at strange places in the sky. Orion was lying nearly parallel with the horizon, and we struggled to find other familiar sights. I saw three shooting stars. The longer we looked the more stars we could see, crowding the sky, pressing down on us.

We finally reached the 8th station at about 9:30. We were given bags for our boots, breakfast for the morning, and after gathering our sticks for branding we were herded off to bed. We were going to rest for a few hours and then start climbing again in order to reach the summit before dawn. There was a long low room with two long bunk beds built onto either wall. Each bed was lined with a row of heavy comforters and buckwheat pillows. After being given a spot at the end of the row we tried to get comfortable and sleep. Even though we had not slept at all for the past 36 hours I couldn't sleep. I listened to the soundtrack of A New Brain and kept nudging Carl everytime he started to snore. Which meant that Carl didn't sleep either. Because I knew sunrise wasn't until 5:30 and that we only had 700m to go to the summit I didn't think we'd start climbing until after 1am, and that I'd have plenty of time to catch a nap. I was wrong. Only 2 hours after tucking us in, they untucked us and we started for the summit at about 11:40.

We thought we'd been climbing in the dark before, but there had still been remnants of sunset lighting the sky. Now we were climbing in total darkness. And our bodies hadn't been moving for a while so we were feeling the cold. We eagerly started off and promptly stopped 20 minutes later. We were now stopping every 15-20 minutes for about 10-15 minutes at a time. It was slow going. After about an hour and a half we made it to the original 8th station, where we lost a few members of our group. They paid to stop and stay the night. We pressed on to the Goraikokan Hut. Yes, all of these places were open at 2 o'clock in the morning. That's when they do a lot of their business in hikers searching for the dawn. This was a charming place with friendly staff and highly over-priced food. We decided to skip the 4 dollar bowl of miso or can of coffee and shared our trail mix with our table mates. They kindly took our picture. This was also the first time we'd seen other hikers going up since we'd left. But they were all climbing in small groups. And moving much faster than us. We watched their flashlights ascend the mountain far ahead of us.

After we left the hut we started stopping every 10-15 minutes. The path was still steep so there often wasn't a good place to stop, and a few times we had to hug the edge of the path as a few hikers passed us. We were stopping often to accommodate any altitude sickness people might be feeling and because climbing in the pitch black is a little stressful. I will admit my heart was pounding loud and hard after a few steps because of the atmosphere, but I just wanted to keep going and ignore the chain-smoking guide's frequent stops.

About a 100m below the summit the sun started to come up. Just a faint line on the horizon, but it soon started to glow red. I didn't think we'd make the summit before the sun rose. But our guide pushed through the last 15 minutes and we were on top of Japan! There are no other words for it but amazing. Instead of the horrible cold and weather that normally plagues off-season climbers we had a beautiful ocean of clouds below us and a wonderful view in all directions. We climbed to the top rim of the crater and stared silently as the sun rose pink and red and yellow through the white clouds. Some people clasped their hands together in prayer. Our guide took that moment to tell them to pray that the baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, would win the pennant. There was also a Shinto shrine gate at the very top of the mountain. We took the bells that we had pulled off of our walking stick and hung them on the gate like many travelers before us. There were bells covering the gate and all over the ground. I couldn't tell you why, but it seemed a fitting way of commemorating the climb. A pair of German's started to ask Carl if he was German but then saw his Canada baseball cap. We took their pictures and they took ours. They were going to explore the rest of the crater, but our group was getting set to go back down the mountain. We first made a few phone calls from the top of the mountain. The reception was great! And it was the middle of the afternoon in Canada.

We headed down the mountain on the descent route. It's a different path going down than up. On the way down you use the trailer track they use to haul goods and equipment to the various huts. It's a wide path of loose dirt and gravel, making it very easy to loose your footing and skid down half the path if you're not careful. Unfortunately somebody stumbled. Just as we got back to the 8th station a man rolled his ankle badly and they had to call for a truck to come get him. This required our hiking guide to stay with him, and the tour guide to run down the mountain to wait for him and make sure his belongings made the trip home. This left us to make it down the path on our own. So glad we had those long detailed instructions to fall back on!

We did have a rough map and we mostly kept the other hikers in our sight. But our group became quickly strung out along the path. Carl and I were mostly on our own, but we caught up to a small group near the end and followed them through the tricky path forks near the bottom. After 4 hours of walking heel first downhill, with my body at a steep angle to the mountain, with dirt flying at every step, I was ready to stop and never walk again. But as we waited for the rest of the group to arrive we purchased some souvenirs and tried to stretch our tired tendons.

We loaded onto the bus and bid our fog shrouded friend goodbye. It was an incredible experience but my sore, sleep-deprived body was happy to be moving towards home. But first a few more stops. Thankfully one of them was an onsen. Onsen is Japanese for hot-spring, but this one was very small, more like a large locker room with indoor and outdoor hot tubs. Did I also mention that onsens are public baths? Public bathing is a big thing here, but this was out first experience of bathing in public. You have to shower or wash yourself off in the onsen room before plunging into the hot shallow baths. The water was about 38 degrees and wonderful for aches, pains, and blistered skin. But it was a little uncomfortable. I was familiar with the idea in theory, from discussing it with my students, but definitely not in practice. I wasn't sure what naked faux pas' I might be committing. And we were definitely underprepared. We had to rent towels. I emerged after Carl, and we wedged our clean, tired bodies into our tiny seats for the trip home.

Another stop for dinner, and a few more rest stops, and we were finally home. They dropped us off at the train station at 8pm. We squeezed our bodies and backpacks onto the train full of rush hour commuters. We picked up groceries for our meals the next day, and staggered home with stick in hand. It was probably the most time it had ever taken us to walk the 6 blocks home. Another bath and shower and then we fell into our futons at 11pm for a solid 11 hour sleep. We had been awake for 2 days and had climbed and descended from the highest point in Japan. We had experienced nature and the mountain, the fog, the stars and the sunrise. It was September 16th and as we stood at the top of Fuji, celebrating our climb, we were also celebrating 6 months in Japan. See you in another 6!