Hello again!~

Actually I wanted to post this entry on Sunday, but right now I have some time (wow, did I actually write that?), need a study break, or whatever, so I rather post it now and I know that a lot of you have been waiting for this very entry.
I hope you won't be disappointed! :(
As you know the original trip was canceled due to a typhoon warning and so we went on the last 2 days of our vacation, just hoping that there would be no typhoon and good weather, but ......

Climbing Mt. Fuji (August 14th + 15th, 2010):

As we didn't know what the weather would do, I left my expensive DSLR back in the hotel and only took my digital camera!
Originally we wanted to go by bus all the way from Nagoya to the trail on the Kawaguchiko side (Yamanashi Prefecture) of the mountain, but as you know that also had to be canceled. That was the cheapest solution, though.
Instead we now took the shinkansen, local trains and a bus to get out on the Fujinomiya trail (Shizuoka Prefecture).



The first photo of our trip I took out of the bus that brought us from the foot of the mountain up to the 5th station. As you can see we had the BEST weather possible ... haha ... haha .. ha .... I really wanted to cry back then. I was sooooooooo angry!!! It was so foggy and rainy so that you barely could see 4m ahead of you. GRRRRRR!!!!!!



When we finally arrived up at the 5th station, my brother already wanted to give up and wanted me to check when the next bus would go back down.
As it was super cold, windy and rainy, we went into the hut/souvenir shop on the 5th station where it was warm, dry and there were a lot of things to see. At that time I thought I'd at least buy tons of souvenirs after coming so far, but after warming up, I told my brother that we at least SHOULD TRY to get to the 6th station. Then we can tell if it's impossible / too difficult to go all the way up or not and then we still can take a bus back and all.

And so, we were all wrapped up with rain clothes, warm clothes etc. and on our way. We were stopped by a lady from the mountain security who told us to be careful and that my brother should wear long trousers and stuff because just a few days ago 2 people died because of improper clothing and the huge temperature difference. Quite shocking O___O; .... but we tried nevertheless!!!
All the people that came back down looked horrible!! Tired, wet, dirty. I asked a group of young men who still looked somewhat okay if they made it to the top and if it's even possible and they told me that they don't think it's quite possible at the moment.
Not very good news, yet again. I was still super pissed because of our bad luck, but for now we just moved on. (- that's pretty much how I looked wrapped up in my blue rain wear and all XD)



Uhm, yah. No worries. It was so foggy that we wouldn't have been able to see any falling rocks anyways XD .... (-_-')



And if you still don't believe me or think I'm exaggerating, just have a look at this photo.
Isn't Mt. Fuji beautiful? No idea, pal, I can't see shit!! Ahaha~ (x_X') ......
I can't really remember what time it was, but it was early afternoon, I think.



There weren't a lot of people and most of them were going DOWN and not CLIMBING UP!!! (x_X') ....
Also, on our way up in the bus we saw so many cars and buses full of people going back down while our bus was almost empty. Apart from my brother and me there were only a few Chinese tourists, no Japanese. All of that got us really worried ;o; ...



We could see the next mountain hut / the next station and somehow the weather was getting better (or at least not worse!). It was not really raining, not enough to get us wet at all. It was windy and cool, but not cold, especially because we kept walking. Finally the fog disappeared, too! :)



It was still very cloudy but at least we could recognize that we're climbing Mt. Fuji now and we also got to see how the mountain actually looks! XD



Colorful group of people. It was really necessary to wear proper raining clothes that day. So happy I brought proper stuff with me ;o;



Actually at that time it was still quite easy to climb up. The air was not too thin yet and the trail was still kind of comfortable. I had also bought a hiking pole at the 5th station (a special Mt. Fuji one that will get brands on each station for a mere 100-200yen!! / great souvenir!!) - and it hepled me a LOT getting up and down again ;P



I think we finally got a grasp of the sun. UWOAH!!!! It was around 6pm at that time and close to sunset. I wanted to see an awesome sunset, too, not only an awesome sunrise, but as you can guess .... no awesome sunset for us. There were still too many clouds :(



We arrived on at the 7th station where I reserved us a "bed". It was still bright enough, not cold and we both still had energy. We also thought it would be better to not have to walk so much to the summit later on, so I used my cellphone which despite being Softbank worked quite well up there. I managed to get us a reservation at a higher station and so we moved on.



Looking back down from where we came was still quite awesome and we were already above (or rather in between) the clouds!! :D



I still tried to get a sunset photo somehow XD ... uhm ...



It was slowly getting darker.



And you could tell that the sunset was going on somewhere behind those clouds, but ... yeah :/



It has been dark for quite a while, we had to use our flashlights, but it was okay. It was getting extremely cold (and compared to the extreme hot summer temperature back down that was really horrible!!)
We finally arrived at "our" mountain hut. That was around 7:30pm. It was more like a youth hostel. We had to share our "bed" with 2 Japanese girls. It was really extremely crowded. I knew beforehand that I wouldn't be able to sleep, that's why I was wondeirng whether to reserve a bed in a mountain hut or not. But although I couldn't sleep, it was a good thing. It was much warmer (but still freaking cold) than outside and at least our bodies could adjust to the altitude on over 3000m and we could rest a bit.



This is a really crappy screenshot from a video my brother took in there. Sorry for the quality, but maybe you can imagine a bit how it looked now :)

My clothes were quite wet and my hair, too. So I tried to change clothes and get my hair dry with a towel. Then, we grabbed a few snacks and then suddenly the lights went out (8pm!!!). We tried to eat quietly and then lied down. People kept coming the whole night. I was told that they would wake everybody up around 2am if it's clear outside, so that we can continue climbing and be up there for the sunrise.
Around 1am a really loud group of young Japanese people was right next to it. They were really annoying! I couldn't even rest anymore. I got up to go to the toilet which was outside. Luckily as guest of the mountian hut you didn't have to pay for it!
I saw that the sky was clear, I could even see the stars!! I was sooooooooooooo happy!! I also could see houses and lights down there.
I went back to tell my brother about it and we got ready to leave. We left around 1:30-2am-ish together with many other people who probably had the same idea.

Climbing up from there on was tough. Not because my feet hurt or anything, but the air got thinner and thinner. I'm not the sporty type unlike my brother, so I had a hard time. About 500m before reaching the summit (which was still a loooooooooooooooooooooooong walk!!!) I had to slow down and take breaks every few minutes. I told my brother to go without me and gave him my camera. I wasn't even sure if I could make it to the top anymore. I felt dizzy and I also had a slight headache. I'm not sure if that was really the infamous altitude sickness. If you have that, you should go back down ASAP. I didn't want to accept it and I also didn't want to buy oxygen for ridiculous 2000yen! So I just walked slowly with many breaks in between. Most of the time I couldn't walk anyways, but it was more a stop-and-go as there were SO MANY people who also wanted to reach the summit on time for sunrise - and the trail was quite narrow. When I felt really crappy there was a group of Japanese (probably university students) singing Japanese songs together in quite a loud voice. I guess some people were annoyed by it, but I was really amused and happy because it distracted me from my dizziness and all. THANK YOU GUYS WHOEVER YOU WERE!!
At some point it was clear that I wouldn't make it in time for the sunrise, but it was also extremely cloudy again, so that was okay with me. Furthermore I knew that my brother would be up there in time and WITH my camera XD
The wind got so strong, that a few times it managed to blow me away, kind of. You really had to grap on the rope that was set up on the trail or .... byebye XD ... I guess that was the aftereffect of the typhoon :/

I was almost up there when I met my brother who came back down. He was surprised and proud that I actually made it up there, too, because he honestly didn't think I could make it
I was happy about that, too!!!
He told me that there were thousands of people waiting with their cameras, but they just saw how it slowly got brighter and brighter. Because of all the clouds it was impossible to get any sunrise photos :(
Well, at least it didn't matter that I couldn't make it up there in time then XD
He went back up to the summit with me. I got my pole branded in the shrine there and we sent postcards from the highest post office in Japan (yes, on the summit of Mt. Fuji!!!).
It was EXTREMELY WINDY AND COLD up there and it was already pretty late, too, so that we decided not to walk around and not to go to the crater. It was so cloudy anyways that we wouldn't see much - probably.

BUT ANYWAYS I MADE IT UP TO THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT FUJI DESPITE ALL THE HORRIBLE THINGS THAT TRIED TO KEEP ME FROM DOING SO!!!!
GO MEEEEE!!! ...... ;___; .... *lol* sorry XD

My brother told me that my camera started to acting weird. Probably it was because of the weather. When I tried it, it worked again, but I do not have any of the photos I took on the summit, so I guess there was something wrong anyways :( (good thing I didn't bring my DSLR!!)



These are from my bro's camcorder again ;)
As you can see it was extremely crowded, soooo many people O_O; .... and everybody came in vain ;o;



Here you can also see the post office!





On our way back, the sun finally came out o__O; .... TOO LATE!! Does that count as sunrise photo?? ;o; .. Haha .. (-___-'')



On our way back down, we stopped at the mountain huts to get the missing brands for our poles (they already had closed when we climbed up at night).
That's my brother's pole. He bought the shortest one which is for foreign people who have to transport it in an airplane :D It doesn't really work as a walking pole as it's too short and is just a souvenir. But my brother didn't need a hiking pole anyways.



The clouds were getting less and the sun came out. The view got better and it slowly got warmer, too :D
Finally I got the feeling that I understand how awesome climbing Mt. Fuji could be when you have "normal" or good weather! :D .. :(



Resting at another mountain hut. I saw some funny dressed guys! Soooo cute! He was Rillakuma's friend! XD Haha! We also saw guys dressed in football wear and stuff. Surely some crazy stuff going on there ;P



Here they are!!! Sorry for the crappy quality. This also was taken from my brother's camcorder.



Descending was really tough. Of course the air got much better and the weather was nicer, too, but the problem was not that I got out of breath or anything, but my knees and toes were killing me! You have NO idea how horrible the trails are with all the small rolling stones beyond your feet. Many peple slipped again and again. Trying not to slip takes a lot of balancing and that will eventually kill all of your strength and your knees. Actually descending took longer than ascending! At least for me. At some point I thought I can't make it down anymore. Well, I also had shoes that I just bought a day before, so ... that might have been one reason. Nice Japanese people kept asking me if I'm okay, because I think I looked horrible and I barely could walk anymore. It felt so stupid, but at that time there was nothing I could do, but whine because of the pain. Horrible!! :( ....



At some point my brother also stopped waiting for me at each mountain hut because I just took too long. At least I could use that time to take awesome photos of the now really good view :D



At last, we got awesome weather. Almost 24 hours too late, but oh well! I envied the people ascending now. They were so lucky!!! But we didn't have another choice. The date we chose was already our last chance. It was Sunday now and I had to be back at work on Monday, so ... no choice. A lot of Japanese people still had summer vacation, so there were lots of people climbing up that day. Lots of kids, too :)



Well, Mt. Fuji is a volcano after all. There was not much to see, but I liked it nevertheless :) I guess I was just happy that I finally got to see how Mt. Fuji looks XD A lot of people say that Mt. Fuji is really ugly, but I didn't expect a volcano to have any flowers or trees around anyways, so yah?! ;)





And yes, that is snow!!! That just shows how cold it was up there despite being August and the hottest summer in Japan in over 100 years (o_o') .....







Maybe you can see all the people?? There were really suddenly a lot of people! It seemed so unreal, especially compared to yesterday o_O





8th station and my feet killed me ;o; ..... can I just ROLL down, please?!



Back down at the 7th station. Awesome weather, many people, and my brother was nowhere to be seen. He probably was already back down at the 5th station at that point XD
And I knew I had to hurry up in order to catch the bus back to the station, so we could make it back to my apartment that day. Long train rides (SITTING YAY!!) were awaiting me, so that kept me alive somehow! XD



Bored without my brother and with my feet still refusing to walk again, I took a random photo of my hiking pole! XD



I don't know why, but I just like that photo (*_*)v



While resting (again) I took this photo. No idea where that thing came from, but there were a few people off track and it almost seemed like this thing was chasing them ... too funny! XD



Still not quite down there. I guess you can tell that descending took much longer just by looking at the amount of photos XDDDD I took sooooooooooooo many breaks!!! I was fit, but my feet, knees and toes just gave up ;o;



But the weather was so awesome that I felt like climbing up again!!! XD Ahaha~ [insert crazy and desperate laughter here]



As you can see it got greener and greener.



And I was almost back down at the 5th station, wondering where my brother might be. I was a little bit angry that he didn't wait at all. I really had a hard time because of my heavy backpack and I just wished he was there to help me carry it around, but oh well XDDDD
I made it back down in one piece, I think and ....



.... one last glare up to Mt. Fuji (which seemed to get cloudier again) and then we went to buy TONS of Mt. Fuji souvenirs until our bus came! XD



Back in Nagoya, we got our luggage from our hotel, and as we still had some time until our Shinkansen came (I actually reserved this time, which I rarely do, but I saw on TV how crowded the Shinkansen were these days and I couldn't stand standing for over 4hrs after just climbing Mt. Fuji!!!). As reward I got myself a huge bowl of shaved ice (strawberry flavor) (*__________*)v



Photo out of the Shinkansen. At least now I got a decent enough sunset photo ... not really ;P



We got back to my apartment around 8 or 9pm and just dropped dead. We slept as long as possible, but had to get up not too late as I wanted to take my brother to a nice temple close to my apartment before I had to go to work.

Anyways, I think it still was a nice 2 days trip to Mt. Fuji. It's a shame that we had soooo much bad luck. There's a Japanese saying that only fools climb Mt. Fuji twice - and I'm not yet sure if I'll ever climb it again, because chances are high that I won't be able to see the sunrise again and the happiness of reaching the summit wouldn't be that great anymore :/

I hope you enjoyed this entry despite the crappy quality photos ;o;
This was basically the end of my trip, because I had to go back to work the next day, but my brother was still with me for almost another week, so expect some more photos coming

Thanks for reading!~