Report on the Birthday Weekend - part 1

Saturday morning started promptly at 1am. We had to grab our packs, put a little something in our bellies, and get over to the base to catch the bus up to Fuji. We arrived to see a dozen bleary eyed outdoorsy types lounging on the couches and waiting for directions from our fearless leader, Tetsuya. After we had filled out the necessary forms and the bus had arrived, we all loaded into our seats and tried to get a few more blinks of sleep on our 3 hour ride. As the bus approached the base of the mountain, I opened my eyes to see an amazing view of trees and mountains resting under a light blanket of fog. The sky had that just-after-sunrise glow and the air smelled fresh and cool. At the base we were equiped with walking sticks and shown how to direct the future customers toward the beginning of the trail. After all, this was the training trip for the Fuji hike leaders. When the true hiking season is open, everyone will pay their 1000-1500 yen for an official Fuji hiking stick which is basically a tall stick that may or may not have a bell and flag attached to the top. The point of the stick, other than helping you navigate up the side of the mountain, is to record how high you get up Fuji-san. There are small huts all the way along the trail where you can pay another couple hundred yen to get a brand stamped onto your walking stick. It has to be an amazing money maker for them since most everyone I know that has gone up Fuji owns one of these sticks and is proud to show off their many stamps. So, off we went. There are 10 stations to go through to get to the top, but most people -including us- start at station 5. Sadly, Andy had been fighting a nasty stomache flu for a few days and didn't have the energy to make it past station 7. He really wanted to go with me to the top since it was my birthday, but in the end had to go down and cheer me on from the coffee shop. I hooked up with a couple other people in our group and continued up to the top. Now, whoever said Fuji was an easy or fun hike must have been delusional. Fuji is a moonscape covered in loose volcanic rock that doesn't necessarily provide the surest of footing. Of course there are the spots where you are scrambling like a mountain goat over the larger rocks... It took me about four hours to get to the top, 15 minutes to look around and start shivering at the top, and another two and a half hours to get back down to Andy. My legs were shakey and exhausted, but I felt pretty proud of the accomplishment.