Despite not having any money, and already super heavy luggage for my upcoming moving back to America, I had to buy new climbing shoes. I realized that dress shoes would probably not be a good choice for climbing a mountain. It was probably a good decision.
As much as I hate Tokyo, we had to fly there to depart from there.
Look, a thing made out of cranes. (We didn't fly JAL.)
Look! Technology! In Japan! Fascinating...
By hilarious coincidence, I sat in the same row as another friend who was flying to Tokyo for art or something. She didn't notice us next to her for quite some time.
Apparently, you can take a helicopter from the airport to your hotel. If you have way too much money.
To add to further coincidence, we were staying at the same hotel JET orientation was in. During JET orientation weekend. I was here 364 days earlier. And we managed to run into another friend that was helping with orientation. We had to stay at the fancy hotel because our tour group was leaving from there. Not staying in a pod hotel made me like Tokyo a little more. A little.
And then I found döner! Best night.
So our group formed and we boarded various buses to get to where we were going. We had about half English-speakers and half Japanese-speakers. The tour guide was pretty fun; she seemed to find me funny.
We got a whole bunch of paperwork and maps and postcards and bells and whistles (except the whistles). While the Westerners tired of the sound of bells instantly, the Japanese have an infinite patience for sound and wore their bells the entire time. And not just our group either. Fortunately, not every Japanese person decided to carry a bell. Or I'd've burned the mountain down.
We stopped at one of those things they have along the roads in Japan for a bathroom and food break or whatever, and I bought my souvenir for work. I probably should have waited until I was actually at the Mt Fuji base camp store, but whatever. It was all the same stuff.
Look, more technology! (Though no one used it.)
I doubt you can hear it, but apparently there were some kind of speed bumps which played a tune on the way up the mountain.
Finally we arrived at some kind of base camp thing. There was a souvenir shop and a rest area and a temple. Also ice cream.
We took a group photo, which we got at the end of the trip. They had little signs everywhere so you could take your own photos.
Cowberrry. The cowboys of fruits.
There were a ton of statues. A few of them kind of strange.
I was told to get a walking stick by both my friend and the guide. I didn't want to drop $15 on a stick, but it came so highly recommended that I bought the one the guide was selling. It came with another set of bells. Despite my efforts, I couldn't handle the sound for long and stuffed them in a pocket.
Giant chocolate mountains!
We had an open space to leave our stuff. Since it was Japan, it was perfectly safe.
Some great Engrish.
I feel like I'm back in Germany.
More of the souvenir shop.
Apparently there were a special flavor here (as there seems to be everywhere).
I went to visit the shrine since it was right there and I still had a lot of time.
Technology?
I did eventually get the special koke plum ice cream. It was pretty good.
Fog rolled in pretty heavily.
Luffy's hat!
Any color you like, as long as it's green tea.
There are rocks inside of this rock! Someone call Xzibit!
At the guide's suggestion, I bought a light hat. I found the hats, they were marked $5 (well, not dollars, but whatever), but it turns out the non-light hats were $5 and the light up ones were $45. I begrudingly handed over a $50 and he handed me back $45. When I tried to tell him his math was wrong, he shooed me off, so I got it for the price I wanted.
It lights up!
Fortunately, the fog cleared, and here you can see the mountain.
We all got to pick a walking stick. I ended up with pink. Though I didn't make it far before giving up and removing the bells.
Also, stamps. At each station, you can buy a stamp. In fact, you can buy a half stick to get just the stamps without helping you walk. There is some number of these stamp places. Also, some places give out two stamps. That's fine, I guess, but they cost money. $2 each. Or $3 for a double stamp. The stick itself already cost more than I wanted to pay. I didn't want to get the stamps, but my guide talked me into it. What I didn't realize is that there was at least 15 stamps. Also, more bad news was on the way.
I was all set to climb.
As was my friend.
And the mountain finally became clear to view.
The time came and we set out.
If you were lazy (or old or whatever I guess), you could take a horse part of the way. (To be fair, on the way down I seriously began considering one.)
Despite depictions of Mt Fuji being blue, or at least blueish, it looked like this most of the way.
Also a surprising amount of foliage at the beginning.
Horse.
With a carriage for extra amounts of slackers! (Or injured people I guess...)
It was cool to be able to see out in the distance. Obviously the view got longer the higher up I went.
There are few things I hate more than cobblestone.
Our guides are the three closest on the left. The one with the white hat was the most amusing.
We arrived at some kind of structure (which would be the fork where we would eventually return to on the way down) and took a short break before beginning our journey to the top. We were told that at the top we could send post cards. We would just have to go all the way around the volcano crater to the post office. We would also be seeing the sunrise.
...if the weather improved.
The trail seemed to go on forever.
I eventually had to put on gloves to help with climbing. My friend gave me these bright yellow ones.
The path was rather crowded. And full of slow people.
A look back on what I had accomplished so far.
I had both mixed nuts and chocolate raisins in my house, so I figured mixing them would be a good idea. Unfortunately, the absurd amounts of salt on the mixed nuts (which ruined them to begin with) ruined the chocolate raisins (as well).
We arrived at our first pole stamping station. I got my stick stamped. Pole / stick, whatever. The army couple were doing that as well as stamping picture frames, which was a cool idea.
Then we set out again.
Slowly.
Update: I forgot to mention, on the way up, I saw a group of kids. Apparently while we were spending one night on the mountain, they were making the trip over two~three days and spending two nights on the mountain. Lazy jerks.
More stamps!
I took some pictures looking down while I waited.
This place offered a double stamp (though from the image it seems I got a triple stamp [unless somehow I forgot to get pictures of both the stop and the stamp]).
More stamps...
Also, I have that exact poster!
Secret door. Probably leads to treasure.
Or adventure.
A torii gate visible in the distance.
Eventually, the long lines began to wear down my patience and so I began running up along the more difficult parts of the path. This was more fun anyway, so overall good decision.
The torii would become significant later in my journey, but at that time, I just thought it was a very cool place and kept dashing ahead.
We eventually arrived where we would be spending the night. Or at least sleeping some. And getting food.
Just past the building was more of the trail obviously, so I went to look at it.
Inside we had a room we shared with others in some kind of communal bunkbeds.
But before sleep, we had dinner.
The food looked rather sparse for an American. Especially with all the physical activity.
Fortunately, I had traded the tour guide with the hat something (I think some of the "trail mix") for her meat. So I got double portions.
Also a lot of people were leaving their whatever these were, but it was awful, so I ended up not eating them despite stealing as many as I could.
Into the darkness.
All things are anime in Japan.
Okay, setting out for real.
Obviously, most of my pictures were awful blurry messes. There was no lighting except my hat and whatever flash my camera could muster. Also, my lens at some point began putting a lens glare ring (I don't know what to call it), which is especially visible in dark photos.
I managed to get a stamp at the first place we reached.
It began to get cold. Fortunately, my high tolerance for cold was keeping me afloat. Though I did dress for Summer. And only Summer. At times I envied the little stamp huts and their fires.
Managed to collect yet another stamp.
And even a few more!
Preview of the stamp.
My stick was looking pretty good.
Another torii.
The moon looked awesome. You can't see, but trust me.
We finally reached a station where they weren't giving out stamps. I was so angry that I had collected all the stamps up until then to be denied the chance to have them all. I regretted not getting just the ones I wanted as I also discovered that they had previews of the stamps just the station before.
It was about this point I started to feel cold. I put on a scarf and the army couple kindly gave me their poncho.
A preview of the stamp I couldn't get.
For some reason, they were also selling bananas here. Except these didn't look too fresh.
I decided that even if I couldn't get all of them, I could at least get the ones that I could.
I was beginning to feel pretty good when I suddenly realized that the other people's sticks seemed to have their stamps begin wrapping around as if they had too many to stack. This meant they somehow had more. And that meant one thing - I had missed some. Actually, two things. It also meant this was a stupid gimmick that was so poorly planned out that the sticks and stamps didn't work together. And worse yet, one of the ones I forgot was the torii stamp down by the red torii. It looked awesome.
Little did I know, this wouldn't even be the worst part of this yet.
This is when the cold really hit me. If I stopped moving, I was in a lot of pain. It was like my defense against the cold came crashing down taking any resistance I had down with it. So I hid behind a building from the wind until we set out again.
There were other closed stations along the way. The army couple tried to sleep at one of them, but I decided it would be best to push on with the others to the top and hope for some kind of accommodations there.
More torii.
With coins stuck in them for some reason.
Eventually we did reach the top. But no one was there. Like no one anywhere.
At least the vending machines worked, but there was nothing I wanted from them.
It was cold. Very cold. I tried to hide near a building and crouch into a ball and hide in the poncho. I could hear there were in fact people sleeping inside the building. My friends wandered off to check on something or something and were gone what seemed like an eternity. I just waited there in the dark and cold for hours.
Eventually, finally people began showing up. Then a bit later, they finally began to turn on lights and things. Yet still it would take them another eternity to open the buildings up to non-employees. It was the middle of August. In the hottest country I have ever been to. But it felt as cold as any Chicago Winter.
Probably didn't help that I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
Lines began to form around the doors.
We were all crammed into a tiny space and allowed to order some really terrible food. There was barely space to eat. I mostly just wanted to stay inside to warm up. But I also felt bad for the people waiting, so I didn't stay too long. The heat of the people gathering on the mountain made it a bit better anyway.
They were selling postcards, so I bought $4 worth. I gave him a $5. This time instead of giving me back $4 as the last guy would have, this one just gave me back my whole $5. When I told him his math was wrong, he took the money and gave the right change, but I have to wonder what is with these people and math?
Eventually I met up with my full group. Apparently we had rented out a room to eat and regroup. I ordered tea, which apparently came in this thing. I didn't end up drinking it. All hot things in Japan are absurdly hot.
The guide tried to tell us that we wouldn't be able to go to the post office after all or even see the crater because of the weather. Again, I was super disappointed. It's weather, so I couldn't really blame anyone, but I kind of wanted to take my chances (until I saw the weather). Fortunately, the other guide did the tour quite often, so he took our cards and mailed them the next time he was up.
The sunset was on its way, but I heard that I could get some top of the mountain stamps, so I went over to the shrine.
And then I got the stamps and sticker.
I was able to watch the sunset, despite the weather. It was pretty cool.
It was now warmer and brighter. We were ready to set off down the mountain.
I soon realized why going to the crater was impossible.
There was a huge line for this stamp, so I was glad I had already given up on collecting them all. I doubt my group would have waited for me anyway.
The weather was crazy. Just standing up next to the top of the mountain statue (or whatever it was) was difficult. I accidentally photobombed the army couples' photo.
Then we began the journey down.
The long,
long,
long,
long,
long journey down.
We were told to follow the yellow line like a thousand times. I wonder how many people manage to go the wrong way and go back up the mountain or something.
Narrow places like this were pretty rare on the climb, but you can see how overcrowding can be dangerous on Mt Fuji.
Fortunately, eventually the rain stopped, but still every step I took was becoming more and more painful. The guide had said we would use 40% of our energy going up and 60% going down, but really it was quite easy. The trail down the was just zig after zag after zig of the same sandy path. It was clearly a constructed path, which makes me wonder why the way up wasn't more like this one, but it was so so much more boring. Except that every step I took was like kicking the inside of my shoes, which became quite painful rather quickly. At least it was also getting warmer (and better weather) as we descended.
The mountain had a lot of cool rocks of different colors. At times I felt like I was on Mars.
You could see out into the clouds for miles.
A secret passage to a volcanic evil laboratory!
Eventually we reached back where we started. Which made me feel great because my feet were in so much pain. Unfortunately, I forgot how much longer I still had to go.
Some mountain monks presumably.
Eventually I finally arrived at the place where we started.
Then I flew to the top of the mountain!
Okay, just kidding. That's a picture of a picture.
I bought one of these chocolate mountains and then ate it.
Canned air!
A giant chocolate mountain!
We were given a copy of our picture to commemorate our trip.
And somehow I got a 2000 yen bill. I don't remember why, but it was the first time I actually saw one. Also it was quite new.
It was about this time I was reminded of something that only further worsened my disappointment. We were supposed to pay to get badges commemorating our climb (maybe that's why I got the 2000 yen back). However, we passed up the opportunity on the way up, and they were closed for the weather on the way down. I don't understand why we didn't do it in the beginning when we knew we could rather the risk it, especially since we knew the weather would be bad. And yet my disappointment only got worse later.
We then stopped at an onsen. The Westerners were not happy about the idea of getting naked in front of everyone, so some of them passed on the baths. A few of us used the time to nap in the restaurant. Then finally we were taken back to Shinjuku. Aka, hell.
Our guide stuck around longer than normal people would (probably because we were foreigners) and tried to help us get to a manga/internet cafe. We did eventually find one and spent a few hours there, sleeping, figuring out how to get to the airport, and waiting for our flight time to come closer.
Also, for some reason, this one had a ladies-only section. Which is strange because the rooms are for one person at a time anyway. I don't get it. Maybe it smells nicer.
When the time came, we set out from Shinjuku.
Unfortunately, getting to the airport isn't as easy as it ought to be. Especially at night.
This is when things hit the bottom. So to get to the airport, we needed to take like 3 different trains for some stupid reason. None of which were very intuitive. And sometimes it seemed like there were better trains, expresses and things. It was rather confusing (as Tokyo always is).
But then we needed to take a taxi. We waited in the taxi queue as taxis ever so slowly came to pick the few people waiting up. Eventually it was our turn.
I told the guy where we needed to go. He then said it was closed. I told him I didn't care, he should take us anyway. Then he just kept repeating himself. But then he started trying to roll away even though my stuff was in the car. I eventually got too mad at him and let him go. I waited around until the people that had seen my last debacle had boarded and tried again with another taxi.
This one took us. The security guards checked our info and let us in. There were a bunch of people already inside sleeping. The guards tried to find us a place to sleep. I don't understand why airports aren't 24/7.
In the morning, I had to figure out how I was getting my walking stick on the plane. It was too big to carry on, and apparently just too tall to be checked in. My only option was to mail it. Except the mail opened at like 30 minutes before my flight.
So I waited. After spending like $50+ on a stick, I wanted to keep it. I waited and waited.
Eventually around 6, someone showed up, but couldn't help me for some stupid reason.
Then at 6:30, 30 minutes before my flight, someone finally showed up. But then told me that the large cash register or something was locked until some other time. I tried to tell him I would just leave the money and they could handle it later, and it became a huge, but short, fight. I was tempted to just smash it in half and then checkin both halves, but I figured security wouldn't be happy with that, so I eventually had to give it to security to toss.
I rushed through security, and yelled at my friend for ever recommending the stick (which I regret doing). I was able to board the plane and be on my way home.
To eat and finish packing to go to my new old home - America.
At least I still have the bells.
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