Mt. Fuji--2008

Yesterday Aaron and I made it to the summit of Mt. Fuji-all 12, 388 feet of it! This was my 2nd time and Aaron's 3rd. Here we are about 2/3 up the mountain. Only in Japan do you see shrines and tori gates on the hiking trail...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Fuji





We went with our friends Asa and Satoru---friends we've met through Mia's Japanese kindergarten.

This was their first time climbing Fuji. They were fully prepared. Asa and I have been going to the gym, religiously, in preparation. At our gym we joined the "challenge" group. This means that you get a body composition scan of your body mass index, percentage of muscle and fat, etc. Then you choose your challenge. Asa chose the "muscle maker" course and I chose the "fat-burner". A personal trainer met with us and devised a fitness plan for us. Now my nick-name at the gym is "fat-o-burner", you think I'm kidding, but sadly, I'm not. When you walk into the gym and people call out, "Hey, Fat-o-Burner!!!"--you pretty much want to cry or laugh out loud.

Asa and Satoru at 3,000 meters.

We split the climb into 2 days. We started climbing around 4pm. By 8pm we reached our mountain hut where we would spend the night.

We made it right in time, as a rain storm was on the way...

We stayed at Tomoe-kan hut, at the 8th Station, around 3,400 meters. The Fuji routes are broken into 9 different stations--or levels. Staying so high on the mountain afforded us a short climb to the summit the following morning. We had planned to get up at 3am and climb to the summit for sunrise on Fuji. Unfortunately, the rainstorm was in full swing at 3am. Surrounded by howling wind, rain, fog and bitter cold, we decided to sleep in... hoping that the weather would calm down a bit.

http://www.mfi.or.jp/tomoekan/

And it did! We started our final summit bid at 9am in full sunshine. Here we are in front of the tori gate before Fuji's summit.

Asa and Satoru were thrilled to make it to the top. They both said that climbing Fuji-san was one of their life long goals. We felt so honored to have been a part of it.

It was a wonderful time with one exception. Poor Satoru had touch of the altitude sickness on the 2nd day. Despite the headache and vomiting, he somehow sojourned to the top. Luckily, he recovered fully once we made it down the mountain.