Yesterday we went climbing up Mt. Fugi. Our day started at 5 am when we (me Ryan and Erik) woke up and caught one of the first trains. We ended up taking about 3 or 4 trains before we actually got to the base of the mountain. Note to anyone who is traveling, if you want to save money travelling to Mt. Fugi take the bus from Shinjuku Station, it runs ￥1700 and you can sleep on your way. The only downfall is that you miss some of the country side on your way, but it is somewhat cheaper and a much easier way to travel.

Anyway, when we got there it was an absolutely, or what looked like an absolutely gorgeous day. We had taken a bus up from Kawaguchi (?) to the fifth stage of Mt. Fugi - altitude 2300m. From there we started our accent up the mountain. Me, being not in tip top shape was a little slow going up the mountain, but it gave the other guys time to rest. After climbing up about 200m, it started to sprinkle a little bit, nothing too bad but enough to put on a rain coat. Well, let me tell you, 15 minutes later it was all out miserable. The winds were howling and the rain was pelting up, down, left and right.　　On top of this is was getting quite chilly. I ended up making it about 350m from the top, and then just took refuge in a small encampment on the mountain. Erik and Ryan ended up hiking up to the crater next to the peak (they said it was extremely exhausting and the wind and rain was even harder up there). I`m kicking myself a little for doing not going all the way up, but I was getting a little sick, was absolutely freezing, and really didn`t want to spend the next three days with hypothermia. In retrospect this was probably the right choice as I woke up today feeling fine and there was no lingering sickness.

Now, the hike up the mountain takes about 4 or 5 hours and the hike back down takes about an hour and a half. The funny thing about this is the first bus from Kawaguchi (it could be Kuchigawa) to stage 5 arrives at 11:00am taking about 50 minutes and the last one leaves at 3:30pm. Now, if you do the math on that, it gives you 4.5 hours to go up and down the mountain. Not very realistic. We got down to stage 5 at around 5 o`clock only to find the town almost deserted. A cab from here costs about ￥13000 yen, which is about $130 US. Seeing as none of us were feeling affluent we decided to walk and hope someone would pick us up along the way. Boy were we lucky. There probably aren`t a lot of people who want to pick up 3 large, smelly, white guys in Japan, but as luck had it, this nice car load of Japanese people from Tokyo stopped to pick us up. At first we declined as their 5 seat car had already 4 people in it. They were determined to not let us walk down, so two of them jumped in the child seats in the back of the vehicle, and they waved again for us to get in. Since it was getting dark we graciously accepted this time. It was a really fun ride down. We tried to speak what little Japanese we knew and they tried to speak what little English they knew, it was great.

I`m very glad we caught the ride as the drive down took about 50 min and that walk would not have been fun. We got out at a gas station, thanked them very much, paid for their gas, and were on our way. We ended up catching the last train back to Tokyo and then pretty much went right home and straight to bed. Boy was I sore, but it was worth it. Despite all the rain and wind it was an awesome day. Maybe if I come back and it`s a nicer day or I`m not getting sick, I`ll go all the way to the top.

Talk to you later,
Drew