Exhaustion as I have never experienced, and I'm kind of proud of myself

As some of you already know, I had big plans this weekend. I went with some of the other JETs in Ibaraki to go climb Mt. Fuji. The whole weekend, from start to finish has been long and very physically challenging and I am so glad I did not shy away from this difficult experience.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 7am and started getting ready for the climb. I packed my borrowed backpack with a waterproof jacket, gardening gloves with the gripies on them, extra layers of clothing, fruit, grilled chicken, rice crackers, a liter of water, my camera, and my wallet. A liter of water is incredibly heavy, but also very necessary for a climb up a mountain! After I packed my bag, I braided my hair and pinned my bangs back and got in my climbing garb that I had just purchased the week before. I left the house at 9:45am and walked my 20 minute walk to the train station and began my task of trying to find Moriya, the station where I was supposed to meet the bus with everyone else on it to take me to Fuji. I had to switch between public trains and private trains and I had 4 transfers, but $11.80 and 2 hours later I arrive in Moriya crazy early (about an hour) and to my delight they were having a little street fair! So I went and joined some of the festivities and bought my van a new little magnet cling. Soon the bus got there and I was on my way. We stopped a few times for stocking up on supplies and last minute food.

We arrived at Station 5 on Mt. Fuji at about 5:30pm. Other veteran JETs let us know that sunrise was scheduled at 5:15am and that the average climb time is about 8 hours. They told us not to start climbing too early because it only got colder as you got up the mountain and no one wants to sit up at the top for 3 hours freezing before the sun comes up. So around 6:45pm a group of us began starting the trek up the mountain. Initially the path is a very nice incline and quite wide. We were making good time and made it to Station 6 by about 8pm. We stopped briefly to drink some water and put on a new layer of clothing, and then pushed forward. At this point there were 8 of us traveling in a group. Because it was dark and we didn't want to lose anyone in our group we did this thing where we counted off. I was 1 and when I called out my number, everyone would shout their number in order. Instead of 8 yelling his number (Daryle), he shouted Keiai! and we all responded with Oshi! as loud as we could. This is a Japanese chant that means bring the energy to the center and work as a team; kind of wishing ourselves luck! As we trekked up the mountain all the Japanese people climbing around us would laugh and think it was cool that the foreigners were using Japanese chants.

Once we reached Station 7 it was pitch black. We all had flashlights so that we could see directly in front of us while we were climbing. At this point it was still walking really; there were some rocks, but it was really just walking uphill. We found out at Station 7 that we could have our walking sticks branded with the stamp of each of the stations and huts going all the way up the mountain. This began my collection of 7 stamps that I would eventually get while going up the mountain.

After Station 7 we plugged along, but some of us were clearly moving a bit more slowly than others. We didn't mind the slower pace because we knew that getting to the top too early would just be very cold and a bit miserable. We kept going up and up, stopping at every hut along the way for our stamps. The station at the top of the mountain was 10, and in between every station we came to, there would be huts. These huts would sell drinks, soup, candy bars, etc. Of course everything was crazy expensive and we were cursing how heavy our bags were, but glad that we didn't have to buy anything there. These huts were also mini motels, you could pay anywhere from $40 to $78 (depending on the hut) and sleep there for a few hours on a Japanese futon and recharge your batteries.

Pretty soon, about halfway between Station 7 and 8 I started to feel awful. There were many factors of course; 1. I have never done anything so physically strenuous for such a prolonged time in my life. 2. The altitude and lack of oxygen made it very hard for me to breathe, and started to make me dizzy and made my body feel very very heavy. I kept climbing though in a very slow pace. Our group split around this time because our slow pace was going to keep us from getting to the summit in time for the sunrise. I remained slow, mostly because I just couldn't operate at any other speed, but I didn't feel badly because I was in good and supportive company. The closer we got to Station 8, the worse I was feeling and this was all being compounded by fatigue and the fact that I had been climbing the mountain for 7 hours and had been awake for 18 hours. I knew that there was an "escape route" from Station 8, so I had made the decision for myself that I could not make it to the summit and I would stop at Station 8 and watch the sunrise from there.

I kept climbing, and luckily Lauren (my awesome friend here) stuck with me, even though I was going very slowly. We still stopped at each hut and now we were stopping at different points in the middle of the trail between huts. Every time I would stop for a break, I would begin to fall asleep within seconds. It got to the point where I had to push myself and stop as little as possible, because otherwise it was too hard to get myself going again. And I had to make it to Station 8 because that was the only point (other than going all the way to the top) where I could get back down the mountain come daybreak. This was physically the hardest thing I had ever done. I wanted to just stop and curl up in a ball and sleep - all I wanted/needed was sleep. And it doesn't help that somewhere between Station 7 and Station 8 the path turns from an uphill walking trail to literal climbing. This was climbing from rock to rock on all fours at some points, using my walking stick to post into a little dirt on the side while I hoisted myself up to the next level of rock.

I felt nauseated and dizzy for the last two hours I had to climb to get to Station 8. The was a very kind Japanese man who was passing me at one point that said, "You can do it! Good luck! Yay!" Another Japanese man behind me on a particularly tall rock lifted the weight of my backpack off my back for me so I could get up the momentum to hoist myself up to the next level. Lauren and I arrived at Station 8 at 3:30am. I sat on a bench outside of the little motel for about half an hour and was completely asleep, but shivering and freezing when Lauren decided that we needed to get futons at the motel, no matter what they cost. So $65 and about 5 minutes later we were in the hut sleeping with a futon and covers. At 5:10am Lauren woke me up to see the sunrise and we got pictures.

After our sunrise pictures, she and I went back into the hut, packed up our backpacks again and started to make our descent down the mountain. Now, because it was daylight, I could start to take pictures and it was incredible to me, looking down how far up she and I really had come. And then I looked up and realized it was a darn good thing I didn't try to get all the way up to the summit. I had truly tested myself both physically and mentally and I am very proud of what I was able to accomplish. I could never have done it without Lauren's help and encouragement during my last two hours of agony.

She and I started down the mountain and this was nearly as difficult as getting up the mountain. The trail going down is all a developed path, so there are no large rocks to climb over, only a red rock path all the way down. The slope is still quite steep and very painful for the knees and shins. Lauren and I made it down the mountain in 4 hours. After we arrived back at Station 5, we got some omiyage (souvenirs) and waited for the bus to pick us up again. In total from 7am on Saturday morning until 10pm Sunday night, I have climbed about 1000 meters of Mt. Fuji and gotten about 1 hour of sleep.

This was an incredible experience for me. I pushed myself to the point of breaking and did not allow myself to shy away from this challenge or give up when it got hard, or even miserable. Seeing the view this morning from Station 8 was incredible and something I can say I worked very hard to get a view like that. I usually work hard when it comes to thinking or feeling, but never physically. This is truly an accomplishment for me and something I will cherish forever as something I went way outside my comfort zone to do and succeeded in watching the sunrise from high upon Mt. Fuji.