Dartboard: 富士山

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

富士山

We just had a Goto Block Event on Kamigoto. The weekend was very fun, but exhausting, especially for Catherine and I who did all the organizing and driving. I wish I had a more comfortable car for everyone ‘cause I know climbing in and out of the back of Kuro kuma-kun is NOT fun! More importantly, everyone is really sweet and gets along great. I like how easy going we all are. Catherine and I are enthusiastic that we (the Goto Block) may actually all get together this year. It never even happened once last year, but we came very close for this first event. The only two people who weren’t present were Emma (On Uku) and Michael (on Fukue)—both second years. We’ve got our next event planned for late September on Fukue!

I noticed there’s a week in September with Monday and Friday as national holidays. I’m tempted to take the three days between off and go somewhere—either abroad or within Japan—it doesn’t matter, but I LOVE vacations!

Anyway, here are the pictures from Fuji. Arriving in Mishima station—somehow I think this is a picture of the woman in a yukata more than it is a picture of Steven…

Me inside the ryokkan—Japanese inn. It was sublime!

Steven, Joelle and I at the 5th station—halfway up the mountain and where most people begin their hike.

I worried a lot about my feet. I usually get lots of blisters when I go hiking. I like to wear double socks for extra wicking, moleskin and Vaseline on my heels and toes, but only an hour up the mountain and I already had issues! I took off the double pair of socks on the one foot that was hurting and scrapped the moleskin and actually—that worked! No more issues from there, but I sure was worried!

Getting stamps burned into our hiking sticks.

Joe and her hiking stick.

Steven.

As you can see the weather was perfect. We climbed it during the day so that we could actually see and enjoy the views from the mountain. Hiking at night ruins that opportunity. We read that most sunrises are blocked by the clouds anyway. I’m happy we climbed during the day.

Some sweet men who gave us chocolate as we passed them, so we gave them beef jerky. It as fun.

May Peace Prevail on Earth.

In the clouds.

Joe pointing to the top!

5 hours later: The Summit at 3,667 meters—did you know Mt. Hood is taller? Summit is ちょうじょう　in Japanese and I heard it so many times before I figured out what it was! I’m thick!

“I did it!”

The crater in Fuji-san.

Don’t mess around on the edge of craters, people!

“There’s nothing taller than me in all of Japan!”

Sisters on Fuji.

The clouds were really amazing.

Life among the clouds.

“Too many pictures!!!”

We start our descent.

YogiJoe.

I fell—and was not happy about it.

This cute old man was descending shortly before us at dusk. We seemed to be the last people coming off the mountain for the day and we worried about him being left alone up there. He said his legs were bad and he had to go very slowly, but he had climbed this mountain over 30 times since he was 18 years old. He had been giving out stamps at the summit post office all day and was planning to drive home tonight. We worried he might stray off the path in the dark or have an accident with no one to help him. He had no cell phone.

It was getting colder as the sun went down so we decided to go slowly together. We went a half a kilometer in the 90 minutes we stayed with him and eventually we decided to get to the bottom quickly to get help for him. We only had one flashlight between the three of us (we assumed we could climb and descend in the daylight, but stopping for him delayed us a lot) and then that one flashlight started to flicker on and off too. We had to get moving!!

We raced down the rest of the mountain quickly—stumbling along in the dark but anxious to get help for the man. Steven was up ahead and he met a family of four in the dark trying to say something to him. When I reached them I translated that they were trying to get down, but it was slow going with the LCD on their video camera as their only light source. Could they use our flashlight too? We all descended together using one dying flashlight, the father’s video camera LCD, and my cell phone LCD. Joelle, Steven and I were so happy to be there to help them.

Along the trail some trail patrollers came up for us and we told them about the injured man who was still halfway up the mountain. I gave them one of the business cards he gave Joelle and I and a few people went up to check on him. I don’t know how things turned out, but I’ve written him a letter (which he asked me to do to practice my Japanese) and as Steven said, “If you never get a reply, that’s probably a bad sign!” I think he was fine, but we were worried.

At the bottom, the family bought us drinks at the vending machine and thanked us profusely. We were just in the right place at the right time.

The next morning at the hotel. Exhausted, but amazingly not sore! Must have been the onsen before bed!

The lake view from our hotel window.

Me, Koichiro Miura and Joelle. Miura is a 27 year-old pilot in the Japanese Self-Defense Force who has an extended leave of a few months and is working at the Ashiwada Hotel. He was really helpful when we were there and spoke English, but insisted that I practice my Japanese first and we relied on his English only as a necessity! He flies the really fast jets that will take you from Tokyo to Kyoto in 2 minutes and to Hiroshima in three. We asked if we could hitch a ride to Nagasaki and he said, “Sure, that’ll be five minutes and I there's only one passenger seat so I have to make three trips!" When we asked why his English was so good, he said it wasn't because he'd been to America (for more than a few minutes anyway). Later found out it was good because he spent time with American troops in Iraq a few months ago.