Climbing Mt. Fuji

Despite the driving rain and typhoon winds, my climbing team and I mounted our assault on Mt. Fuji Monday morning. The bus trip to the base was punctuated by heavy rain, then fog, but the actual climb from Fujinomiya's fifth station began with just light mist (and wind). The crummy conditions kept most climbers away, so we found ourselves virtually alone, which is unheard of almost anywhere in Japan, let alone a national treasure like Mt. Fuji during the summer holidays.

The wind continued, but we stayed dry until safely above the cloudline, where we could observe the ferocity below with little more than a jacket and sweater,and we made record time to our lodge (Mannenyuki, or "perpetual snow") at the ninth station:

In the 'morning', we awoke to the rousings of our hut-master, at 2:30 am sharp. This was earlier than we had expected, but ensured our ability to re-pack, eat some breakfast, and continue the climb to the summit before sunrise.

The ascent wasn't easy, but energized by breakfast and freed from the usual crowds, we made great time to the summit, arriving at least 30 minutes before the crack of dawn. We had time to find a good place to witness the sunrise, and found a cute mole along the way (he was too quick for a photograph). As the sun rose, I caught this video despite the dying batteries in the Lumix LZ-10...



Just before this video, we felt an earthquake... a weird sensation being on the very narrow lip between the volcano's slope and mouth, and then we could hear the resulting rockslides inside the caldera behind us. We later learned that this was a pretty big earthquake (and during the typhoon) that caused havoc on the highways and trains. We could also hear, simultaneously, the thunder from the storm below, adding to the surreal contrast to the pleasant conditions on top of Asia...



More pictures and a better narrative will be forthcoming; my pics weren't so good, but I'll swap some soon and post the best!