I Climbed Mt. Fuji
This weekend I went with Lee, Jim, Deverly, and Adam to Tokyo, where we met up with Dave. Then we all went to Yamanashi to climb Mt. Fuji.
The basic plan was to head up to Tokyo on Friday, and get a good night's sleep. We got up early and headed to Fuji-Q (Japanese site).
We got there pretty early, and rode the Eejanaika roller coaster. It was great (possibly the greatest?). Then we went to the hospital-themed haunted house, which was the best haunted house ever. Company makes a big deal for one of those. Don't go through a haunted house with Jim unless you want to hear 'Well, that's not very scary, is it?' every time a blood-drenched zombie doctor comes crawling out of a smashed ambulance or something.
Then we got in line for the Dodonpa, which is a roller coaster known for being fast. The lines had gotten pretty long, so it took about an hour to get to the front. Unfortunately, it started raining, and they stopped all the rides.
We ate some pizza, and went to a nearby onsen. The onsen was really great. We took quick baths, and then slept for an hour.
Then it was 6:45, and we caught a taxi up to the fifth station (2,300m up) of Mt. Fuji. Normally we might have caught a bus, but the mountain didn't open until Sunday, so it had to be a taxi. The visibility was incredibly poor on the way up; we could probably see about 10 or 15 feet in front of the taxi, maybe less. We started walking at 8:30, I think, after getting a few more layers on, using the bathroom, and waiting to get used to the atmosphere.
It rained off and on while we were climbing, and despite our raincoats, most of us got pretty wet as we went. Only one of the stores along the way up was open, probably just by coincidence. We went in and each drank a cup of hot cocoa. We reached the peak at about 2:30, I think. We were pretty cold. We waited at the top until a little bit before 5:00 to watch the sunrise before heading back down. A lot of people started turning up at sunrise. Presumably these people had slept somewhere on the mountain the night before, since we hadn't so many on the way up. The sunrise was pretty incredible. Mt. Fuji is 12,388 ft. tall, and looking down from the top is like looking out from an airplane. We were dying of cold, though, so we started heading down.
It took me about 4 hours to walk down, since we couldn't find a different path down (or they weren't open yet, or marked as open). Adam and Lee got there a little faster than me, and the rest of them spent an extra hour or so coming down. The busses were running again, so we slept a little, then caught the first one (11:00 am) back to Tokyo. We ate some food, went to an expensive onsen in Shinjuku, slept for an hour or so, and headed to the airport. I fell asleep as soon as the plane took off. When I got back to Takamatsu, I walked back to my apartment, checked my email, and fell asleep. I barely woke up in time to get to school.
The basic plan was to head up to Tokyo on Friday, and get a good night's sleep. We got up early and headed to Fuji-Q (Japanese site).
We got there pretty early, and rode the Eejanaika roller coaster. It was great (possibly the greatest?). Then we went to the hospital-themed haunted house, which was the best haunted house ever. Company makes a big deal for one of those. Don't go through a haunted house with Jim unless you want to hear 'Well, that's not very scary, is it?' every time a blood-drenched zombie doctor comes crawling out of a smashed ambulance or something.
Then we got in line for the Dodonpa, which is a roller coaster known for being fast. The lines had gotten pretty long, so it took about an hour to get to the front. Unfortunately, it started raining, and they stopped all the rides.
We ate some pizza, and went to a nearby onsen. The onsen was really great. We took quick baths, and then slept for an hour.
Then it was 6:45, and we caught a taxi up to the fifth station (2,300m up) of Mt. Fuji. Normally we might have caught a bus, but the mountain didn't open until Sunday, so it had to be a taxi. The visibility was incredibly poor on the way up; we could probably see about 10 or 15 feet in front of the taxi, maybe less. We started walking at 8:30, I think, after getting a few more layers on, using the bathroom, and waiting to get used to the atmosphere.
It rained off and on while we were climbing, and despite our raincoats, most of us got pretty wet as we went. Only one of the stores along the way up was open, probably just by coincidence. We went in and each drank a cup of hot cocoa. We reached the peak at about 2:30, I think. We were pretty cold. We waited at the top until a little bit before 5:00 to watch the sunrise before heading back down. A lot of people started turning up at sunrise. Presumably these people had slept somewhere on the mountain the night before, since we hadn't so many on the way up. The sunrise was pretty incredible. Mt. Fuji is 12,388 ft. tall, and looking down from the top is like looking out from an airplane. We were dying of cold, though, so we started heading down.
It took me about 4 hours to walk down, since we couldn't find a different path down (or they weren't open yet, or marked as open). Adam and Lee got there a little faster than me, and the rest of them spent an extra hour or so coming down. The busses were running again, so we slept a little, then caught the first one (11:00 am) back to Tokyo. We ate some food, went to an expensive onsen in Shinjuku, slept for an hour or so, and headed to the airport. I fell asleep as soon as the plane took off. When I got back to Takamatsu, I walked back to my apartment, checked my email, and fell asleep. I barely woke up in time to get to school.