after we finished the climb...we found ice cream!!
Oh Mount Fuji....what can I say...it was A GREAT trip but was definitely different than i expected. It was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been and we met the coolest people, ate the best food, saw a beautiful sunrise (and blizzard). Like I said it was great, but different than I expected. And we also had one of those really bad travel stories that was pretty scary but defintiely taught me a lesson. So, I won't talk about the story since we are all safe etc but it was def some good lessons learned. Katie actually wrote a great email to her friend back home about our adventure and its very detailed...soooo, since I'm lazy i'm just copying and pasting it here for you to read...its defintiely worth the read. It was a pretty hysterical trip....definitely my favorite thing of the whole year....enjoy! Fyi, I went with Katie and her friend Tara so thats who the other girl in the pics is...
So, Maureen and I decided that the one thing we really want to do this summer is climb Mount Fuji. We found out that the climbing season officially starts July 1, so we decided to go this past weekend. Thinking this would be a good idea to go at the beginning of the season. Wrong. There were not as many people there as in the middle of the season, but it is because the people who go at the beginning are borderline insane. Two major things we didn't consider. The temperature at the top would be below freezing and the path to descend down would not be open until July 17. Tara and Maureen had only thought as far ahead as the actual climb and brought essentials for that. Upon arriving in Japan, they both realized that their personal hygiene would also be taking a vacation. Tara brought no underwear except the pair she had on, no toothbrush, deodorant, or toothpaste. However, Tara did bring 2 hats, 2 pairs of gloves, and hand and foot warmers (which is much more than I can say for myself.) Maureen had no toothbrush or toothpaste, and I was the best off having only not brought toothpaste.
We arrived in Tokyo and had to go straight to Fuji. The thing to do is start in the evening and climb all night to be at the summit for sunrise and that's what we set out to do. Everything was going way too smoothly, with the exception of the lack of the personal hygiene we would be subject to, we got on the bus and headed toward the most popular route starting at the Kawaguchiko Station. We got to the Kawaguchiko and knew we would have to take a shuttle to the 5th Station where everyone starts the climb from. We walked up to the ticket counter to buy tickets and pointed to the time we wanted and they lady just responded, "No." The conversation pretty much proceeded as follows. Us: "5th station bus?" Ticket lady: "No." Us: "Hmm 5th station train?" Ticket lady: "No." Us: "5th station bus?" Ticket lady: "No." This went on for another few minutes interspersed with us staring at the lady no knowing what to do. Luckily, another guy and girl climbing the mountain came up and had the same problem so we just took a taxi together to the 5th station...for the small price of $124. Lesson learned. Check the bus schedule for that last bus time the first week of the climbing season.
We got to the 5th station and it was considerably colder. Tara, Maureen, I got of the taxi in shorts and t shirts to find everyone else in full on winter gear staring at us like we were insane. We did have warm clothes to change into, but I really wish someone would have just come out and told me it would be like the dead of winter at the top of the mountain. Everyone just said it was pretty cold up there. We changed, bought sticks, put on our head lamps, and started.
We started at the 5th station at around 8:30. There are 9 stations and then about 300 meters to the summit. Mount Fuji, being a volcano and all, is covered in rocks and volcanic ash. This may possibly the hardest thing to climb up and definitely the hardest to climb down (more to come on that). For every step you take you slide backwards about a half of a step. A lot of the trail up was also scaling. Also the conditions are hurricane force winds that feel like they are blasting straight from the Arctic. Thank goodness we had the sticks to help us. I must say though the ascent was not that bad. We took it slow and made pretty good time. All the while in my head I was singing "Arigato, Mr. Roboto." We stopped at the 9th station for about an hour to recoup before going to the summit. After 7 hours of climbing, we got to the summit right before sunrise and it was by far the coldest I've ever felt. It was the best feeling reaching the top though. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see more than 2 seconds of the sunrise so that was unfortunate. This began a series of unfortunate events.
We decided we were too cold to say at the top any longer. It was around 4:30 am when we started to descend. The path to get down was only one person wide and there were still people coming up so we reached a human grid lock. We were basically trapped at the top of the mountain freezing. The path to descend is a nice bulldozed trail off to the side of the ascending trail. Unfortunately, it doesn't open until July 17. It wasn't until about an hour into the descent I realized we would in fact be taking the same trail down as we did up. It was kind of ironic because on the way up when I scaling rocks, I thought to myself this would really not be fun to have to go down. Instant karma. The sun came out and it was really beautiful so we stopped, took some pictures, and continued on.
The next 5 hours were like my own personalized brand of hell. Volcanic ash is even less fun to climb down. Our feet kept slipping out from under us and scaling going down is terrifying. At one point, we had been scaling down rocks for 3 hours and couldn't see an end in sight when Maureen and I both almost started to cry. Between slipping on ash, having to jump down rocks, being deliriously tired, the wind, and having shaky legs I don't know how I got off the mountain without needing facial reconstructive surgery or new front teeth. I can only thank the walking stick.
At 9:30 am, 13 hours later, we finally made it back to the 5th station. My legs have never hurt so much in my entire life.
So, I hope that give you guys a good idea of the trip hahaha it was just one of those ridiculous weekends but amazing, amazing memories. Sorry I made you read someone else's description but since I'm writing this post almost a month later I knew the details wouldn't be that easy to extract from my memory so I think this was def a better option. But as you can see, everything was worth it! Oh and it was really cool cause on the way down I saw some guys wearing Naval Academy hats so I asked, "did you go to the naval academy" The guy responded with "Yes ma'am, I do." hahah it made me laugh, and I told him that my brother had just had I-day (three days prior to this) and he asked about what company he was in etc. It was nice to make that connection and little shoutout to patrick on Mt. Fuji!!!!
Ok, thanks for reading this very long post.
xoxoxo
Reen
BEAUTIFUL SUNRISE
VERY COLD!
FINALLY AT THE TOP!!! SOOOO SOOOO COLD...it was definitely snowing...a lot!
The line of headlamps coming up the mountain.
Resting in the "tea time" room at 11,000 ft.
4th of July on Mt. Fuji!!!
The mountain from the distance.
Right before the climb.
My friend, Dan, took a few pics of me running in Olympic Park for our video project. 
Johnny dressed up for Patrick's graduation. Of course he had to take a picture outside the Neenah tennis courts woooooo 
My friend, Ashley, saw two cats being sold on the street and they were crammed into on hamster cage!!! HORRIBLE!! soooo, naturally she bought them haha and now I have cute kittens to play with but not take care of...excellent!!!
Patrick and the boys camping :)
Dan taking a pic of the founatin at the childrens park...such a fun friday afternoon woooo!!!
We found chocolate covered kimchi. It was as gross as it sounds...and really spicy!!!
