Up to now I have managed to get all my entries published in chronological order. I have however, been permanently backlogged, as I am lazy. I have now come to a point where I must skip ahead of some other events and publish one of my most recent and important wanderings while it is still fresh in my head. The others will follow soon after, I promise?I think.

Japan?s most recognizable geographical feature is undoubtedly Mt Fuji. As a foreigner in this land, I felt it was my duty to conquer this mountain. Even prior to coming to Japan I had be planning to do the climb at some point. Upon arriving here I found two other friends who expressed a keen interest in doing the climb with me. Unfortunately, as has become a recurring theme for me as of late, both of these climbing friends cancelled prior to the climb (one about a month before, and the other a few days?he had contracted a case of Dengue fever while in Thailand?long story). My attempts to recruit more climbers failed, but as I had already booked the holidays off work, and done all the preparation (including a fair bit of physical training), I decide to go anyway.

I was really worried about bad weather, as it is currently the rainy season in Japan. I brought rain gear along just to be sure, but I hoped I wouldn?t have to use it. And I didn?t. I think it was karma; old man karma had been repeatedly dolling me out swift kicks in the ass with all the friend cancellations, so I figure he owed me one. He evened the score as I did not have a single drop of rain for the entire climb.

Some other friends who had done the climb the week before gave me a number of good tips before I left. They recommended a cheap bus that runs between Nagoya and Mt. Fuji every day. It was five hours each way, a bit long, but it was cheap, and thus I took it. I arrived at the train station at the foot of the mountain at about 12:45 in the afternoon. After picking up a map at the information centre, I headed out towards the trailhead.

Now, a little background information on Mt. Fuji. It is a very popular climb. Scores of Japanese and foreigners climb it every year. However, 99% of them cheat. They take a bus from the city below to half way up the mountain (Station #5) and start climbing from there, just below the tree line. The Lonely Planet describes this tactic as ?running a marathon, but starting at mile 15?. Now, I?ll admit, I?ve never run a marathon, but I?m pretty sure that if I was going to, I wouldn?t start at mile 15. Therefore, I climbed Mt. Fuji from the bottom?actually, below the bottom.

I took the traditional Yoshidaguchi Trail, an ancient route that climbers have been taking for hundreds of years. It is supposed to be the only way to have the real and complete Mt. Fuji experience. It officially begins at the Sengen-jinja shrine at the bottom of the mountain. This is an impressive sight in its own right. You start by walking through a huge torii gate (these are large archways that are found at every holy place in Japan) which leads you along a forest corridor and up to a large temple guarded by seated archers. I was there during a special festival where people leave messages on coloured paper hanging from trees in the shrine garden. I left one wishing for good weather and that I would meet some good climbing mates.

From there, accompanied only by nature and my iPod, I set out on the trail. The first stretch, a long one, was actually just a sidewalk (sometimes just a shoulder), that followed along the road. My guide map said most people take about an hour to finish it; I made it through in about 45 minutes. The next stretch was also paved, but much more narrow (only room for one car) and lead into much denser forest. The trail itself was quite poorly marked, with absolutely no English, so I had to stop a few times to ask for directions, but eventually, after about 2 hours, I made it to the start of the dirt trail. Soon after that I reached another land mark, the Umagaeshi, at point where, prior to 1832, women were not allowed to climb beyond.

Shortly after that I finally reached the marker for Station #1, at least 2.5 hours into the climb. From there the stations went by pretty quickly. After a few more hours of climbing, including a large stretch inside the clouds (note the impressive photos) I made it to the mid point, Station #5. At this point the mountain huts begin. They are a series of small cabins that offer very simple accommodation for overnight climbers. They also accommodate climbers wishing to have a comfortable rest, for a price. It was at one of these rest houses that I met my would-be climbing chums for the rest of the journey. I was contemplating whether to continue to the next station, or retire for the evening when I came across two foreign guys (the first foreigners I?d seen on the trail) resting in one of the huts. I went in to ask what they were planning to do, and as it turned out, they had started from the same spot as I had, but about 20 minutes before. Sean, a Hawaiian, Johnny, and Englishman, and I, decided to continue on to Station #7 together.

Up to that point I had been doing a good job of keeping myself motivated to hike on; my new climbing friends did a good job motivating me for the rest of the day as the utter exhaustion started to kick in. After about 20 minutes we reached the tree-line and began our ascent up the barren face of the mountain. At this time the clouds began to break and we saw the first blue sky we?d seen in a while. Jubilation overcame us when we caught the first glimpses of the peak (or what we thought at that time was the peak), and Sean, the Hawaiian, saw snow for the first time.

We hiked on even as it got dark, as we agreed it was better to hike that evening, than to leave ourselves too much for the next morning. Eventually we reached our chosen mountain hut, one that had been recommended by some people below. It was the second to last in a series of about 10 individual huts. Normally at this time of year (the very start of the climbing season) the huts wouldn?t be busy, but we happened upon a large group of junior high school kids on an excursion?so our hut was packed. The accommodation was very simple, although you wouldn?t have expected it considering the price (5250 yen, or about $50 per person, per night). After a quick bite of salami and dried fruit, we settled into our bunks, planning to sleep for about 4 hours. I got some rest, but didn?t really sleep.

We arose at about 1:30am, which left us about 3 hours to reach the peak for the 4:40am sunrise. At this point it was cold and dark outside, so we bundled up, attached our headlamps (or in my case tied my flashlight to my head with my sweat-soaked bandana from the day before?it actually worked quite well) and joined the trickle of other crazy hikers for the last stretch of the ascent. I got a bit worried after about 10 minutes of climbing as my heart-rate was the fastest I?ve ever experienced?it felt as though it was beating right out of my chest. But we kept going, slowly but steadily towards the top. The sun started to rise just before we reached the summit. We stopped for some longer breaks to revel and take pictures. The sunrise was pretty amazing, but even more so, I enjoyed looking down on the clouds below. I got some pretty impressive photos, but as you might expect, they don?t do it much justice.

After all the work to reach the top, summiting the mountain was somewhat anti-climactic as it was bitterly cold. The wind was howling and it felt like it was around zero degrees. So we got to the highest point, got a group photo to prove it, I tried briefly to phone home on my cel (and failed), and then headed back down.

We took a special ?descent trail? on the way down. This turned out to be the low point of the trip. It was a seemingly endless series of switchbacks, all made up of loose lava rock?for the first time, moral began to wane a bit. But eventually we made it down to station 5. From there we joined the rest of the cheaters and took a bus the rest of the way down.

When it was all said and done, we had hiked 25.3 kilometers over about 20 hours, an impressive feat indeed.

Back at the bottom, we all went our separate ways: Sean headed to Osaka, Johnny to Tokyo, and I to a hostel nearby. I spent the rest of that day napping, eating proper food, and relaxing in the local onsen (hot spring spa).

Before heading home the next evening, I spent the day sightseeing around the base of the mountain, and it turned out there was a lot to see. Luckily, the next day was clear, so I got some fantastic shots of the whole mountain. I also checked out a number of other spots, but I?ve written enough, so I?ll let the photos tell the rest of the story.