I still can’t believe it but I just got back from climbing Mount Fuji yesterday!! Wow… what a crazy experience. Let’s just say it was the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done. Sorry if this post is kind of confusing and jumbled…!

Watching the sunrise from Mount Fuji is really an amazing site, so our plan was to climb through the night by headlights. (First time I’ve ever climbed a mountain at night!!) It was so awesome seeing all the tiny lights throughout the mountain, there were hundreds of people climbing through the night too. By car the bottom of the mountain was about 3 hours away, and after that we had to take a bus to the 5th station.

The mountain had a sort of complicated system… I’ll try to explain it to you guys. People climbing the mountain started at the 5th station. From there: 5th Station -> 6th Station -> “Real” 6th Station -> 7th Station -> “Real” 7th Station -> 8th Station -> “Real” 8th Station -> 8.5 Station -> 9th Station -> Summit. On average it took about an hour of climbing to get from one station to the next. The higher we got the more sweaty I was but the colder and colder it got.

On the bus ride to the 5th station there was an informational video about climbing Mount Fuji. The video included a portion about a sickness called 高山病 – Kouzanbyou (Acute Mountain Sickness) in which the person gets a really bad headache and pukes. My host Dad told me that an exchange student he hosted a few years ago had to stop at the 8th station and couldn’t go any higher because she was puking (a lot!!)

Just keep this sickness in mind, because it might come up again later.. haha.

The beginning of the climb was inside of a forest and it was really fun climbing with so many people at night! We started climbing at about 7:30/8:00 PM. Right from the start, my host Dad noticed how slow my host Mom was at climbing. Every time we would look back we couldn’t even see her because she was so far behind.

After about 2 hours of climbing we found a peak to look out from.. The view of the night lights was amazing! What was even more incredible were all the fireworks going off that we could see. They looked so small!

I feel like I would definitely bore you if I took you through every step of my journey so I’ll just show you guys some interesting things I found along the way and talk a little bit about the climb in general.

By the time we got to the “Real” 6th station I was about ready to fall asleep (I think it was around 11 PM) and my host Mom was exhausted. My host Dad convinced her to go ONE more station.

At the 7th station I was about ready to pass out, and we said bye to my host Mom because she was going to stay there for the night (there was a small shack with some futons.) How in the WORLD was I going to make it to the peak before the sunrise….?!

As we kept climbing higher, I’m pretty sure I was half asleep… The incline became even greater and my eyes closed even more. I noticed my stomach was starting to feel weird and I couldn’t really eat or drink anymore.

When we got to the 8th station I was certain there was no way I could make it to the top. My stomach was upset and I was literally falling asleep as I climbed. Still, I somehow forced myself to climb to the “Real” 8th station. When we got there, my host dad said “We’ll probably climb until the peak and we’ll sleep there.” I was positive there was no way that could happen…

I fought hard until the 8.5 Station, and we continued from there. After the 8.5 Station I had to stop and take breaks every 4 minutes or so… Somewhere between the 8.5 and 9th Station I told my host Dad how tired I was and how I probably had to sleep. Luckily, he completely understood. We stepped over the ropes of the path and got out our sleeping bags. It was FREEZING! We laid our sleeping bags down on the never-ending bed of uneven boulders and rocks and I somehow fell asleep despite the numbing cold and the rocks digging into my back.

After about 2 hours we woke up and it was 4:00 AM. The sunrise was coming soon and my host Dad wanted to watch it from the peak, so we continued on our journey. From that point on I knew I wasn’t okay… The dust blowing off the rocks with the biting cold wind into my face and the blisters on the back of my heels all added to the pain I was feeling. But climbing Mount Fuji was always a dream of mine and I HAD to make it to the top.

Luckily enough my host Dad saw the pain on my face and decided to stop somewhere just before the 9th station to watch the sunrise. There was no way we would make it to the peak before the sunrise.

Watching the sunrise was…. incredible. Let’s just say it was one of the most beautiful and most painful/uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had. I was so sick I had to keep myself from puking. I definitely had Kouzanbyou.

After the sun rose my host Dad told me that when someone gets Kouzanbyou they absolutely shouldn’t climb any further.. I was so disappointed. I came so close! I had to climb to the top. I told him how badly I wanted to go to the peak and he said maybe we could try sleeping more, because if you sleep at the altitude rather than climbing you can get used to it and adjust. From there we slept for probably about 3 hours (on and off). It was a pretty miserable sleep.. I kept waking up and almost puking. I hadn’t eaten anything for over 10 hours, so I tried to keep down a bite of bread and barely made it.

At about 10:00 we got up and I decided I was feeling okay enough to keep climbing. Someway somehow my stomach settled and I was able to keep climbing. I made it.

I don’t know how it happened but somehow miraculously I felt amazing at the top of Mount Fuji. It was one of the most accomplishing feelings… I don’t even think I can explain it in words… my advice is go climb it yourself. I’m so glad that my sickness went away and I was able to make it.

Sorry to bore you with more climbing stories, but coming down was quite the adventure… Let’s just say we were sprinting at some points. The ground was the consistency of small pieces of gravel and my feet sunk with each step, but it was so steep that everyone couldn’t help but run. The clouds of dust that formed behind each person was incredible.. I was literally inhaling dust. My host Dad and I were definitely going much faster than everyone else.

It must have been the combination of the dust I was inhaling, the constant pounding of my feet, and the really fast change of altitude, but my Kouzanbyou came back and it was even worse. It got to the point where I didn’t want to take one more step.

I took numerous breaks and felt really bad because my host Dad really enjoyed sprinting down the mountain. He was so good at it and everyone stared in awe as he bolted past them! Haha.

I started feeling so sick that everything felt like a dream… I was sort of in a daze.

When I was about to give up, my host Dad said “後二キロ…Two Kilo…”

For some reason that gave me a little bit of motivation, but that (if it truly was two kilometers or if he was just trying to comfort me) was the longest two kilometers of my life. With every step I was about to throw up even more.

Right before the end I barely remember meeting one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. I was so sick I can barely remember it, but looking at the picture I remember how awesome this guy was. He took the previous picture of my host Dad and me!

I finally made it. We met back up with my host Mom (who told me the color of my face was dangerously off and blue).

The rest of the day was kind of awful.. we got stuck in a traffic jam and it took 6 and a half hours to get home. I felt like I was ready to puke at any second the whole way home and didn’t eat again until this morning.

Despite all of the sickness, climbing Mount Fuji was one of the best experiences of my life. I still can’t grasp the idea that I actually climbed Mount Fuji and made it to the top. I’m so glad and blessed to have had such an amazing opportunity.