Day 4 and 5 - Mount Fuji

From where I left off yesterday, we arrived at Kawaguchiko and board the bus to the fifth station. Unfortunately, it was busy and we were the last people to get on the bus, thus meaning we had to stand for 50 minutes. 

Upon arrival on the mountain, the first thing I noticed was the throng of people getting ready to climb it at night. It seemed almost as busy as the daytime groups we saw last year. 

We got ourselves ready and proceeded to venture on in the darkness. The first thing I noticed was that it was a lot more difficult climbing without walking sticks. I immediately felt more strain on my knees when compared to last year's climb. 

Unlike last year, it was relatively clear for the ascent. It was, however, extremely windy. As we approached the 6th station, I reread the sign about bullet climbers, those that climbed without getting adequate rest. Aka: our group. It essentially stated that we were more prone to injury and giving up on re climb to the summit. Little did I know that it would foretell our journey on the mountain. 

We made relatively good headway up the hill, though during break times I found myself to be dozing off from the lack of sleep. We were doing well up to about halfway through the 7th and 8th station. At this point in time, we were extremely tired and sore. We all made the decision to give up on the climb to the summit to see the sunrise and go find a mountain hut to sleep for a few hours. 

We found one and paid the exorbitant high price to sleep. The beds were wider than the ones in the last mountain hit we were in, though they were contained in little boxes. I literally had no room for my feet, so they were awkwardly propped on the wall as my head touched the other side. 

We were awoken by a staff member a few hours after to inform us of the sunrise. Even though it wasn't at the summit, it was an extremely pleasant sight to behold. We then trudged up the mountain again, hoping to reach the summit. 

However, the summit was surrounded by clouds, making it obscure to see from our location halfway between the 8th and 8.5 station. Slightly frightened about the chance of a thunderstorm later on in the day, we decided to give up our quest and started to descend back down to the 5th station. 

It was a windy descent followed by a whack of wasps once again! I thought they were only targeting me until I realized that there were many wasps around the area! Darn them!

We made it back in one piece and headed back to Shinjuku after a lengthy ride from Kawaguchiko to Otsuki. During the ride, I was thinking about why we weren't able to succeed in our mission to climb to the top. I thought I was a lot fitter than last year seeing that I lost a lot of fat and regained muscle strength. (Which was evident in that it was a lot easier to climb this time compared to last year.)

The difference being was the lack of sleep. In hindsight, I should have booked this event for a later time, one in that we had time to readjust our body clocks (last year was a fluke) and recover from any illnesses (darn you bronchitis). 

I doubt I'll ever climb it again, but I will keep those pointers in mind! Now off to sleep after not sleeping for like 36 hours! We're done with the first step of our journey: onto Kyoto next!