Thin Air

Helloooo all. Welcome welcome. I'm getting caught up!! This post is about last week's activities. It was a whirlwind of a week soo many goodbyes but still a lot of adventure!

Taiyaki and Wizards!

I'm not sure when I got taiyaki during the week. I think maybe it was on monday and wednesday?? Anyways there is a taiyaki place near my dorm which is usually closed or I guess maybe I just pass by it too late in the night and I finally tried it! It was good- nice and cronchy. I tried blueberry custard and regular custard. Custard kind of reminded me of like raw pancake batter but it still tasted good I swear!!

On wednesday we also had a small Ghibli night with classmates and dormmates. Saying our ACTUAL farewell to Matteo who was losing it over Totoro. After our classmates had to go because they live far so the rest of us went to a Wizard Bar near the dorm? Idk it was an old japanese man in a wizard hat and it felt like I walked into his living room. And I was conveniently in a UCSB shirt and the DJ went to UCSB and another local was saying he had visited there too. So that's just proof California is the best place on earth.

Thursday Goodbyes

A lot of people were being kicked out of their dorms on Friday. Soo a lot of goodbyes. First, thursday evening I went to Odaiba with my labmate Sasaki driving, his friends, and my other labmate that was going back to visit Taiwan David/Zongwu. David speaks to me the most in english so it is sad to lose a buddy but at least there is still Sasaki. We ate dinner at a pirate themed restaurant and went to Sasaki's "Number 1 view in Japan." Lol I also learned a new word. Apparently some japanese people call party people "partyp" for short it's so cute haha. Sasaki and his friends were all also really curious about Prom and what it was ahaha. After saying goodbye to David, there was a dorm party for all the people leaving my dorm. So many people were leaving it was soo sad. I think there is only about 20 people left.

Fuji Conquest

It finally happened everyone. The epic mount fuji climb. This trip was delayed like 4 different times because of buses/weather. So in planning this trip I found out it was almost impossible to hike the mountain during the day without planning to sleep on the mountain/at a station and making a plan that gave us a reasonable time to climb the mountain. My doormmate Gustav said he climbed during the day and did the whole thing in about 7 hours. And... all I can say after climbing that is wow. Impossible. But this planning trouble was NOT going to stop me!

What we ended up doing was climbing the mountain overnight. Also by we I mean me Danny, Allison, and our british friend Callum. Poor Callum had to deal with three americans for more than 24 hours. Anyways climbing overnight was actually a really popular thing to do because a lot of people want to see sunrise on Fuji. I had to rent rain clothes, head lamp, and hiking boots. This was money WELL spent. I would have died without all of them. We got to Kawaguchiko Station at about 4pm (2 hours from Tokyo). There we hung out for a bit and ate dinner at a cute ramen place for only ~$7.50 and it played Pokemon on TV! There were so many tourist traps though. Literally one place with "JAPANESE RESTAURANT" written on the window. I also bought a wooden walking stick because I wanted to get it branded at the top and this was also money WELL SPENT. We were lucky and caught the last bus up to Fuji 5th station (about another hour bus). We hung out there from like 8pm-9pm to get used to the altitude (2300m above sea).

THE CLIMB

We started climbing at 9pm for the Yoshida Trail (most popular). I definitely had on way too many layers at first I got sweaty within 5 minutes. But then the next two hours was me in a temperature struggle. Whenever we were hiking I would sweat so much and take off a layer. But then we would rest for a bit and it would be cold so I would put a layer back on. Also this mountain was STEEP. Allison was super fast though. I should add in some more leg days for sure. Between like 7th and 8th station we were basically rock climbing and I was on all fours/threes trying to get up these rocks. Also I could absolutely feel how thin the air was by 8th station. It felt like there were 2 microliters of oxygen going into my lungs. There were a lot of mountain huts and each one was like a beacon of hope because you could see all the lights shining while climbing. I was literally praying for 8th station because I said that is when I'm allowed to eat my tuna onigiri. After 8th station there was a lot of human traffic. I think we waited in a slow moving line the last 400-900 m for 2 hours to get to the top. But that was A- OKAY with me because my legs were already feeling like noodles at 7th station.

The weather was nice but then it rained for a small portion in the middle which made life suck a little bit because my gloves got wet. BUT the rain clothes were really really really nice to have. Also I am extremely glad I don't ever usually drink coffee because I only had a couple sips of coffee that night but I was so wide awake and jittery.

It took us 8 hours to get to the summit and we made it for the sunrise!! It was SO cold there though. I put on every layer I had. Taking off my gloves for a picture was so terrible. I ended up just tapping the screen with my gloved hand until it went through. And we were REALLY lucky there was a view! Usually it is too cloudy at the top to see anything. We rested at the top for about an hour and then decided we had enough of fuji.

The climb down was a large toll on the knees but it only took us like 3.75 hours. It was nice and sunny too! I was definitely exhausted and ready for bed by the time we got to the 5th station. But I got matcha icecream so it all canceled out. The bus rides back to Tokyo seemed like DECADES too. Once I got home I showered, ate some instant ramen, and then slept for 15 hours. But I lived!! I cannot emphasize how much this is a ONCE in a life time experience. My biggest accomplishment yet not something I would want to do again. Anyways here are some factz about the climb.

Fuji Facts:

Yoshida Trail Length: 5.8km ~ 3.6 miles

5th Station: 2300 m above sea

Summit: 3776 m above sea

NEWS UPDATE: Apparently on Sunday while we were climbing down the mountain at 7am in the morning a hiker died by falling rocks hitting her head. She died close to the top which is so sad and means she did not even get to feel the accomplishment. I am very thankful to Fuji for sparing my life even though I had been joking the whole time oh if I die, I die. But anyways if you decide to climb Fuji maybe you should add a helmet to your list of rental gear.

Alright that was all for this week. I am very sore currently please send help. BUT MAKE SURE TO SMASH THAT LIKE FOR MORE GREAT CONTENT.