One foot in front of the other, torches, hundreds of lights above and below, people of all sorts – old and young, fast and slow. . . . . .
We watched the sunrise at the original 7th station followed by a nap on a bench in our sleeping bags (no accommodation at this station). There’s nothing like sleeping on a hard bench with your feet hanging over the edge of a mountain! Off again. Fran was feeling the altitude so we rested for a couple of hours at the 8th station to acclimatise better (¥1,000 for an hour if we didn’t sleep - ¥3,000 for as long as we liked once we closed our eyes! We closed our eyes and paid the price). The bonus was that we were able to let people descending get past and climb with less traffic later in the day. The downward track is shared for a short distance then veers off away from the ascending track.
The 9th station was abandonded (which would have been nice to know – no drinks/food/oxygen or toilets as the building had been swamped by a landslide at some stage.
We met up with
some of the American service guys and
girls that we had met earlier. Some of them had to turn back before reaching
the summit (so close!) as they had to meet time schedules to return to base but
others made it for the dawn.
There were so
many people on the track, concentrated in a small space and all moving
relatively slowly but continually upwards. It was hard going – I just
concentrated on putting one foot in front of another – 70 steps before a rest
at best, 4 at worst! I slipped and fell
at one stage – getting wedged between a couple of big rocks. Not much damage, a
big graze on my arm and some potentially good bruises on my hip and legs. I was
pretty firmly wedged though and needed a hand to drag myself upright so I could
wiggle out of the gap I was wedged in. The 200 metres to the top sign was a welcome sight (but that is 200 metres of altitude not distance) but the altitude really started to kick in and create problems. Fran really felt the thinness of the air at this altitude, so bad at stages that she was unable to talk even, and had to sit and breathe deeply to draw enough oxygen in (this is where that non-existent lodge at the 9th station would have been handy, we’d discussed buying an Oxygen bottle as a precaution as lots of others were using them). She wasn’t alone with this and people started turning back and heading down but with copious rests we continued on making the summit about 2.30pm.
We had photos taken, our sticks stamped at the shrine, ate ramen and not much else as most things were closed or sold out. The post office closed at 2pm and there is no mailbox because of the weather conditions so the postcards went to the summit and then came back down again with us.
We left the
summit and headed back down about 3.30pm. The track wasn’t too bad to begin
with and we made good time until dark. The tracks diverged and then
criss-crossed back across the upward bound tracks at some (but not all) of the
stations until just on dark. We entered a soft, deep sandy patch which
continued on and on and ON! It was really hard going, like skiing sideways in
foot deep loose snow with boulders to catch you unawares. We caught up and
started leapfrogging with an American couple (Will and Sarah) and their
daughter (Olivia – whom Will was carrying!). Fran and I had decided to stop and
sleep on the mountain again but there was no accommodation available at the 8th
station so we went on – only to discover that on this descent track the 8th
station was the last until you reached the 5th station starting
point! Sarah and Will were on the wrong track, their track was supposed to go
to the other side of the mountain where there car was parked but they took a
wrong turn at one of the stations (which is a common thing to do) and ended up
stuck with us in the endless soft sand (think walking down a sand dune for 7-8
km in the dark!). Finally we came to a break in the soft sandy stuff only to
find out that it was worse! Big rocky sections in the dark were much more
difficult to deal with (as you couldn’t see your feet or the rocks easily, let
alone figure out which ones were stable enough to tread on). Will’s torch died
so I gave them my little spare (I think I lost my other headlamp somewhere – or
maybe it will turn up somewhere . . .). We were actually glad to see the sandy stuff
again after that little interlude!
We found a sign
that said there was a toilet 40 minutes ahead, it took us about an hour to
reach that at our pace – the light was like a homing beacon. Just as we arrived
it went off, it was only a toilet and drink stop and closed at 1am but opened
again for us and another party who caught up with us. The 5th
station was still another 40 minute (hour for us) walk away. We bought drinks
then asked the guy running the place if he could take us to the 5th
station if we paid him. The guy wanted ¥20,000 to take us all to the
station. Will and Sarah had no cash left
but the rate was not negotiable so we said they should come with us anyway as
it was going to cost the same no matter how many of us went. Sarah (who hurt
her knee) almost cried when we said that. The owner closed up, got out his
caterpillar truck, loaded the girls in the back then put Will and Olivia in the
cab (which was at the back of the vehicle) and off we went. Apparently the guy
was drunk but the caterpillar truck was like a homing pigeon and it took about
20 minutes to drive down the dirt tracks to the 5th station. Once
there things went smoothly, Will (who is half Japanese) organised a taxi for
them to the other side of the mountain and a ride for us with them to a
“convenience” hotel which turned out to be an onsen with a large, group rest
room – which would have been great except the bathrooms were shut and we
weren’t allowed to shower until morning! We washed the best we could and changed
into the onsen yukata (in this case shorts and shirt) and headed off to sleep
in the relaxation room until the baths opened at 7 am. Poor people who had to
share with us!!! It was hard to get to sleep as there were so many sore spots
to try and avoid, but once I slept I really slept and didn’t wake up til
morning.
Sunday 26th
August, 2012
Up and in the
onsen promptly as soon as it was open! We soaped at least twice to get most of
the Fuji dust off but there were still traces in ears etc. Fran had developed a
huge blister on the bottom of her right big toe and the whole toe was red and
inflamed. The blister had burst and was incredibly sore so we had to make sure
we bandaged it well. Then it was back into our dirty clothes and hiking boots
(all our clean stuff was in our main packs – we only took warm stuff to layer
with us up the mountain) and a taxi back to the Subashi 5th station
to collect our stuff. The mountain lodge ladies were pleased to see us and
congratulated us on reaching the summit (our poles tell the story to all who
can read the stamps). They waived any extra fee for keeping our baggage an
extra night and we were just a about to order some zaru soba when the bus
announcement came over the PA that our
bus was leaving in 5 minutes. I checked and the next bus wasn’t for hours so,
reluctantly we apologised to the lodge ladies, cancelled our lunch order and
lept aboard the bus, well- as much as we could leap onto a really crowded bus
with tired, sore legs and big heavy packs. The bus was so crowded we stood or sat
on our packs all the way to the station at Gotemba. We had 20 minutes to get
organised in Gotemba before the train left so we still didn’t get a chance to
change into cooler clothes. We went from Gotemba to Mishima, Mishima to
Shizuoka, Shizuoka to Kyoto – we had great connections so it wasn’t a hard or
harrowing as it sounds. We took a taxi from the station to K’s house but
discovered that Fran had lost her rail pass somehow between the station and the
backpackers. We spoke to the desk about it and they were fantastic! Miki (one
of the girls) rang the station and told them which route out of the station
we’d taken, the name on the pass, the time our train arrived etc and gave them
contact details in case it was handed in. She also called the police on our
behalf – both jobs far beyond my ability and language skills to do by phone. A
little later we had a message, the pass had been found! I think that the
station people went looking for it even – and armed with directions of where to
go and how to reclaim it we headed off back to the station.
We met up with
Liam and wandered round for ages looking for a restaurant before finally
settling on a “fast food” joint – actually not such bad food but fast because
the ordering process is streamlined. You choose your meal from the vending
machine, pay for it and pass the paid coupon to the staff who assemble your
food for you. We headed to the subway for me to discover I’d dropped my wallet
in the restaurant – headed back and it was waiting for me (people are so honest
in Japan). The WiFi is great at K’s house but we are soooooo tired still we can’t
seem to make good use of it. We crashed as soon as our heads hit the pillow!
Monday 27th
August, 2012
We’re tired and
sore still, the blister on Fran’s foot is really bad and my sunburn is too so
today was a slow rest day. We slept late, did washing, journals, photo
downloads and planned out the next few day’s activities. Lunch was at the café
next door – pizza and apple pie with ice cream. On the way to the station we
saw THE most impressive paper crane origami. . It was a tiny little shop with a
fellow who had a book to sell or lessons to give in how to make the most
amazing designs using joined paper cranes all made from only one piece of
paper.We looked at a Ginza walking tour but we did a test run to the station and were moving so slowly that we would never have gotten back in time. Instead we posted postcards (the ones that had been to the top of Mt Fuji and back) and bought boxes to post back our mountain climbing stuff. We went looking for the ¥100 shop at the tower but it seems to be closed down so we bought some souvenirs at the Tower stands on the ground floor then had Chinese for dinner in the basement restaurant before heading back to pack boxes, do more computer catch up and BED!
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