Entries this day: Before_Climbing_Mt_Fuji Climbing_Mt_Fuji Climbing_Mt_Fuji_nap

Before Climbing Mt Fuji

3:36am JST Monday 12 July 2004

I went to bed (with earplugs) around 8:30pm last night. I woke up at 2am for a moment (I had guessed it was my normal 4 hour wake up, but maybe it got thrown off because I went to bed so early), and back to sleep easily. I feel pretty well rested now, and will be even moreso when my alarm goes off at 5am.

But, right now, nature calls.

4:45am

Never got back to sleep per se (interesting italicization), but just lay in bed under janette's warm quilt with visions of RSS implementations in my mind. Wondering what stories I would publish that way, and what db setup would be best suited for it, and how to tell the db that two particular files are linked (chronologically (e.g. two state of my life addresses) or plotfully (chapters of one story)). Also wondered about taking pictures on Mt Fuji and underwater at Wailua Falls. I've heard that we can't just put a plastic bag around a camera to make it waterproof because the water pressure would squoosh the soft plastic into the camera until it could no longer function. I wondered about attaching a hose from a scuba setup to the soft-plastic-encased camera so that we could use a soft plastic bag, but I figured I should learn more about scuba before adding hoses to the setup, plus if the soft plastic bag failed, that would be a fairly detrimental leak in the system. But we could just add a ball-valve at the base of the extra hose that would stop the leak from leaking. Then, thinking about cameras, I realized I hadn't charged my camera's battery. Woke up, plugged it in, wrote this.

It's 4:58am now. 2 minutes until wake up.

In one hour, I'm leaving to go climb Mt Fuji for the first time in my life (and stay overnight on the summit in what I've heard will be freezing temperatures). I guess I should start packing.

5:15am

Wearing/carrying:

• hat
• cargo pants
• sunscreen
• recording devices (camera, tape recorder)
• long sleeved shirt over t-shirt
• socks
• hiking boots

(to be) packed / to be purchased from the convenience store:

• thermal underwear
• computer
• janette's quilt
• Morag's purple rain coat
• water
• protein
• toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, mouth guard)

supplied by Hitomi and her mom:

• bigger back pack
• collapseable walking sticks
• back pack cover (for rain)
• spats (cover ankles to keep sand from getting into shoes)
• gloves
• flashlight
• plastic bags (to carry garbage off the mountain)
• Nova kleenex
• M&M's

5:34am

Hmm. I wonder if I can get all this in the bag. Water seems to be problematic yet essential to carry.

7:00am

In an email, silly Tomoko called herself "meddlesome," even though she's done all the coordination for this trip, from sorting out what restaurants to meet at for planning, to sending out updated schedules on leaving due to the amount of time it will take to reach the top, because she forgot to tell me the name of the station where we're supposed to meet today at 7am. (ps: last night, I confirmed the correct station is Shinjuku, which is where I am now.)

7:01am

I just sent an email to Hitomi accidentally, "please never think you are meddlesome; you have been a great help!"

on the train

Sumidasan says, "according to the weather, the summit maximum will be 7 degrees, minimum -3 degrees."

9:00am

Have just arrived in Gotemba and when the dude said, "don't forget your stuff on the train," for the first time, I understood the line. Wow.

9:08am JST Monday 12 July 2004

In the taxi from Gotemba station to Gotemba trail. 33 km to the mountain?

I've recorded a couple of points on my tape recorder. In a taxi now after riding the Odakyu / JR lines on one train (the fastest way, according to Sumidasan) to Gotemba. He is yammering with the taxi driver now. Miyuki and I are chowing onigiri in the back of the taxi.

9:26am (in the taxi)

"何が話したい？" [what do you want to say?] I asked Miyuki.

Caught off guard, she goes, "I? uhhhh, stop stop stop."

9:31am

1300 meters and climbing. Alright. I can feel it in my ears, baby.

just saw a hiker walking by. He didn' see me.

There are hardcore dudes... jogging up the hill. This shit is steep. Well.. yeah it's steep.

arrival at Gotemba 5th station

Here's Miyuki by the taxi after she paid the driver. Sumidasan appointed her the treasurer for the trip. He and I each paid her 20,000 yen at the train station, and she's paid for our train tickets and taxi ride. She'll pay for our train tickets on the way back, too.

We're here at 1/2 Mountain Souvenir and Drink.

Sumidasan is pondering just which and how many 200 yen drinks to purchase. He says they will be 600 yen at the top of the mountain.

I guess we're here.

Fuckin' asphalt is gross; I'll take some pictures.

This is gross.. we're just like, there's asphalt (*),... Over there are a bunch of army jeeps and shit.

- - - -

Dammit, bobby. I just tried to pop my back and it cramped, and it hurts just standing. We'll see how it goes.

- - - -

(*) the asphalt, which I thought was so gross, though it might be gross, is not gross for the reason I thought. It's not asphalt. It's Mt Fuji.

Mt Fuji is just a giant pile of gravel.

Climbing Mt Fuji

9:52am JST Monday 12 July 2004

Probably 5 minutes prior, we began climbing from 1/2 Mountain Souvenir and Drink

The soil is little tiny rocks that slide, so we lose like an eighth of a step with every step. Kinda tricky. Tricky, that is.

This was taken looking back at the parking lot.

10:48am JST Monday 12 July 2004

We're at the 5.5th stage. Sign says 3 hours to 6th stage. (Another sign says 2 hours to the 6th station.) I counted 500 steps in 9 minutes.

Damn. I left my gloves down by the entrance, where I tried to pop my back and strained a muscle instead. The strain has been troublesome, but manageable. This is me wondering if I should go back and get my gloves.

11:18am

Takin' a five minute break. My method has been to go fast and pass them, then wait and let them get ahead of me, and go pass them again.

I took a video to show how sloggy it is to climb up.. it's like little pea gravel with some chunks.. making it easy to slide, or not slide, but to lose a bit of ground.

11:51am

We're climbing Mt Fuji, and taking a break. A moment ago I lost my protein drinks, but found them in my pockets. I felt a bit of a headache coming on which I realized was a no-water headache, the same headache that I got at Tokyo Disneyland, which was a killer headache. But, not today.

12:48pm

It's definitely colder now. We have been taking breaks every 30 minutes it seems, but somehow time also is going by more quickly than it seems. I think 20 minutes but it's been 30. I guess the monotony of climbing on absolutely identical trail all the way up, just counting foot steps and wondering how my walking staff will look once we reach the top, and wondering if I can convince the right people to let me sled down this mountain one day, makes the time go faster.

It's really overcast, and I'm getting a few sprinkles on the screen as I type. Visibility is 100 meters - that's how far away I can make out anything at all, but I wouldn't really call it visible.

1:27pm

Made it to 6th station, I think. Wow. Pretty fuckin' tired. And I gotta peeeeeeee like a big dog. Unfortunately, there's no bathroom up here; everything is all locked up. Rusted shut.

2:00pm

At 6th station, I put on Morag's purple grape suit, and peed, even though there was no toilet. Right now it is exactly two zero zero o'clock, and my phone, for some reason, has no coverage. C'mon Vodafone, get yer shit together.

Um, I'm takin' a break; they stopped a little ways down the hill. I can't actually see them right now (due to the fog), but I'm within yelling distance I believe, so it's all good. I'm trying to get my phone back in my pocket right now, underneath Morag's purple grape suit.

We have a little bit of sprinklage going on, and I'm very thankful for the grape suit and for Hitomi's mom's gear, all of which (save the flashlight so far) I have used, or am using.

Okay. Fuckin' hell.

This is fuckin' awesome and hard. I'm glad it's not sunny, but it's kinda sad that I can't see anything. It's like 50 meters visibility and that's it.

Here they come; I can see them now.

Okay bye-bye.

2:30??

Um, wow. I just went up the steep direction, up like a vein of rocks sticking out; they were solid rocks so I thought it would be easier to climb than the scree.. and uh, it was pretty tough. But I'm making as much (vertical) headway as Sumidasan and Miyuki (who are over on the walking trail)

Unfortunately, I just dropped a little tiny bit of trash (corner of M&M packet) that I'm *not* going to go recover, because I have picked up more trash than I just now dropped. But, Mt Fuji, I'm sorry.

Um, it's pretty windy, little bit of rain. The sky is clearing in a way. The visibility is greater, but once we get to the clouds, it's like bang the clouds are there. I'm not sure if we're just in a clear patch or what.

My experience right now is that the wind is blowing down the mountain, whereas before it was blowing up the mountain, which is interesting, and ... I don't really know what time it is. I'll check, hang on.

Sorry; can't get to my phone easily enough. Probably 2:30.

3:30pm

It was 3:20 when I caught up with these two guys; I went the (far) harder way, straight up instead of zigzaggin' on the trail.

It's about 3:30 now. We just saw a bunch of military guys, or army guys, I dunno, going *down* the hill; they started at 7:45 this morning, going *up* the hill, which I *believe* is 3 hours and 15 minutes earlier than we started. So, they are definitely harder core than we are, but.. but nothing; they're hard core.

Alright yo, we're at the 7th stage right now, 3:30. It's funny; the army guys were like, "when did you start," "how long did it take you," kinda stuff; cause they're fuckin' beat, too. They wanna know when the shit's over. I told them we started four hours ago and they're like "fuck." so yeah, I know.

I don't know at what level they started, though, so oh well.

3:45pm

We made it past 7th station to a place that says it's a good place to watch the rising sun. We saw a bunch of soldiers coming down the thing. No wind yet, er, no snow yet.

4:30pm

We arrived at 8th station, which has beds, an enclosed area, food, heat.. oh god I just wanted to fuckin' cry, dude, when we got here. Really difficult to get here, and we're not at the top yet. We're going to stay here until 2am, and then go the rest of the way to the top to watch the sunrise.

Or, we'll sleep until we die.

- - - -

The guys who were here when we arrived... were doing pushups when we got in, which is.. ridiculous, but true.

They are also helping each other stretch, in a really, what I judge, a bad way, like hurtingly stretch. But, to them their own.

ps: I really had to stop myself from crying. Wow. So cold outside.

Yay. picture of janette's quilt up on Mt Fuji. Level 8.

My clothes were wet with sweat, but I had my long johns and janette's quilt to make my own warm fashion statement while my clothes were dried above the diesel generator for 8th station electricity (and clothes drying).

7:25pm JST Monday 12 July 2004

Woooooooooo

In case I never get around to transcribing my tape, I'll just mention a few things:

1. It's fucking cold outside.

2. It's way way way crazy cold outside.

3. It's super duper windy and cold outside.

4. As we arrived, I wanted to cry. I had to stop the choked up emotions of oh dear god I'm so glad that freezing cold nightmare of walking uphill on slidy gravel is, until 2am, over.

5. We are inside right now, and I'm *reallly* happy about that. So happy that, though nature is calling me, I'm staying inside because the outhouse, by virtue of being an outhouse, is outside.

In a few minutes of effort, I was able to solve the ball trapped in box puzzle. The box had holes in its sides, making it look like a die. One of the holes was bigger, allowing the ball to come out, but the box was not exactly hollow, but like a maze; had to waggle it around a bit to get the ball out.

I slept for just over an hour I'm guessing, listening to the wind blow outside (and a bit inside through the paneling (no double walls here)) and feeling my feet slowly thaw, though they were slightly uncovered and getting breezed.

Woke up and chowed stew and rice.. And, janette, Maggie, Molly, and Wende's food aside, it was the best meal I've ever ever eaten. It was good, but its proximity to this climb boosted its goodness.

Climbing Mt Fuji nap

8:30pm-ish JST Monday 12 July 2004

Around 8:30 I tried to sleep. Even though I was tired, I didn't sleep well with the wind going on outside, and TV and people going on inside. The TV went to bed around 10 or 11pm I'm guessing. At 12:30 ish, I woke up and whispered this into my tape recorder:

12:38am

I am in great pain, and I do not want to get up in two hours.

I also have not slept very well.

I slept pretty well after that, but 2:30am came too quickly for my liking.