I originally had planned to climb Mt. Fuji (or Fujisan as it is called here) on Sept. 8th (5 days after my arrival in Japan) but because of all the walking I had done the days before, I had some blisters on my feet so I didn't go. But 2 weeks later some other people were planning on going so I decided to join them (even if the official season is over and the top is getting really cold). To climb Fujisan you go by bus to what they call "5th Station" which is about at 2300m. We started climbing at about 2pm, after 6 hours, and about 6km of walking (and myself being completely exhausted) we finally arrived to the 8th Station which is at 3300m and it was already dark. the plan is to sleep at the 8th Station and wake up around 2am and climb to the top (3700m) to watch the sunrise. I didn't want to pay 5000yen (about 60$) just to sleep inside the hut with lots of other people, so I had brought my Sleeping bag and some warm clothes so I decided to sleep outside, but since this plan was for Sept 8th now on Sept 24th it was so cold, I couldn't sleep and kept shivering, after a while I had the brilliant idea to get a bit of rest in the restrooms that were heated! but until 2:30am I only got about 2 hours of rest, so when we started to climb again for the Top my body rapidly lost it's energy (and maybe altitude sickness, me not being really fit, and a +10kg backpack, almost no more water) I decided not to climb to the top and enjoy the sunrise from the 8th station. I might be a little disappointed not to have reached the top but still am very proud to have done all this.
Have a look at what it was worth:
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