Wow...I just got back from Mt. Fuji. I went with some great friends: Yuka, Masashi, and Emily. We hiked the Yoshida Trail in a total of 10 hours. Six hours up and four hours down. We met some new friends along the way. One had hiked Fuji 6 times already. After we had returned he told Masashi that the Yoshida Trail was one of the most difficult and many people do not climb to the top. They give up. He told us he was very proud of us for continuing.
There were many amazing things about this trip. First, we started climbing at the 5th station..which was already above the clouds.I took many pictures of clouds but only put one here. Ok, one more, why not?
The lava rock was awesome. I found several stones where you could see where the lava had poured out in layers. Others that had multiple layers of different colors.
There was a large stretch where we had to use our hands to climb up the mountain and make sure we had good foot placings. I started to get weak between stations 8 and 9. There are ten stations. We made it to the top and the coolest part was looking down into the crater. Unfortunately, my camera was acting up and it didn't save most of them. Including the crater pics. Rrrrrr. the pic below is one of the sides of the crater but I really wanted the one looking straight down the hole.
The climb up was draining. Down was exhausting. And by the end I couldn't even think straight. It wasn't until at the onsen later that I saw how bad my sunburn was. And it wasn't until the next day that the blisters started to appear. They are all over my face, arms, chest, and back of my neck. Not fun. Praying that skin cancer doesn't get me in the end. I will henceforth carry sunblock with me everywhere I go.
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