With it being our last summer teaching English in Japan, my husband, Kevin ’98, and I decided to join some friends in climbing the country’s famous Mt. Fuji. To get there, I called a bus company in Tokyo and made reservations to travel from Shinjuku (Tokyo) to the Kawaguchi-ko fifth station, which is situated at 2,305 meters high.

The summit of Mt. Fuji is 3,776 meters, or about 12,000 feet, so we had to climb a total of 4,825 feet, not quite a mile. After meeting with friends, we stopped at McDonalds for some power food, found the bus station and headed for Kawaguchi-ko around 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 26, 2000.

It was in the mid-80s and humid, so we were dressed lightly. We had plenty of extra clothes in our backpacks, however, as we had been warned that the temperatures, even in August, can drop down to freezing near the top.

When we arrived at the fifth station at 9:45 p.m., a refreshing cool breeze greeted us. Kevin set his watch to see how long it would take us.

The guidebook said that it usually takes between four and five hours, which would place us at the top around 3 a.m., plenty of time to enjoy a great view of the sunrise, weather permitting. Together, we all started climbing...and climbing...and climbing.

Would you believe that while climbing Mt. Fuji I saw stars for the first time ever in Japan? The pollution here is quite bad, so much so that I had never seen the sky at night during our time here.

As we climbed, we could see some lights on the side of the mountain way above us, and I remembered reading about mountain huts at various stations, which sell food and provide restroom facilities.

Fortyfive minutes later, we made it to the first lit area, station six, wherewe picked up a leaflet explaining that it would take close to an hour and half to reach the next station. We continued our trek. Eventually, we reached the next station.

Unfortunately, the restrooms were basic outhouses, and generator fumes filled the night air. Good thing I read the part in the guidebook that suggested bringing your own toilet paper.

What a lifesaver! After a little rest and a quick bite to eat, we were off again. It was now probably about midnight, and seeing as how the sun didn’t rise until around 4:30 a.m., we figured we had plenty of time to reach the summit.

Again, we could see the lights up the mountain. Surely the summit must be near, I thought. This time, it seemed to take a lot longer to get to the next station, and I began to feel sick.

We made it to the next rest area, though, and again I rested for a little while. It was getting colder outside and sweating through my clothes hadn’t been a problem until I stopped moving. Now I was getting pretty cold.

After realizing that my fleece jacket was missing, I put on my raincoat, my gloves and my ear warmers to compensate for the missing coat.

I thought we could try to look for it on our way down in the morning only to discover that the ascending route is different from the descending route. Therefore, in order to climb down the mountain, you have to reach the top first.

So I kept at it, while my altitude sickness worsened. The path up the mountain went in a zigzag pattern, and after five hours of climbing, I found myself having to stop and rest after each zig. But I pushed myself and kept going.

It was now about 3 a.m., only an hour and a half till sunrise. We could see the next lights up the mountain and I thought to myself that it HAD to be the summit. We reached those lights (thinking it was the summit) just as the sky was beginning to turn
pink.

Unfortunately, we discovered we had another 1,500 feet to go, so Kevin and I decided to rest and watch the sunrise from where we were. It was beautiful.

We looked down into a sea of clouds from our perch above as the sky transformed from pink to royal blue. We captured it on film and continued our climb, which proved to be slower than before as a long line of people had congregated on the path to the summit.

Because Mt. Fuji is a volcano, most of the rocks near the top are just loose volcanic rubble. There are the occasional larger rocks here and there, but all in all, the surface is like a driveway, which is not easy to navigate at a 30-degree angle.

Lots of people were slipping around, and one person loosened a boulder, which headed straight for the people in line. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured.

We finally made it up to the top at about 6:30 a.m., which means that we climbed for eight hours. Exhausted, we rested, ate some food and drank some water before we headed back down.

Even though it took only four hours to descend Mt. Fuji, I’d have to say that all of us agreed it was more difficult going down than up. The angle of descent was very steep, and the gravel and rocks were loose, so we kept slipping and falling.

Interestingly, a fog rolled in from the south around 9 a.m. Apparently, Mt Fuji is so often covered in clouds that dawn is the best time to enjoy the view from the top. The fog was cool and smelled like the ocean.

Some time later, we made it to the finish line, 13 hours after we started. Sleep deprived, starving, covered in a thick layer of reddish volcanic ash and aching, we headed home. Would I climb the mountain again? I don’t think so.

As the Japanese proverb goes, to climb Mt. Fuji twice is to be a fool, and I’m no fool. Still, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and one I’ll never forget.

Brittnee Finnearty Lydy ’99 and Kevin Lydy ’98 returned to the U.S. in July, following a twoyear teaching assignment in Japan as part of the Ohio Saitama English Teaching (OSET) Program.