Land of the Rising Sun: What were we thinking!

Well, I'm glad to say we made it off of Mt. Fuji in one piece. What a crazy adventure. Got up early Monday morning and packed up to move on to Fussa to see Sheena and then head over to Fuji. We said goodbye to Shinjuku, got our Japan Rail Passes ready and headed to Fussa. Sheena picked us up from the train station. Before heading off, we ate Coco's next to the station and had delicious curry meal. Then we went onto her base and picked up our hiking boots and some headlamps for nighttime lighting. Sheena rented a big van to accommodate all of us and our gear! Sheena's friend, Ryann, came along, so we had a total 5 people. Mt. Fuji was about an hour and half away. It was a nice drive. By the time we got to the starting point, called the Fifth Station, it was dark. A little Wikipedia background info on Mt. Fuji: Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan (3,776m / 12,388feet) and is an active volcano. Japanese people love mount Fuji, calling it as Fuji-san. It's a dream for many people to climb up Mount Fuji. It's said that about 300,000 people try to climb Mt. Fuji every year and that 30-40% of them are foreign visitors.Mount Fuji's trails are named into 10 stations, depending on the elevation.We changed into our warmer clothes, since the temperature had already dropped, and headed for the Sixth Station around 8:30pm. It wasn't too bad of a hike to the Sixth Station...we were feeling good. I think it was around 2am that we arrived at the 7th Station...stopped and had some snacks, some water and some oxygen. Oxygen is required due to the altitude. Needless to say, after the 7th Station, it was getting harder and harder. The terrain was literally at times, a 45 degree incline, climbing and traversing rocks for hours. Most of the time I used the chain or rope running along the trail to get me over. Our backpacks were too heavy (novices) and my cousin Leonel was kind enough to carry mine and at times Sheenas and her friend Ryanns....he got quite the workout. Alex lead the way most of the time and did a good job. He was fairing very well. Sheena did great and her friend Ryann did well, but was discouraged by a leg injury. So she really had a tough time, but persevered through the pain. I struggled with light headedness, but worked through it. We all had our moments of doubts, but worked through them. We had battery issues with our headlamps and you couldn't see in front of you without one. Leonel couldn't find the batteries he packed.....5 stations later, he found them in his jacket. I couldn't find the headlamp I bought for the trip. Found it after the hike in my backpack. We could have been a little more organized :)We eventually broke through the clouds and the sky was filled with stars, more than I had ever seen. When we were approaching the 8th station, it looked as if we could reach out and touch the stars.....it was beautiful. The climb was one of the most physically and challenging feats I have ever endured. We felt like giving up so many times, but realized at that point we would have to go back the way we came and we really did not want to give up. So, you just keep taking the next step, knowing it's going to get you where you want to be, even if it's going to take 6 hours. After hiking up a mountain all night to reach the summit before sunrise, we realized that we were not going to make it all the way up in time and settled for stopping at the Fujisan Hotel (on the mountain) to watch the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, while above the clouds. It was exciting since everyone on the mountain trails above you and below you are all looking East to watch the sunrise and as it first peaks out, the Japanese all welcome the sun. It is called "land of the rising sun" for good reason. Well, most of the internet research I read said it takes about 5-6 hours to get to the summit. We figured we would have time to rest at one of the many stations "huts" along the way, but it took us almost 11 hours to reach the summit and had NO time to rest. We got to the top around 7am, collapsed on the ground for a few minutes, used the restroom (for 3 yen) bought some snacks, checked out the crater and started heading down. Now, we thought heading down would be so easy....NOPE, nothing is easy. We stumbled down that mountain, in the rain (after passing through the clouds) for 6 hours. There were so many switchbacks and it was so hard to keep yourself from falling forward...it was almost as much work as going up! Let me tell you, as much trouble as we had and as slow as we were, we are glad to say we did it. We will probably never do it again. The most impressive part was watching the Japanese people handle the mountain. There were little children on the hike with their parents. They never complained. All of them handled the hike with ease, even going down they passed us up all the time. They weren't mountaineers, but they must be in great shape or eat really well...not sure....but they were impressive! Also, at the 5th station we bought a hiking pole and you get a stamp burned into the wood pole at every station and then the summit as a souvenir. I will be displaying my proudly at home! It was a great experience and I'm glad I did it. Anyways, we had to rush back to Sheena's, return all the gear and the van, but realized we weren't going to catch our 4:06pm train in Tokyo to Kyoto....so, we went to Kyoto to exchange our tickets for their later train at 8:03pm...needless to say, it was down to the minute. We found the JR office and waited in line and prayed that the person helping us knew a little English. She was great and exchanged them out as quickly as possible. We ran through the gates and realized they weren't accepting Sheena's ticket. She is standing there telling us to go and she would come up tomorrow...we were pleading with the agents and telling them that she just got the ticket exchanged....finally they gave her a piece of paper and let her through....we ran up the stairs with our luggage to the platform and the train was there..hopped on with 2 minutes to spare! Crazy, but we did get to Kyoto by 11pm and then took a taxi to our little Japanese styled house...more on that tomorrow.