4 hours 26 minutes

That's how long it took us to climb Mt. Fuji. We shattered the previous world record by an incredible 2 hours, 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Seriously, though, the sign at the bottom says that climbing Mt. Fuji is supposed to take 5-7 hours, so I was quite happy with our time. We weren't racing or anything, just nice to know that we're not out-of-shape slack-assess. Funny, because on the way down we passed a bunch of American military guys who were really struggling to get to the top.

Last Friday, the four of us (Rui, Risa, Kari, and Natari) took the Shinkansen (burret train) to a train station right after work, where we were supposed to take a bus. Long story short, we ended up taking a cab, and shelling out 3000 yen each for the ride. Not too shabby, considering the ride was over an hour long. We got to the 5th stage camp (that's where everyone starts climbing from) at 11 pm, and started our ascent.

It was the first day of the climbing season, yet all of the huts along the way up were closed except for one, about halfway up. When we opened the door to see if we could go inside and have a rest, a dude came out and asked us if we wanted to sleep there (many people climb during the day, pay to spend the night in a hut, then start climbing very early to see the sunrise). We said no, and he promptly kicked us out. Then he locked the door. Jackass. We snuck into a nearby janitor's closet just to get out of the wind, and took a 10 minute break there instead.

The only really negative note of the trip was that one of our group members got separated from us, because we were climbing at different paces. Although we had agreed beforehand that everyone would climb at their own pace, we felt kinda bad leaving her behind. We figured she could spend the night at the hut if she felt the climb was too difficult; we also felt that it was unsafe for us to rest for more than 10 minutes at a time (once we stoped, we cooled down very rapidly).

The trail itself was quite challenging. Very steep at some points, very slippery or loose rocks at others, and climbing in the dark was tough. Got good use out of my headlamp finally, though. Fortunately, the trail was well-marked, and there was a rope on most parts of the trail that saved me from falling on more than one occasion.

About 3/4 of the way up (or maybe 4/5ths) we ran into two people from Taiwan that spooked Lisa. They were just sitting there in the dark, and you're not really expecting a random "hello" at that point on the mountain. Apparently, they had been climbing in pitch dark, after being separated from their friend with the "group flashlight". Placing them between us (we all had headlamps), we escorted them up until they eventually caught up with their friend.

The summit itself was unspectacular, with an ugly (closed) building, and mostly rocks for scenery. The view looking away from Mt. Fuji, though, was incredible. Nicest view from 3776 m that I've ever seen :)

Climbed down in a hurry, hooked up with our other team member, and passed lots of people on their way up. I was surprised to see so many foreigners, but apparently about 1/3 of people who climb Mt. Fuji are foreign. All in all a good way to spend my second-last weekend here in Japan.