Oh the Mount Fuji experience!! When we arrived we couldn't even see the mountain due to the bad weather (and our plans to go up it were seriously put in jeopardy). However, the next day we were greeted with blue skies.....our hike up the mountain was back on! Now, as it was no longer officially climbing season, the number of buses that take you up to the 5th station (the highest point that you can drive to and the most common starting point for climbing) were seriously diminished. This meant that by getting the 1st bus up and last one down, we would only have 4 hours - not nearly enough to climb to the top and back. Ali and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would simply have to get as far as we could in those 4 hours and get the last bus back. However, following a quick chat with another backpacker on the bus, we decided we would to all the way to the top and that we would share the cost of a taxi back. Easy! The climb to the top must have been one of the hardest things I've ever done! The nearer we got to the top, the harder it got.....each step became a real effort and I seriously thought that I wouldn't make it!!! Needless to say, I was bloody thankful when we finally made it (4 and a half hours after starting)....only problem now was the fact we had to get down, and my knee was having none of it. The walk down was just as hard because with every step, my knee felt like it was being stabbed with a red-hot poker! Then it started getting dark and we were starting to wonder if we had followed the correct path back down! We finally made it back to the 5th station (7 and a half hours after starting), only to find the place completely shut with no one in sight......we couldn't even find a payphone to call a taxi to come and collect us! Thankfully, as if by magic, a man appeared in his car - he tried and failed to get a taxi, so he agreed to take the 4 of us back into town (the reason he couldn't get a taxi was because they had closed the road)! This man was our savour, they should write songs about him......and he didn't even want any money as thanks! We left the next day- I could barely walk but happy in the knowledge that we had survived Mount Fuji (and hadn't had to spend the night up there)!!