During the last two days of Micha & Bart's stay in Japan, we decided to climb mount Fuji. As this would be quite the undertaking, we made sure we were prepared! Backpacks, headlights, walking stick, ponchos, warm clothes, enough water and some food. The regular climbing season had already ended, but we decided to go anyway. We figured that climbing during the night would be the best option with the arrival at the top planned just before sunrise. We took the bus from Shinjuku at 16:50 and arrived around 19:15 at the 5th Station of mount Fuji. We immediately noticed what 'out of season' meant there. All shops except one were closed, there was no restaurant open for our planned dinner and the last shop closed some half hour after our arrival. We had just enough time to go to the toilet, change into warmer clothes (only 13.1 degrees) and buy some nikuman (Japanese dumplings filled with meat). Our trip started with a bit of a meagre dinner and while eating the lights outside the shop were switched off one by one as well. We had to wait for an hour to get used to the thin air anyway, but we never expected to do that on the street with only the vending machines illuminating us.

There were some 20 other people waiting there with us and after exactly one hour (the recommended waiting time) the first people started to climb up. We followed them but when we stopped to take some pictures of the map of the trail to the top (for easy reference later), we already lost them. The fifth station is at an altitude of 2305 meter which meant that we had to climb another 1471 meter to get to the top. The first sign said that would take us 385 minutes (non-stop) and we had 9 hours to go until sunrise. Unexpectedly, the road started going down, but some (foreign) people coming towards us said we were on the right track. The route took us through a small forest which looked kind of spooky due to the headlights showing only a small part of our surroundings. That the trees were all growing in strange directions, with roots sticking our everywhere, didn't help either. There was also a concrete tunnel in case we needed to 'take shelter from falling rocks'. The first part was actually quite easy. The first clear view of the area below us showed two of the lakes and some of the towns surrounding Fuji. The city Kawaguchiko was actually quite larger than we expected and we never knew traffic lights would be visible at such a distance. At bit further the 6th station (2390 meter, 21:00) and Safety Guidance Center were closed, but gave us a better opportunity to take pictures from the surrounding area. The pictures with 15 seconds exposure time look really nice!

After that the climb got a bit more steeper and started to zig-zag a lot. There are no huts to pause for a while between the 6th and 7th station, so we just had to continue. That the air was getting thinner didn't help either, but at 22:30 we finally arrived at 7th station (2700 m). We took some rest and Cup Noodles to get warmer and as extra dinner. Since it looked like we would not arrive on time (before or at sunrise) at the top, Micha and Bart decided to go ahead of us. After the 7th there were more huts where you could sleep (for a steep fee), buy some food and drinks and take a rest on a bench outside. Knowing where you could take your next rest was motivating to continue climbing, especially since the trail was becoming more steeper and more difficult to climb.

Of course there were other people climbing Fuji as well that night. Not the crowds that are normally there during the high season, but just a few hundred. Since everybody rested at different places, we regularly met the same people. We overtook them and somewhat later they overtook us again, and again. At the 8th station (3100 m, 01:00) we even took some pictures of a group we'd seen several times. They said they could speak English, but were glad to continue in Japanese. At another rest stop, one Japanese guy caught Dennis by surprise when he asked 'Denisu?'. He was one of the guys working at the hairdresser Dennis always goes to (near our house). What are the odds of that!

One of the problems you can encounter when climbing to these altitudes is mountain sickness which gives you a dizzy feeling. Breathing more oxygen really helps, so we bought 'air in a can'. Of course it is always difficult to tell if it actually helps, but at least the dizziness seemed to subside from Michelle. Taking a regular rest also helps of course. Strangely enough, at one of the places we were allowed to rest inside (warmer) for 15 minutes when we ordered hot chocolate, but all of the Japanese that bought something just sat outside to eat or drink it. We still have no clue why they didn't come inside.

The next station was the 'original 8th station', sometimes called the 8.5th station. It's at 3360 meters high and the last stop to get anything for the rest of the trip (although we didn't know that then). We got there at 3:00 in the morning, so we only had another 2 hours to get to the top. We could see how the trail went from there since the headlights of all the people made a nice zig-zag all the way to the summit. After this station the climb was getting really difficult since it couldn't be called a trail anymore but rather 'here is the mountain wall with a lot of scattered rocks please figure out yourself how to climb up to the next station, probably on all fours'. Of course everybody was getting tired too, so the pace slowed down more and more. A bit further along was the 9th station, although calling it an actual station is a bit of a stretch. It's more a shack of a few square meters and was closed.

Nearly at the top at 5:00 we turned around to get a good view of the sunrise. When you climb, you look at the ground and rock of course, but when we turned around and sat down on the volcanic rock, the pre-sunrise sunlight showed a beautiful vista. We were way higher than the clouds and due to the excellent weather (no rain, little wind, few clouds) the view was spectacular. Of course, Michelle did have to overcome her fear of height somewhat because it was very steep but she eventually enjoyed the view. As the sun rose we made lots of pictures of course, just like many other people. When the sun could be seen, a cheer rose up in the air, joined by lots of 'kirei!' (beautiful) around us. Surprisingly we did not hear the "sunrise-music" a lot of people talked about. The guy next to us wanted to hand us some chocolates to celebrate, but somehow he fell. Luckily it was 'only' a meter on the volcanic rocks, but it could have been really bad for him. Funnily, he didn't get up immediately but picked up the chocolates he dropped while hanging there precariously. Which made it a little bit comical.

The temperature was around 5 degrees at that time, but when the sun came up it started to climb steadily. When we reached the summit however, the wind was much stronger which dropped it again to around 2 degrees. One of the first people we saw up there was Bart and Micha, so we didn't have to search for them. They were really surprised that we actually made it to the top! They had been there for about an hour and were frozen all over. We found it really strange that nothing was open at the top. No shops, no toilet, no rest place at all. We quickly took some pictures of the crater, which wasn't that interesting actually, and decided to go down with them. Micha wanted to take the same route back as we took up, but Dennis directed us to the actual route down. This is a completely different route, fully man-made and in stark contrast to the route up. Long zig-zags down, no climbing on all fours or tricky slopes. It looked almost leisurely but it was steeper than expected, the ground was covered by small rocks and loose volcanic sand and you continuously had to look out that you didn't slide down. It was a real strain on the knees and after hours and hours of going down you could really feel them. Michelle had been grateful for her walking stick going up, but when going down it was a real life-saver. Along the way down, we saw one huge ice block which apparently doesn't melt in the sun, and ground kept changing colour from black to red to brown. You could really see there that Fuji had been an active volcano. We also saw several 'trucks' with caterpillar tracks going up this trail to bring stocks to the stations and mountain huts as well. We had to keep up the pace on our way down since we had to be in time for our bus. We were a bit surprised that we were quicker than the estimated walking time, but also really glad to be back at the 5th station again around 10:00.

This was a completely different 5th station than the one we had left 14 hours before. Every shop was open, a crowd on the square and a continuous string of buses unloading visitors. We had one hour to take a rest, eat some ice-cream and change our clothes. The last surprise of the day was that we had reserved bus seats for row 10, but that row had only two seats not four, since the other two were occupied by the toilet. The look on the bus driver's face was amazing when he realised they sold us seats that didn't exist! He got on the phone with the bus company and just ordered 6 guys to get off the bus. Amazingly, they did so without any complaint or questions asked. The road back was really quiet since the entire bus was sleeping. It had been a long, tiring night, but we could feel we had achieved something to be proud of.