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Monday, July 26, 2004
onwards and upwards
we drove up a long and winding road that lead us to the fifth station. by that time it was pitch black, and i was feeling a bit sleepy... darn my vehicular-motion-induced sleepiness. we had to park about 2km from the fifth station. Upon exiting the car, i immediately noticed how much cooler it was...this cold? already??? eeeep.
we made it to fifth station where wayne immediately disappeared, sending linda on a frantic search, and i got my hands on a big ol` walking stick (withayellowribbonandbells). i also got a picture of a bunch of guys dressed up in dragon and monkey costumes =) glancing briefly at the array of headlamps and gloves, i sniffed in disdain over how like, COMMERCIALIZED this whole experience was. who needs all of that extra stuff? i mean, i had my trusty fleece, hoody, t-shirt, uniqlo indoor pants, and trusty walking stick... nothing else needed!
a nice american man took a Before picture for us, and we were off! (oh yeah, wayne was found in a nearby bathroom).
we started off pretty strong, julia proving her hiking prowess early on, leaving us behind. Soon after, the LinWay contingent split into two factions, as LinNa joined as one sluggish troupe while Way forged ahead somewhere in the middle. cries of "REst TIME!!" and "Holy Crap man!!" were heard from LinNa. There was one part where the trail became flat ground, and we could see Yamanashi spread out in front of us, in an awesome and glittering panorama. so pretty.
onwards and upwards!
it was getting hot up there cuz of like... all of the climbing, and i felt very genki. yess!! i was doing this!! mt doom!! i mean FUJI.
onwards and upwards!
reaching 6th station was joy contained.
hiking up to the 7th and 8th station was fear contained.
i can`t remember the exact times/locations because the rest of the climb is a big, black windy blur. there were spots where the terrain turned traitorous and treacherous. in some parts i was worried that if i stood up straight, i would be blown off the side of the mountain, NOT KIDDING. it got incredibly windy, and unfortunately that meant we also were hiking headlong into a mini sandstorm. at one point, because my eyesight had betrayed me, and all i could see in front of me were wavery points of light, out of desperation, i took out my contact. realizing how STUPID that was i begged Lin to stand behind to block the wind as i tried to jam the wayward lens back into my eye. fortunately, (bless her overprepared self), Lin had contact lens eyedrops and so the lens was returned successfully. Still with copious amounts of grit and dirt though ;) i could only kind of see for the rest of the way up, and that made me more tense and anxious that i would have been under normal circumstances. another really tricky section was the section of almost vertical rocky terrain, which in itself was challenging to navigate, but add dim lighting conditions and a herd of hikers DESCENDING and it makes for a frustrating climb. it was here that i realized the necessity of headlamps and gloves. grrrr.
onwards and upwards?
then it started raining.
i guess on the way to the Real 8th station, there were moments when i had to swallow the urge to cry because there was just no TIme to do that. it`s a funny, wobbly feeling realizing that there is no way out. you HAVE to keep on climbing no matter how much you just want to shut down.
we reached the real 8th around 4am, soaked, tired, cold, tired and tired. at this point, i wished for garbage bags, so i could make some sort of makeshift rain poncho. julia had arrived about an hour earlier, and had managed to seduce most of the staff with her drew barrymore-like looks:
"you like Charlie`s Angels?"
"Oh! Yeah I do..."
"You look like!"
"Oh, ok thanks..!"
i slept while sitting on a crate, but was still incredibly cold and dazed. At that point i had no interest in making it up the summit. i just wanted to get off Doom, i mean FUJI! Fuji... We met a guy fom T.O. (don mills & eglinton) who worked at nova. there were so many foreigners there... and i ran into charlotte at one of the rest stations! weird!
around 430am, the rain stopped, and we headed out, onwards and downwards. my first glimpse of the view literally stopped my heart. it was amazing. i`ve never (and probably never will) see anything like it again.
so high i could touch the sky...
we were above the clouds.
as awesome as the view was, we were pretty determined to find our way down from doom, i MEAN Fuji. the descent was much easier, but inversely, really tough on the knees. the view kept on getting more spectacular the closer we came to earth.
we finally got back to fifth station, had some peaches, trudged back to the car, came back to LinWay`s and crashed.
there`s a saying somewhere that a wise man climbs fuji once, a fool does it twice. i was talking this over with wayne while we were on our way to another udon shop. even though earlier vows of "i will never ever do this again in my life, ONLY A FOOL ONLY A FOOL!!!!" i think if we started in the day, and slept over/rested at one of the rest stations, i would totally do it again, and would make sure i reached the summit.
so yeah, that was Doom.. i mean FUJI!!!
the rest of the weekend was appropriately chill and fun...fuji again? onwards and upwards =)
we drove up a long and winding road that lead us to the fifth station. by that time it was pitch black, and i was feeling a bit sleepy... darn my vehicular-motion-induced sleepiness. we had to park about 2km from the fifth station. Upon exiting the car, i immediately noticed how much cooler it was...this cold? already??? eeeep.
we made it to fifth station where wayne immediately disappeared, sending linda on a frantic search, and i got my hands on a big ol` walking stick (withayellowribbonandbells). i also got a picture of a bunch of guys dressed up in dragon and monkey costumes =) glancing briefly at the array of headlamps and gloves, i sniffed in disdain over how like, COMMERCIALIZED this whole experience was. who needs all of that extra stuff? i mean, i had my trusty fleece, hoody, t-shirt, uniqlo indoor pants, and trusty walking stick... nothing else needed!
a nice american man took a Before picture for us, and we were off! (oh yeah, wayne was found in a nearby bathroom).
we started off pretty strong, julia proving her hiking prowess early on, leaving us behind. Soon after, the LinWay contingent split into two factions, as LinNa joined as one sluggish troupe while Way forged ahead somewhere in the middle. cries of "REst TIME!!" and "Holy Crap man!!" were heard from LinNa. There was one part where the trail became flat ground, and we could see Yamanashi spread out in front of us, in an awesome and glittering panorama. so pretty.
onwards and upwards!
it was getting hot up there cuz of like... all of the climbing, and i felt very genki. yess!! i was doing this!! mt doom!! i mean FUJI.
onwards and upwards!
reaching 6th station was joy contained.
hiking up to the 7th and 8th station was fear contained.
i can`t remember the exact times/locations because the rest of the climb is a big, black windy blur. there were spots where the terrain turned traitorous and treacherous. in some parts i was worried that if i stood up straight, i would be blown off the side of the mountain, NOT KIDDING. it got incredibly windy, and unfortunately that meant we also were hiking headlong into a mini sandstorm. at one point, because my eyesight had betrayed me, and all i could see in front of me were wavery points of light, out of desperation, i took out my contact. realizing how STUPID that was i begged Lin to stand behind to block the wind as i tried to jam the wayward lens back into my eye. fortunately, (bless her overprepared self), Lin had contact lens eyedrops and so the lens was returned successfully. Still with copious amounts of grit and dirt though ;) i could only kind of see for the rest of the way up, and that made me more tense and anxious that i would have been under normal circumstances. another really tricky section was the section of almost vertical rocky terrain, which in itself was challenging to navigate, but add dim lighting conditions and a herd of hikers DESCENDING and it makes for a frustrating climb. it was here that i realized the necessity of headlamps and gloves. grrrr.
onwards and upwards?
then it started raining.
i guess on the way to the Real 8th station, there were moments when i had to swallow the urge to cry because there was just no TIme to do that. it`s a funny, wobbly feeling realizing that there is no way out. you HAVE to keep on climbing no matter how much you just want to shut down.
we reached the real 8th around 4am, soaked, tired, cold, tired and tired. at this point, i wished for garbage bags, so i could make some sort of makeshift rain poncho. julia had arrived about an hour earlier, and had managed to seduce most of the staff with her drew barrymore-like looks:
"you like Charlie`s Angels?"
"Oh! Yeah I do..."
"You look like!"
"Oh, ok thanks..!"
i slept while sitting on a crate, but was still incredibly cold and dazed. At that point i had no interest in making it up the summit. i just wanted to get off Doom, i mean FUJI! Fuji... We met a guy fom T.O. (don mills & eglinton) who worked at nova. there were so many foreigners there... and i ran into charlotte at one of the rest stations! weird!
around 430am, the rain stopped, and we headed out, onwards and downwards. my first glimpse of the view literally stopped my heart. it was amazing. i`ve never (and probably never will) see anything like it again.
so high i could touch the sky...
we were above the clouds.
as awesome as the view was, we were pretty determined to find our way down from doom, i MEAN Fuji. the descent was much easier, but inversely, really tough on the knees. the view kept on getting more spectacular the closer we came to earth.
we finally got back to fifth station, had some peaches, trudged back to the car, came back to LinWay`s and crashed.
there`s a saying somewhere that a wise man climbs fuji once, a fool does it twice. i was talking this over with wayne while we were on our way to another udon shop. even though earlier vows of "i will never ever do this again in my life, ONLY A FOOL ONLY A FOOL!!!!" i think if we started in the day, and slept over/rested at one of the rest stations, i would totally do it again, and would make sure i reached the summit.
so yeah, that was Doom.. i mean FUJI!!!
the rest of the weekend was appropriately chill and fun...fuji again? onwards and upwards =)
// posted by naomi @ 10:10 p.m. 
