#9 Climbing Mount Fuji

Dear Steemit friends, this is the tale about how a lazy bum like me climbed up mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan. I am not going to lie and say it was all fun, because it was really exhausting, but the climb was really worth it at the end.

I was actually in Japan visiting one of my closest friends in Takasaki, in Gunma. He is such an amazing person and not at all what most people perceive of Japanese people. Anyways, as I was already in Japan, I really wanted to do the "hike", (at least that is how easy I thought it would be) to Mount Fuji. I was really lucky that the weather was nice so I thought, fuck it, I am going to do it.

So, I started my journey from Takasaki at around 7 a.m. I got into a shinkansen (the famous bullet train) and made my way to the Kawaguchiko lake. At this point, it was already around 3 in the afternoon. I wanted to see the sunrise so i had planned to summit Fuji in one night. So I chilled out in the vicinity of this huge lake, had my dinner and went on to the trail.

Since Yoshida trail is the most famous one, I went to the 5th station, which is the beginning of the Yoshida trail. I started my ascend at around 9 in the evening. 

At first, it was all not that hard, so I was like, "Yay! This is so cool. I am totally doing it!" After about an hour, the trail gets way tough. The most difficult part for me however was having to walk in a line. The thing is, the trail gets really narrow and steep as we go up, so you have to walk in a queue. I cannot tell you how many times my face bumped straight to the bum of the guy walking in front of me. 

Another thing is that it gets pretty cold pretty fast up there. The wind blows really hard and it is freezing. There are small huts and cafes on the way but they are really expensive, even for Japan. I actually went into one of them with my friend. We just wanted to share a warm cup of noodle between the two of us, but that was not allowed, so we got kicked out. Funny now, but was really annoying then. Oh, and the people who have headlamps forget that they have the ability to blind you and look straight at your face with their stupid lamps. 

Ok, I am done complaining about all the negatives. Let me now walk you through the positives of the trail. When you are up there, the view will just melt you down. We were literally sandwiched between two layers of clouds. When the sun started surfacing, the light rays were refracted and we could see beautiful rays spreading down the forest on the base of Fuji. It was really one of the best things I have ever seen.

So guys, if you feel like climbing mount Fuji, make sure you have had a really good dinner before the ascent, warm clothes, plenty of water, and food. You need not only some snacks, but also breakfast when you are at the top.