After shorter sleep than I would have preferred I still woke up fairly fresh and ready to go. I was eager to get going for the climb that I have been waiting for two years. Can't wait!
For breakfast quick and easy bento box I had bought last night.
I got up faster than I had actually planned but that's allright I thought. Better early than late they say and I was expecting long climb!
Quite relaxing views from the train while going toward the mountain.
Now the Mount Fuji came to visible. By this time my hands started to actually shake out of excitement!
I guess you CAN climb the Fuji mountain from the bottom but most take bus to 5th station and so did I. Good enough sport this way as it is. On the way up I got into long chat with Japanese men(change of pace to talk with male!) talking about this and that.
This is what greeted me at the 5th station. Quite busy looking. Also quite foggy start for the day...At least shouldn't be boiling at first!
Beginning of the path from 5th to 6th station is quite flat and doesn't resemble that much of a climbing yet.
But eventually it started to get steeper.
And steeper.
Something I noticed right away was the large number of kids around. Guess this ain't too bad if kids can do it as well. Maybe I'll take my brothers climb this one one day :D
By now it was starting to be honest climb. My pace had dropped noticably from the "overtake others left and right".
Small stairways like these to help you around.
And now the ground was getting quite rough. By now this was real business and I was sweating quite heavily.
I actually managed to miss the SIXTH station. I'm sure I passed it. Just didn't register to my memory. So was surprised to see myself at the 7th station(and at 2700 meters)
So good 3.4 kilometers left to the sumit. It was over 5km at the start. I'm comiiiiing!
This was rough patch to climb up!
One of the torii gates here.
Not easy spot this either. Took opportunity to take a breather and rest a bit. I was starting to suffer effects of high altitude sickness with throbbing pain.
Luckily I the arrived to 8th station and to the mountain hut I would be staying for the night.
Quite a view from the mountain hut level!
Can't get there without taking photo of yourself right! Bought the stick at the 7th station and I think it just might be best purchace I have ever made in Japan(even though it's too long for my bags. Not sure how to get it to Finland!). Was very helpful with getting good solid foot holds at times. And resting your head when it was throbbing in pain...
3400 meters and while it's 33+ in Tokyo only 17 degrees here. Japanese were saying it's cold, I was thinking it's nice and warm with sun to my face. Well until fog came in...
Shouldn't make fun of translations but this feels somehow like computer translator had done it. They can't get any good volunteer to do one?
Looking at the clouds BELOW you was quite an interesting experience. Clouds are supposed to be ABOVE you. Not BELOW you :D
Couldn't get enough of watching those. If only my head wouldn't have hurt like a swarm of angry dwarves were using my head as an anvil...I realized I had made terrible mistake with my pacing. I had climbed way too fast! For one: I had been suggested to start a climb around 12 and get here around 6-7pm. I started around 1pm and arrived around 3pm...Whooooops! Too fast of a pace. Apart from me having tons of time to kill(they would wake us at 1:30am) I had made me suffer from very, very bad case of high altitude sickness. My head felt like exploding! You should climb SLOWLY to let your body adapt to the thinning air. I didn't, now I was paying price for it. Big price.
Sun was going down! When I had on route first time realized I would be coming to mountain hut way too early I toyed around with idea of going to see the sundown from up, come back and then go to see sunrise. But I dropped that as I really didn't think I could stomach the trip twice.
My bed for the night. Not luxurious by any means. More like being crammed like sardines!
This was probably THE worst night I have ever had. For starters I had the high altitutde sickness. Which got worse. First it was just the headache. Then I started to feel randomly either hot or cold. I shaked. I felt like puking up. I tried to sleep and got some naps and eventually around 9pm(so after 6 hours of resting in the mountain hut) head felt more normal and I got some sleep before I realized I wasn't getting any more sleep. I stood around waiting for a while(damn I wished I had had a book with me) and eventually around 0:30(so 1h before supposed wake up time) I packed my things and headed for the mountain top. This way I would have even more time to time so could take it more slowly and for second I hear the road gets quite packed.
But first some more random views of the clouds. I love 'em!
Last 1.3 kilometers! Due to being pitch black don't have photos of route in between though. Unfortunately headache returned pretty much right away after start though at least at the start it was bit easier.
Last 400 meters. The further I got the thinner air got and the worse headache got. I started to take breaks lot more often and lot longer. This was by far physically hardest thing I have yet tried. Head felt like exploding and still I needed to keep going up toward constantly thinner air. I seriously considered about giving up but somehow was able to continue. Last 100 meters I felt like I was taking a breather all the time.
But finally I arrived to the top. Thirsty I bought myself drink from nearby vending machines(yeah. vending machines at 3.7km altitude...). Unfortunately stupidly picked up coca cola figuring cold drink would do good. WRONG! It was already quite FREEZY so I was soon shivering up. Should have bought something hot(later got myself hot chocolate). Put up last of my warm clothing and realized that arriving early(would have 3 hours to wait for the sunrise) I would at least get excelent seat from the very front!
The next 3 hours was basically me freezing and sitting and trying to not get bored to death. Not most fun 3 hours though at least talking first with some older men and later when he had left somewhere with couple foreigners who had arrived to the same spot.
Couple shots when it started to brighten up enough for camera to get semi-sensible pictures. Nearby city was btw quite pretty in the darkness. Too bad my cameras can't take good night photographs(or if they can I can't).
As sunrise got closer people coming up increased and I was glad I had left early. It was HUGE crowd coming up(all did not make it in time for sunrise actually). With the headlamps it was like watching river of silver from up.
Now it was getting bright indeed. It was soooo beautiful.
Sun had already risen but behind cloud. I was by now frozen, hungry and tired so retired from my seat and went to eat some goraiko udon(goraiko being Japanese term for sunrise. Udon having big yellow egg in the middle). During that time cloud dissapeared and people went crazy.
Gooooood moooooorniiiiing!
Sorry about messed up order.
After this I got stamp from temple and went to see the crater(this IS volcano...) before starting the climb back down.
First time(surprise surprise) I saw volcanic crater(albeit not all the way to bottom due to safety line and angles of view. Maybe elsewhere would have been better view but wasn't feeling like walking this all the way around!).
With sun up it was already warm enough to take away the gloves!
Got here got here got here!
With this I left and started climb down. Path down is different to path up.
This was actually fun path to go down. It was soft sand and small stones and you could half-run half-slide it down very fast. Apart from being fun it was also fast. While it took me good 2 hours to go from mountain hut to top it was more like 20, 25 minutes to get down same distance. Yey! Was getting back to more normal air(already up from about 55% of normal to 65% of normal or so).
On route there were parts like these. Guess the path on right is bit too unstable so they have built these for safety?
Path down made the climb seem even more nuts. Did I really climb UP this distance? Sheesh. No idea anymore how I was able to do that.
Some of these ladders were quite tall so hard to get down.
Eventually after uneventful trip I was finally closing in to the 5th station. I DID IT! And got back safely.
There was this horse waiting around close to 6th station. They are riding people around here(guess up to 6th station) in horses(for fee of course).
This sight welcomed me back to 5th station. Next it would be just bus and trains back home.
I had bought myself before trip ticket to concert of idol group Juice=Juice(from Hello Project whose consert I saw sunday. Actually saw the Juice=Juice there as well). Wasn't sure would I even be able to go there(wasn't sure how long it would take to get down from mountain nor would I be wake enough) but it wasn't too expensive. Unfortunately timing was so that while I could get to concert venue ahead time I couldn't go to ryokan and then to concert venue without serious risk of missing on time. Especially since the place was bit far from station. So I had to carry all the stuff I had WITH me. I would be one odd idol concert visitor with frigging mountain climber staff, spare(warm) clothes and whatnot. Hahaha.
Anyway since I had time to kill arriving to one station I saw note of book-off store so thought I would go there and buy myself manga to read and basically kill time. Oh and find restaurant on route whichever comes first. As it is I first found first chinese restaurant and got myself this:
Some sort of meat-thingie(not sure what it is. Will search for it later), rice, gyoza(meat/vegetable dumblings) and beer. Plus soup and pickled vegetables.
Tasty.
Getting to concert venue I ended up chatting with one guy in his late-30's/early 40's I think about this and that. Starting with where I came from, then bit about Fuji(guess the staff I was carrying was bit of a tell-tale where I was coming from. lol), Juice=Juice, hello project in general(I recounted how I had one day went to C-ute's concert when it was unusually late. And on the day when it rained heavily. He just laughed "that's Maimi". Leader of C-ute is infamous among fans for having reputation of being "rain girl". Where she goes rain comes. Does seem sometimes C-ute related events are unusually rainy though....But why specifically Maimi?). Fun having someone to chat with since I had too much time to kill. Though AGAIN I had trouble understanding his speech. What is it with men speech that makes it so hard for me to understand?
There was special offer today that if you buy the newest album(regular version only) you can actually go and get it signed by the girls before live. Might have considered except a) I prefer special edition versions if I get albums to get dvd/bluray(in this case bluray has all music video clips and dvd has video of previous concert tour) b) my budget couldn't really afford the 4500 yen or so(about 40e) for this c) anyway when I found out(from the guy I was chatting) the line for concert goods was bloody long anyway. Not sure would I have been in time anyway.
Concert venue and organization reminded a lot of the s/mileage concert. Smaller live house so basically bar with stage(though no alcohol drink service in this concert. Non-alcoholics available only) with about ~600? people fitting in. Rather than specified seats you go in in groups based on number on your ticket. I was in last parts but due to size of room had no problem seeing anyway except for one supporting pillar that hid 1-2 girls from left(most of the time just leftmost but if space between girls was particularly wide 2 girls hidden).
Won't put in full concert set list as most of the songs were from albums which I hadn't heard before so putting things in order would be tough. Also setlist on wiki is from previous days and slightly different to the ones played today. But few favourites.
Watashi ga iu mae ni dakishime nakya ne(hug me before I tell you). The very first single from this group from spring 2013. Saw the girls live first time when they performed this song before 2 concerts I went. They sure have grown up in the 2 years having lost most of the baby-look. Or maybe it's just being more professionally styled. Then again now there is already two in their 20's and even youngest ones are soon 17.
ijiwaru shinaide dakishimete yo(don't be spiteful but embrace me). When I first time saw this video something bugged me about this video It only occured a while later it was that while my favourite girl(Karin) could be seen in CLOSEUPS in dance shots....She wasn't there. Instead some stranger was dancing up. Seems that Karin had injured her ankle so couldn't take part in video and in concerts around that time she was singing sitting on a stool.
(btw Karin is the face on the video clip above).
Not Juice=Juice song but 3 girls(including my favourite who is also one of the girls in the above video. This is song from one short lived sprinter groups) made cover of this. Nice chance. Never expected to hear this one live since the unit doesn't really work anymore. And Karin being in was nice bonus.
The one song from album I HAD heard before since they had music video from before. Not fan of the video but song is at least better.
This time waiting encore shouting was bit different to ones I have been before. Rather than "encore! encore!" they were shouting "juusu juusu mou ikkai". juusu juusu being how you pronounce the name of the group. mou ikkai is "once more".
Now after concert was over there was one hell of a surprise for me(though I found out this before concert began when I reread the ticket and noticed line I had missed before). There was handshake event after the concert! Now I have HEARD of those and even saw one in tower records 2 years ago but never went to one. Never felt like spending time to find out where one is, spend time go there and pay for one. But hey since it was included in ticket might just as well do it.
Now compared to the one I saw this pace was lot faster but then again with hundreds of people guess they NEED to make it fast. Before climbing stairs you are asked to show you aren't holding anything and your belongings are in white bag they provide(security?). Since I had checked in stuff to register rather than carry them around I thought I was clear. But was showed aside. Why? I had my watch in my wrist...Oops! Thorough. I presume this is to ensure girls don't by any freak accident hit into any sharp angle or anything. After pocketing the watch I was again on my way to see the girls.
Now the one I had seen people had exchanged few words so I had come up with couple appropriate looking ones but due to increased pace there was no time say anything. Ah well. It also meant it was VERY brief shake(and get to hear them say "thank you!". They took foreigner coming in in a stride at least. No sign of suprise in faces). The biggest bummer was that the briefest shake I ended up was with my favourite one. Hands barely brushed before line basically pushed me away. BUMMER!
Ah well. Still won't pay any significant amount for these nor go any long route just for this but as a freebie along the ticket, why not. But poor girls. Even with the pace it still takes quite time standing and shaking hands. Wonder how often they have these events? Between july and september and few days in june they have 57 performances+the hello project summer tour so lots of concerts to perform in.
Fun little event anyway. After this I headed home. Next day(well today since writing this took longer than I expected so wrote half of it in shinkansen) I will check out from hotel and head to Takamatsu. First part of the trip is over! Next Shikoku and festivals in there!
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