Mt. Fuji Climb...finally!

I have been horrible at updating my blog for the last month and a bit...Gaining responsibilities at my job has been more than I expected. Sometimes I just want to say F*@K it all and quit, go back to teaching or something...but I swallow it all and keep trudging! Hopefully it'll get easier in a couple months.

Anyway, here are pictures from the Mt. Fuji climb. We went on August 31, which was actually the last day we were allowed to climb the mountain. This was the hardest thing I've done physically in years!!! Mt. Fuji is no joke...on certain parts of the climb we were on our hands and knees. The air was thin, and cold. Thank God I dressed for the part. I'm posting the pictures in the exact order they were taken...so you guys can see the difference in scenery and how dead I look towards the end, LOL. The ascent alone took 6 or 7 hours!

At the parking lot:
Still waking up....Me sans ANY makeup.
We spotted my BF's buddies on the way up...
ABOOOOVE the clouds!!!
My favorite picture:
STEEP!
These signs were all over the mountain..."Beware of falling rocks"
Japanese humor is something else - a sign from the men's room...'Shoot...! Wow!!' WTH???
Other than some shrubs and mountain flowers, this butterfly was the only sign of life at 3700 meters:
The descent...
Okay, so we didn't make it to the very top. We only had a few hundred meters to go, but lemme tell you, when you're up that high, walking for five minutes without having to stop is impossible! I started getting mountain sickness so we voted to climb down. The descent took four hours. We took the WRONG route and ended up on a different side of the mountain!!! When we were near end, it got really dark. Of course there are no lights whatsoever, and we didn't have flashlights with us. Luckily we met up with a group of avid hikers who had head flashlights. They guided us down the rest of the way, which was through a frickin' FOREST. I couldn't see SH*T! I had to hold on to my man for dear life so I wouldn't fall over the edge or trip over a tree stump. If you've ever walked through a damp forest at night, you'd all agree it's one of the scariest things ever!

Soooo we finally get to a parking lot where we had to call a cab to get down the mountain, and get back up the mountain to the parking lot where our van was parked. The cab ride cost $170!!!!!!! All in all, it was a disastrous experience....but who knows, I might go again next summer and try to make it to the very top!