July 19th – mt fuji

So today we had to wake up at 3am to get ready. the mwr bus leaves at 4am from the corner pocket store. Thankfully it is across the street. We get on the bus and sleep a bit. Sumi-san is our tour guide and she wakes our ass up at 530 just to say this is mt fuji. But we still have another hour left. Great. You shouldn’t have woke us up. Whatever. We get there go to the store to buy our sticks. It is already stamped with the first one. We take a picture of all of us and off we go. we got dropped off at the 5^th station and were told that if we could not make it to the 8^th station by 11am we should forget about it. And we should leave the top by 3pm.

We start going up the path and it is not that bad. I think. kara and skyelar are having some trouble. Kara’s side already hurts. Not good. we get to the 6^th station and kara doesn’t look so good. she says she’s out of shape. She has to keep stopping for water breaks. Then I offer to switch bags with her. Her’s is like a ton. “what did you bring in here?” “everything on the list” I open it up and there is this huge sweatshirt and big ass first aid kit. “why did you bring this?” “that is my long sleeve shirt.” “you don’t have a long sleeve shirt?” “no, that is all I have” “you should have showed me this huge first aid kit, we could have brought my small one.” It fits in the palm of your hand. Whatever. We switch and keep going. They are still not doing good. we make it to the 7^th station. I’m still pumped to go. we keep going to the 8^th station. Kara calls it quits and skyelar doesn’t want to do anymore. Autumn and I decide to keep going. We make it to two more huts. I think the last was the 9^th station. Maybe. And then autumn says she wants to go down. GGGGGRRRRRR!!!! I am so fucking disappointed it is unreal. I didn’t pay and come all this way to only make it part of the way. That pisses me off to no end. I really wanted to drag her ass up the mountain, BUT I didn’t want to hear it from kara. This really disappoints me. Going down the mountain sucks ass big time and there is no victory or retribution in not making it all the way to the top. That is failure. I am not satisfied with only making it to the 9^th station. We make it down in about 2 hours. We see some navy guys on the way down and they are walking much faster. I see them go the wrong way, but I can’t call them back. the problem was that I couldn’t just leave her and say I’d come back. I wish I could.

We get to the bus and find kara and skyelar. We go back to town to buy souvenirs. I got a folder, cup, and little plushy. Also a coin. Fujichan is really adorable. We get some yakisoba for dinner and go back to the bus.

Because we finished so early we have hours until the bus leaves. Great. We meet another woman who just got to the base. She asks why I’m here and I saw for school. She says “yea, I don’t know what I want to do yet, that’s why I had a kid, so I’ve got another 15 years to figure it out.” Umm… I don’t really have anything to say to that. I go back to the bus and sleep a bit. Bus still hasn’t left. Finally at 7p we leave and I sleep. We stop to gas up and I go to the convenie. Unfortunately I got a rice ball with umeboshi. L so I eat around it and ditch the rest. I got an anpan and aquarius. Sleep again. We make it back to base at 930p. we get home and immediately take showers to get rid of the grime. Then sleep for real!