Busy + Mt Fuji

We've been super busy these past few weeks. Girls have been busy wrapping up the school year, Shannon has been busy with getting the house in order for the move and I've been busy at work with a major inspection. Our time here is coming to an end and we are trying to make the most out of the time we have left. The girls had open school on Father's day weekend so I was able to go watch what they to on a daily basis. We've also been hitting the pool and watched LC and E progress with their swimming. A few months back E wouldn't even want to be let go in the pool -- now she wants to go to the deep end by herself. LC has learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels which was a great transition. And we decided to climb Mt Fuji.

We took the girls to Camp Zama for another one of their friendship festivals and ran into all the Senseis from Hosen. 

This is station 5 at Mt Fuji. The last major stop before you head up. Here is where we bought are walking stick that eventually filled up with brands as we hiked up. 

We lucked out with a good day. The two days leading up to it, it had rained which would have made for a miserable climb. 

The path for the most part was a dirt/rock/gravel composition. The temps were perfect. A little muggy but cool. 

This is at station 6..... all smiles, for now. 

We made it up to station 7.5 This is where we overnighted it. We started hiking around 3pm and hiked for 4 hours or so to get here. We rented a futon for the night, ate dinner and laid down. Wasn't really able to rest because it was loud and worse than sleeping on a ship. 

This is inside the hut. It was actually brand new and nice. We slept in the holes where there were 6 beds laid out to accommodate Shannon, our friends and myself. 

We got to see a really nice sunset from station 7.5. We watched the weather clear out and knew the next days weather was going to be perfect for the climb to the top. 

This is looking down from 7.5 as people made their way up.

Great sunset. 

So we all ate, and went down to rest around 9pm. It was up at 1215 to time it right to get up the mountain to see the 430am sunrise. None of us really were really able to sleep but we were able to get some rest.

We donned our headlamps and started climbing at 1230. The traffic towards the top got really bad. And it was cold.... really cold. I kind of stopped taking pix at this point because i would have to take off my gloves and my hands would freese

At last, the same came up at 430. We were about 5-10 min from the top when the sun peaked out. 

We only took this one pic at the top because it was frigid and Shannon didn't feel too well. We we stayed long enough to get a stamp and down we went. 

Just spectacular views from the top of the mountain -- you could see Yokohama and Tokyo. 

 The path down was brutal. It pounded the legs and it was nothing but volcanic gravel and dirt. And nothing but switchbacks.... for 5 hours.

Looking up the Mtn as we came down. You can see all the people coming down as well.

And that was all the pix I took. Overall, it was a once and a lifetime opportunity and it was a nice check in the box to get before we leave Japan. We have looked at Mt Fuji (12,400 ft) for over two years now and glad we were able to get to climb Japan's highest peak. It was no joke though.... in fact it was brutal. We were properly prepared, it just was long and a  lot to do in a few hours.