Climbing Mt. Fuji is Serious Business

I just woke up from the nap I took after getting back from climbing Mt. Fuji. I walk with a limp because my knees and ankles are swollen, my face is sunburnt, I'm still picking black grime out of my eyes and ears and I'm dehydrated. It was one of those amazing and horrible experiences. We climbed Mt. Fuji in the most traditional way: starting around 8pm, climbing all night, watching the sunrise at the top and then staggering back down. Climbing up was amazing. I'd heard rumors that Japanese women climb Mt. Fuji in heels, but that just can't be true. Unless they get carried down on stretchers. The path alternates between deep layers of loose rock, what often seemed like sheer faces of rock, and steps cut into either of these. The loose rock paths are scary because they're easy to slip on and when the wind blows, it feels like if you step the wrong way you could get blown off the mountain. A lot of dust also gets kicked into the air which settles in every orifice and crease of your body and clothes. I was grateful to be wearing glasses. I'm making it sound unpleasant. But it wasn't. It was hard work climbing, but on average, every 200 vertical meters or so there are rest stations where you can buy ridiculously expensive provisions, sit and rest. Also, the feeling of gradually climbing into the atmosphere, over the clouds, feeling the air get colder and thinner was just too amazing to describe. As we ascended, the clouds below us got thicker and fluffier and the mountains poking out of them - below us - began to look like islands in an ocean. It was so beautiful and I couldn't wait for sunrise. As we neared the summit, the path became more crowded and looking down the path was marked by bobbing lights of other climbers' flashlights. There was also a big group of Japanese military personnel who stopped intermittently, lining the path and yelling what sounded like code phrases too each other. I wonder if Mt. Fuji:Japanese military::Metzada:IDF? Anyway walking past them made the climb feel that much more intense. Within 30 minutes or so of the summit, the altitude really started to affect me. I was dizzy and I had to stop every few minutes to catch my breath. But even with plenty of breaks, we reached the summit ahead of schedule, about 6.5 hours after we started and with 2 hours to spare before sunrise. This turned out to be bad luck. It was FREEZING and WINDY at the top and none of the various shelters available were open, nor were any of us really prepared for cold weather. We huddled, snuggling with strangers in a "shelter" that had four walls but no roof or door that did little to protect us from the wind. It was miserable. We all thought we were going to die. When the sun finally started to rise, we went out to watch, but we were too cold to stay outside and headed in to a shelter crowded with benches and shivering climbers. This was also when I realized I had lost my camera somewhere on the mountain :(((((. We drank hot soup and took turns spending a few minutes outside watching the sky turn orange and shivering uncontrollably. At around 5:30am we decided to start heading down. At least the descent would be warmer! Having climbed up in the dark, it was nice to finally get to see the mountain.
Mt. Fuji is an active volcano. Above the tree line are vast (vertical) plains of small stones, strewn with boulders. It's very colorful; red, blue, yellow, green stones all contribute to the landscape. There are also large swaths of snow, streaked with brown dust at this time of year. It was crazy to think that we had walked so high that it was cold enough for snow, whereas on the ground it's so hot your elbows sweat. The path down was painful. The first half was a looooong zig-zagging path of those deep, loose stones that you basically had to slide down. After half an hour or so of this, knees ache from trying to control speed, and wrists from falling. The descent was so slow. Slipping and sliding, the clouds below never seemed to get any closer. Beneath them the dense Aoyama Forest - nicknamed Suicide Forest for the people who wander in, planning to get lost and die - gleamed green. It hurt a lot. I cried a little. At least it was hot, it has never felt so good to sweat. At last, at last, the zig-zagging path of hell ended, but it was followed by still more downhill and the knees just couldn't handle it. Eventually we took to walking backwards down the hill to ease the pressure on our joints, it was slow and I got a crick in my neck from looking backwards, but it was worth it. After almost 4 hours of climbing down (I was one of the slower ones) we finally reached the bus station. You have never seen a group of smellier, grimier more hysterically exhausted group of foreigners.
Looking back over this description, I realize that over half the hike was miserable. I'm glad we did it, though. It was beautiful and really good to experience "classic Japanese nature" after experiencing so much "classic Japanese metropolis." And yeah! we walked through the clouds!!