The night of the 30th Juan and Cat decided they didn’t want to spend money on transport the next day to get to the airport so they decided to hitchike to Naha. Myself and sam went to bed and woke up at 6am to get the bus to the airport($14.) upon arrival at the check in we noticed to bodies asleep on the ground in the corner of the airport. To our relief it was Juan and Cat, so at least they made it. Apparently they got free McDonalds for breakfast from the driver lol. So we checked in and everthing was fine. I had 2 carry on backpacks for luggage. The plane trip itself only took 2hours and we slept the whole way there. Haneda airport was huge but we managed to found our way to the subway and took a few trains to the youth hostel were staying in. The youth hostel is the same one I stayed in for school last year. We went to Sega world and had a lot of fun there before heading back to the hostel for sleep.
The next day was a mission and a half. We took a few different trains to get to the bottom of mount Fuji and slept the whole time as well. We got to Fuji-Yoshida which is a town a the bottom of the mountain and caught a bus towards Kawaguchi-ko another town close by. (this was all explained in lonely planet on how to get there..ahhh I love the lonely planet) at kawaguchi ko we got our bus ticket to the 5th station which is halfway to the top and booked an express bus for the next day to Shinjuku bus terminal in Tokyo near where we were staying. At the Kawaguchi-ko bus terminal or Fuji-gateway I boult a walking staff with a Japanese flag and bells on it to aid my climbing and then we got on the bus to the 5th station. Along the way we saw all the other mountains near by and were like wow they are big, then we saw fuji which was over double the size of them and were all wetting ourselves. The 5th station were we climbed from is actually higher than the cloud line so we were already very high above sea level. I bought some a beanine and gloves and we started our ascent of the great mountain at 8:00pm. The Journey up the mountain was quite tedious and very cold. I saw snow for the first time but didn’t get to touch it. It was off the track away from us so yay. So now I can say that the first time I ever seen snow was on mount Fuji.yes!!!!! so as we were climbing you could see the towns below and the were fireworks going on. It was really awesome to see the fireworks on top of Fuji. We were warned many times to take our time up the mountain so as we didn’t get altitude sickness and didn’t get to the top too early as it is very cold. So we took our time, but the other to boys wanted to get ahead of everyone so they we walking fast and overtaking everyone on the mountain. So i followed behind so we didn’t split up but they were going fast. Around the top I got a splitting headache and felt sick. Than I saw this Red-skinned American-indian lady up ahead watching me, so I walked up to her and saw that it was just a rock and realised I was hallucinating lol. Than I passed out for 10min and Cat sat with me. Than whilst climbing the rocky parts I passed out 2 more times. We didn’t see the other two boys as the went to the top quickly. They got to the top at 1:30 and the sunrise was at 4:45 so they were cold. Me and Cat took our time and reached the top at around 3:15am and than I sat down and vomited twice. I was very cold and was shivering pretty badly. So we sat inside a hut around a fire and I fell asleep and woke up and saw the sunrise. We than looked down the crater of Fuji-san and it was huge. The descent seemed to take a lot longer it was around 5.2km walk to the5th station as the path zigzagged. Halfway down me and sam slept on the ground for an hour than woke up and made it to the bottom at 11:08am. So we were on the mountain for 15hours and 8mins. We got our bus back to Tokyo and than we found a hotel which was $60 for the night with your own shower and t.v. and stuff and free breakfast. I used room service and got a 30min full body massage, It was awesome!!!! Than I got my rest before waking up the next morning and going to the Imperial Palace with Cat. We stopped at Starbucks on the way and than got to the gardens. We walked around the pretty garden for ages ad thought it was nice than headed back to get the train to the station with the other two boys.
Once we arrived back in Okinawa we went to Naha matsuri and it was absolutely awesome. (I have become a very big fan of okinawan-matsuri’s) Because Okinawa had a very strong trading bond with china and taiwin it has a very unique culture and it can be seen in their dancing and music. At the end of the festival the public is allowed ot ge up and join the dancers and drummers and singers in the square and dance with them. I was doing my thing when I guy cam with his massive drum and put the strap over my shoulders and got me drumming one of these massive drums it was awesome. All in al my Fuji trip was the best and even though I almost die it was one of the funnest things and rewarding things I have ever done!!! yay
