We had no control over the weather conditions that were brought our way. Boooo.
So...we set off to Shinjiku, awaiting our bus ride to Fuji. We hopped on the bus, and had about two and a half hours to our glorious infamous destination. Of course, I managed to fall asleep on the bus, and awoke to dark, gray, looming thunderstorm clouds. I mean...When we left Shinjiku, there was a light drizzle...But this didn't look like good Fuji weather at all.
We finally arrived, and walked into the Fuji convenience store, to purchase our rain-suits, oxygen, head-lamps, walking sticks, etc...
So after purchasing all of our needs, we heard the man in the store telling some interns that there had been a death on the mountain earlier on in the day. A man had climbed to the top of the mountain, and passed away from Hypothermia. Sad.
We knew it was dangerous out, but we decided to go slow and attempt the climb anyway, not really thinking too far into the future. We just thought we'd check it out for ourselves. We start climbing in the pouring rain, and came to the realization of how tough the climb would be. Our feet were slipping upon the rocks, the wind was blowing rain in all directions and seeping into our clothes. It wasn't miserable at all actually. The unbearable part would've been when we reached the top of the volcano, where the temperature is literally freezing, with strong and aggressive winds. So...We climbed to the first station, where we were advised yet again, not to climb the mountain. He said in Japanese that he was "very worried" about us. We decided to be smart and turn around. I was super bummed at this point, but quickly appeased by the fact that we were turning around because I plowed through two little pools of rain by accident. :)
We got to the bottom of the mountain, and tried to figure out when we could catch the next bus back to Shinjuku. Bad news. There was one more bus coming for the night, and it didn't go to Shinjiku. Also, we'd have to cram on it with about twenty other foreigners. (We met people from Rome, England, Australia Korea, etc...) After standing in pouring rain for about thirty minutes negotiation with the bus driver, we finally got on. And we finally got to the train station. Which turned out, to be our hotel for the evening.
We spent the night in Kawaguchi Train Station. We pulled an all-nighter. We took walks to 7-eleven to stay awake. We ate a meal at a Chinese Restaurant at 2 a.m.
We arrived back at the station, and I tried so hard to fall asleep. It was FREEZING. The train station was completely open, with a subtle cold breeze blowing. I mentioned to Jennifer how much I missed Cheeto, and how I could really use his kitty chub to warm me up. To which she replied...
"I want a big blanket. Made of dead kitties."
Hahahaha this night made no sense at all. There were also drunk people sprawled out around us (the foreigners we convinced not to climb the mountain). WOW WHAT A NIGHT!!!!!!!!!
But...I still climbed a little beebee part of Fuji. :)
