Around 5am the next morning we woke to the sunrise (took a while to formulate a logical hypothesis for why the sun might rise at such a different time than in NY City given they are at the same latitude). With Udon-filled stomachs, we navigated our way to the 5th station on Mt. Fuji where we started the climb to our 8th station hut for the night.

We met a very friendly couple from NY City, Willa and Dan, and traded picture taking duties and email addresses along the ascent.  They were so nice that Kelly “wishes we were friends with them in real life.”

Arriving at the hut, Nicole skipped dinner and went to bed promptly at 5:15 due to a headache. Ryan forced down some of the “western dinner” (salisbury steak, potato salad, and rice), only to see it a second and third time later that night. The headache and shortness of breath eventually led to a self diagnosis of mild altitude sickness. Kelly and Jason enjoyed the meal and felt great. The hut accommodations were, shall we say, minimal. We felt like sardines with 100 of our closest coughing, sneezing, snoring, stinky friends. If only there were a Nyquil for that…

The next morning we started our final ascent to the summit around 3:30am to catch the 5:15 sunrise. The last stretch was very much a traffic jam of hikers with headlamps illuminating switchbacks up the mountain. The sunrise was spectacular even though it was cold and blustery with wind gusts upwards of 50 mph (says Ryan the weatherman). The picture of Nicole and video from Jason say it all

Jason’s windy Video

After a peek into the mouth of the volcano, which in geological terms should be erupting any day now [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_eruptions_of_Mount_Fuji], and a successful walk around the rim (we weren’t blown off), we started our descent down the officially closed Gotemba trail. 8km of unrelenting switchbacks through a Martian landscape. The terrain was all part of a centuries old lava flow with almost no flora or fauna to be found. The crushed rocks did make for fun sliding (ice skating style) down at times.

Upon reaching the bus stop at the bottom, we were met with the realization that when the trail is officially shut down for the season, so are the weekday bus routes. A few unsuccessful (and pricey) cellphone calls to local cab companies eventually had us reaching out to our saviour Chen to arrange a cab to the local bus station.

Days into trip: 4, Shower count: 1

On to Hakone…