mt. fuji : part one

in very un-me fashion, i didn't take a single picture until 40 minutes from the 3776meter summit.  and even then, it turned out like this:

timestamped 3:17am.

wait, let's back up.

late last week, i called and reserved 2 tickets for the odakyu highway bus to gotemba early sunday morning.  from there, Ro and i planned on taking another bus to subashiri 5th station and start climbing around 10am to be in time for dinner on the summit at 5pm.  the other option (keio highway bus from shinjuku to kawaguchiko 5th station) was booked, so we settled for the gotemba route.

(Ro and i have both climbed both routes, and while Ro likes the climb of the subashiri route better, i really dislike the descent of the subashiri route.  luckily we didn't have to agree on a route because it was logistically decided for us.  and technically, we could take one up and the other down since we took the bus and didn't have a car in a parking lot to return to.)

saturday night, we got all dolled up (yukata and jimbei) and took a boat ride out onto tokyo bay for the fireworks.  it was a wonderful night.  i couldn't eat a lot of the stuff in the bento (sigh) but it was all you can drink and we helped ourselves to canned lemon chu-hais all evening. (it was that, beer, or calpis water and the beer wasn't mixing well with my tight yukata obi)

we got home around 10pm, hardly still tipsy, finished packing for mt. fuji and were in bed around midnight.  sometime before it was light out, i woke up with that funny taste in your mouth you know isn't going anywhere good.  after laying there for a bit, i finally made the executive decision that getting it out would make me feel better.  turns out there was nothing in my stomach, but it had a good bile-ridding go anyway.

sometime before our 5something alarm, i woke up again.  this time i didn't have to help my stomach; it did all the work.  still nothing but stomach acid.  but i was determined to get up and feel fine.

we made last minute bag packing, made a pit stop at the conbini for water and snacks and got the train.  i was feeling a little uneasy, but knew there was nothing left to throw up and was just hoping my stomach would settle.  we got on the train and sat down, relieved to be on our way.  and then it hit me.  i said, "we have to get off.  at the next station."  i asked Ro if he had a plastic bag.  he quickly dumped out the contents of a bag into his backpack and handed it to me just in time.

classy 6:30am morning on the yamanote line, eh?  i'll admit i left that bag on the platform before getting on the train to go back home.  (sorry station guys!)

i spent the rest of the morning in bed sleeping, trying to calm my stomach and fears.  Ro spent the day betting on the horse races and me on google, playing out all senarios (i know, you're all thinking it!).  at noon i called my boss from last summer and told him we wouldn't be making it it to the top tonight.  i said we might climb overnight, but weren't sure yet.

i looked online at the keio bus website and they had seats available leaving shinjuku at 7:30pm, arriving at kawaguchiko 5th station at 9:55pm.  at 4:00pm, i made a second bus reservation (since the first one from the morning went wasted...) and we made plans for nausea medicine and flashlight buying, dinner at Gusto and getting the train to shinjuku.

we arrived in shinjuku with about 10 minutes to spare, and Ro had to go to the bathroom.  he snapped at me when i insisted we go above ground to orient ourselves and THEN find a bathroom, whereas he was content rushing around in the maze of shinjuku station's underground "streets."  i won and we walked through keio department store in our hiking get up and backpacks to find a bathroom.  he said, "NO ONE else looks like us" but i'm SURE we weren't the first to do it.

we hurried back out, went to the bus terminal, paid for our tickets, and got on the bus with about 3 minutes to spare.  the bus had room for about 40-50 people but only about 10 seats were actually taken.  the bus took off through downtown tokyo and onto the highway and we were on our way...