'He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool'

On Wednesday 23rd August I left Umeda Station at 7am, having been up since 5am preparing for my Fuji trip, to meet my group for the 8 hour coach journey to Yamanashi-Ken and the fifth station/base camp. We arrived at about 5pm and after a quick change and dinner we started on the incline to Mt Fuji!!

After 3 hours we reached the 8th station for a light snack and snooze, before being woken at midnight for the toughest part of the climb. At around 1am the altitude sickness kicked in and I started to find breathing difficult, so thankfully there were a few friendly faces about and a couple of Japanese who wanted to practise their Ego/Nighongo!!

At each of the station huts we stopped, I began asking myself what I was doing - it was cold, wet, dark, my head torch batteries had died, I couldn{t breath and worst of all.... i was still meters from the top....... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh what was I thinking????!

Thankfully, the summit came into view and the satisfaction of completing my challenge took over and I pushed on to reach the top; no mere walk in the park let me tell you - but possibly one of the greatest things I have achieved so far on my travels!!

One the way down....

At the summit, i managed to summon enough energy to wander to the centre to see the crater of the Volcano... but it was so cold, a cup of coffee (probably the most expensive in Japan) was all I felt like before starting the descent...

Probably the best picture I took... the Jinja-Shrine at the top;

I did it!!.... the Summit

Mountain Pick does it Kirsteeeeeeeeeeee style!! Ok admitedly not the best picture of me, I had just spent 8 hours climbing the tallest mountain in Japan... on limited sleep and sushi - WHAT A FEELING!

What a view - I felt on top of the world!.........

5th station to 8th stage; the climb!

The weather took a turn for the worse around the 7th station... the wind and rain started and to be honest I didnt think id make it all the way....

Our snooze spot at the 8th station was a giant bedbunk!... whose that snoring?!



At 4.45am... I finally reached the summit - approx 3740m above sea level - this was the view of the sun rising

Mount Fuji.... the begining!

Pam, Graham, Zoe, Chris and meeeeeeee at the fifth station - ready for the off. The fiftth station is at around 2000m... and as you can see the weather was super!

The opening gate to mark the entry to the Mountain/parkland;




Dinner at the station before we left... yum!

Awaji Island

On Monday night Hide and I decided to go on an adventure to Awaji Island, the island closest to the kansai region, located in the Inland sea... to get to Awaji, you need to cross the longest Suspension bridge in the world... which we did at 1am.... before finding a cosy spot to snooze, it's been so hot and humid later, you can literally spleep outside in the fresh air!

Waking up the next day to glorious sunshine and a beautiful beach for the day, I was truly in out-of-the-city heaven! The beach is suposed to be the nicest is this region, and it's not hard to see why, the sea was crystal clear (unlike other beaches I've heard about) and it was pretty quiet, only a few families.....

Awaji Island is famous for growing Onions and the chances are that if you eat an onion whilst in Japan, it's likely to have been grown there... everywhere that we drove (the island isn't so big) we saw plenty of these onion houses... apparently they make Onion wine.... not sure i'd like that though!

Summer Festival at Sumiyoshi Shrine July 06