'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!!