Mount Fuji - Through The Rocks, Over The Cloud, Across The Sun

Summer heat slowly faded, leaving a trace of cicadas cries that I will surely miss (though I found it to be really annoying in the beginning of summer LOL). Now, what welcome us is the scent of early autumn, with a little cool breeze in the evening. Enough to make me want to walk to campus willingly, leaving my bike to take a rest for some time (fufufu). 

The first summer in Japan left me with some nice memories. First Ramadhan and Idul Fitri away from home...though I did feel a little bit melancholic, but the laughter (and of course the food :p) we shared at that meaningful day was more than enough for me to remember the warmth of a family.

Another thing that I surely will not forget is my trip to Mount Fuji, the highest mount in Japan. Although I have planned the trip since last year, me and my friends actually spent only one week for preparation. It was quite short, but because only five of us who would go, I thought we made quite a nice preparation. So on the very first day of summer holiday, which also the Mountain Day in Japan, my friends from the same laboratory; Nikko, a friend who is the same batch as me; Syafiqah, a  PhD student, whom I speak Malay more than English when I am with her :D ; Yusuke, my neighbor in lab office; and Jun who is my tutor when I first arrived in Japan; and I went from Osaka to Mount Fuji.

Ready to go to 5th station
We started to climb at around 3 p.m. from the 5th station of Mount Fuji (almost like half the route until the top). So yes, a bus can be taken until up to the 5th station. In this 5th station, I saw many people spent leisure time, shopped, or did exercise before climbing the mountain. We took our time to change our clothes, had lunch, a little bit warmed up and of course took some photos!

Ready to hike! Faces were still really clean LOL
So, our first goal was to reach the 7th station. From 5th station until 7th station we spent by laughing over some jokes (because we still had so much energy XD). We took turn to become the leader (LOL) who can instruct when to stop to take a rest or just did whatever fufufu. From 6th station, I could feel the wind started to become quite strong. It was not that cold, although I started to feel a little bit headache but it stopped after my friend offered his oxygen can.

We reach the 7th station at around 7.30 p.m. The top couldn't be seen at that time because it was simply already dark. I remember I started to think 'Ah, it will be still far far away to the top' at that time. We spent around 4 hours at a cabin in 7th station to took a rest before started to climb again in the midnight. Not that I could sleep at all, although thanks God it was really warm inside the cabin.

After the 7th station, the road was full of rocks. And thanks to my short legs, sometimes I needed both of my hands to get me pass through this rocky path. I knew that it was very cold though my 5 layers of cloth helped to me to stay warm. The wind was really strong, it hit my face and made it as if I couldn't feel my own nose LOL. Some of my friends experienced high latitude illness, and we tried to keep our pace so we would be together till the top. It was really hard to take a breath. But at that time I realized that focusing on your breathing is really important, and gasping a breath through your mouth just made things worse.

Although we couldn't reach the top before sunrise, it was still a very astonishing view past the cloud. And when we reached the top at around 6 a.m., I was totally super-exhausted LOL. I spent the next 1 hour by sleeping while sitting on a bench, while some of my friends were eating breakfast. No appetite at that time, seriously XD.


最後のゲート。The Final Gate LOL

We were actually super exhausted here LOL. 顔がめっちゃぼろぼろ(笑)

Taking picture with Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Osaka University flags XD
After took some rest, we started to walk down the path until reaching 5th station again. This time we spent only around 4 hours, despite of the first 10 hours to reach the top. But this time, the road is so~ sandy and slippery and annoying and it made my feet hurt (I couldn't enjoy this part only, to be honest). I wish I had mountain sticks with me at that time.

And the quite funny part was, our faces were totally covered by mountain volcanic dust LOL! No wonder when the people who just started to climb seeing the faces of people who went down, it seemed like they were seeing a ghost XD

So our journey ended when we took a bus to go to Shibuya. Felt really tired but so content :D

There were those times when I stepped on small rocks, the slope was almost like 90 degrees, it was really dark and I was really tired that I thought to myself, 'Ah, I am going to die if I fall here,' which made me remember of my home and family. 

This journey taught me many things. The times when I took those small and slow steps, when at the same time I thought, 'Ah, maybe life is actually like this. It doesn't matter how big your step is, what matters is you keep on going.' Not to say my small body made me need to give more effort to pass those rocky parts of the mount. 

Although so many other people were around me, without realizing I talked to myself a lot at that time. The time when we stopped because we were tired, and we found so many beautiful stars above us, it felt so great. And when I saw the stars, and the vast sky, I realized that I am small. So small. 

And above all, I want to treasure this feeling.  

The sunrise. The view was just so majestic. 
I don't know if I want to go to the top of Mount Fuji one more time. The great feeling was there, but the tiredness and desperation were also real LOL.

But overall, it was a really great experience. I couldn't help but reminiscing the beautiful moment I was there :)


Osaka, 
September 2nd, 2016

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