Fuji, ha, I laugh in your mountain face!

Well, well, well my fabulous fellow bloggers, I'm back, refreshed and (almost) completely over my various Fuji and pre-Fuji ailments. Actually the climb itself, although lengthy, was by no means arduous because of the unbelievably, excrutiatingly, frustratingly slow pace at which our guide (who did not smile once the entire time) took us up the 3776m mountain. We didn't even start at the bottom, but on the 5th station, all of 1400m from the top. Mind you, because of my slight fever and cough and snotty nasal passage, I was feeling a little worse for wear before we began.

As I said, the climb itself was not physically demanding, the hard part was preventing severe frostbite in the instance of my foolhardy underpreparedness. I had with me a rain poncho I bought for $1, a thin jumper, some fingerless gloves, a beanie (cheers Vee), a scarf (brilliant Webby), some trackie pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Fortunately, before I could actually pass out from cold in temperatures of 2 degrees and a howling gale which bit right through to the core of my good-natured self-deprecation, Stu leant me pretty much all he was wearing. Being as he is an English lad who refuses to acknowledge freezing temperatures even as they turn his skin the blue-grey colour of hypothermia, he had no qualms in doing so. Stupiddity or obstinacy? I can't be sure what drove him to such extreme acts of chivalry...

The sunrise itself was, shall we say, unspectacular, our vision was marred by cloud cover and in the end we only caught glimpses of the red sun rising above what we can only imagine was a lovely bed of clouds (we couldn't see them, being as they were about 200m below us, and getting too close to the edge posed the inevitable risk of being blown away Cherry Bobins-style).

Anyway, the descent was blissfully quick, we powered ahead, practically running, but mainly sliding down the volcanic scree all the way back to the fifth station. Even as we closed in on 3500m, the temperature was mercifully warmer, by the time we passed the eighth station, my fingers had almost completely defrosted and I was regaining the feeling in my nose and lips. Having spent the night climbing and then 2 hours sliding back down a prehistoric volcano, we then headed to a hot spring to completely thaw out, then had a massive buffet lunch (all-inclusive, bless) before gratefully clambering back onto the bus and snoring all the way back to Osaka.

All in all, the experience was one I will always appreciate, but I would be lying if I said it was the best 24 hours of my life.

Love you all, keep the comments coming, they always buck my spirits! Next stop, Tokyo Disneyland, in 2 weeks, I can't wait.