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Kachou Fuugetsu (actually: Flower, Chook, Wind, Moon) is a Japanese idea which means to find your self whereas experiencing nature. In Japan, there are few higher locations to take action than on the slopes of Fuji-San
There’s a mere three-month window for climbing Mount Fuji, Japan’s 3 776m-high extinct volcano, and my spouse Catherine and I had been decided to succeed in the summit.
We’d just a few hours in Tokyo earlier than boarding our bullet practice however that point had opened our eyes to the truth that we had been now in a spot so completely different from something we’d seen earlier than.
Every thing was simply so… international. From the orderly queuing for the trains, to the inexperienced tea-flavoured Haagen Dazs. And, in a single nook cafe – proper subsequent to the greens – had been creatures swimming in brine that I couldn’t determine, not to mention think about consuming with chopsticks.
We’d examine climbing Fuji-San on-line and knew that the one option to do it “correctly” was to hike up in a single day, summiting simply earlier than daybreak to observe because the solar peeked by way of the clouds whereas samurai warriors danced on red-and-white rainbows.
Admittedly, we’d finished minimal planning. Possibly learn just a few first-hand accounts. However we had been comparatively match and fearless 20-somethings and we had been catching a bus to Station 5, reducing out some 2 300m of lower-slope slog. All in all, we reckoned, there have been simply 5 extra stations – confusingly labelled 6, 7, 8, 8.5 and 9 – and a mere 1 500 extra metres to climb.
Would it not be robust? Nearly actually. However the Japanese have a saying: Nana korobi, ya oki (fall seven instances, rise eight instances). That saying was written for Catherine and me.
We began at 10pm and made our means by way of a little bit forest. The little torch we’d bought earlier got here in useful through the first few hours after we discovered ourselves totally alone for the primary a part of the hike.
Issues weren’t so simple as we’d imagined. For one factor, the path’s floor consisted of thousands and thousands of little volcanic stones that slid over one another so that every step resulted in a little bit slide backwards. It could be a cliché to say “two steps forwards, one step again”, however that was exactly the case. There have been chains and pegs within the floor to assist us and patches of snow as we zigzagged our means up the mountain.
It was getting colder, too. Good factor we introduced gloves. Weren’t we intelligent? Sadly no heat beanies for our heads, however we’d be okay, proper?
After three or 4 hours, we started to go different climbers, of us who’d correctly purchased spots in in a single day huts the place they may break their climb into manageable chunks, acclimatising comfortably within the course of.
We had no such luxurious. We had been shattered, shedding our breath usually now. We might cease each jiffy, regain our breath and our will to hold on, and set off once more. Besides that didn’t get us very far: 4 steps, possibly 5, and we had been exhausted as soon as extra. It wasn’t solely our lungs that had been completed. As a result of the mountain was so steep, we needed to actually lean into it, which meant we had been steadily off-balance, stumbling over our personal ft.
And now it was getting actually chilly.
After one other hour or so we reached the eighth station and we knew we have to be getting fairly shut, not that we might see something above. It was round this time that I started to really feel sick and after a bit extra climbing, vomited.
You, pricey reader, could put two and two collectively and say … ah, altitude illness, in fact. We, nonetheless, didn’t.
It merely hadn’t entered our minds that what we had been doing was harmful. It was robust, maybe. However, being South Africans, our intuition was to push by way of. In any case, because the Japanese say: Keizoku wa chikara nari. Persevering with on is energy.
As we obtained increased, the icy wind strengthened. I tied my rugby jersey round my head to cease my ears from freezing. Every time we stopped, although, we’d get complications – uncomfortable somewhat than painful ones – and so we merely stopped much less, and walked slower as an alternative.
At 3.50am we began to see gentle on the horizon and gentle concern set in – slight panic that we wouldn’t summit in time. Mercifully, after we rounded the following bend we noticed a big torii, a symbolic gate marking the highest. We’d walked for six hours and had 20 minutes to spare earlier than the solar was due. We had been elated.
Our pleasure was short-lived. The wind was now gale-force and there wasn’t a lot shelter on the prime. There was a (locked) hut although, so all 20-odd folks up there cuddled shut as we sheltered from the wind, awaiting the dawn.
The solar slivered into sight – proper on time at 4:22 – and there have been just a few shouts of “Banzai!” from the gang round us. It was lovely, sure, but it surely was too chilly for us to consider celebrating. We had been uncomfortably chilly, chilled to the bone and pondering solely about our descent.
However we hadn’t but truly peered into the volcano. Doing so meant strolling up one other path – simply 50 metres – to succeed in one other viewing spot from the place we might lastly look down into the crater.
We had been reluctant to traipse out onto that last little bit of pathway, fully uncovered to a frigid wind that appeared to be blowing in straight from the North Pole.
FOMO being what it’s, although, we couldn’t not go as much as see what all of the fuss was about.
Out within the open, that gale introduced with it ice and sleet that hammered each inch of uncovered flesh, frozen needles stabbing our faces as we headed as much as the viewing spot. There, we peered down into the crater for a second, checked out one another, and inside seconds had been sprinting again all the way down to the hut.
We had finished it. We’d conquered Fuji, we’d stared into the attention of the beast…
Ame futte ji katamaru, rained-on floor, hardens. Or, as we found, adversity builds character.
This text initially appeared within the June 2022 print challenge of Getaway
Phrases: Alan Valkenburg
Illustration: Jess Nicholson
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