Mt. Fuji (Fuji-san) would be a great addition to Matt's small peak-bag and it would be a unique way to start mine and Reagan's. Fuji-san is a volcano that stands at 3,776m (12,388ft) and is listed as the 35th most prominent peak in the world. Because of this we have been planning to go to Fuji-san ever since Matt got the internship in Japan. Somehow though it never seemed like the perfect time. Finally, we realized our time frame before the top is covered in snow and closed off was quickly approaching. We planned for the first weekend of September but of course a couple days out we realize there is a tropical storm coming in and it wouldn’t be a good idea to go. I should mention September is apparently typhoon season. So we started the waiting game, just checking the weather every day until we thought there was a large enough window to get to the top and back down without getting poured on or blow off the mountain. Finally the stars aligned and there was a two day break in between the rain storms. We called the bus for the 5th station, the most popular trailhead for Fuji-san, and “YES!” they had spots on the bus we wanted. So now it was time. Friday morning, September 10th, the Haines’s were going to set out to conquer Fuji-san.

Thursday night, Matt and I started getting everything packed to go. Seems like before we knew it packs were pretty heavy and we still needed to add the biggest piece, REAGAN JO. So we decided we had enough and headed to bed. There was a train leaving Tsukuba the next morning at 7:56 am. Being the Haines’s we decide “Ok, so get up by 7 and on the bikes by 7:45.” Well if you have been keeping up with our blogs in pure Haines style we were still trying to put finishing touches to all of our stuff at . . . 7:50. Great this is the perfect start, and yes we missed the train by about 2 minutes. So we caught the very next train at 8:15, and it put us in at 9:08. We ran to the next train to take us to Shinjuku, where the bus was leaving from, but it turned out to be a 30 minute ride. About that time we put all the numbers together and realized “Hmm, guess we missed that too.” Well we lost this battle against public transportation. So we get to the station and decide to go on and find the bus and see what our other options were. It ended up taking at least another 20 minutes to find the bus, so even if we would have caught the first train out of Tsukuba we still would have missed the bus. We completely underestimated this battle but we won't loose the war. So Matt goes in and checks everything out and comes out with good news. We had seats on the 10:45 bus. Here is the catch, this one wasn’t a direct bus. We would have to take another bus to get to the 5th station. So it took us about two hours longer and about $12 extra. Not too bad considering we missed a train and a bus. Not sure what the running count is but for today, Public Transit 1; Haines's 1.

Finally we were at Fuji-san’s doorsteps. We had brought lunch so we could eat before heading off and to hopefully help adjust us to the altitude a little. See we live at sea level now so being the 5th station was at 2,305m (7,562ft) it was already a good jump in altitude for us. After some lunch and just a little more adjusting and perfecting the packs we decided it was now or never. For some reason, I can’t remember now, i told Matt I wanted to help out and carry the pack with Reagan for at least the first leg of the trip. I carried her from the 5th station to the top of the 7th station (400m 1,300ft vertical) for a total of two hard hours of hiking and with Mr. Hiking himself. I was dieing within the first hour. But Mr. Hiking said “No breaks until 45 minutes, I have a timer going” Well isn’t that nice of him . . . he has a TIMER. So I was never so thankful for that 45 minutes to pass and I finally got to sit down for bit.

The timer makes you have short-term goals and without it you end up stopping too much and wasting a lot of time. ~Matt

Here is some funny things that happened in that 45 minutes. First is about 20 minutes in Matt gets a rock in his shoe. He says “Hey I have a rock in my shoe, I need to stop and get it out” My thoughts were “YES, a small break.” Ha! I was mistaken, this is when Matt says “You keep going, I’ll catch up.” Oh . . . okay. So I kept going. A little further up I see two guys ahead. One of the guy was struggling and falling behind. The guy in front says “Hey dude if you need a break just say it. Whatever we can take a break” About this time is when I am passing, all by myself, with a two year old on my back. As I pass the guy tells his friend “See, that is a trooper, she has a kid.” Now that was a little motivation to keep going and it was really funny. The best part is that Matt was still behind me fixing his shoe so it appeared I was this crazy girl carrying her kid to the top by herself. One more funny thing in that 45 minutes is that I kept seeing people sitting on the side and I pointed them out to Matt saying “These people get a break.” His response was, “OH they are probably on their way down.” Hmm, okay. But then when we were headed down there were still people sitting and you can only guess what his response to that was, “OH they are probably on their way up.” Nice babe, since at the time I was the one carrying the kid. Oh well, it gives me bragging rights. I helped! After two hours, my back and legs were dying and so I decided for the safety of the kid and the sake of my body it was Matt’s turn.

We were now on the leg in between the 7th and 8th station. It was a very long leg. We were very excited to get to the 8th station until we realized how far our hut actually was. Matt had gone in the first hut to put some layers on Reagan and ask where the Tomoe Hut was and they said oh it is two more away. This is when Matt and I look up and realize, “That light way up there is our hut.” Fantastic! To top it off, the sun was setting. I did get some good pictures while Matt was inside dressing Reagan. At least Reagan was bundled up and warm and finally crashed. The last hour up to the hut I don’t really remember much of. I think I turned on auto pilot and told my body to just follow the guy ahead with the kid. At last we made it. It was so nice to walk into the warm hut and be greeted with smiles and people helping us get the layers off and get Reagan out of the backpack.

The most popular way to climb Fuji-san is to hike to an 8th station hut sleep for a few hours and wake around 2:00am to reach the summit to watch the sunrise. The mountain huts are mainly bunk houses used to get a few hours of sleep and some warm food. The hut that we were staying at has a capacity of 250 people but is relatively small. So this means that you are usually laying right next to some one in a large room. We were lucky because they gave us pretty much our own "room." The area could sleep five people but they let us have it to ourselves. It was still just a bedded area for sleeping but it had a curtain to block out the small hall; we considered it luxury. After a little while they called us downstairs for dinner. For dinner we had rice, curry, and a teriyaki hamburger steak. Probably because I was really hungry but it seemed to be the best curry I've ever had. After dinner we headed upstairs to relax and get ready for bed. We were all very tired and I didn't think Reagan would sleep very well. I knew that people would be getting ready around 2:00am so the sooner we go to bed the better. Since the air temperature would be very low with sun down, around 4C (39F) plus a wind chill, Matt decided that it would best for us to go the summit when the sun is up.  We turned the light off at 8:30pm and hoped for the best.

Well we couldn't have asked for a better night with Reagan. She sleep through all the noise at 2:00am, talking, dropping things, and pots banging around. We finally had to wake her up at 7:00am so we could summit and head down to catch the 1:00pm bus. Matt woke up at 4:45am to go watch the sunrise and capture it on film/media-card.

 After waking up, eating some food, and repacking the bags we where headed to the summit. It is estimated to take 1.5 hours to reach the summit and 4 hours to hike down to the 5th station. So leaving at 7:30am means that we would really have to push to make it down in time for our bus at 1:00pm. But don't worry that is why we have Mr. Hiking to push us with his TIMER. About 30 steps from our hut I yelled up to Matt, "I'm dieing, my heart hurts and I don't think we can make it in time." He stopped and waited for me to catch up. We rested for a minute and then pushed on. The last part of the hike was very challenging because the terrain was much steeper and the air is much thinner than I'm used to. After 50 minutes of difficult climbing we made it to the rim of the volcanic crater.  Technically we didn't go to the "summit" of Fuji-san because that would require another hour of hiking around the crater to the highest point but it's just a technicality, and only a difference of a few vertical meters. We took our packs off to relax and let Reagan play for a little while. We couldn't stay up top for too long because we still had a 4 hour hike down.

 At this point Matt says well we did it.  I am thinking lets get down to the bus and MAKE the bus and then we'll say we DID it!  So down we went.  Everyone had told us that going down was just as hard or harder than coming up.  It is a different trail and is a very steep  trail covered in loose small volcanic rocks.  At first I was just so excited to be able to breathe again and overwhelmed we had made it and just had to get down.  So the first 30 minutes I felt really good.  But as my knees started to give out, Reagan started getting REALLY mad about being in her backpack, and each of us falling a few times I was NOT impressed anymore.  I just wanted to get down.  I really just wanted to run down anything just to be done but Mr. Hiking informed me "that is when people get hurt."  Well you know I was hurting just walking down so it didn't seem like that bad of an idea, but I listened and just kept slowly creeping down the path.  After about 3.5 hours we really had DONE IT!!  We were at the bottom.  We had endured the long, hard hike with our fussy two year old.  We rewarded ourselves with a 2 liter bottle of water, some good lunch, and ice cream.  Well Reagan and I had ice cream.  Matt just wanted a coke.  About 30 minutes later we were on our bus.  Yes we made a bus.  Finally!  A couple hours later we were pouring ourselves into the apartment.  Ever so ready to just shower and go to bed.  I have to say I haven't been that sore in a really long time.  I am pretty sure even three days later Matt and I were still stretching our legs.