Mount Fuji! And the following days

Ok....Sorry for this being so late. So Here's my tale!

Saturday we all woke up at 4:30 in the morning to head out to Fuji. We hikers tried to get some sleep in the car. Tried being the opperative word :S.
Once we reached the town at the foot of the mountain, we picked up Cory, a former ECSer from Tokyo. We all grabbed some water bottles and started up the mountain about 10 or 11 am. Our first stop was Sengen (sp?) Temple, the traditional trail's starting point. We looked around for a few minutes and then bought some Fuji walking sticks (everybody but Nathan). The Fuji sticks are a good souvenior from Fuji because almost every station and shop along the way has a brand that they can burn into your stick for 200 yen (about $2).
The first part of the trail, about 5 stations, I was expecting certain things....including buildings that were intact. That was NOT the case, however. haha In fact, we had problems finding certain stations....like the real 4th and real 5th stations. We did have a bit of fun going up that way, though. We reached 6th station as the sun was about set. We followed a tour group up to 7th station in the dark. The intent was to make it to 8th station. We made it to 7th before I couldn't go any farther. I was cold, exhausted, not wanting to climb in the dark, and because I was kind of pushing myself to go quickly, I was feeling light headed and dizzy. So we each shelled out 5000 yen ($50....it really wasn't worth that much :S) for a spot at 7th station. The lodging there were basically two really long bunk beds. Basically we all paid for a small bean filled pillow and half a blanket to sleep with. I was wedged between Robin and Cory...and had to share my blanket :'(. No one really slept that well, 1) because it wasn't comfortable and 2) because there was a guy in the same room who snored like a bull dog with a nightmare.
We woke up around 4:30 again. We all had Cup of Ramen (blech) for breakfast, and then took pictures of the sunrise. To see these pictures, plus other Fuji pictures, follow this link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=286375&id=814700376&ref=mf

We started heading up to 8th station around 6 or 7. There were many 8th stations....we were kinda getting tired of the next station always being either another 7 or another 8. One station we stopped at, we bought some hot chocolate and they let us sit inside........for 15 minutes haha. When we got up to station 8.5, we stopped and ate some lunch and chilled for a bit. Almost everyone was tired. Not to mention it was cold, slightly rainy, and very, very windy outside. Jerry and Nathan each saw someone almost blown off the mountain.
I hurried the rest of the way up...haha....I was the 2nd in our group to the top! Yeah! I got up a little after 2 pm. Nathan was the first. We hung around and chilled in this restaraunt/gift shop at the top while we waited for everyone. Because of the wind and the clouds, you couldn't see ANYTHING on top of the mountain. There was no pretty view or anything.
After everyone made it up, we rested for a short bit. Cory wasn't feelin' too hot. But we were told to hurry back down the mountain because of the weather. So we hurried back down to 8.5 and then waited for Robin. Robin had a double blow out on her shoes, which were starting to come apart before we started climbing and were practically in half when we got back down to 8.5. Cory had to catch a 6pm train, so went on ahead of us. We started down the trail, going down to a sign we remembered seeing that showed us the decending trail WE needed to be on. But this tour lady told us we couldn't go down the way we were because we were going down the ascending trail to get to that sign. So we turned around and went the opposite direction and DID actually get on the right trail....to begin with. Somehow, we ended up on the wrong trail which was taking us down the other side of the mountain and was adding at least another 1 1/2 hours to our decending time.
Jerry and I went on ahead of Robin and Nathan. The decending trail we ended up on was pure sand, which I found easiest to practically skate down. We needed to get down to the 5th station where Laura, who was originally waiting at the 5th station we planned on coming down at, was coming to pick us up. So Jerry and I got down and then I was collapsed on a bench as we waited for Laura to pick us up and for Robin and Nathan to make it down. Thankfully, they arrived at the same time. So we scraped up our remains and plopped into the car by about 10:30pm...about 5 hours later than we were originally planning. We were going to go to an onsen (a natural hot spring) when we got down, but the latest onsen closed at 11. So we just opted for McDonalds drive thru and quick showers when we got back to Kashiwazaki at about 3 am. The next morning, though I expected to sleep pretty much all day, I woke up at 9.

I had a camp meeting to go to at the Sasaki's house, but then as soon as we got back, I crashed at six, waking up at 11 or so and then going back to bed shortly after that.

Tuesday!
I went to ECS early Tuesday because Machiko, one of the ladies from first class, was going to teach me how to make the tea for a tea ceremony! It was fun, and Machiko said I did it very well. If I ever come back, you invited me to study tea ceremony at her house!

Today!
Today was pretty much a normal day. Went to ECS, helped with classes. Laura and I were also starting to plan a trip to Kannazowa. We were planning the 1-2. But then, Maki Sasaki asked me if I would like to do 2 homestays, so we moved our trip up to tomorrow evening til Friday evening! I am really excited! It's just going to be me and Laura hanging out and having fun! Yay for girl bonding time! tee hee

Prayers!
English camp is this next week! Prayers for open hearts and that everything will go smoothly.