Sunday, 28 June 2009

• Prelude to Fuji

  Prelude to Mt. Fuji: 

  As some of you know, one of my life goals is to climb to the summit of Mt. Fuji, Japan.  In order to prepare myself for that climb in July, four of my fellow climbers, Robin Britt, Karrissa Dennis, Rebekah, and I headed to Yoneyamma,the highest peak in our prefecture, and started trekking up it.  Yoneyamma has several paths up it and we happen to choose one of the roughest ones.  Laura drove us to the start of the Odara trail, wished us good luck, and said to call if something happened along the way. 

  

  The four of us                              Guardian markers in the village of Odaira.

  It was a short hike through the village of Odaira to the head of the trail.  It was

  marked with this sign 

   

  

   

   and took us passed an old, abandoned, thatched farmhouse.

  

  As we moved up the trail, I was surprised to find this solitary grave beside the path since most Japanese villages have graveyards for the community..

  

  The Odaira trail had some beautiful vistas.  

   

  

  

  We met this little fella along the way. 

   

  

  The trail was not anywhere near easy!  The path was usually this wide (About 18-24 inches) and this was a two-way path. 

   

  

  Some of the places had steps that were more like ladders and in some places, we had to use ropes to climb up it. 

   

  

   

  We reached the half way point in about an hour and a half.  From there we could see the summit and its buildings.

   

   

  

   

  At one of our rest stops, we found this jizo.  A jizo is a guardian spirit for a particular area.  This one was the protector for this part of the trail.  If you look in the second photo, you can see that someone left an offering of candy so the this jizo would take special notice of them and give them added protection along the way.

   

   

   

  The trail was pretty clean but there were still signs that hikers had came this way.  This tree seems to have been a favorite place for people to crave messages into.

   

  

   

  After leaving the jizo, we found that we were running out of water.  It was in the upper 80’s so we were drinking a lot of water to try and keep hydrated.  Rebekah solved the problem when she found a sign that said;

  “ Water Place 30 seconds.”  Boo and I followed the trail and found a spring of cool water coming out of the side of the mountain.  We filled up the bottles and rejoined the others for the final push up Yoneyama.

   

  

   

  When we reached the top, this was the view.

   

  

   

  There are three buildings on the summit; a temple,

  

   

  a restroom and a meeting room.  After a quick trip to the facilities, we went to the meeting room for lunch and a game of euche before heading down.

   

  

   

  As we were heading down Yoneyama, Laura called and said that she would pick us up.  Originally we were going to walk to a train station and ride back from there.  Laura pick us up and that old van of ours looked pretty good.

   

  

   

  At the base of the trail, the sun was just starting to go down, so I snapped this shot.

   

  

   

  On the way back, we decided to celebrate our successful climb with expresso shakes for the adults (We didn't have any Klingon Blood Wine.) and donuts for the kids.

   

  

   

  What did I learn from this experience?  First, you can’t lie to a mountain.  You might think that you’re in shape, believe you know the trail, made all the need preparations and have everything under control, but the mountain knows what you really are and how well you’ve prepared for your hike up her.  Yoneyama is a cold hearted lady who will not hesitate to show you how out of shape and ill prepared you are.  These lessons are taught with sore muscles and dry throats.  I suspect that Fuji san is even more cold hearted.  Second, the mountain reduces you to your basic thoughts.  You don’t think about your classes or studies, or what you are going to do after you get down.  You think of only taking the next step.  After that, taking the next step until you rest, make it to the top or reach the bottom..  Taking the next step is where you focus all your energy and concentration.  Everything else becomes unneeded baggage.  I’m still working through all the feelings, insights, and impressions I have from climbing Yoneyama, and I can’t quite put them into words, but I believe, somehow, I am a better person for having done so.  I believe that Fuji will teach me similar, and perhaps, deeper lessons when we climb her on July 18th

   

   

  • 6:31 AM
  • 38 Views
  • 14 eProps
  • 9 Comments