July...is almost over?!

Ok. July has been crazy. Exams were this month, so not only did I put in time and effort to study for them, but there was also all the end of semester deadlines we had to meet. Which brings me to my first picture.

What does chocolate have to do with end of semester deadlines? We had a small speech conItest, and I won. Ironically I did my speech on the history of chocolate in Japan. At the end of my speech I handed out chocolate to my classmates. They voted, and I won (teehee).
I have since then finished my exams, but not before taking a trip to Fuji's 5 lakes. One of my students, Yuko, insisted on making sure I had a good memory of Japan, so she and her husband showed me some of the best places to view Mt. Fuji.

Mt Fuji is behind there, I swear.

Since it was cloudy, they decided to take me to a cave where shoguns used to store ice since in the bottom it is always 0C or less. 

Outside the cave entrance. You can see half the map of the cave route.

See the ice!

Oh for the record, I did not know we would be entering a cave, let alone one that is at freezing in the middle of July, so I wore shorts and sandals. It was chilly.

The weather still had not cleared up in Yamanashi Prefecture, so we decided to go get some food, and then try to get peek at Fuji's peak in Shizuoka afterwards. 

Cold cucumber soup

And a variety of veggie dishes grown on the farm we had lunch at =D

Before heading back towards Mt. Fuji, we stopped by a fruit stand and winery to buy some peaches which Yamanashi is famous for. I still am surprised by mountains. I see them by my apartment everyday, but sometimes I still think 'Holy Tall Earth!'

As we were heading to Shizuoka, Fuji started to appear.

When we arrived at Lake Yamanaka, you could see Mt Fuji quite well. 

Yesterday, I climbed Mt. Fuji. We all met right after midnight, hopped in two different cars, and arrived at the foot around 3 am. We parked around 3:30, but our parking space was around 3 km away from the 5th station where you begin to climb. So we ended up starting our real climb around 4 am. 

Morning sky from the 5th station (where we began to climb).

Mt. Fuji is 3776 m above sea level. We began at 2400m.

There were a lot of people there. Don't worry it was only like this for a few minutes at some narrow places. You have to be polite and let the people climbing down use the easy trail too.

There were some pretty flowers at the start of the climb.

Me still happy and energetic. A little side note, I was woken up Friday morning at 6 am by an earthquake. And for some reason, I could not go back to sleep. I managed to take a 3 hour nap before meeting up with everyone. 

Part of the climbing team. YanYan, Tommy are included above. 

I reached the new 7th station!

Yuuki (Shiho's husband) helped drive. He kept coming arriving last at each station going 'This...is...a..piece...of...cake' in English when he met me at the station. I decided to take a picture of him as he arrived. He looks like an old man.

Yan Yan stole my camera.

The old 7th station. 766 meters to go.

It was really nice when the clouds roll. It felt so good.

This is it in motion.

My first step onto the Top.

Where magma used to boil when it was a once mighty volcano. See the snow ^.^

This is the tallest rock on Mt. Fuji. It was naturally the tallest. I got to touch it =D

Monument stating it is the tallest point on Mt. Fuji. I made it.

The shrine and post office at the top. I pulled Best Luck again. Good to know Mt. Fuji loves me.

Take a nap before you make the trek down.

It took me 6 hours to get to the top. We waited at the top for 2.5 hours for the rest of our group to show up. We let them rest for about 2 hours before we decided we best be going. It took me 2.5 to get down (all that walking really paid off). 

My legs hurt, and my face is bright red (I was a topic of conversation at Church today). I did not bring sunscreen to reapply. I wore sunglasses too, so I look like a red raccoon. 

See you in less than a month.