7/26 Journal: Eric

This morning a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan; the team is currently in Yokohama (southern Japan, next to Tokyo) however, we were in Miyagi a few days ago. The epicenter was 20 kilometers out to sea from Kesennuma, the town where we visited Shigeatsu Hatakeyama's oyster farm. We've no word yet from our friends in the region

Waking up at 4:00 am was not something I wanted to get use to but it seems to be happening a lot lately. We ate a small breakfast and were off by 4:30 a.m. Finally the moment I had been waiting for, we were finally on our way to Mt. Fuji. It was a two hour trip that was made mentally longer by my sickening stomach. We soon got close enough in the van that we could see the massive Fuji from a distance. It was like no other mountain on the horizon. It was massive, and it beautifully green with clouds covering the top third of it. The closer we got the more the sense of awe was. Fuji was explained to us that it had 10 levels, and the 10th level being the top. We drove the van up to level 5 and parked it. This is the busiest day of the year for people to climb Mount Fuji. The next busiest day is not planned for another 4 years. As we walked to the beginning of the trail to level five I made a few observations. It wasn’t just professional climbers there, it was people of all ages. I’m serious it ranged from older ladies probably in their 80’s to younger kids around 5 years old. Before we started the climb we were told to buy a can of 100% O2 to take with us. This is because we were climbing at such an altitude that our bodies may lack the oxygen needed. This would cause a pounding of your head and a severe lacking of breath. We started off up the trail and the first 15 minutes was a piece of cake. Then boom, it became quite the hike up the mountain. Fuji is treated as and considered a god by the Shinto so their was no trash along the way. It was so amazing to just close your eyes and let the clouds hit your face. After about an hour of climbing we reached level 6. Finally we had reached the next level, it was a great sense of accomplishment. The leaders weren’t feeling so hot so they stayed at level six. They gave us the option to climb higher if we wanted. Well obviously we wanted to go higher so we did. This is where the path got really, really, steep from here on out, but the old ladies and young kids were already on their way back down. They were so nice by giving us words of encouragement so we thought. Yeah we’re pretty sure by their smiles that it was nice comments coming out. We hiked to see as far as our time restraint would let us. We turned around and gasped, we were above the clouds for a mere second.

The team was at a figured level of 6.8 Although we never had enough time to reach the top we had already gotten there in our minds. The clouds then closed up and we headed back down. I was so busy climbing up the mountain that I had not noticed a lot of it’s beauty until the descent. Each tree had character, each rock had it’s own shape, each cloud had it’s own feel against your cheek. We joined back up with the leaders with a new sense of accomplishment. Fuji was not a god but should be respected as a beautiful creation of our God.!! When we reached level 5 again we passed out the sandwiches that we had made and got back in the van. As the van went down the roads of Mt. Fuji we all looked back. I’m not sure what was on the minds of others but I can tell you I will return to finish my climb. It was a very physical day and my eyes won’t stay open, so I’m going to bed.