Finally, the big weekend was here! The prep the night before wasn't the best: CFO bar and drinks, darts and a late supper with colleagues. Luckily, I live close by! Still managed to get up at 6 to be at the meeting point in Shinjuku by 7:15 am. Had maccas for breakfast - something I didn't want at the time but was so glad I ate something by the time the bus started going up the mountain.

It takes a couple of hours to get to the 5th station where the bus dropped us off and we had lunch, changed into our gear and prepared for the climb. We had two awesome guides - both with good enough English - who took us all the way up.

It is not an easy climb nor was it hand. It was challenging and very steep in some sections with lots of rock climbing but very management for people with average fitness levels. The key is to ascend slowly so that your body acclimatises and we did take it pretty slow. Even though it was the first weekend that the trails were open, there were a lot of people climbing already...!

5th station to 6th station: easy, relatively flat walk, took around 40 minutes. From 6th station, things started to get challenging, the wind got stronger and I started to eat dust! Our pace was slow and steady and I am so glad that I did not get any altitude sickness. Had to put a few layers on as we got higher and by around 6:30 PM we reached 3,400 metres and the original 8th station where we were staying for the evening!

The living conditions are basic with a sleeping bag and a bunch of people in the same room. Lucky for me, they were a clusterfuck and I managed to be assigned a corner/side spot. Otherwise... I would not have gotten any rest. The winds were howling through the night which wasn't a good sign and when it was 2 AM (our supposed wake up time), we were briefed that the winds were too dangerous to try and summit.

We were finally allowed (only the confident ones, about half the group) to try and summit around 4 AM. We saw the sunrise but it was absolutely poor at the summit. Wind, rain and almost no visibility. The climb up was difficult with the wind. As we were going up, saw my boss on the way down. We wanted to stop for a photo but it was just way too dangerous. :(

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo HAPPY and PROUD I made it to the top though. The sense of accomplishment feels so good! But I was just as happy to quickly descend and get back to more normal altitudes! The trail down... shredding gravel the whole way for 4-5 km. Takes 3 hours to descend, slipped a couple of times (I think most people did). Going down is really boring actually and would make one rethink if they want to do Fuji again. My first major mountain conquered... it's all about mindfulness!