Eventually I reached the eighth station and entered the hut Gabe and I had booked with.
I went in, explained that my brother didn’t make it, advised that I was able to pay for both of us, but they only charged me for my bed.

Apparently the booking included food as well, so I was happy about that.
I had to put all my wet clothes into a plastic bag. Al the people staying there weren’t allowed to hang them up to dry. There probably were space concerns, but there was more than enough space that night.

During the stay there, I had to go to the bathroom a number of times.

The closest bathroom was outside down a stairway and past a narrow path.

There was another path, but I did not know this until after I left the hut to continue the climb.

The rain was much heavier than it had been previously at this point.

I had worn jeans for the climb (not necessarily a good idea), and continually putting them on and off was pointless after a while as my legs were getting wet anyway due to how heavy the rain was.

I also had a jacket for wearing underneath my raincoat. As my raincoat was in a plastic bag, my jacket ended up getting quite wet, so I stopped wearing that when I had to go outside as well.

As I had to keep using the bathroom, most of my trips were made in my boxers with an umbrella for protection.

It was cold but I didn’t care at this point.

The beds in the hut were all against each other (sleeping bags with a mat underneath and a blanket on top.
I had to keep getting in and out of the sleeping bag every time I went to the bathroom.
Luckily, as Gabe did not come up, his blanket was free, so I used both his and mine and slept on the sleeping bags (when I did sleep) as it was much quieter and easier (and warmer).

There were times where I went to the bathroom with other people and we chatted about things I can’t quite remember.

At one point there was a woman who I chatted with for a little while, waiting for the rain to die down before making the return trip from the bathroom to the hut (we were sharing the umbrella).

I had passed her before making it to the hut and made a joke about seeing one of us rolling down the mountain if we didn’t see each other at the hut (we stayed at the same place).

The reason why I mention this is that after being woken up in the morning (around 2:30 A.M.), to see the sunrise, I continued my climb with her and her husband.

They had head lights and I didn’t.

I probably could have continued the climb in the dark (I’m usually pretty good at navigating in the dark). It would have been fairly dangerous and I would have had to have gone quite slow, but I do think I could have done it.

However, I do have to admit that it was much safer for me to travel with them. I also was enjoying talking to them, so I figured the rest of the climb would have been even more enjoyable than it already was.

Before we left, the woman asked one of the hut staff if it was safe to climb. They said that it was as it was only raining (the rain and wind had died down a bit during the night).

Well, it wasn’t raining much.

It sure as windy though.

As we made our way up, the wind was hitting pretty hard.

This slowed our journey down a fair bit more than we wanted it to.
When we reached the eight-point-fifth station, there were two people outside the hut there.
One of them asked us what we were doing.
We said that we were heading up to the summit for the sunrise.
They told us we could have gotten another hour of sleep before ascending.
We told them our hut woke us up to see the sunrise.
They then told us that we could keep going up, but there was the possibility of the winds reaching one-hundred-and-twenty kilometres further up.

We didn’t quite catch this, so the other person repeated it.
We were then told that the first aid hut at the summit had been closed as well as all the other staffed buildings, so whilst we could do it, we would essentially be going up alone.

The woman explained how she was told it was safe.

We decided to wait a little bit. At this point I got to see droplets so light they moved upwards.

It was fascinating.

The two people went back inside. One of them came back out and offered us chocolate bars before going back in.

We went into the bathroom near there and rested for a while as it was significantly warmer than being outside.

I was mostly wet and still quite cold in there, but it was a significant improvement to being outside.

We discussed what we would do after we were done resting due to safety becoming a more prominent issue than it had been previously.
We could continue, but if we didn’t, we were still able to see the sunrise from where we were.

We also discussed the hut we stayed in as there had been little satisfaction with the behaviour of the staff.

Apparently they had tried to rip off one person with a booking, as well as did other things I can’t remember that wouldn’t be considered accommodating or kind.

Ultimately it’s their hut to run and they can run it however they want, but if there are people being taken advantage of due to the location or any other reason (assuming they did), I don’t feel comfortable with them.

Anyway, eventually people started waking up in the hut.
We decided to head in there as it was warmer.
We were allowed to be in there so long as we bought something, so we bought hot chocolates.

The man decided he was going to continue going up to the summit, whilst the woman and I decided we weren’t.

We sat around and talked for a while. I kept buying hot chocolates to keep me warm and keep me awake as I was a bit tired.

I found out they were from Sydney and lived near me.

Eventually some guy (from Sweden (I think)) started talking to us.

I gave him my opinion on Sydney and referred to it as a tourist trap.
I told him that the best things about Sydney were those around it.

I think that this was as he was thinking of coming to Sydney.

My opinion of the place is certainly not high and there were things that I recommended that can be done in the city, but I was mostly talking about how there’s better things to be seen outside of Sydney rather than in Sydney.

He told us about how you can drive across his country in a day as it was small.
He also told us about what it was like.

He decided to go to the summit, so we said our farewells.

Soon after, the sun began to rise. The woman and I stepped outside.

There was a lot of blue.
Then there was not blue.

It was still as great view though.

We appeared to be between two layers of clouds that formed their own landscape all the way to the horizon.

I found out from the woman that the hut sold socks. I bought some and asked for plastic bags so wrap my feet in once I changed my socks.

Now, I didn’t think of this before climbing and I wish I did as it would have been quite beneficial.

Anyway, I changed my socks, let my feet dry for about a minute and put the new socks on. My feet were still damp, but it was a significant improvement.

Eventually the man came back. He told us it was cloudy up at the summit and it wasn’t too bad.

We then began our trip back down.

Now, the trip up was quite bearable. At times I did tire out, but I didn’t find it to be overwhelmingly challenging.

The trip down to the sixth station was not fun.

It was a zigzagging path that was used by construction vehicles to get up.

The ground was mostly loose and parts were steeper than expected.

The man suggested jogging for parts of it as it was easier on the knees.

There were times when I would go too fast so I would have to stick my walking stick (I bought one at the fifth station) into the ground to help stop me from moving.

Still, the weather was mostly good for the trip down.

I was probably much happier about this than I should have been, mostly because my clothes dried pretty quickly, but also because it made the trip down a bit more bearable.

However, due to cloud coverage, we couldn’t see the sixth station for a long time.
It lead to the theory that we were actually in hell being brought up, as the pathway down didn’t seem as though it was interested in ending.

There were some incredibly amazing cloud formations and shapes around us and at one point we were able to see the sun, despite it still being behind clouds.

Although it was brief, there was a serious discussion about the word “moist”. The man theorised that the reason as to why it was so good to say was due to it being like saying “fuck”.

It was a something I’ve not heard raised before and I found it to be agreeable.

At one point during out descent, we saw a guy who appeared to be drunkenly stumbling at a fast rate towards the trail turn at which we were.

He was next to the path though. Not on it.

I yelled out to ask if he was alright and he seemed to indicate he was, so we continued on.

Eventually we saw him again. He was heading directly down to each second turn on the path.
He’d take a brief break once he reached the path, then go down again.
I told the woman and man that he was getting down pretty quickly.
The man said he wasn’t that far ahead.
At that point, he wasn’t. He was only a couple of turns ahead of us.
However, within a few minutes the distance between us increased significantly.

What he was doing looked incredibly dangerous, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

We figured that he must have been a geologist and that he was trying to get back down quickly so he could run across the ocean to advise that nothing had been found on Mt. Fuji, or that it wasn’t going to erupt yet… I can’t remember what reason we made up.

Eventually we could see the sixth station again. I did a quick dance.

It was smooth sailing from that point.

We had been chatting a bit about what we each do, made some silly jokes and were getting along, which was nice.

Once we were at the initial diverging path (where the Yoshida trail starts), we worked out how long it would take us.
The man and I made a bet as to how long it would take to get from there to the fifth station. If I lost, I was going to buy him a beer.

I lost, but not by much.

We got back, met up with the friends of the Man and the Woman (who went up the mountain with them but decided to come back down after sleeping at the hut at the eighth station) and got food.
I was feeling a bit worn out and hungry, so I ate a lot of food. I can’t remember what all of it was, but it was good.

We then went to wait for our bus. We had a fair bit of time, so I went looking for a bathroom.

I ran into the son and mother who I thought needed help (the daughter wasn’t there at the time) and asked if they were okay. They were, thankfully.

Around this time I was trying to get an internet connection on my phone.

I took my phone, 3ds and camera with me as I still wasn’t feeling entirely safe with leaving them behind (Gabe and I left excess baggage at the station so we wouldn’t have to take it up with us, but there were some things I preferred to take up).

The 3ds came out fine but from this point onwards, my camera started suffering a few problems.

At first the lens was foggy.
The issue resolved itself within a few hours, but then there were power issues after a couple of days (they still persist).

My phone had a few minor issues (trying to do anything at the fifth station was the worst of it as my phone was refusing to operate properly), but it went back to working fine after a few days.

Soon after, the bus came.
Soon after that, we were back at Kawaguchiko Station.

I found Gabe and we got our stuff out of our lockers.
He asked what happened at the hut regarding booking. I explained.
I told him the money he gave me (‎¥10,000) still came in handy (buying food at the fifth station).

We heard from the friends of the woman and man that there was a bus at Ōtsuki Station that connected to a 新幹線 (Shinkansen (bullet train)) that would go to Osaka, which is where we were all heading.

As there was a train going to Ōtsuki Station shortly, Gabe and I had to go quickly. I said I’d let them know if it was indeed the case and wait for them there.

Sadly, it wasn’t.

The only way we could get to Osaka via JR Pass was to head back to Tokyo first, so we did.