Ooww. I did it.

I am in pain, but I am triumphant. There were 7 in our group: 5 from the NSF program, 1 from the British Council, and one graduate student from a lab at Tokyo University. We starting climbing at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday and reached the summit at 4:30 a.m. It was awesome to pause and look up at the stars, planets and meteors, brighter than I've ever seen before. The big dipper appeared and slowly traveled across the night sky, and halfway through the night Orion's belt appeared, again seeming so big! The climb changed from a little exhausting to torturous to pure torture where it was only possible for me to stare at the feet in front of me and focus on where to put my feet, but about 10 minutes from the top something kicked on and I ran to the highest point just in time to catch the start of the sunrise. It was awe-inspiring. Unforgettable. I stayed for an hour in my spot above the clouds, very quiet and feeling very small in a very big universe.

We hung around at the top for another hour and a half, eating a 1000 yen cup of hot curry uedon noodles that we might have paid 10000 yen for (it was chilly up there!), then climbed down by a different route, starting at about 7:00 a.m. and finally reaching the bottom around 1 p.m. There was a little energy kick after the noodles that had us zipping down the ash-slides past the lines of camo-attired guys in the Japanese self-defense force, but by 11:00 a.m. my legs were well beyond the wobbling stage and only the desire not to die kept them moving. It was a blessing not to know the trail, because we could always hope that the end was just over the next hill. We must have landed on the other side of the mountain because it took over an hour by bus and 4 hours by train to get back to Maebashi. I sort of slept on the train, sinking into a stupor where I could see hundreds of lights zig-zagging endlessly above me to the top of the mountain and then snapping awake to find it was only an endless train, not the mountain. In changing seats at one point they gave out and I landed on an unfortunate Japanese woman's lap, but she saw my Mt. Fuji walking stick and smiled very nicely. She had a good story when she got home. It's a distinct stick you get branded as you go up with the final red brand at the top, and when carrying it around you get many nods and congratulations! Hopefully also forgiveness for being dirty, smelly, slow and in obvious pain every time you have to move. I found my own door at 9:00 p.m., released my tired feet, washed off layers of volcanish ash, found many places where skin was left on Mt. Fuji, noted the tingling neck and arms to be a beautiful farmer's sunburn, and collapsed in a nice fluffy bed. This morning getting up was one of the most painful things I have done in life, but it is easing with movement and I made it to the lab to watch some embryo patching at 8:30 a.m.

Thus, it is done. I am proud.