These are some photos taken by Eric Lee and I on our various trips to Mount Fuji back in 1997.
Here we are at one of the
fifth stations of Mt Fuji. Some other climbers, and the owners of the station
joined in the picture. They don't get too many people at this particular
station, because most people are sensible enough to take the bus, which
goes to a different fifth station.
A nice sunset on the way up.
Here's the sunrise we worked so hard to see.
Here's a group shot (Eric, Danny, Andrew, Brett,
and Stanely) on the top of Mt Fuji. Behind us is the crater, and on the
opposite side of the ridge one can see a meteorlogical centre.
Of course, what other reason is there to climb a mountain than to restore
one's one-ness with the universe.
...but actually, the top
is actually not as tranquil as it looks in the previous photo.
This is our "after" picture,
back in civilisation.
OK, jump forward a few months, to November. The climbing season is
long over. We came back to hike around
the Fuji Five Lakes area.
Unlike the first time, we could see the mountain from the train station,
and thus realized how incredibly baka we were to start from here instead
of taking the bus half-way up the mountain. If only we had known...
I had one more chance to see mountain with its famous winter top of snow
when I went to Hakone, a nearby hot-spring area. Within half an hour
of taking this picture, the clouds moved in and so this was the last I
saw of Mount Fuji.