Did I say Mt. Fuji?

Yes, I did. On that last post it reminded me of Mt. Fuji. (Probably because I said the word.) I haven't thought about Fuji in years.

I think I've been pretty lucky, in my life, having been around the world by the age of 22. Fisher "fish" is a guy that I was stationed with at MWSS-172 in Okinawa. He was an Embarker/Ammo Tech. Well, I was over the ripe old age of 21 (most my rank weren't even 20) so I got an Ammo license, and therefore, I had to work with the Ammo Tech's. Great guy. Hilarious. Gold teeth and a riot. We got to Mt Fuji in July/August of 1998, if I remember right, anyway, it was friggin' hot!! A lot of pretty hard training and hard playing free time. Free time was little but used well. Went to Tokyo and if you've ever seen "Lost in Translation," was a lot like that movie at times.

Fuji. What a great place. I have about 2 rolls of "FILM" (remember that stuff) of Mt. Fuji. We were in the field quite a bit with the Japaneese Military so, pictures were few, but Fuji was one of those "Forced Free Times" we had. Our camp was at the base of the mountain. So, every day we would look at that knowing that the day was soon. I came from Oregon, and hiking was really no big deal, plus having only been slightly remomved from Camp Pendleton and having done 20 mile humps in the hills, I thought I was more conditioned that most other people. Turned out to to be "semi true."



Well, at 0800, our hike up the Mountain started at a pre determined base camp. We were authorized to wear shorts and a T shirt if we wanted. So, me and 2 other dudes went into Tokyo and bought the UGLIEST shirts you've ever seen, on purpose, just to bend the rules. That said, we were off climbing. 4 hours later, and legs shaking and lungs burning, we were at the top. Whoa. Intense. Along the way up the mountain, you get your hiking stick burnt with "stamps" from the locals who LIVE on that damn Mt. Well, we got to the top, and took a shit load of pictures. It's an odd feeling being above the clouds. Fuji is a volcano. There are no safety rules in that area. It's not like America. The only thing seperating you from falling in the crater, is dirt. NO GATES, NO BARRIERS, NO NOTHING. Great!!!



Add that up, with young testosterone, you're gonna get some great pictures. Here we are crawling/falling in the crater and taking pictures of it. Took a group/unit photo at the top, and we were on our way down. Now, you could either take the trail, or take your own way. Our own way is against the rules and "law," but we were pretty untouchable. SO we went down the face of the mountain. It was soft and ALL Lava rocks. Each leap was about 10 feet long. Did that for about 30 minutes and we were about 9000 feet down the mountain. By the time we reached base camp we had migraines. Dumb, but fun.

Someday, I really am gonna get a great scanner and get all these damn pictures on disk before they all go to shit.