as it turned out, we had made it up in 5:15, which wasn’t all that horrible! we rested a little bit but not for long because the cold was being blasted through our clothing by the strong wind. so we started the long descent. it felt a lot faster (and was, of course) than the ascent, and we practically zoomed by places that had been particularly hard on the way up. of course, the going was hard on the old knees, and we had to rest occasionally just so all our joints wouldn’t give out. but, it was much nicer than going up, and i was able to do some jogging now and then to get the blood flowing and muscles moving.
we made it down in about 2:45, and on the way i took these beautiful pictures at sunset: [view of valley below] [clouds rolling in the hills below] [the shadow of mt. fuji on the clouds]
so, we got back to the 5th station a little after 7pm. we had done it! we were extremely tired, but excited. the plan was now for renee and sue to drive my dad and me to fujiyoshida station so we could catch the 7:57 bus back to tokyo (this was, of course, the last bus of the day). we stopped at the convenience store at 5th station to get a drink and ask if perhaps there were any trains that left instead of buses, when we found out two very disturbing pieces of news: (1) there was a gate on the road down from 5th station to the base of the mountain, and (2) the gate closes daily at 7pm. we checked our watches: 7:05pm. oh no! we ran to their car and sped off down the mountain road to get to the gate and hope it wasn’t closed.
it was practically dark now, and the road down was long and windy (it now seemed much longer than it did when coming up, even though we were going faster, since none of us wanted to be stuck on mt. fuji for the night, what with it being out of season and there being no accomodations anywhere). on two occasions we almost ran over something in the road: the first was a deer (which i saw and yelled “stop!” in as curt and commanding a voice as i could muster without accidentally causing sue, the driver, to have a non-deer-related accident. thankfully, she jammed on the brakes, only then seeing the deer. i shudder to think what would have happened it i hadn’t seen it). the second was a cone (which i saw again and yelled “cone!”).
anyhow, we eventually made it to the gate, at around 7:40pm, and it was definitely closed. it was a big metal affair, padlocked securely with no hope of breaking it open. so, my dad and i got out of the car, slid under the gate, and walked down to a guardhouse, hoping that someone might still be there. as it turned out, there were still some workers there having their dinner, and with hand signs and short, one-word sentences, we were able to let them know that our car was on the wrong side of the gate. they were only too happy to get the key and unlock it for us, no doubt not wanting 4 gaijin wandering about on their mountain any more than we wanted to be there sleeping in the car all night.
our adventure was not over yet, however! we realized as we left the foot of mt. fuji that none of us had any idea where fujiyoshida station was…we had been driven from there by mrs. takahashi, and we had even got lost on the way up with her. so we just drove wherever we thought looked best, going somewhat the right direction, but losing hope all the same. sooner or later the clock turned to 7:55 and we knew that we’d never be able to catch the bus back to tokyo. we were resigned to finding an expensive hotel (they’re all expensive in japan) somewhere in the area and then heading back to tokyo the next day (which would also have the effect of causing the fukudas to believe that we’d died, certainly). but just then, we drove by a hotel which i recognized, and which had its own amusement park…i saw a sign which read “fujikyu highlands”, and then i remembered! our bus had stopped there, 2 or 3 stops before fujiyoshida, on the way in that morning! so, if we had any luck at all, we would be able to catch the 7:57 bus from fujiyoshida station as it made its way back to tokyo, since it was 8:00pm and the bus could not have got to fujikyu highlands yet! we pulled into the parking lot and talked to the station manager who was just leaving, but affirmed that, yes, the bus to tokyo was going to stop there, and that it left at 8:04pm.
yes! my dad and i rejoiced that we’d be able to get back despite getting lost. we thanked god once again for orchestrating events to our benefit. and we thanked our friends renee and sue for breaking a number of traffic laws, trying to get us to the bus on time. we said our goodbyes to them, and then a few minutes later got on the bus back to shinjuku station in tokyo. from there we took the metro back to soshigaya, and walked, tired, sore, and covered in volcanic dust, back into the fukudas house.
after assuring the fukudas that we were ok and had made it to the top (they were impressed), we went immediately to bed. and i dreamed happily of the beauty and power that god put into creation.
