Greetings from Tokyo one and all,

First of all before we enter any sort of tale I want to give you a few facts about mount fuji...

1. It is the largest mountain in japan.
2. It stands at 3,776 m (12,388 ft) high.
3. It is a active volcano with a low risk of eruption.
4. At around half three this morning Shaun Ryan reached the top of it and raised his pimp hand and asked the mountain in a manly voice 'How strong is it?' To which the mountain replied with a tremble 'Way strong.'.

Yes.

There is an old japanese saying that says 'One who never climbs Mt. Fuji is a fool and one who climbs it again is more than a fool'. I can guarentee I will never ever ever try it again nor will I ever attempt to go mountain climbing on a serious level again and even if I find myself on a threadmill in the coming months there is no chance in hell that I will even attempt to use the incline button on it.

Climbing mount fuji and getting down from mount fuji was the most exhausting and physically demanding thing i`ve ever done in my entire life but I will say if you ever find yourself on the glorious soil of Japan within the summer months find a way to climb it because it is one of the most rewarding experiences one is likely to have on this planet.

so on with the tale.......

I woke up at a half five on saturday morning and lay in bed waiting for my alarm to begin eventually it did and with the wonderous sounds of 'Butterflies and Hurricanes' by muse I bounced around my room getting ready for the excursion with Matt Bellamy telling me 'You`ve got to be the best.' I was sufficently pumped to the point where I was walking around my apartment telling myself 'I`m going to bitchslap this mountain!'.

Although I didn`t have to meet up with the group that I was going with till 10 o`clock i`m a terrible person for forgetting things and such so I wanted to give myself ample time to get ready and win the F.A cup in my master league on pro evo. So I got ready then went to the 7/11 beside my apartment and got a few things for the trip up and had the family who work there wish me luck on my excursion I have built up somewhat of a repore with them, good people.

Then I met up with the folks from the hiking group and we got a bus off to Mount Fuji which was three hours away it was insane to see how long of those three hours of constant driving we where surrounded by urban sprawl it took such a long time to escape the city. But eventually we did and it was wonderful. I have only seen small patches of greenery in the last two months. So it was great to be surrounded by the lush shades of green that the countryside provides.

Then we began to go by all these huge mountains which is when I began to feel that this whole excursion may have been a terrible idea because mount fuji would have to be bigger then these huge piles of earth goliaths. Eventually we reached mount fuji and there was no way of telling how big it was because the top was covered by clouds all I knew is that it was horribly big.

We had lunch then stretched and got partnered up I was partnered with two wonderful guys from america but we paired up with a group of another group on the way up and formed ourselves somewhat of a 'Fellowship' their was alot of references to mount doom throughout the excursion. We set off on our way at around 5 o`clock and after only 10 minutes I was suffering. But alas suffering was something that I soon got use to. As we where climbing up behind us a bit off in the distance there was very dark clouds brewing up some devilish concoction. Eventually after about two hours the sun began to set and darkness shrouded the mountain but we had been given head lamps before the excursion began. So we are now climbing by the light of lamps.

All up mount fuji there are huts for people to stop and rest and to give up if altitude sickness had dragged them to submission. These huts serve as great checkpoints to stop for a moment before hea