It would have been a shame to live in Japan for 2 years and never attempt to summit Mt. Fuji... So while the Fu girls and Aunt Nancy relaxed and slept at home, Su-Ting and Uncle John pulled a grueling all-nighter and hiked up Mt. Fuji to catch the 4:30 AM sunrise...
Stock photo of Fuji before the summer snow melt. Notice the zigzag trail just right of center along the mountain - that's the mind-numbing descent. The ascending trail would be to the right of that.
A diagram of our view at 3200m - if it was daytime. Less than 600m to the summit!
Shivering in the pre-dawn light. With wind chill at 0C, that foil blanket was a life saver!
Sunrise, kinda
Looking back down the trail we had just climbed - almost a mile of vertical elevation from the treeline (our starting point)
At the highest point! 3776m
