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Title:
We set off
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Summary:
After spending the night at Koto's place, we set off for Fuji early in the morning. The bus to which we were riding was the last place we ever saw the hat Koto holding.
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Title:
Fuji from the station
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Summary:
It always amazes me how far you can walk. This is definitely not our first sight of Fuji, but we took it from the bus stop and it was the first time I came face to face with the little bugger. Seeing it, it does have a rather uncanny similarity to Osorno.
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Title:
The bus stop to base camp
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Summary:
The way up Mt. Fuji is separated into 10 stages. For some incomprehensible reason, the first is number five. That is "base camp" and the highes place in Fuji you can take a bus to. As you can see, it is the end of the season (=not as crowded).
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Title:
Koto at the bus stop
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Summary:
Take a look at that sun! (Not directly. I take no responsibility for stupidity-induced blindness)
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Title:
Male bonding in Fuji
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Summary:
Just one of the many opportunities I had to exchange some words with Koto's dad. I had heard a lot about him from Koto, but he is indeed a very cool man.
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Title:
Panorama from base camp
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Summary:
Panorama alert! To see the real version of this picture (and of all the other panoramas I've taken) go to http://jj.idele.org:8000/images/panoramas/index.html#gogome !
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Title:
Extremely fat udon
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Summary:
This is what got us as far as the 8th station (our goal for the first day).
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Title:
I told you they were fat
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Summary:
Fat Fat Fat! If they had only been as tasty as they were fat! (Not that they were bad, though...)
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Title:
We start the climb!
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Summary:
We started climbing along the Yoshida-guchi trail. (That sign on the left is probably the most commonly photographed sign along this path).
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Title:
That's my climber look
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Summary:
Photo courtesy of Koto.
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Title:
Trees by the side of the road
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Summary:
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Title:
Us in the mountain
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Summary:
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Title:
Clinging to life
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Summary:
Koto took this picture.
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Title:
Almost as high as the clouds!
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Summary:
Courtesy of Koto's dad, upon reaching the 6th station.
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Title:
It was a crazy beautiful day
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Summary:
You see a lot of rocks like these, put one on top of another, at several places around Japan. Mt. Fuji is not the exception (by the way, I quite like that custom).
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Title:
At the 6th station, ready to go on
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Summary:
Somehow, looking up at the mountain while standing on it only makes it look far away. Looking up while walking just made the mountain look rather flat, like in this picture.
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Title:
There's always time to play around
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Summary:
And to annoy the people coming down looking like they are about to die by showing them that you are still fresh!
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Title:
Those bells are rather annoying
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Summary:
The stick I was carrying while climbing is a very typical wooden cane you can buy before you start. However, to get you to buy their's and not the next guy's, sellers attach all sort of annoying things to the sticks. They don't last long.
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Title:
Koto's dad, upon noticing how much he still had to go up
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Summary:
Not really... I was not there, and Koto took this picture. The true story behind this face might be lost forever!
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Title:
On a sea of clouds
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Summary:
Koto's dad took this picture. Can you believe that "sea of clouds" is the actual expression to call that? Not at all trying to be poetic here! That's the proper word! It's even literally written like that: 雲海
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Title:
Higher every time
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Summary:
... and still a lot to go.
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Title:
Yamagoya
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Summary:
Yamagoya means "mountain cabin", or something like that, and are the same basic thing you can find in mountains all over the world. However, these ones seem to have a very nice Japanese flair to them. I likes.
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Title:
The little house on the (cloud) prairie
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Summary:
The climb was full of crazy sights like this one. It was such a beautiful day too!
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Title:
Torii up the mountain
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Summary:
Torii are arches like this one used in Japan to mark the entrance to shrines (there is this whole difference in Japan between Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples). Since there is a shrine on top of Mt. Fuji, you go through a couple of these on the way up.
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Title:
Red Fuji
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Summary:
Like Susanita would say: "Qué asco de cutis".
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Title:
Being taught about mountain stuff
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Summary:
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Title:
Four hours in and two more to go
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Summary:
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Title:
The first glimpse of Kagefuji!
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Summary:
The climb to the top of Mt. Fuji is full of really impressive sights, but the one that took the prize was Mt. Fuji's shadow. This was our first sighting, but trust: it becomes really impressive as it grows.
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Title:
Unkai
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Summary:
Seeing this you start understanding what they meant by "cloud sea".
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Title:
A conversation after a short break
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Summary:
We stopped for some time to take yet another look at the ever growing shadow. One of the extra perks of climbing on the shaded side!
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Title:
We were both in the way. This was supposed to be a picture of the shadow.
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Summary:
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Title:
Panorama: Kagefuji in all its splendour
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Summary:
There are two versions of Kagefuji (lit. Shadow Fuji). Both of them are rare, but the other one is projected by the full moon. How could would that be... Remember to check http://jj.idele.org:8000/images/panoramas/index.html#kagefuji !
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Title:
Kagefuji and us
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Summary:
Mandatory picture, courtesy of Koto's dad!
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Title:
Finally we can see the 8th station
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Summary:
And not a minute too soon!
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Title:
One last glimpse at the shadow
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Summary:
As the sun goes down, the shadow becomes more impressive... and it also becomes colder and more critical to find a warm bed.
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Title:
Top of the world, ma!
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Summary:
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Title:
Finally, our "hotel"
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Summary:
With all the commodities you could ask for... at 3400 meters above sea level.
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Title:
The Sadamura Fuji-ko
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Summary:
Us, after an extremely rewarding and surprisingly not too demanding first day of climb. One more to go!
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Title:
Did I say "warm bed"? Sorry, my mistake.
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Summary:
Might not look like much, but it was all we needed. That and the food waiting for us downstairs.
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Title:
Setting everything up for an early start the next morning
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Summary:
Since we were sharing a room with plenty of other climbers that were just as tired, we needed to get everything ready to leave the following morning as swiftly (and silently) as possible.
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Title:
Sunset at the top
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Summary:
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Title:
See what I meant by "Japanese flair"?
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Summary:
AIt's almost too hard to see, but on the left, right after stepping down from the platform we are on, there is a fireplace used to burn different symbols in the climbers wooden canes.
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Title:
Hamburger curry rice
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Summary:
Delicious, although I recommend eating it only 3000 meters above sea level... or more.
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Title:
A nice meal after a long day
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Summary:
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Title:
The room below our's at Tomoe-kan
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Summary:
Yes! We actually had to go up stairs to go to our room! Can you believe the nerve?
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Title:
And so much for the night
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Summary:
After a long night during which none of us could sleep for more than a couple of hours (maybe because it went from 20:00 to 03:00) we get ready to set off after having some (extremely hot) corn soup.
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Title:
Climbing at night to beat the sun to the top
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Summary:
The climb that morning was too cold, too dark and too moist (because of the clouds all around us) to take any decent pictures. But this is more or less how it felt. The trail of the climber's lights going up was very eerie against the wooden torii on top.
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Title:
The top!
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Summary:
All the way to the top that morning we could see the sun's light creeping behind our backs, reminding us that, should we slack, we would fail to catch the sunrise on top, our final objective.
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Title:
Panorama: Waiting for the sun
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Summary:
It was a rather long wait for the sun that morning, but witnessing the light changes over all the mountain's surroundings paid off in the end. Remember to check http://jj.idele.org:8000/images/panoramas/index.html#clouds !
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Title:
And here it is!
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Summary:
It's easy to see why generation after generation, so many people around the world climb mountains to get to see this.
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Title:
Our reward
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Summary:
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Title:
"Our shared reward", I might add
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Summary:
Even though it was the end of the season (after September the cold makes the climb a lot harder) there were still a lot of people joining us to see the sunrise, some of them (like the guy in blue on the right) for their second time.
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Title:
A morning that felt like the middle of the day
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Summary:
We had been walking already for two and a half hours. It definitely did not feel like 5:30am
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Title:
The crater of Mt. Fuji
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Summary:
On top of Mt. Fuji there is this crater surrounded by different constructions and smaller peaks (this picture was not, as you can see, taken from the tallest). There is allegedly some permanent snow in the crater.
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Title:
Never been so close to the moon before
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Summary:
Particularly with so little of anything in between: not even clouds.
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Title:
One look down before starting the return trip
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Summary:
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Title:
Heading down
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Summary:
Last picture taken on the top. Yet another torii, and the sun already well on its way to heat what would end up being a very nice day.
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Title:
Koto looking spacey
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Summary:
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Title:
It looks like we are in Mars!
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Summary:
If only the sun could have given me a break and let me keep my eyes open...
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Title:
We already saw Fuji's shadow. This time it's our turn.
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Summary:
One of the good things about climbing mountains is that clouds on top are very crisp.
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Title:
The moon, looking down
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Summary:
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Title:
For the way down we decided to take the Subashiri-guchi trail
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Summary:
From quite a long time ago there are people who instead of climbing down Mt. Fuji would quite literally slide down by running along sand paths going straight down the mountainside. The path we took going down ends in what is today one of those slides.
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Title:
The sights we impressive all the way down
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Summary:
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Title:
Breakfast!
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Summary:
We stopped on one of the curves of the road down to eat the bento we got from the hotel and some of the food we were still carrying around from the day before.
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Title:
We even got some coffee!
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Summary:
Despite all the warnings I got about drinking coffee while in a mountain... we decided to wing it.
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Title:
Lacking a pair of real sunglasses, Koto's mom lent me these that you can attach to your normal lenses.
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Summary:
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Title:
Me in my most suspicious looking form
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Summary:
When the Japanese police portrays criminals, they always were a cap, a mask and sunglasses. And I can definitely see why. (The mask was to stop the sand from getting in our mouths)
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Title:
Back at the hotel, this time going down
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Summary:
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Title:
Carp flags over clouds
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Summary:
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Title:
Man's triumph over nature
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Summary:
It was almost annoying how easily these trucks could go up and down the mountain (not even necessarily following the road either!) while it was so difficult for us...
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Title:
An empty Yamagoya
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Summary:
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Title:
The trail coming up
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Summary:
On our way down we bumped into the part where the trail going up met the trail going down. Their's looked a lot more dangerous.
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Title:
After sliding for quite some time, we get to the treeline
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Summary:
No pictures of the slide, but I do have a video. Maybe I end up uploading it somewhere...
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Title:
I could have sworn I was only dating one of them!
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Summary:
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Title:
From then on, the road is below trees
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Summary:
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Title:
And like any other forest, it happened to have other denizens
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Summary:
What, you didn't expect me not to take pictures of bugs, did you?
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Title:
It was a forest alright
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Summary:
And a pretty nice forest, mind you. However, like Osorno, apparently a lot of people get lost in the forests surrounding Mt. Fuji. And some people even go there to get lost on purpose.
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Title:
I'm only a man... and can resist taking these pictures for so long...
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Summary:
When the macro wouldn't work, use a zoom!
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Title:
The perfect ending for the perfect climb
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Summary:
おしまい！
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Title:
fightclubflightcard
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Summary:
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