It was my first trip to Japan… in fact, it was my first time ever out of the United States. I was blessed with a generous scholarship/internship by The Japan Society and spent the summer of 1985 working at Nippon Kokan – a steel company.
I took full advantage of the opportunity and soaked in every possible Japanese experience – Kabuki, Noh Theater, Bunraku, Shiretoko, Tsukiji Fish Market … and my favorite Eitetsu Hayashi the famous Japanese taiko drummer….
In early August, a few other MBA interns called me on Friday morning to say we must climb Mount Fuji that night… The idea is to climb at night so you can experience the sunrise from the summit.
Sure, how hard can it be?! It is not a technical climb…. it is an extinct volcano, so it is a bit like climbing a big sand dune. Since you can drive halfway up and hike from there, it did not seem to be a big deal….
So we headed off on the hot, muggy afternoon … a 3776m summit did not sound as tough as 12,390 feet… we started climbing maybe about 7 PM .. maybe there was a bit of beer involved at that point…. I can’t really remember…
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence -- and then success is sure.” - Mark Twain
It started easily enough, but it took a lot of energy to climb in the loose soil …. there were no clouds and beautiful full moon … and there were thousands of people silently climbing together… young and old.. from all over the world…it was quiet and a very moving experience …..
1 AM, our expected summit time came and went… we did not pack food or water ….and it became pretty darn cold… …. the lack of oxygen at 12,000 ft was causing some pretty intense headaches (the beer had nothing to do with it)
We made it to the summit right as the sun peaked over the horizon at 4:30 AM… it was indeed beautiful and absolutely worth the long painful night…..
McDonald's has 31,000 locations worldwide and we were counting on one at the top… but there were just a few huts …we were very thirsty, hungry and tired… and it was getting very hot… we took a quick look into the crater and headed down fast…
It was easy and fast going down… it was like running down a big sand dune… we were flying… it was kind of fun…. It looked unfamiliar and someone asked if we were going the right way …but was quickly ignored….
When we got to the bottom we discovered we had taken the wrong path…. and because of the conical shape and lack of roads that cut across the mountain, we were 150 miles from our car….. It took 6 hours of hitchhiking and train and a bus to make it to our car…
On my second, and much better planned, Mt Fuji climb 10 years later, I found that the two different paths were separated by only 50 yards at the top…..
In our rush and excitement to start something new, it is easy to inadvertently make, or accept, small mistakes…. not realizing that a very small difference at the beginning can unknowingly take us in a very different direction… and the farther and faster we go, the harder it is to correct….the small mistakes become magnified and multiplied…
…until we find ourselves in a completely different place than we intended to go….
Just a few thoughts…