Amazon, Birthday and FUJI

This week was Amazon week. It went really well. Here are the decorations for this week:







We went to the zoo again, and it was fine, but way too hot. The kids this week were a lot of fun. There was one little boy that just totally made my week. The most challenging part for me was that my club was drama, and a majority of the kids in my club spoke only Japanese. Makes drama a little hard when I don't have a kid to translate, so I made up my club and did the best I could. We had dance parties, played ducky wucky and just had fun together, and they freaking loved it. I am so happy that it all worked out.

I woke up on my birthday kind of bummed out because I wasn't at home, but then I opened my door and found this:

And all of a sudden my day was 100% better. Thank you so much Francie and Jen. All day was filled with so much love towards me and it made me feel so much better. Shanada and some of hte kids made me birthday cards and even Seth and Josh made me a card. After Fuji, a bunch of us went to the bar and had a good time. It was a great birthday.

BUT LETS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS: Fuji!!!

Fuji was something that I have been excited for, and absolutely dreading. I never thought that I would really be able to do it, but then all of a sudden, there we were, on our way to the fifth station of Fuji on a bus. the first thing I noticed when I got off the bus was that it was cool outside. It felt great. Everyone else was getting more clothes on and complaining and I was basking in the weather. It reminded me of home and gave me a lot of happiness.

we went to buy our walking sticks. It is so important to have one of these. I never would have made it without it, that is for sure. You can also pay to get your sticks stamped at every station on the way up. I didn't do every station because it was kind of expensive but I definitely got the one at the top. I don't know how I'm getting that stick home, but I WILL find a way to get those stamps home because they are so important to me.

And so we began our climb from the fifth station to the tenth station. We started at about 11 PM Friday night. It was amazing how my body really didnt feel the need to sleep, even thought i did nod off when we stopped every once in awhile. It was 3,700 meters, which may not sound like much, but BELIEVE me it, it is a lot longer when you are climbing a mountain. About 45 minutes into the climb my bad knee (stupid rugby) popped out of joint, which was nothing but fun. This definitely affected my pace for the rest of climb but god bless Shanada, Megan, Francie and Melody because we became one group that supported and applauded each other through the day. It was about making it to the top, no matter what happened.

We started by just climbing uphill, and then around the 7th station, it was all about rock climbing. We were on all fours or using our sticks to maneuver our way up these rock cliffs. This was my favorite way to climb because it was so challenging. the hardest part of the climb was the last 900 meters, after we thought we had already made it to the top, but hten realized there was still a long way left. The reason this last part was so hard was because the path was gravel up hill that you kind of sank into. There was no support and this is the part of the day where the no sleeping and frustration started to get to me and I really just wanted to cry a lot. If it hadn't been for those girls, I never would have made it. I don't have enough faith in myself sometimes, but it is really nice to know that there are people who have faith in me. The last length of the climb was just a line, like we were going to disneyland. We definitely climbed with a bunch of other people last night, and in the end, we had to wait 45 minutes to go about 100 yards so that we could make it to the top. The higher we went, the more foggy it became, so there really isn't much of a view from the top, but we didn't care because WE MADE IT!


It is so unbelievable. the entire climb was a struggle, but one that was worth doing just to see the top.


This is the view from the top of mount fuji. It took me 8 hours and 45 minutes to get to the top of Fuji, but I don't even care. It was a great time, that was also one of the greatest struggles of my life. I am so proud of what I have achieved.


However, there is one part of this journey that I definitely forgot. I climbed a mountain, and now I had to climb DOWN the mountain. You know how my least favorite part of the climb up was the gravel part? well that was the entire path down. AKA: Amber falling on her butt time after time. It took only about three hours to get down, but it was the longest three hours of my life because it was just red gravel all the way down.

Megan and I were the last ones to make it off the mountain, but I don't even care. I made it to the top! I made it to the bottom! I never in my life thought I would be able to do anything like this. The fact that I made it has empowered me to believe that I can do anything.

Today, my entire body hurts. Was Fuji fun the whole time? absolutely not! was it worth it? It absolutely was!