My sister, Amanda, is currently living in Japan. I think she’s going to be living their for most of the rest of her life, but I digress.

Last weekend, her and a few friends climbed Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan measuring 3,776 metres high (12,388 feet for you imperialists). The climb took her more than a day, they even climbed throughout the night only stopping for rest at 5 a.m. to 9 a.m..

I asked her how the experience was and she replied “Intense.” A few of her friends experienced altitude sickness, having to stop to toss their cookies once and a while. Amanda even said there were times when she would walk for five minutes and her heart would be pounding – and Amanda runs marathons for fun.

She blogged a little bit about it over at her site, browse over there to get more of the story and see some better pics. Here’s a photo of her high up on the mountain (above the clouds!)

One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time is this hand-drawn illustration explaining how to use the toilets on the rest stops along the way up the hill. You’re supposed to pay, btw, for using the bathroom on the way up and the farther up the mountain you get the more expensive it is. As a side note, workers do 40 day shifts on Mount Fuji, which makes sense since you wouldn’t want to make that commute every day.